Bill White is getting a lot of virtual ink after announcing another $1.5 million raised in Q3. The latest round of fundraising now gives Houston Mayor Bill White $4.18 million cash on hand.
Some of these numbers are actually somewhat disappointing. Republicans are going to have to settle behind a candidate, because none of those totals will measure up to Bill White's total. That guy looks stout.
[...]
Either way Republicans are vulnerable if Kay resigns. I still think one of them could emerge and defeat Bill White easily if people really get behind the GOP nominee, but right now it makes me nervous.
This same realization has been covered in The Hill's Briefing Room. The Hill observes that Democrats John Sharp and Bill White have self-fundend and raised an astounding $10 million. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are collectively struggling to raise even $1 million.
A lack of a consensus candidate on the Republican side has created an opening for Democrats to win a statewide race. The only question now for the field will be when the election will happen.
Kay Bailey Hutchison told a Republican/conservative radio host Tuesday she plans to retire from the Senate, but the time frame is still in the air.
According to the the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
"I am going to leave," Hutchison told Davis on WBAP/820 AM. "I think it's important that I do everything I can when there are such huge issues and I haven't been able to set that deadline which I know is something a lot of people are looking at to determine what other possibilities there might be."
With the question of "when" left to be answered, at least we know Democrats can be competitive statewide and specifically we can send a Democrat to Washington in a special or general election.
After Houston Mayor Bill White's campaign reported $1.5 million raised this quarter, leaving them with $4.18 million on hand, national observers took notice. Politico's Josh Kraushaar wrote that White had "posted one of the strongest fundraising totals for any Senate candidate this quarter."
Then it was the NRSC, led by Texas' own John Cornyn, who read the good news about White's fundraising and decided to go on the attack. From Whitless Humorings:
“Bill White’s fundraising diligence is exceeded only by his negligence to his current position. The city of Houston is facing a $50 million budget shortfall, Houstonians are facing potential tax hikes, city employees are facing possible layoffs, and yet, Bill White is traveling around the country raising money while collecting a paycheck from Houston taxpayers. Instead of spending his time worrying about a job promotion Bill White ought to focus on the job he was elected to do.” – Brian Walsh, NRSC Spokesman
The White campaign issued this response to the NRSC's statement on Wednesday, via the Mayor's Facebook page.
"Houston has run operating surpluses for most my time as Mayor, while we cut tax rates. Meanwhile DC borrowed trillions to pay operating expenses even before the recession. Yet some party hack in DC criticizes me for raising money for my Senate race, ...saying I neglected our City's finances? (See the link below.) They don't get it. Many fiscally conservative Republicans serve with me on City Council and they deserve credit--as do all Council members--for working as a non-partisan team to make sure that Houston is in the best financial condition of any of the nation's big cities.We aren't raising taxes or laying off employees. When is the last time they ran a surplus in DC? 1998-2000? Is it possible that in DC someone is looking at a poll and is worried?"
National Republicans are worried about holding on to this senate seat, and for good reason. When was the last time the NRSC attacked a Democratic candidate for a seat that was not even open yet?
The Bill White for Senate campaign announced today that the Houston Mayor raised over $1.5 million in the quarter ending September 30th. Campaign spokesperson Katy Bacon stated to BOR that campaign cash on hand now totals $4.18 million. Overall, White has now raised over $6 million total from more than 5000 donors throughout his campaign.
The third-quarter report also includes 2000 first-time donors to the campaign. White is running for the as-yet-undeclared special election to fill Sen. Hutchison's seat, should she resign to campaign full-time for Governor.
As of the second quarter filing period, the Bill White for Texas team had raised more dollars from more people than all other Senate candidates combined. With nearly 2000 first-time contributors, the third quarter filing period attracted significantly more new contributors to the campaign than any other quarter.
"With each report, it becomes increasingly clear that Texans across the state trust Bill White to be their voice in the U.S. Senate," said Campaign Finance Chair Scott Atlas. "Bill is the right leader to move our state forward and protect the future of our children and grandchildren."
Until the release of reports from John Sharp and the miasma of Republicans running for the seat, we don't know yet if White has maintained his lead on all announced candidates combined. Reports are due tomorrow.
As BOR previously reported, one of those donations came from Warren Buffet, famous investor, philanthropist, and Democratic supporter. Buffet, widely considered to be one of the shrewdest investors in American history, clearly thinks Bill White is a strong bet for Texas and for the US Senate.
White also raised approximately $200,000 online in the last weeks of the quarter, spurred on by a dollar-for-dollar match from the Mayor himself.
Update by KT
Here are some of the numbers for the quarter and to day in table form for easy viewing.
