Rush Limbaugh and Clear Channel Communications Lowry Mays, who is McCaul's father-in-law, will host a fundraiser for Mike McCaul in San Antonio next month.
The McCaul campaign is doing its pathetic best to distance McCaul from Limbaugh even though the hate-filled commentator will be raising money for the congressman.
Jack Ladd, McCaul’s campaign spokesman, said, “Just because Rush Limbaugh is attending a fundraiser for Michael doesn’t mean they agree on every issue and we believe Michael’s voting record speaks for itself.”
Asked to name an issue on which they disagree, Ladd repeated, “I think Michael’s voting record speaks for itself.”
Mike McCaul's record does speak for itself. He puts the special interests above the people's interests and continues the pay-to-play politics he learned from Tom DeLay.
As campaign season cranks into high-gear, heavy hitters are making their way down to Texas for a few marquee fundraisers in support of various Congressional candidates. Now, you can tell a lot about a candidate by whom they choose to draw in the high rollers. Seems to me that the Republicans down here in Texas are increasingly relying on the crazy fringe to bring out the checkbooks and media attention. Let's take a look at who's traveling down to Texas to raise the big bucks:
Candidate
Special Guest
John Carter, TX-31 -- Round Rock Republican, recently described health care bill as "Death for the Baby Boomers, Jail for the Middle Class, Free Healthcare for Illegal Aliens," on his own website, no less.
Michele Bachmann, MN-6 -- Fox News' favorite census conspiracy theorist and global-warming denier. Hosted fundraiser for Carter on October 17 in Cedar Park.
Michael McCaul, TX-10 -- Unremarkable Republican incumbent and heir-in-law to ClearChannel fortune. Misrepresents gerrymandered chunks of Austin, Harris County, and some of everything in between.
Rush Limbaugh -- Famous radio hate-monger, failed hypothetical NFL owner, McCaul's Daddy-in-Law's heavy hitter. Attended fundraiser for McCaul with Governor Rick Perry in May 2009 at undisclosed location.
Jack McDonald, TX-10 -- Self-made entrepreneur, chairman of Perficient. Leader in the Austin business and philanthropic community. Unstoppable fundraiser, drawing strong bipartisan support in R+11 district.
Dr. Madeleine Albright -- Secretary of State and Ambassador to the UN during Clinton Administration. Also, not a crazy hate-merchant dragging political discourse down into ever-deeper gutter. Special guest at fundraising brunch on October 30 for Jack McDonald at MPower Labs.
As if the Texas Republicans in Congress weren't inane enough, they need to import the likes of Limbaugh and Bachmann to do their fundraising for them? Limbaugh openly hopes for the Obama administration to fail and compares Obama to Hitler. Bachmann blames Obama for the swine flu outbreak and refuses to fill out her census form because she thinks it's an ACORN plot to steal her private information. (Seriously.)
Meanwhile, McCaul's challenger, the completely-not-insane Jack McDonald, is drawing serious support to his campaign from legitimate leaders such as Dr. Albright and talking about how the people of TX-10 can gain real representation in Congress on issues such as the economy, health care, and clean energy.
Currently, John Carter has no challenger to offer the people of Bell and Williamson County actual representation in Congress. But Central Texans can unite behind Jack McDonald, and make sure that the people of Texas' 10th District send a strong Representative to work on their behalf in D.C.
Meanwhile, the voters of TX-10 need to ask themselves: "Who better represents me and my views in Congress? ...
... Rush Limbaugh and Michael McCaul? Or Jack McDonald and Madeleine Albright?"
McDonald's campaign is still in exploratory mode. You can check him out on his website, www.JackForCongress.com, and make a donation or offer to volunteer. It's going to be a good race. Best of all, a McDonald victory may mean 100% less Rush Limbaugh in our backyard. And if that's not a reason to get involved, I don't know what is.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), chaired by Congressman Chris Van Hollen, announced automated and live calls will be starting today against Representative Michael McCaul as part of its month-long major advertising and grassroots offensive in support of President Obama's health insurance reform plan.
"Time and again, Republicans including Representative McCaul protect a broken system of skyrocketing costs, insurance companies making health care decisions, and record-setting insurance company profits instead of working with President Obama to bring real health insurance reform for middle class families," said Jon Vogel, DCCC Executive Director. "This August we are going district-by-district to hold Republicans accountable for trying to obstruct health insurance reform through their scare tactics and just-say-no protection of big insurance companies at the expense of affordable health care."
