Bill White, Twitter, & Social Media: Texas Democrats Adapt to Internet Organization

by: Phillip Martin

Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 10:00 AM CDT

Ed. note: Ideas that are not original are appropriately cited throughout the piece. I never contacted Bill White's campaign about this story -- my observations about his campaign are just that, observations. They do not constitute any endorsement of his campaign -- by myself or BOR -- but they do reveal how, at least in my opinion, he and his campaign are prepared to win a statewide election. Also, you can follow me on Twitter here: @PhillipMartin

"Texas Democrats' First Truly Statewide Campaign of the 21st Century"

With a single press of a key, either a staffer or a volunteer for the Bill White for Texas campaign ushered Texas Democrats into the new era of internet organization. His campaign has walked across the bridge that so many people spent so many years building. I'm not sure who pressed that key, and I can't guarantee why they did it. But I can say two things for certain:

(1) I'm glad it finally happened, and
(2) Not knowing who finally crossed the bridge is what makes it so wonderful.

I will get to the story of what specifically this person on the Bill White for Texas campaign did towards the end of this post. The short version of what they've done, however, may (if I'm right) be quite a story:

A Democrat running a statewide campaign in Texas has, for the first time, fully adapted to the tools and principles of online organization, therefore making it possible to run Texas Democrats' first truly statewide campaign of the 21st century.

I need to unpack that a lot more to back up such a claim, I know. That's why this post is as long (~4,400 words) as it is.

I started writing this as just a short couple of paragraphs on a simple change in the campaign's Twitter usage. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to think it was the sign of something bigger -- that it was the sign of Texas Democrats' finally catching up, after years and years of playing from behind. But to take you from here to there, it is going to take more than just a few paragraphs.

Click here to continue reading this post in the extended entry.

House Democrats Spend Over $1 Million

by: Matt Glazer

Tue Oct 28, 2008 at 09:47 AM CDT

When the HDCC started in 2004, it had one contract employee, a few thousand dollars in the bank and a 26 seat deficit in numbers. No one imagined taking back the House in 3 election cycles was remotely possible. Because of the numbers and a punitive redistricting map, we thought a 10 year plan was optimistic, and only hopelessly delusional optimists thought about a majority by 2009 (apologies to Lon).

What started initially as a simple idea to form a PAC where House Democrats could help fellow Democratic members has grown to become one of the most trusted, respected and impressive political operations in Texas. You should be proud to be part of that effort.

The truth of the matter is HDCC is one of the biggest reasons why we are on the brink of taking back the Texas House. They have committed to working with newly elected Democrats and guide them through the process.  They have had laser focus before and during elections to win swing seats.   All the headaches Tom Craddick and Terry Keel have on a daily basis, are because of the HDCC and it's leaders.

While Tom Craddick has lost control of his 26-seat majority in his tenure as Speaker of the House, Jim Dunnam, Pete Gallego, and Garnet Coleman have picked up seats every cycle since creating the HDCC.

One State Republican Executive Committee Member, Mark McCraig said in a recent editorial, "What was once a 26-seat Republican majority in 2003 has dwindled to an eight-seat majority today, and that number will almost certainly shrink again this year."

McCraig goes one step further in his editorial in the Stateman:

An ethical cloud also surrounds Craddick because of his close ties to lobbyists. Last year, Craddick and a prominent lobbyist were sued by a tour company after a dispute over a fishing trip to Brazil that Craddick and the lobbyist had canceled. Financial disclosure forms filed by Craddick also show a business relationship with a lobbyist whose identity he refuses to disclose. In light of recent scandals, grass-roots Republicans must demand that their leaders act in a manner that is beyond reproach.

In nearly 40 years in the Legislature, Craddick helped build the Republican Party and the conservative movement in Texas. Unfortunately, his recent actions have cast a shadow on years of public service, and he must recognize that the best way to promote the Republican Party and the conservative values he claims to represent is to allow a new speaker to serve.

Rather than having a Tom Craddick appointed successor, it is time to have a Democrat lead the House.

As the letter points out:

One million dollars is a heck of a lot of money - particularly in the face of our opposition. It is the tangible result of tireless work done by Texas Democrats who want to restore a sense of balance to the Texas House. You should know that the confidence shown us by donors is really a direct result of our Caucus unity demonstrated session after session in the face of adversity. They saw us fighting the good fight, persevering in the face of overwhelming odds and standing tall for the people of Texas. Our unity of voice and effort has not been in vain.

