Cross posted on Burnt Orange Report
As many have been discussing in earnest the last the few days, Mikal Watts has announced the creation of an exploratory committee to look into challenging Texas’ junior U.S. Senator. I think it is safe to say that the Democratic wins in Texas and the country as a whole has fostered a sense of hope that our government can be lead by mainstream American values as opposed to the dogmatic and closed regime that has failed us.
With the announcement of the first serious candidate to consider challenging John Cornyn, the battlefield is being set for next great fight to return this country back to be the shinning light of the world. I still have hope that we can save our country because the 2006 election has finally begun to pry the choke hold off our country's neck.
There have been two elections in the last cycle that have been near and dear to my heart: Uresti v. Madla and Garcia v. Seaman.
When Uresti decided to challenge the sitting state senator, his pocket of friends quickly contracted. The common perception was that he didn’t have a snowballs chance to unseat someone so senior. However, Madla had become too close to special interests. So much so, that when Madla had an opportunity to kill HB 2292 (the bill that dropped 160,000 children off of CHIP among other things), he failed to step up and represent his district. Still, Madla had a massive war chest that many incumbents amass over time.
The battle was lopsided. No matter how good Uresti's ideas were, they would be no match for the burial by cash Madla was prepared to lay down. Then Mikal Watts stepped up. What Mikal did was nothing short of a miracle. With the few strokes of a pen and a handful of days on the phone, Watts leveled the playing field. His contribution, along with his contemporaries, made the election about voting records, ideas and the future instead of who has the most money.
Without the early help from Watts, Uresti’s election to the Texas Senate probably wouldn’t have happened. Under a cursory search of the campaign finance reports, Watts personally gave over $180,000 in cash and in-kind contribution to Uresti’s campaign.
Later that same year, there was another upstart who wanted to challenge a Republican who had literally drawn his own district in South Texas. In spite of the incumbent’s abysmal voting record and odious behavior on and off the House floor, this district was so Republican that most Democrats paid it little attention.
The challenger was the, then unknown, Juan Garcia. If you follow BOR or Texas politics, then you know the rest of the story. Through an unprecedented grassroots ground campaign and nearly 11 exhausting months, Democrat Juan Garcia won a seat that sent shockwaves through all House districts. It said, "You are not safe. If you do not represent your district, you will be challenged." In the end, over 80,000 doors were knocked on. Garcia’s door-to-door campaign sought what the voters cared about the most and provided a direct link to the candidate himself. I spent a lot of my time helping in that campaign. I know that like Uresti’s race there were but a handful of people who thought this race was winnable. One of those people was Mikal Watts. Instead of just writing a check, Watts help create and fund the door-to-door campaign that hasn’t been seen in that part of Texas ever. Once again, Watts leveled the playing field with his support of a good Democrat so that the issues would be forefront not the incumbent’s money.
So why am I telling you this? I have had first hand knowledge of the commitment and vision of Mikal Watts in supporting Democrats and good causes and overcomeing nearly overwhelming odds. But that is Mikal in a nutshell.
Throughout his professional life, he has taken on giants in service of the normal guy. Who would have thought someone from the small town of Corpus Christi could take on one of the largest corporations in the world and win? We have all seen the greed and corruption of big business and how it can decimate lives through defective products to defrauded investors and gutted retirement accounts. One thing I know about Watts is that he is not one to wince from a fight and would not jump in unless he was prepared to win. To take out a sitting U.S. Senator, you better come armed to the teeth.
What excites me about the possible entry of Mikal Watts into this race is that win or lose, his campaign will create and enhance infrastructure that we have been so desperately needing statewide. Democrats are finally getting organized and through technology our circles are starting to overlap. A strong Democratic challenger near the top of the ticket could only serve to help down ballot races.
So what does the possible contender have to say?
I spent last Friday at two events for Mikal Watts in Corpus Christi. The first was at a law firm and the second was at a private home. Mikal gave similar speeches at both. What struck me the most was how Senatorial he appeared. While only 39 years old, he came off confident without being cocky and had a good presence about him. I know appearance is superficial but it matters to the electorate. You have to believe that he could be Senator. I do.
He spoke to the audience on many issues. I have tried to quote them as accurately as possible below (any error or misquote is my fault).
On Iraq and the military – "Ill conceived and mismanaged war", "not in favor of America’s finest be shipped half-way around the world to fight in somebody else’s civil war", "they should be directed to directly fight those who attacked us on 9/11", "troops need appropriate body armor and training", "need to provide proper health care for troops"
On Immigration – "Texans want a secure border with our friends in Mexico and Canada", "we need common sense immigration instead of political demagoguery", "the immigration bill is a hard compromise with good and bad things in it but it is better saying no without a better alternative"
Environment – "Texans understand the importance of protecting our environment from polluters, we can not and will not tolerate polluters going into our coast lines where we hunt and fish", "protecting the environment is just good business", "keeping the environment clean doesn’t cost jobs, it creates jobs", "our total dependence on foreign oil impacts our environment but also impacts our national security, the sooner we get ourselves out of a position of total energy dependence on foreign oil, the sooner we are going to be in a much stronger national security position from the standpoint of not allowing rogue nations to leverage us"
Crisis Management and Homeland Security – "what scared me is the gross lack of preparation by the federal government", "this administration and its Republican majority failed to appreciate the magnitude of this national disaster, "the response to Hurricane Katrina and Rita showed that this administration and its Republican allies in the Senate were asleep at the wheel from the standpoint of domestic security... if it takes 5 days to gets trucks into New Orleans to save peoples lives, how many days is it going to take if there is some sort of attack on one of our cities"
I like what I am hearing from him. There is a lot more that has to happen before he even officially announces. The election is 18 months away. This is a long path but it looks promising so far.