Unlike the chaos and shouting matches the Republican Party is building, the Democratic Party is organizing a series of educational meetings and reaching out to inform people about the true impact insurance reform will have on them.
According the the DCCC the outreach activities going on in Mike McCaul's district may include:
Radio ads in eight (8) Republican Members' districts
Volunteer live calls, automated calls to 25 targeted Republican Members
Volunteer live calls to talk radio stations in targeted Republican Members' districts
Three (3) million e-mails
Letter writing drives in Republican Members' districts
Letter to the editor drives in Republican Members' districts
On-line petition campaigns
Fact checking Republicans' lies about health insurance reform
Tele-town halls in specific Republican Members' districts
An automated call has already started in Mike McCaul's district. The message highlights McCaul's position and our current health care crisis.
This call is paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 202-741-1350. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
I have an important message about your health care. Insurance companies are posting record profits while health bills skyrocket. Now they are lining up to stop health care reforms and protect profits. Congressman Michael McCaul took almost fifty thousand dollars from the insurance industry and now he's trying to block reform... like reducing costs by forcing insurance companies to compete and preventing them from denying you coverage. Call Congressman McCaul today. Ask him to stop standing up for insurance companies and start standing up for us.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a piece for National Journal's CongressDaily, listed the TX-10 Congressional District as one of the best opportunities for Democrats to pick-up a seat in Congress in 2010.
This should come as little surprise to anyone that has been following the race -- which we've been doing closely here at BOR. A quick scan through the TX-10 tagged posts here at BOR gives you a recap of what's going on in the district:
This Thursday, at an undisclosed location in Houston, the de facto chair of the Republican Party is headlining a fundraiser for Congressman Mike McCaul (TX-10). That's none other than Rush Liimbaugh of course.
Limbaugh and McCaul share a closer connection which his campaign is working to obscure by not even the location of the fundraiser to people invited to it. Let's walk through that close relationship courtesy of the Lone Star Project.
Limbaugh is employed by Clear Channel Communications, which was founded by McCaul's father-in-law, Lowry Mays. Mays pays Limbaugh a reported $38 million per year and gave him a $100 million signing bonus in 2008. (Source: The Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2008)
And there's good reason that McCaul is known as Congressman Clear Channel as evidenced by how well their management and employees line his campaign coffers.
McCaul's Top Contributors: 1) Clear Channel - $140,450 2) Dell Inc - $52,696
3) Zachry Construction - $45,100
4) AT&T Inc - $37,000
5) Loeffler Group - $33,800
(As of May 26, 2009, Source: OpenSecrets.org)
McCaul has shown that he's perfectly happy to accept the public support of Clear Channel and Rush Limbaugh as well as the money from donors who believe that Limbaugh is the GOP's "One True Chairman". Hiding the location of the fundraiser Dick Cheney style isn't going to do anything to cover up the ties between Limbaugh and McCaul. Their desire to see Barack Obama and American fail are still coming in loud and clear(channel).
Jack McDonald is making more waves in the Washington whisper crowd.
McDonald, who has filed an exploratory committee to take on Republican Mike McCaul, is one of ten non-incumbents with over $100,000 in the bank.
According to CQ Politics, only ten challengers (Republican and Democrats) have raised over $100,000 and only 2 have raised more than Jack McDonald.
Those two include 1 Republican: William Russell, Republican, Pennsylvania's 12th District ($403,000) taking on Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha in a rematch of a 2008 campaign that Murtha won by 16 percentage points. The other is Suzan DelBene, Democrat, Washington's 8th District ($315,000). DelBene, a technology executive, is gearing up to oppose three-term Republican Rep. Dave Reichert.
McDonald barely missed the top spot for Democrats.
Jack McDonald, Democrat, Texas' 10th District ($312,000). McDonald, who also has a background as a technology executive, is waging a campaign against three-term Republican Rep. Michael McCaul that technically is still in the "exploratory" phase. But his first-quarter take makes it highly likely that he will make his bid official.
McDonald's first-quarter report shows that he put in just $1,000 of his own money and raised everything else from individual donors - many of whom gave the $4,800 maximum amount allowed under federal law, of which half can be used for a primary election and half for the general election.
Interestingly, McDonald is 33% of the entire list of Democrats on the list and 66% of those are in the top 3 spots. McDonald is showing he has an ability to raise some serious money and is making a strong case for the Texas 10th to be a targeted race for both Texans and Washington D.C. decision makers.