In a point of personal privilege, I want to  thank Rep. Dunnam, Rep. Gallego, Rep. Coleman, and the hard working staff at HDCC for everything y'all have done this year and the harder ones before.

That being said, we have one week left, let's take back the House today!

To read the full letter from Jim Dunnam, Pete Gallego, and Garnet Coleman to the Democratic Caucus, click here (warning it is a pdf).

Why I Believe In Sherrie Matula

by: Vince Leibowitz

Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 09:30 AM CDT

I will admit it: I am a political cynic.

It isn't often that I contract a case of what Billy Bob Thornton's character in Primary Colors called "True Believerism." It takes someone special--and a special campaign--to make me dust off the mantle of a cynic and really believe.

For me, this year, that candidate is Sherrie Matula.

Sherrie is running for State Representative in House District 129, a Harris County district including Clear Lake, part of Houston, and more.  

HD-52: Diana Maldonado Raises $100,000 in One Week

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 05:18 PM CDT

Well, prepare for another big fundraising report next month. Maldonado tells QR that she's had quite a productive time of it on the circuit in recent days. On Sept. 14, a Lloyd Doggett-hosted fundraiser netted $60,000. That was followed on Thursday by news that Blue Texas was giving the candidate $50,000.

QR readers will remember that we highlighted this group a few months back. Organized in May by Austin-based Democratic fundraiser Alexa Wesner, the Blue Texas PAC is working with the relatively narrow mission to get more Democrats elected to the Texas House.

This is excellent news for an excellent candidate. You can feel confident that your funds and our endorsement are well placed in this race.

Tom Craddick's Former Assistant Parliamentarian's Online Identity Revealed

by: Matt Glazer

Tue Sep 09, 2008 at 06:00 AM CDT

Now it seems like someone else is interested in the race, too: Ron Wilson.

In fact Wilson, talking about himself in the third person, had something to say to our readers.

You would stand a better chance being raped by a water buffalo than having any accurate information on Ron Wilson or Tom Craddick.

Former Craddick assistant parliamentarian Ron Wilson seems to not only be interested in SD-17, he seems to be working with Republicans to recruit and keep questionable candidates and the ballot.  Wilson is also spinning the Republican talking points and defaming Democratic candidates and their supporter.

Before I go much further, it's time to let everyone know that Ron Wilson is not Baby Snooks as one reader speculated. That did get me wondering though, about the writing pattern of user "D. Davenport" who has only shown up a handful of times to attack Democratic House Leader Jim Dunnam, defend failed candidate Latreese Cooke, defend Donna Keel's brother-in-law and Craddick Parliamentarian Terry Keel, and Craddick D Sylvester Turner.

D. Davenport has an extensive understanding (although faulty interpretation) of House rules.  D. Davenport has written almost exclusively in Austin, but seems to know a lot about Houston elected officials and races.  Most interesting, D. Davenport has made it a point to lie about matters of public record including payments and statements on the House floor.

At one point in June of last year, D. Davenport said, "You have no idea who you are corresponding with nor do you need to know."

After some investigation, we can tell you we know who D. Davenport is.  

D. Davenport is none other than Ron Wilson.

That's right, former Assistant House Parliamentarian and State Representative Ron Wilson is the one who has been attacking readers and calling people racists on Burnt Orange Report.

Like all our registered community members, Ron Wilson provided an e-mail address when he registered.   The e-mail he provided only had two results when you google it.  One site is the state bar of Texas.  The other is a car forum, where a guest, "ron_wilson" talks shop about high end cars.

This is almost exactly how we found the secret identity of David Beckwith (aka Buck Smith).

The point here is that D. Davenport, like Buck Smith is a paid political operative.  They concealed their identity, picked fights with our community members, and expected to get away with it.  We don't go looking up every user account. (For one, there are over 4,000 users and besides that, we generally expect people to play fair.)

In fact, if a reader hadn't speculated that Baby Snooks was Ron Wilson, we never would have found out who D. Davenport was.  I wouldn't have looked through his 20 comments to realize a pattern.

Because of "D. Davenport's" comments, one reader called to tell me Ron Wilson admitted to recruiting Stephanie Simmons to challenge Chris Bell in Senate District 17 -- saying simply, "What do you think about what we did to your boy Bell?"

