This is my first attempt at a diary at Daily Kos. I'm fairly new to this site but now come to it every day as I cling to finding out the latest good news on Obama-Biden, and ridiculous update from the McCain-Palin camp. In fact, my acronym for McCain-Palin is MIIAPIAD (McCain is insane and Palin is a drone). I may have to trademark that if it catches on.
But enough about the presidential race, this is a brief update on the Texas senate race.
I'm from the great state of Texas, which unfortunately is mostly red these days. A Republican governor, lieutenant governor, and two senators is just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to voting Democrat, we can occasionally vote for a big city mayor (Houston has one right now in Bill White who is extremely popular and effective and he is rumored to be mulling a governor run after his current and final term as mayor is over) but that is about it.
As far as the presidential race goes next month, I think it will be closer than some people might predict but McCain will carry Texas. We haven't gone blue since 1976 and I don't even think it will be as close as it was in 1992 when Clinton only lost to Bush by a little over 200,000 votes (2.4 million to 2.2 million with Perot at 1.3 million). Obama will win Austin, San Antonio and El Paso, should win Houston and some areas in south Texas, could win Dallas and Fort Worth, but McCain will win big in most other parts of the state and I'd expect about an eight-to-ten percent overall win.
Help is on the way. By 2020, whites are expected to be the minority in Texas and the growing minority vote could turn Texas blue again. The key will be to garner a huge hispanic vote.
The purpose of this blog however is to briefly promote our important senate race with incumbent John Cornyn, against the democratic candidate, Rick Noriega of Houston. As the Houston Chronicle recently stated, Financial Firepower is the Key. And the main problem for Noriega is he just doesn't have any money.
Cornyn has 7 million in the bank and is running constant commercials of him at some west Texas iconic site saying how he represents Texas. Maybe it's the Texas of 1908, it sure doesn't look like the Texas of 2008, but the commercials are likely effective. They don't say one damn thing of note in them - they just put Big Bad John in a cowboy hat looking like J.R. Ewing. As of June 30, Cornyn had raised more than $16 million (with his top contributor being the JP Morgan Chase PAC) while Noriega had raised just 2.4 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Another problem for Noriega is the economy. While Texas hasn't been bulletproof, the economy isn't as bad here as it is in much of the rest of the country. Oil and gas industries continue to do great and to be honest, the hurricane season has hit Texas hard in 2008 so the focus in the news for most of the summer has been Dolly, Gustav, and the big one, Hurricane Ike.
It's only been the past two weeks where the state has truly focused on the economic meltdown, so Noriega's momentum has likely occurred too little and too late. And finally, after mostly ignoring us democrats this summer, the DNC has thrown a few bones Rep. Noriega's way. A week ago, Hillary Clinton gave Noriega her endorsement and spoke with him at a press conference at the McAllen International Airport (the Texas/Mexico border which should be prime for a huge Noriega vote).
The big news however is President Clinton is speaking at a fund raiser in Dallas tomorrow night for Noriega. Is it too late to really help? Maybe but maybe not. It depends on a couple of things, most importantly the voter turnout on November 4th.
Noriega is certainly going to be helped by a huge hispanic/minority turnout. He also will be helped by Cornyn's yes vote on the $700 billion government bailout of Wall Street. A number of my conservative colleagues have said because he voted yes, they're voting for Yvonne Schick, the Libertarian candidate who looks like she could be Sarah Palin's mom (or perhaps a much older, uglier sister). If you don't believe me on her appearance, judge for yourself at her official site.
Schick did have one good line at last week's senate debate. When asked by a Houston Chronicle reporter on what to do if Osama bin Laden or other terrorists on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border get their hands on nuclear weapons, she said in part,
Terrorists are a bit like fireants. If you want to keep fireants out of your yard, you treat your yard. You don't waste time and money treating your neighbor's yard in the hopes of permanently eliminating these pests. Just like fireants will always find a turf, terrorists and dictators will always find a turf.
Ultimately, I think Cornyn's strong base will propel him to re-election. Despite his ultra-conservative views and his strong alignment with President Bush, Noriega doesn't have enough of an organization in place to ride Obama's coattails to victory. I'm disappointed that the DNC has taken so long to help out Noriega. I feel like some national help and he could be much closer in the polls. Noriega isn't the most dynamic speaker but he is a veteran whose service in the state house has been widely acclaimed and he has run a strong, underfunded campaign.
Please help out Rep. Noriega is his uphill battle. You can read more about his campaign at his his official web site.