Update: Something from the Congressional Quarterly article to highlight:
The $315,000 figure includes $209,000 of DelBene's own money, in the form of loans and contributions.
McDonald hasn't done that. He has raised nearly every cent. This makes Jack McDonald the best fundraiser among Democratic challengers and the second best among all challengers.
In January, McCaul said he would "seriously consider" running for Attorney General if the office became vacant. Though current AG Greg Abbott has not annoucned his intentions, he is widely expected to run for either Lt. Governor or U.S. Senator.
After McCaul's presumed Democratic opponent Jack McDonald posted very impressive fundraising numbres, some (including myself) speculated that McDonald's strong reportmight push McCaul towards running for Attorney General.
While he could always change his mind, that doesn't seem to be the case. As Matt reported today, McCaul only has about $62,000 on hand with over $500,000 in debt. However, the business relationships of his father-in-law, Clear Channel founder Lowry Mays, could make it very easy for McCaul to raise a large amount of money in a short time.
Two candidates, former solicitor general Ted Cruz, a Republican, and former U.S. Senate nominee Barbara Radnofsky, a Democrat, have filed papers to run for Attorney General next year.
This is clearly an impressive start and is probably going to make any other Democrats who were considering jumping in this race think twice. Perhaps the report may even inch incumbent Mike McCaul towards a bid for Attorney General.
District 10 encompasses two media markets and is among the most expensive districts in the state. Larry Joe Doherty raised over $1 million last year and still lost by double digits. We are going to need a lot of money (and a great candidate, of course) to have a good shot at winning this district. It is early, but I think McDonald has the potential to provide both.
Congressman Mike McCaul raised only $ 97,795 this reporting period and spent $ 81,515.80 leaving him with just $ 62,431.80 left in the bank. Wait, wait, it gets better. McCaul still has $ 511,252.56 in debt.
Mike McCaul is looking more and more vulnerable every campaign season.
In reference to last Friday's post, I wanted to post the district specific radio ad that the DCCC is running in TX-10 against Mike McCaul. Listen to it below or visit it on the DCCC's blog.
It's interesting to read through the comments on the last post to see people's reactions on a whole host of issues that apparently are unresolved regarding TX-10. Here are a couple of my thoughts on it.
There's a lot of interest in learning and hearing more directly from Democratic candidate Jack McDonald. That's great, and Matt actually sat down with him already and has an interview that he's going to write up and post here on BOR. Along those lines, we're going to explore maybe getting some video from McDonald as well since there is a difference in reading an interview and seeing the candidate talk himself.
In another good sign for TX-10 being on the political radar, the insider publication "The Hill" wrote up a rather lengthy piece on the district. It's worth a read.
I really think it's time to get over any feelings of "the DCCC didn't help last time so why did it take until now for them to pay attention". You're all right, and you can join the grassroots supporters in-district in 95% of all congressional districts around the country that feel the DCCC didn't get involved sooner or with more money. Me? I consider it welcome support after all the hard work that people have done in TX-10 the last few cycles.
Of course, if there are still things that need to be said about TX-10 from last cycle that will benefit us strategically in the race this cycle, the comments as always are open.
Jack McDonald, the ceo of the Austin-based company Perficient, has raised $308,655 in the five weeks since he announced his exploratory committee, the Statesman reports.
This is clearly an impressive start and is probably going to make any other Democrats who were considering jumping in this race think twice. Perhaps the report may even inch incumbent Mike McCaul towards a bid for Attorney General.
District 10 encompasses two media markets and is among the most expensive districts in the state. Larry Joe Doherty raised over $1 million last year and still lost by double digits. We are going to need a lot of money (and a great candidate, of course) to have a good shot at winning this district. It is early, but I think McDonald has the potential to provide both.
When we have discussed this race in the past, several people (including myself) expressed concern about several Republican contributions in McDonald's past. The controversy centered primarily on contributions to George W. Bush in 2000 and to Ben Bentzin in 2005.
I would guess his contribution history will come up again in the next few months. The contributions to Bush and Bentzin are very dissappointing, but we should also remember that he has given tens of thousands to Democrats and Democratic groups, in Travis County, Texas, and across the nation. 98 percent of his political contributions have been to Democrats.
Putting that aside, it is clear from the early fundraising totals that this will be a race to watch in 2010. Let's hope the DCCC is paying attention, too.