Before we got the first peak into Bill White's new fundraising numbers, John Sharp possibly gained his largest single endorsement yet. Senator Leticia Van de Putte endorsed John Sharp, saying, "it's time to make sure that Texas has at least one U.S. Senator in the room when the critical decisions that affect our working families and small businesses are made. John Sharp is uniquely qualified to get that job done."
Van de Putte is a legislator and politician that we all respect here at the Burnt Orange Report, and she is someone we all wanted to run for a statewide office. That said, I take her opinion on John Sharp seriously as a reason not to rule him out, despite KT's convincing Special Comment,
That said, the Van de Putte announcement elicited a few reactions for me:
I hope Senator Van de Putte is thinking purely about policy ability rather than campaign ability. I think in policy, one can easily flip a coin between Sharp and White as to which man is distinctively better. On campaign ability, though?
Is John Sharp trying to cover for another bad fundraising quarter? We will see in due time, but it's hard to imagine a getter reason for the announcement's timing.
The two thoughts above, though, assume John Sharp's fundraising successes will continue the negative trend that we saw the last quarter. Instead, John Sharp could be leading us to a surprise with a strong fundraising quarter. I doubt this, but if he reports high numbers, he could make a solid case for momentum.
Meanwhile, Bill White isn't leaving us waiting for his money reports as if that's all he has going for him. Besides the revelation that Warren Buffett is among his donors, he recently announced the endorsement of nine members from the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. The group includes Alma Allen, Garnet Coleman, Dawnna Dukes, Harold Dutton, Helen Giddings, Barbara Mallory Caraway, Ruth McClendon, Sylvester Turner, and Marc Veasey.
It was useful to group them together so White could use the Black Caucus' name in a press release, but observers should note that most of this is not new. His page of endorsements from Texas representatives listed most of these names before the announcement was made earlier today. In reality, it seems only Representatives [Turner,] Dutton and Giddings can be counted as "new" endorsements.
Either way, both Bill White and John Sharp have added names to their endorsement lists. As lackluster as Sharp's campaign has looked, he has faired alright in gaining names for that list. Unfortunately, endorsements are not all that matters.
We will learn more when we see fundraising numbers.
Update: I messed up with some of the Bill White endorsements. Chris Turner had previously endorsed White, but Sylvester Turner had not. So add Sly Turner as a new endorsement. Bill White spokesperson Katy Bacon also pointed out to me that the new endorsements mean that Bill White has received endorsements from a majority of Democratic State Representatives. That in itself is an accomplishment.
In the last week of the quarter, the Bill White's campaign raised nearly $400,000 dollars, about 50% on the internet. That doesn't include the money that White said he'd personally match.
As of yesterday, more than 5000 people have contributed to the Bill White campaign.
Billionaire businessman (and Democrat) Warren Buffett is a Bill White donor.
I heard a rumor the other week that the Sharp and White campaigns might be talking to each other again about...
A) if one of them would kindly drop out of the Senate race so the DSCC could finally gear up and help Texas (for once) like it actually wants to (which is a real thing).
"I'm not going to overstate it. Texas is a hard place, except that what we're talking about here is a special election with a much different universe of voters coming out and someone like (Houston Mayor) Bill White" running, Menendez said.
...
Menendez said White is well positioned because he is from Houston - which is the state's largest city - and is a Texas Democrat who "represents the values and positions that would appeal to a broad cross-section" of voters.
A special election to replace Hutchison would draw a "special universe of voters," also giving Democrats a chance, Menendez said. Special elections do not include party primaries. "In a special election ... the turnout can create the opportunity for someone like Bill White to succeed," he said.
Menendez's praise of White is a bit unusual for a party campaign committee leader. Generally, they try to stay neutral when a race, usually a primary, features candidates of the same party. John Sharp, a Democrat and former Texas comptroller, also plans to run for Hutchison's seat.
Charles Kuffner is right in saying that the usual caveats apply with regard there even being a special election whether the electorate will be any better for Democrats in a special depending on when it will be called.
But that aside... yes, folks in DC would prefer to have one candidate in the race. They are being hampered by doing their usual behind the scenes assistance which most states get every cycle (and we would have killed for to the same degree on the Noriega campaign). This is real and the fact that the it's bubbled up, publicly, from the DSCC chair himself should be a signal.
A signal lost on some apparently.
Kelly Fero, a spokesman for Sharp, agreed Democrats could pick up a seat in Texas, but said Sharp would win the special election. "If Bill White wants to be the choice of Washington, D.C. insiders, more power to him. John Sharp wants to be the choice of Texas," Fero said.
