(This is pretty cool. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
The PBS program NOW, recently came to Central Texas looking for election stories where the war in Iraq might impact Congressional races. They interviewed John last week, as well as Democrat Mary Beth Harrell. Mary Beth is running in Congressional District 31, against Republican incumbent John Carter. That district includes Fort Hood and the District 31 race, was the focus of the PBS TV program that aired Friday Nov. 3rd, entitled "Sway the Course".
The Austin American Statesman published an article today on Lamar Smith's chances of becoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, should the Republican Party remain in control of the U.S. House. Similar to the fawning editorial piece that Arnold Garcia wrote a couple of weeks ago, the Statesman seems to be shoring up their support for Lamar Smith's entrenched 20 year career. No secret that they delivered their endorsement to Smith, but this article timed to hit undecided voters before the November 7th election, seems to be another attempt to prop up Smith. While their headline on the article reads "Smith in line to take over House Judiciary Committee" the link to the story on the AAS website actually read "Smith's star is rising" this morning. Tell me that's not editorial promotion.
Smith has contributed more than $400,000 this year to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Since Oct. 1, he's given another $66,000 to fellow House Republicans who find themselves in tighter-than-expected races, such as Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Smith also has given last-minute pushes to Texas newcomers Van Taylor and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. Taylor is challenging Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and Sekula-Gibbs is trying to win former Majority Leader Tom DeLay's seat.
(You have voted 4 times on-line, have you voted yet in real life? - promoted by Matt Glazer)
On behalf of Team Courage, and from the bottom of my own heart, I want to say THANK YOU to the blogosphere, the Netroots, and all of the voters who helped me win another online victory yesterday. At 7:01 p.m. EST, we learned that we were one of the three winners in John Kerry's PAC's "3 at the Buzzer" poll. Along with my fine Democratic colleagues, Senate candidate Jim Webb and congressional candidate Dan Seals, we are honored to have garnered the most online votes in the field of 17 Netroots candidates, terrific challengers all.
The prize is to be featured in Sen. Kerry's final fundraising email of this election season. With more than 3 million email recipients in his list, Sen. Kerry can give us a major boost at this critical point in the campaign.
For some background, there is a great story put out today by the Center for Media and Democracy that gives background to Lamar Smith's rise on the Ethics Committee.
On February 3, 2005, at the start of the 109th Congress, Hastert replaced Hefley with Rep. Doc Hastings, a Washington Republican seen as more loyal to the Republican leadership. Hastert also ousted two other Republican panel members, Reps. Kenny Hulshof and Steve LaTourette, who had voted with Hefley to admonish DeLay and voted against an internal Republican rule change meant to protect DeLay as majority leader in the case of his indictment in a Texas investigation into his behavior. In the place of the removed lawmakers, Hastert appointed Reps. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Tom Cole (R-Okla.). According to Common Cause, all three voted for the caucus rule change. Even more notably, Smith and Cole donated thousands of dollars ($10,000 and $5,000 respectively) to DeLay’s legal defense fund.
As you know, the Ethics Committee is not going to release a report on the Mark Foley scandal until after the election. But remember, that would be right in the middle of a potential runoff in TX-21 if we keep Lamar Smith under 50% a week from today.
If you are a candidate who's cut 4 TV commercials and put out hundreds of signs at houses and polling locations in the district then you have almost certainly spent over $5000, the trigger for filing reports with the FEC.
From what we know, Calvert did major fundraising before the last FEC deadline, had his bus tour campaign kickoff in August, and has yard signs out as well before the filing deadline. The 8 day report is due in 3 days. How much longer will Calvert remain in violation of FEC requirements?
(This ad was originally over a minute long and the struggle was to get at least one ad on the air before the election. Now the Courage Campaign has raised over $325,000 and the question is how long can this new 30 second ad stay on the air. Check it out and keep it on air! - promoted by Matt Glazer)
Burnt Orange Report has learned that State Democratic Executive Committeeman Ben Alexander (SD-19) is apparently openly supporting Republican Rep. Lamar Smith over Democrat John Courage. According to sources in San Antonio who confronted him in the last 24 hours, Alexander, who lives in TX-21 and has a Smith sign displayed in his yard, has also been paid $10,000 from the Smith campaign since the 30 day FEC filings (and won't show up until the 8 day reports due at the end of October).
According to the source and the Courage campaign, Alexander when asked about these allegations stated that 'he can support whomever he pleases in the congressional race'.
BOR calls on the Democrats of SD-19 (and TX-21) to contact their SDEC Rep Ben Alexander to confirm this information and if true call on him to resign his SDEC seat, denounce Lamar Smith, and return any money from the campaign that is verified.
From the TDP website:
Committeeman SD 19
Ben Alexander
San Antonio
(210) 337-4486
Ben_alexander2003@yahoo.com
The Rules of the Texas Democratic Party quite clearly state that such actions require removal from his Party position in Article III, Section H.
H. Removal From Office For Endorsing Opposing Party or Candidate
1. A Party Officer shall be removed from office if during the current term of office such officer publicly supports or endorses an opposing party or ,nominee of an opposing party, a person seeking the nomination of an opposing party, or a non-Democratic candidate seeking an office in an election in which candidates may file by party affiliation and a Democrat is seeking the office in question.
2. The terms “publicly supports” and “endorses” shall include, but not be limited to, serving on a campaign committee; giving financial support, including contributing money or its equivalent such as equipment loans, services or supplies; willingly and knowingly allowing the officer’s name to be used in any kind of letter, public endorsement, news release, or advertisement; or actively soliciting votes by making a public appearance or a door-to- door solicitation of votes.
John Courage has been endorsed by The Daily Texan newspaper. In their Editor’s Note, the editors state that they attempted to endorse in as many races as possible where the race outcome might affect students. John is very honored to have the endorsement and he looks forward to representing the student population across UT and the rest of the district.
