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Noriega casts election as restoring faith in governance
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Rick Noriega (pictured below fielding a query) told about 40 people at a University of Texas event sponsored by the Texas Politics Project today that the Nov. 4 election is about restoring trust in national governance.
“This election is about regaining the trust both domestically and internationally in governance, in people who serve in whatever capacity,” Noriega said.
Noriega, who’s challenging U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, laid out four points as he prepares for the first of two debates on Thursday. I also summarize Cornyn’s response to each of the points, presented below.
Revisiting Cornyn’s response to a question at a Houston stop, Noriega said the incumbent “says that Texas ought to be the model for the rest of the nation in terms of health care policy.”
Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLauglin said Cornyn was referring to tort reform action in the Texas Capitol when he described Texas a model for the nation. “This has already been reported and discredited,” McLaughlin said.
Health care premiums have gone up 80 percent over the course of the last six years, Noriega said. Unstated: That’s how long Cornyn has been in the Senate
Noriega added that Cornyn, like U.S. Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, favors requiring employees to pay taxes on employer-provided health care benefits.
Cornyn’s McLaughlin said Cornyn also clarified what he said about McCain’s health care plan because he misunderstood the question. “He is for more options and better care” and would not raise taxes to pay for any plan.
Point No. 2: “You and I are going to have to pay the bill on an over $700 billion bailout for the mismanagement of those on Wall Street and those in Washington, D.C.,” Noriega said, referring to the plan supported by Cornyn in a Senate vote last week.
Cornyn’s McLaughlin said: “This is not a blank check from taxpayers. It was a rescue plan to save Main Street nest eggs, small businesses and jobs. We can make all, if not more, of our money back. That’s not a bailout.”
Point No. 3: “My opponent believes that we do not have to have a pay-as-you-go government,” Noriega said, a charge he traced to an article in today’s American-Statesman (peek here).
“This is the vision that you do not have to have the money to pay for things. ‘I can gamble them away… You know why? Because I can always come back to the suckers and get the money.’”
McLaughlin stood by Cornyn’s comments in the article.
Point No. 4: “My opponent has taken $4 million from money houses in D.C., over $1 million from insurance companies and HMOS, the same amount of money from big oil companies,” he said.
Cornyn’s spokesman said Noriega “didn’t seem to have a problem with the single largest recipient of finance money,” Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, coming to Texas to raise money for Noriega last week.
“He embraced rescue money when it benefited him,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin added that Cornyn has gotten 90 percent of his campaign dollars from Texas givers, Noriega 75 percent — with 25 percent coming from a “special interest” political committee representing Democrats who blog.
Noriega is slated to speak to the American-Statesman’s editorial board later today.
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Bolton maintains big money lead
State Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, brought in almost $119,000 in the past four months, more than double the $54,000 her Republican challenger Donna Keel raised.
Heading into the last month of the House District 47 race, Bolton has more than $125,000 available while Keel has about $37,000 remaining.
Annie’s List, which raises money for Democratic women candidates in Texas, gave Bolton $25,000 and was her biggest contributor, according to the campaign finance reports filed on Monday.
Other contributors include several education groups, state Sen. Kirk Watson and the Real Estate Council of Austin political action committee.
Keel’s major donors were the Texas Republican Party and members of her family.
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Perry pumps up Texas economy
As the stock market plunged today, Gov. Rick Perry talked up the Texas economy before sitting down with some agency heads for a “frank discussion” about the implications of the national economic turmoil for the state.
“I’m very pleased to say that our state’s economy is better suited than just about any other state to weather this financial crisis,” Perry said, noting that Texas, unlike California, will not be asking the federal government for a handout to “keep the lights on.”
It is a message that state officials have often proffered since the economy took a turn for the worse a year ago. Perry did, however, add a note of caution.
“As strong as our economy is, it is still interlaced with the economies of other states that are in substantially worse condition than we are,” Perry said.
It is the state’s pension systems that are the most vulnerable to the national economic woes. But as Austin American-Statesman business reporter Bob Elder reported last week, the pensions seem to be faring comparatively well.
Dick Lavine, senior fiscal analyst for the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said no one can be certain how the Texas budget next year might be roiled by the national conditions.
For instance, the state might have to put more money toward children’s health insurance and Medicaid since the federal budget is being stretched thin, he said.
“Looking backwards, things were going great,” Lavine said. “But going forward, we’re driving into the fog.”
Talmadge Heflin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation said the state should focus on trimming spending.
“It should serve as a precaution just to be very frugal,” said Heflin, director of the foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy.
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UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega’s camp cries foul
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, last week popped his third TV advertisement — a shift from his first spot, which showed him standing at Palo Duro Canyon. (The second spot was a call for donations for Hurricane Ike relief.)
This round, the senator is shown strolling among cows on a ranch near Beeville in South Texas.
The message: The financial disaster being weighed in Congress never should have happened. Text that flies across the screen notes that Cornyn demanded a crackdown on mortgage abuses in 2006.
