Longtime political columnist Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News has a long, interesting column on Mikal Watts' in today's paper. We're not going to reprint it fully, but here's the link to the column titled, "San Antonio plaintiffs' lawyer takes run at toppling Cornyn". Feel free to follow the link if you want to read more about the post -- as Colin points out in the comments, there are some excellent excerpts on immigration.
(Yesterday, Watts announced he will be loaning approximately $10 million of his own money to the TX-Sen race. - promoted by Burnt Orange Report)
Dear Mikal Watts,
Hi! We've never met, but I felt like I needed to talk to you about something. You see, I follow celebrities a lot -- I love reading celebrity gossip, reading celebrity blogs, etc. One thing that celebrities often need is an "intervention" to get them to calm down. So consider this my own attempt at an internvetion: I will give you $5 to calm down and stop throwing your money around.
Why $5? Well, yesterday I read (and even wrote a little) about all the Rick Noriega stuff going on. Pretty exciting -- seems a lot of the blogs are for him, and I got to admit, I like his pro-choice record. After reading so much on Noriega, I wanted to learn more about you. Here's what I found on Yahoo! News:
Watts has also filed a statement with the U.S. Senate indicating he intends to expend personal funds totaling $10 million. He listed $3,810,661.81 for the primary and $6,189,333.19 for the General Election, totaling $9,999,995.
Dang! $9,999,995!! That's a whole lot of money, man. I think you've got a spending problem -- and I guess I'm worried about what that spending problem could do both to you, and other Texas progressives like myself. So I'm offering $5 -- to bump you up to a clean $10 million -- if you just take a breath, slow down, and realize money isn't everything.
You see, we've been down this road before. It is called "Tony Sanchez Parkway" and it's a dead-end street. I found this cool piece from the Texas Observer that talked all about the failed campaign Sanchez ran in 2002. I'm worried you're heading down the same path, and you don't need to. From what I've read by Eddie at BOR and some other places, you seem like an all right guy (though I'd laugh in your face if you ever gave me that quasi-pro life explanation in person). So why all the money?
It seems to me -- and this is just little old $5 Sarah talking -- that a lot of folks aren't that impressed with your endless cash-flow. If those online folks are really serious about supporting Noriega, they could easily raise $2-3 million. And which is more impressive -- personally loaning $9,999,995 to yourself, or raising a lot of money independently from the grassroots? All we have to do is look at how successful Obama was this past quarter to know the answer to that question.
So here's what I'm offering: $5 to calm down. $5 to take a step back, develop your issues, rebuild that crappy website you have up right now, and rethink your approach to this campaign. Be cause the more it looks like you're just trying to buy a seat in the U.S. Senate, the more people like me are going to run away from your campaign.
(More on Noriega -- also, be sure to follow these links to see what the national netroots are saying about this story, which has already caught on at Swing State and Daily Kos. - promoted by Burnt Orange Report)
On his website, State Representative Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) posted a letter endorsing Rick Noriega. Here's an excerpt from the letter, which you can find on his website:
While certain politicians were talking about the “war on terror”, Lt. Col. Noriega was actually fighting it by serving a 14-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. While certain politicians were failing the test of leadership in response to Hurricane Katrina, Lt. Col. Noriega was brought in to serve as Incident Commander and direct logistics at the George Brown Convention Center, helping thousands of Katrina evacuees. While certain politicians were talking about the need for immigration reform and border security, Lt. Col. Noriega was actually securing the border as the Commander for the Laredo Border Sector. Texas needs leadership by example, the type of leadership Rick Noriega has given his state and country.
For more than a decade, Rick has also been on the front lines fighting for a better Texas. He and I have stood side by side to protect and defend our children by providing children’s health insurance. We have worked together to give teachers a necessary and needed pay raise, and put more resources into public education. We have worked together to protect our environment and clean up our air, especially in places like Houston.
Today, Burnt Orange Report lends its name to efforts being made by progressives across the state to draft Representative Rick Noriega into the race to replace Republican Senator John Cornyn in the United States Senate. (Read about others who are supporting the effort at www.draftricknoriega.com.)
We are committed to supporting a primary, and a draft movement for Rep. Rick Noriega is the best way to ensure a Democratic primary race for this year's U.S. Senate seat. We support a primary for a number of reasons, including:
A primary further raises the profile of the TX-Sen race to a national level
A primary allows an increasingly knowledgeable electorate to learn more about the candidates before the fall of 2008
A primary quickens the development of an infrastructure of a campaign, ensuring the winner is better prepared to take on Cornyn in November '08
Rep. Noriega is from Houston, and served recently as deputy garrison commander of the KMTC training facility in Kabul, Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He also served as the Laredo Border Sector Commander for Operation Jump Start. During the previous legislative session, Rep. Noriega successfully passed an amendment to the state budget to raise teacher pay as much as the rules allowed. (Read more on Rep. Noriega's background here). Overall, we believe his work and his experience make him an interesting candidate, and one who should be in the race to replace John Cornyn.
As many of you know, Mikal Watts has already entered the race. We have writers at BOR that support Watts, others that don't, and many who are undecided. We would like to stress that endorsing the "Draft Rick Noriega" efforts does not constitute an endorsement of Noriega, or an anti-endorsement of Watts. Rather, it constitutes the endorsement of a primary for the reasons mentioned above.
Above all else, we do not believe John Cornyn should be re-elected to the United States Senate. He is an abominable failure in every sense of the word. Our desire for the primary is not a desire to beat up on fellow Democrats; rather, it is a desire to get the best person in place to stop John Cornyn. To that end, we continue to work with progressives across the state to Stop Cornyn.
In the online community, BOR will continue to provide the most up-to-date information on the TX-Sen race as we work with our peers across the state to elect a Democrat from Texas to the United States Senate. To learn more, visit:
Note from K-T: I wanted to add this here to clarify, posts written by BOR are typically those consisting of a consensus of the leading writers and approved by the Editor (Matt). As Publisher, I'm generally advised of these posts but I want to make clear that in all cases involving primaries I recuse myself due to my work for ActBlue. ActBlue helps all Democrats and hopefully those running for Senate in Texas!