How do you feel about that? We don't like it and we don't like "Buck Smith" or "D. Davenport" style deception on Burnt Orange Report.

If you don't like it either, please feel to give a dollar for every comment Buck Smith and or D. Davenport has made on BOR to either TexBlog PAC or the House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC) to make sure we can end this sort of deception in Austin.

That's 20 comments from Ron Wilson and an impressive 84 comments from David Beckwith.

Annie's List Endorses Sherrie Matula

by: Matt Glazer

Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 05:34 PM CDT

Now Annie's list has joined Matula's growing list of endorsements.

We have been watching Sherrie's race closely this year and she has earned her way onto the list with old fashioned hard work and determination.

With 30 years experience under her belt as a public education advocate (former Clear Creek ISD school board member and teacher, now a statewide education consultant), Matula has successfully highlighted Davis' abysmal education record and forced this solid Republican district to re-evaluate their incumbent state representative, Rep. John Davis (R), on a variety of issues including his questionable ethics. And research shows they don't like what they see and are ready for a change.

With a professional campaign operation now in place, over $150,000 raised-to-date and independent research showing a message path to victory - we are excited to make this race one of our top targets in the final push this fall. And, as is our standard practice, once we determine a race is viable, we jump in head first with the full resources of Annie's List - including you, our committed base of supporters.

Annie's List is going to be doing a dollar for dollar match for up to $10,000 for the next 10 days.

You can donate online here.  We have to pick up 5 seats this fall to take back the Texas House.  Help make sure Sherri Matula is one of them.

Money Match Up

by: Matt Glazer

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 04:28 PM CDT

With the TexBlog PAC endorsed Chris Turner mind blowing fundraising coming in at nearly a quarter million dollars, it seemed like he was the House candidate to beat.  Well, Juan Garcia has done just that.

Garcia is announcing $520,000 cash on hand.  

"I'm deeply gratified by the strong support I'm receiving from people who want to continue moving forward, not backward," Garcia said.

Garcia's contributions for the reporting period from January through June of this year came from 409 individual donors, with more than 90 percent raised in Texas, he said.

The largest single donation came from HEB chief and public education champion Charles Butt, who donated $75,000 during the first half of this year and $25,000 in the previous reporting period, for a total contribution of $100,000 in the current re-election campaign.

Donors who gave Garcia $1,000 or more this period include such business leaders as Tony Lamantia, CEO of L & F Distributors; developer Duane Scheumack of Scheumack Investments; restauranteurs Woo Sung Lee of Boat and Net restaurants and Randy Maldonado of Pete's Chicken-N-More; Sam Susser of Susser Holdings; CPA Scott Turner; engineers Dan Leyendecker and John Michael; and architects Bibiana Dykema and Raymond Gignac.  

Sixteen medical doctors from House District 32 have also donated to Garcia's campaign, reflecting his strong support for health insurance reform.  He has also been endorsed by the influential Texas Medical Association, which represents more than 42,000 physicians around the state.  
In addition, State Senator Carlos Uresti, U.S. Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, and former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes also made contributions.

Austin State Rep Donna Howard has some impressive numbers too.

State Representative Donna Howard today filed her latest financial report, showing nearly $161,000 cash on hand as she heads toward the traditional start of the fall campaign season.

[...]

Howard's report shows that she raised $89,915.08 from 190 individual contributors between January 2008 and June 2008. She has $160,868.91 cash on hand and has scheduled numerous fundraisers to make sure she has the resources for a winning re-election campaign.

On the other hand Howard's opponent isn't doing as well.  Pam Waggoner is only reporting $11, 266.05 cash on hand.

Our State Senate candidates seem to be doing well too.  Joe Jaworski had an early present when a poll revealed fewer than one-third of voters in SD 11 approve of "Toxic" Mike Jackson's job performance.   The same poll showed the race in a statistical dead heat and also that Jaworski is commanding a margin of more than 20 percent among independent voters, a critical component of the electorate this year.

Now Jaworski is reporting some solid fundraising numbers.

Texas Senate candidate Joe Jaworski today said that he will report raising more than $801,000 from 1,267 individual contributors in his race thus far, capping another successful fundraising period.

[...]

Jaworski will report a total of $801,218 raised to date, including $345,209.50 during the first six months of this year. His latest report shows more than $410,390 cash on hand after winning his primary race in March.