See it now:
UPDATE: Democrat Rick Noriega’s campaign today shared a statement calling the Cornyn commercial questionable in light of where Cornyn has fielded campaign donations—a tack that Cornyn’s camp calls misleading because at least some of the donations don’t come from high-dollar interests from outside of Texas.
See the Noriega campaign’s critique of the cow ad here.
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UPDATED: Cornyn hatches fourth TV spot, Noriega sticks with Web videos
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s campaign this weekend hatched its fourth TV ad of the fall season. And I do mean season, because Cornyn’s ads seem a little like episodes in a Texas travel series hosted by a fellow who might be a great senator if only voters would send him to Washington.
That approach by the first-term senator is arguably canny strategy considering how Congress rates in general voter approval.
Cornyn’s message has to be helped by the fact that Democratic candidate Rick Noriega has yet to answer with TV buys of his own, though Noriega’s campaign did post a Web video last week. Cornyn’s camp has replied to Noriega’s criticism of Cornyn fielding $4 million in campaign contributions from financial interests by noting that several Democratic leaders including Sen. Hillary Clinton have reportedly taken even more money from the interests.
Noriega’s latest Web video:
Cornyn’s previous TV ads have shown him at Palo Duro Canyon and among cows in a pasture near Beeville. In those spots, like the latest one, he speaks softly as pretty scenes flit by.
In the new spot,”Family,” the Republican appears briefly standing on a rock in the Pedernales River. Other scenes show his wife, Sandy, and two daughters as well as Cornyn and his wife at a South Texas celebration.
“Every child should attend a good, safe, school and graduate,” Cornyn says in the voice-over. “Education means our children can achieve their potential.”
Cornyn hasn’t carried landmark education legislation to passage in the Senate. But he has offered a proposal that envisions states having more ways to comply with accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind law that Democrats have criticized for not being fully funded.
Peek:
Noriega spokesman Martine Apodaca reacted:
John Cornyn didn’t show nearly as much concern for Texas kids when he voted six times against expanding children’s health insurance, despite representing the state with the most uninsured children. Nor did he seemed concerned with their education when he repeatedly voted against funding No Child Left Behind and Head Start. By the way, fully funding No Child Left Behind and children’s health insurance would have cost a tiny fraction of the $700 billion Cornyn just voted to give his Wall Street contributors. His priorities are wrong for Texas.
Cornyn has said he supported Republican versions of the plan to expand access to children’s health insurance.
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Stekler, Smith hosting premiere party for “The Choice 2008”
If you’ve riffled today’s newspaper, you know today is the deadline to register to vote. More on that here.
If you need another nudge to consider the major-party candidates for president, University of Texas documentarian Paul Stekler invites the public to attend the premiere of his work, “The Choice 2008,” a segment of PBS-TV’s “Frontline” when it airs next Tuesday Oct. 14. The documentary explores the John McCain-Barack Obama presidential race.
Join Stekler and Evan Smith, editor of Texas Monthly, for the moment at KLRU-TV’s “Austin City Limits” studio on the sixth floor of the rust-colored building at Guadalupe and Dean Keeton (formerly 26th Street) on the UT campus.
Doors open at 7 p.m., the show airs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Refreshments will be provided.
RSVP by going here.
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Local reps don’t change their bailout votes
On bailout vote, no local House member has changed from Monday. Rep. Lamar Smith votes yes. Reps. John Carter, Lloyd Doggett and Michael McCaul vote no.
Vote is ongoing but appears that it will pass.
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No oral arguments for legislators in Entergy case
The Supreme Court of Texas denied a request from four legislators to participate in oral arguments during the rehearing of a controversial workers’ compensation case, Entergy Gulf States Inc. v. John Summers.
The legislators — two Republicans and two Democrats — had requested 10 minutes to address the court on Oct. 16 because they say the court’s original ruling in August 2007 ignored the intent of the Legislature and crossed the line from interpreting law to writing it.
“It goes to a higher principle and that is the division of the two branches of government,” said Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, one of the four legislators who filed a brief in December decrying the August 2007 court ruling.
Lawyers for Entergy objected to the legislators’ request to participate. If the court allowed the legislators to participate, all of the many amicus brief-filers in the case could request time and that would be time-consuming for the court, according to the objection.
The legislators might still have a say at the hearing, but the time would have to come out of the 20 minutes allotted to Summers’ argument.
Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, said the group was “disappointed and upset and perturbed” by the denial because there is a serious issue here about the separation of powers in the state that needs to be considered.
“They’ve got their arguments to make,” Eiland said. “We have a different perspective that we want to be heard.”
At issue in the Entergy case is whether an injured contract worker is allowed to sue the work site owner for negligence. The court’s original ruling extended legal immunity to the work site owner when the company buys workers’ compensation coverage.
Despite many opportunities, the Legislature never granted that legal immunity to work site owners, the legislators argue. To do so would upset the tenuous balance of Texas’ uniquely voluntary workers’ compensation system.
Last spring, the court decided to rehear the case.
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Vo responds to Meyers charges
The campaign for Rep. Hubert Vo this aftenoon responded to charges by his opponent that he abused his office.
