2008 TX Primary Results: TX-Sen, CD-10, and CD-22

by: Phillip Martin

Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 06:28 PM CST

Here is a look at the three biggest federal races. We'll include more races later on, if they're close, as the night develops. The Republican primary race in CD-22 to run against Congressman Nick Lampson is below the fold.

Noriega Leads Democratic Primary Poll for Texas Senate

by: Mark Duncan

Fri Feb 29, 2008 at 03:48 PM CST

PPP surveyed 434 likely Democratic primary voters on February 23rd and 24th.  The survey's margin of error is +/- 4.7%.

32 Rick Noriega
15 Gene Kelly
08 Ray McMurrey
03 Rhett Smith
42 Undecided

State representative Rick Noriega has the lead in the Texas Democratic Senate primary but many voters remain undecided a week out from the primary. Gene Kelly, a perennial candidate for office in Texas who benefits largely from a good name, is in second place.

Noriega is doing very well with Hispanic voters, among whom he leads 53-12. With white voters and black voters he has just an eight point advantage, 25-17 and 22-14 respectively. He is strongest with voters whose top issue is the economy, health care, or the war.

Noriega needs to get about 45% of the votes of the undecideds to avoid a runoff.

The high undecided share is not surprising in the context of the presidential primary seeing as about only 1 in 3 voters are the typical electorate that pays rapt attention to the rest of the ballot.

If you distribute the undecided vote in the same proportion of the decided vote you get....

55% Rick Noriega
26% Gene Kelly
14% Ray McMurrey
05% Rhett Smith

Sounds plausible. And it shouldn't surprise anyone in the least that Gene Kelly, without any effort at all, would defeat Ray McFlurry's vanity campaign.  

Texas Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Mon Nov 19, 2007 at 04:51 PM CST

• Rick Noriega was also in Las Vegas last week during the DNC debate where he met with some key national donors.

  "They've got a lot of national donors coming to this, and we wanted them to put a face with the name," Noriega told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday. "What's going to happen is across the country folks are going to start realizing that Texas is in play."

• Texas DNC member David Holmes is traveling the world while blogging. His latest report from Costa Rica is here.


• Pictures of Rick Noriega from a San Antonio fundraiser earlier this month.


• Jennifer Kim announced her re-election a few days ago for Austin City Council Place 3. Below is part of her statement.

  From oppossing Water Treatment Plant 4, to voting against the toll roads, I have worked hard to build a record of speaking out and voting on issues that are crucial to our quality of life.

  I am proud of the work I have done to begin addressing affordability by creating the Austin Affordable Housing Incentives Task Force to establish city policy on promoting more affordable housing and the Families and Children Task Force to ensure there is available child-care throughout the city.

  I also believe strong small businesses are critical to the success of our economy and keeping Austin the unique place we call home. That's why I secured city staff as a resource for local small businesses to help them navigate the planning process as well as aiding in the development of business plans.

• Looks like Noriega won't be alone in the primary for the Senate race. Ray McMurrey, who was previously running as in Independent in the race, didn't choose to collect the 43,000 signatures. He is running as Democrat instead (though is still filed as an Independent with the FEC).

  "Ordinary Americans are clamoring for someone to stand up and be truthful about what is going on in our country, and I feel both major political parties have abandoned their responsibility," McMurrey said.

  Actual filling stars in December and runs for a month. No word on whether Gene Kelly will make a come-back.



• Speaking of which, I learned last night that Jennifer Gale has once again returned to Austin! Of course, she'll need to update her campaign website from her run for Dallas Mayor earlier this year.

Political Holiday Gift Ideas

by: John McClelland

Fri Dec 01, 2006 at 01:11 PM CST

I've decided we need to help each other out with some political holiday gift ideas. So far, I have found one. I'm not sure if everyone would like it, but Amazon.com seems to think I would:

Barbara Ann Radnofksy might like it. Then again, maybe not. What are your gift ideas?