Oh please. Bill White has raised more money from more people than John Sharp and all the Republican candidates combined in Texas. And he's actively running a campaign that isn't dependent on the Sharp Strategy which as far as I've been able to piece together consists of....
1) Latent Name ID
2) Loaning Yourself Money
3) Spending Loaned Money (in late negative attacks on White)
4) Get in Runoff
5) Ask DSCC to fund Runoff
I'm not being coy or making stuff up in outlining that strategy. Between conversations with Sharp, supporters of Sharp, and other Austin insiders, folks are pretty open and honest in confirming those elements. I'm actually totally fine with them being open and honest in a simple singular drive to win an election via old school hardball tactics. I appreciate cutting through the bullshit.
But John Sharp needs to be more than the choice of John Sharp if we are going to win a U.S. Senate seat and I think the DSCC sees that.
We could be on a tipping point in Texas as Democrats- not for whether we're going to sweep statewide elections next year. No, we are on the tipping point of national folks taking us seriously and putting real support and real dollars into compressing a 6-10 year trend to victory into a 2-4 year reality.
Pay attention to the signals. This is one of them. So is Organizing for America hiring former TDP Communications Director Hector Nieto. And Martin Frost's Bill White comments. And David Plouffe stating the Obama Re-Election campaign takes a deep look at Texas in 2012 if we get to 47-48% statewide in 2010.
It's equally likely, though, that Texas Democrats will shoot themselves in the foot, unwilling to take risk, and put parochial self interests ahead of big picture possibilities. I'm about as used to that as I am living under Republican incompetence and corruption. Let's hope we can change both.
While the national media can analyze the national health care debate daily and endlessly, it's like there's nothing of substance to talk about in Texas- and no, I'm not counting finger pointing between Rick Perry and "The Internet" over a botched webcast as substance. So I'm taking this time in the political doldrums to add a special comment (of immeasurable substance) to get the juices flowing.
It's a month past Labor Day. What the hell?
Are we that incapable of making decisions, campaigning, and developing messages (or fielding candidates) until Sen. Hutchison graces us with a decision on when or even if she's going to resign from the U.S. Senate to run for Governor? Sure, it's frustrating, but why are we ceding Hutchison the power to control everyone's political future? I'm not even convinced that she's ever going to resign until that Senate seat is declawed from her cold dead hands. And that only makes our Democratic Duet of Houston Mayor Bill White and former Comptroller John Sharp all the more sad while we're playing the world's smallest violin.
So let's talk about that race between White and Sharp...
Is it even a race?
I was clearing out my YouTube queue last night and literally had to stumble across a new web ad that was apparently put out by the John Sharp campaign. Well, it was put out two weeks ago so I'm not sure that qualifies as new. And even though it was on the front page of John Sharp's "new" website, it's only had 150 views, half of which came from a Dave McNeely rehashed 6-month old Sharp messagecolumn, so it makes you wonder how that was never pushed around online. After all, it's only the 3rd thing ever posted to Sharp's YouTube channel (compared to a dozen videos in the last month on White's channel which is just a fraction of the over 50 posted to date).
But hey, at least that Sharp video was posted on his website- good thing, it's the only content that's been added to the front page or blog for the entire month of September. Bill White had three blog posts...yesterday alone- not to mention a half dozen media hits or press releases linked from the last week. Oh, and White has a push for end of quarter donations since the deadline is tonight, something that is distinctly absent from the Sharp campaign. And given that it had a negative fundraising quarter last report, I'm sure they could use it, unless of course that big red arrow pointing down on contribute button on Sharp's site really is pointing out the direction his contributions are going.
That's all to say- where is the John Sharp campaign? When you're being outpaced in media (and possibly fundraising) by Tom Schieffer or Hank Gilbert over in the Governor's race, you know something is wrong. There are only so many retired or soon to be retired journalists that are willing to regurgitate and reiterate the "Sharp Strategy" that "running for statewide office several times gives [you] a considerable head start over candidates who haven't" and that you've "been on statewide ballots in five separate election years from 1986 through 2002, and already have organizations in counties all across Texas."
Where's the beef, because that sounds like a lot of bun- Does 1984 need to give us a ring? How about from right here?
I heard a rumor the other week that the Sharp and White campaigns might be talking to each other again about...
A) if one of them would kindly drop out of the Senate race so the DSCC could finally gear up and help Texas (for once) like it actually wants to (which is a real thing), or
B) figure out who was going to run for Governor and/or other state executive offices if Sen. Hutchison chooses to keep playing Two-Face and not resign.
We need to stop betting on the future of Texas with the same old chips, especially when Hutchison holds the dice and refuses to roll.