Larry Joe Doherty had some great numbers to report too.  First some good poll numbers came out for LJD, then the Cook Political Report upgraded the race for Democrats, and now Doherty has some cash to spend going into the summer months.

Larry Joe Doherty, Democratic nominee in the 10th Congressional District, will report receiving over $247,000 in campaign contributions from 520 individuals since March 31st, more than doubling his cash-on-hand from the previous reporting period to $259,792.

[...]

Two recent polls put McCaul's lead in single digits.  Doherty's internal campaign polling by Goodwin Simon Victoria Research, found McCaul's job approval at an anemic 28%, with 47% of constituents not recognizing McCaul's name.  The poll also found George Bush with a disapproval rating of 70%.  Full analysis is available here.

The filing deadline is just moments away, and it looks like we are going to have a lot of good news going into Netroots Nation.

HD 96: Democrat Chris Turner Reports $200,000 Raised!

by: Phillip Martin

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 00:32 PM CDT

TexBlog PAC endorsed House candidate Christ Turner announced that his campaign has raised over $200,000 in the first six months alone -- a tremendous amount so early in the year for a State House candidate! Turner is running against far-right Republican incumbent Rep. Bill Zedler, in the southern area of Tarrant County.

From Chris' press release:

Teachers, business people, health care professionals, lawyers, retirees and students - these are just a few of the hundreds of Texans who are supporting our campaign to bring more partnership and less partisanship to Austin. A few weeks ago, I started knocking on doors and talking to voters about the issues that matter the most to them. I've met a number of people who think we need change in Austin and agree with my goal of bringing more partnership and less partisanship to the Texas House.

What's more, our strong fundraising will give us the necessary resources to compete with the big special interest money that my opponent depends on to finance his campaign. While we still have a long way to go to reach our fundraising goals for the campaign, we have a lot of early momentum to build upon.

As part of TexBlog PAC, we were all eager to help Chris build that early momentum when we donated $5,000 to his campaign. He's got a real shot at winning -- you'll be hearing a lot about this race in the coming weeks. For now, take some action and help us elect Chris Turner to the TX House:

Chris Turner - Homepage
Volunteer for Turner
Donate to the Campaign 

TexBlog PAC Endorses Sherrie Matula

by: Vince Leibowitz

Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 01:06 PM CDT

Matula's race represents one of those races that a lot of folks in the "bricks and mortar political establishment" may have underestimated in the early part of this year. However, this district is ripe for a flip. Matula laid the groundwork for this year's campaign with a respectable general election showing in 2006 and her "Apple Corps" team of volunteers and on-the-ground activists has worked very hard this year to register new voters, identify Democratic voters in the district, and conducting GOTV.

This race, however, is one where the Netroots have consistently seen the potential for defeating incumbent John Davis (a legislator who Texas Monthly appropriately deemed "furniture") and the value in Matula's traditional and online campaign operations.

Thank You, TexBlog PAC!

by: Chris Turner for State Rep - HD 96

Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 10:28 AM CDT

Friends,

Thank you for your support and endorsement of my campaign.  I am honored to have the support of TexBlog PAC and its members.  The blog community in Texas has done an amazing job over the last several years of galvanizing netroots support for causes we believe in and bringing in so many new people to the political process.  

This is a critical election year for Texas.  The future of our state will be shaped by the people we elect to the Legislature this November, and the stakes could not be higher.  We can continue the failed policies of the last several years – policies supported by my opponent, Rep. Bill Zedler – or we can chart a new course for Texas. 

I am running for the State House because I think we need more partnership and less partisanship in Austin.  That means putting the interests of Texas families ahead of the special interests.   

We need to give our hard-working public school teachers pay raises, which Rep. Zedler has opposed. 

We need to stand up to people like James Leininger and say “no” to his radical private school voucher plan, a plan my opponent supports.  

It’s time we fully restore the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for working Texas families, because it was wrong when Rep. Zedler and others voted to kick 230,000 kids off of health care five years ago. 

It’s time we do something about our sky-high utility rates and homeowners insurance in Texas.  

And we need to get serious about protecting our natural resources – especially our air and water quality – in the Lone Star State. 

If we elect the same partisan leaders to office, we’ll just get more of the same results.  I think Texas deserves better than that, and that is why I am running.  By working together, I know we can make a real difference for Texas families. 

Thank you again for your support – it means a lot to me!

Best regards,

Chris Turner
Candidate for State Representative, HD 96 
www.votechristurner.com