Can Chris Bell top 32%? The Base, The Bell, The Election

by: RBH

Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 08:06 PM CDT

The two worst showings for Democrats in major statewide races were Gerry Mauro in 1998 and Gene Kelly in 2000. Mauro got 31% in a Governor's race. Kelly got 32% against Senator Hutchison.

In this race, Bell's poll numbers have been consistantly poor where ever polling has been conducted. Fortunately for Bell, if he gets 33% this year, he won't be a loser by 30 points, but by around 5 points.

If that makes him feel any better.

So, what is the bare minimum from the Base?

TX-21: Candidate Report

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 09:56 PM CDT

Lamar Smith (i) - Rupublican

As the incumbent, he is obviously running for re-election.

John Courage - Democrat

The only real Democrat running, Courage is not backing down from the fight. We highlighted his recent volunteer made and pretty damned good webad here yesterday.

Gene Kelly - Democrat

Jim Strohm - Libertarian

In a letter Thursday, he wrote, "now I enjoy the same favor that our Libertarian gubernatorial candidate James Werner receives — being overlooked by the media. I take that as a compliment, not as a slight.

The last time I was mentioned as a candidate in the American-Statesman, I took second billing to the winner of an 'Ugliest Dog' contest, reported on Page B2. But all media coverage is good."

Tommy Calvert - Independent

In all other cases a Democrat, Calvert has been toying with entering the race since the beginning though has now made the move public. He is running as an independent and has a website here. While certainly a wonderful guy, and well spoken of in San Antonio, the word is that he's running in order to get his name out there for a run for something else in the Alamo City. He's got great talent, but in my opinion, it's talent wasted on this race for Congress.

Only a few years older than me, I found this line in his e-mail announcement a tad misleading.

I have been involved in community and political service for two decades.

Two decades? Really? Quite the active toddler. (j/k)

Unknown at this point but with the potential to file is Rhett Smith. Having run as a Democrat in 2004 against Smith, but then as a Republican against Rick Perry in this year's primary, Rhett is right up there with Gene Kelly in predictability or quality of candidate. But if he filed as a Republican, it would make the race very interesting in having two Republican Smiths on the ballot in a 6 way race.

Let's Bury Gene Kelly Once and For All

by: Meredith Adams, Courage for Congress

Fri Aug 11, 2006 at 02:56 PM CDT

He's Baaack: Gene Kelly Files for TX-21

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Aug 10, 2006 at 08:23 PM CDT

Now believe it or not, I've heard rumor of up to 2 other potential Democratic candidates who have discussed filing in TX-21.  John Courage is getting in touch to chat with fellow Dems but as we all know, no amount of "chatting" can bring reason to the man that is Gene Kelly.

Donate to John Courage.

How could this be a good thing? We actually are waiting on a ruling from Sec. of State Roger Williams on whether or not party labels will show up on the ballot as this is an "open election". Different rules apply (though if anyone remembers what happened in 1996 with the new elections, do comment, it's probably the same).

If there are no party labels, then Gene Kelly hurts everyone including Smith making this race interesting. Of course, all would need now is for Rhett Smith to file and we'll be close to having all of Texas' most interesting candidates in one place.

What I'd really like is if our Party, the TDP, someone, somehow, someway did something to solve the Gene Kelly problem once and for all. One can dream, though.

The Dancer Is Dead

by: John McClelland

Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 01:59 PM CDT

http://addison.drinkingliberally.org

Gene Kelly: Interviewed!

by: Vince Leibowitz

Sat Apr 01, 2006 at 04:48 PM CST

Late last night, I got an email in my inbox from a dear friend of mine who is up in Wisconsin who is working on a PhD in sociology at UW-Milwaukee. Anyway, she told me about another grad sudent up there who wrote a thesis about "spoiler" and "perennial" candidates she ran across while reading other thesis to examine writing styles. And, it turns out the lady actually interviewed Gene Kelly a few years ago as part of her thesis.

I was sent a .pdf of the thesis's front matter and part of the interview with Kelly. Evidently, the writer interviewed "perennial" candidates across the country, because the interviews are on pages in the 200s, making it one of the largest masters' thesis I've ever seen. Anyway, I've uploaded the PDF and you can read the interview here.