Earlier this month a letter on LULAC letterhead criticizing Houston Mayor Bill White and the city's participation in the 287 (g) program was distributed by the campaign of John Sharp.
While the letter was on LULAC letterhead and was written by Angela Garcia, who was Texas State Director of LULAC during part of the 1990s, it was not authorized by the organization. LULAC's current Texas State Director Joey Cardenas issued this statement in response to the letter:
The letter from Angela Garcia is not, as it may appear to be, a letter from LULAC. It is a single point of view. Mayor Bill White and the Hispanic community have historically had a great relationship. Mayor Bill White was the keynote speaker atLULAC's convention in Dallas this year and also spoke at the state board meeting just a few weeks ago. We're having an ongoing discussion about many important issues affecting LULAC members. LULAC stays out of partisan politics and does not endorse candidates.
Katy Bacon, communications director for Bill White's campaign, had this to say:
It seems, yet again, the Sharp campaign is choosing to misrepresent something in an attempt to tear down Bill White, this time by presenting one person's letter as a letter from an entire organization. Texans are tired of this kind of negative, politics-of-the-past approach. Bill White has earned the support of 34 State Representatives, raised more dollars from more people than all the other candidates combined, and is traveling the state reaching out to Texans who want to work together on our state's future.
The Sharp campaign could have accurately sent out the letter as a "Letter from Angela Garcia" but sending it out as a "Letter from LULAC" is misleading. Despite Garcia's involvement and past leadership in LULAC, to say she speaks for the entire organization just does not make sense.
There is no open seat, there is no election date, but there is some consistently negative campaigning going on in the U.S. Senate race here in Texas. We will have to wait and see whether the last few months are a preview of what is to come once the race really starts.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to several reliable sources, has been telling Republicans in the past week that her current plan is to send Gov. Rick Perry a letter next month announcing her intention to resign from office effective on either Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.
By doing that, Hutchison remains in the Senate through this fall's health care debate while also giving Republicans who want to run for other offices when the dominos fall a chance to shuffle their campaigns. The two most obvious instances are Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who likely wants to run for Hutchison's Senate seat, and Attorney General Greg Abbott who wants to run for lieutenant governor.
We wrote Wednesday about KBH tough position running from Washington. Apparently, KBH is ready to abandon her commitments, cost Texans millions in a special election, and pursue her personal ambitions.
Houston Mayor Bill White, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, announced endorsements from 31 State House Democrats today, on the eve of the national DNC meeting in Austin, Texas. From his announcement (emphasis added):
Since announcing his candidacy in December, White has spent nights and weekends traveling across the state, listening to Texans' hopes, expectations, and concerns. As of July 15, the end of the last financial reporting period, more than 3,000 supporters had contributed more than $4.4 million to White's campaign for U.S. Senate, putting him in the fundraising lead for all candidates in the race.
White will also be holding a major fundraiser Saturday night, at the tail end of the DNC meeting. More details can be found at: www.bw4tx.com/liftoffparty. (Yes, they have their own URL shortener).
The list of endorsements from the State Representatives is impressive. Politically, that's a large block of support from folks across the state. Technologically, though, and the way it is presented is just cool -- their website for their State Rep. endorsements contains an interactive pull-down menu for each State Rep., which lists not only the district and town the State Rep. lives in, but also has a quote from each and every State Rep.
State Rep. Rafael Anchía (D - Dallas) said he supports White because of the candidate's approach to Texas' future.
Anchía stated, "It's time to unite behind Bill White as the best choice for U.S. Senate because he understands what's important to our state's future. From the beginning of his career, registering voters after the Voting Rights Act in the sixties, and throughout his successful terms as Houston's mayor, Bill has worked to include Texans of all stripes in politics and policy making. This is the approach we need in Washington now."
State Reps. Pete Gallego (D - Alpine) and Garnet Coleman (D - Houston) emphasized White's proven record of strong leadership and character.
"At this critical time in our nation, Texas needs a strong, determined leader at the national level," Gallego said. "Bill White is focused on the issues that impact our state the most, and committed to making Texas a better place for our children and families. Bill White is a proven leader who will fight for all Texans in the U.S. Senate."
Coleman added, "Bill White has proven that he knows how to govern, and Texans deserve the best representation available. We need a person of intelligence and compassion to serve us in the U.S. Senate. Simply said, Bill White is the best representation available."
Bill White will be in attendance at the Netroots 'N Boots Party tonight, along with fellow Democrat and U.S. Senate contender John Sharp and Congressional Candidate Jack McDonald. Tickets are $10 -- you can RSVP at http://bit.ly/w5LmM