Republican Greg Meyers filed complaints today with Harris and Travis County prosecutors, citing a letter Vo sent to Houston police complaining about their handling of problems at apartment complexes he owns. The letter was on a state letterhead.
Vo spokesman Kelly Fero said Vo corrected the problem in April.
He said a Vo aide made a mistake printing the letter on state stationery and the lawmaker reimbursed the state $55 for “incidental use of staff and supplies for non-state business.”
“This issue was handled six months ago when Representative Vo explained that his legislative aide had inadvertently printed a letter on the wrong stationery,” Fero said. “Today’s frivolous filing is simply another politician asking public officials to waste taxpayer resources on a stale story in the closing weeks of his losing campaign.”
Houston officials have cited Vo’s apartment complexes for several code violations, which Meyers has made a campaign issue.
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Austin’s Spelce helping Palin prepare for debate
Austin’s Neal Spelce, the former TV newsman who worked closely with President Johnson and his family, is almost certainly the Texan closest to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin today.
Spelce has been helping Palin prepare for her debate tonight with Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential choice. I’m told by a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak for Sen. John McCain’s campaign that the two are in a St. Louis studio this afternoon doing a walk-through in the debate’s setting.
Spelce, who once advised both Democratic Govs. Mario Cuomo of New York and Ann Richards of Texas before convention keynote speeches, evidently signed on to help Sen. John McCain before the Republican National Convention.
He was with McCain in St. Paul, for instance, before McCain delivered his acceptance speech the night after Palin’s dramatic moment.
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Austin’s Bill Oliver pokes at Gov. Palin in “Nowhere Man” spoof
Just in time for tonight’s vice presidential debate, Austin singer Bill Oliver (a longtime protest singer and self-described environmental troubador) has converted “Nowhere Man” by the Beatles to a spoof/poke at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a song audible by clicking here.
Lyric excerpt:
She’s the anti-Hillary Has her own artillery
And:
Nowhere ma’am, the free world is at your command
Oliver said he recorded the song at Austin’s Flashpoint Recording Studios, helped by Bob Livingston on vocals and bass, Paul Pearcy on percussion/drums and Bradley Kopp on George Harrison’s guitar part.
Oliver said he started with more than 10 verses — some more pungent than what was recorded.
“First off, I don’t want to upset any Beatles’ fans,” Oliver said. “I (also) wanted to make sure I got my point across without getting too personal.”
I’ve not heard of Texans composing ditties jabbing the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. You?
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UPDATE: Dueling Palin-Biden debate watches, Perry to watch in Vegas
UPDATED: While Gov. Rick Perry plans to watch in Las Vegas, Austin-area residents interested in watching tonight’s televised debate between the major-party vice presidential prospects have dueling opportunities to do so — one hosted by Travis County Republicans, the other by Texans for Obama.
The GOP invites debate watchers to the Water Tank Too, 15821 Central Commerce Drive in Pflugerville, where Republicans plan to gather starting at 7:30 p.m. For directions, call 989-8100.
Texans for Obama will be watching at Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto Blvd. The party starts at 7 p.m., before the 8 p.m. debate.
UPDATE: Perry intends to view the debate with other Republican governors gathered in Las Vegas for a forum sponsored by the Republican Governors Association, which Perry chairs. According to a fact sheet fetchable here, the day’s events include a campaign briefing, luncheon with T. Boone Pickens and a health care roundtable.
The vice-presidential debate watch party is penciled in for The Sports Bar & Grille in the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.
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Doggett remains opposed to bailout
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, continued to assail the financial rescue plan in a floor speech this morning.
“I share my neighbors’ concerns about the impact of some in Washington hitting the panic button on their retirement, their home or their business,” Doggett said. “But when markets are poisoned, you demand the best antidote to that poison, not yield to President Bush’s take-it-or-leave it demands.”
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Vo opponent files complaints
Following a Houston Chronicle story, Republican Greg Meyers has filed complaints with the Harris and Travis County prosecutors, saying Rep. Hubert Vo misused his state letterhead for personal business.
The Chronicle reported that Vo complained to Houston police about their handling of complaints about apartment complexes he owns. The letter was on Vo’s state letterhead, according to the Chronicle.
Vo did not respond for comment in the Chronicle article, and his campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment today.
The city of Houston has cited two of Vo’s apartment complexes on a variety of code violations.
The complaints were filed with the Harris County Public Integrity Unit and the Travis County attorney’s office.
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Biz groups want improved education system
A newly formed coalition of business groups on Thursday called for tougher student accountability standards and more money for performance-based payments to teachers as a way to improve Texas’ workforce.
“The public education system in Texas needs to be strengthened in order to meet the needs of employers,” said Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, one of the founding groups of the Texas Coalition for a Competitive Workforce.
“We need to keep more kids in school and graduate more children who are career or college ready,” he said.
As an example of shortcomings in the education system, Hammond pointed to the large number of first-year college students — about half, according to a 2007 report — who must take remedial courses.
The other coalition members include the Texas Institute for Education Reform, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Governor’s Business Council and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.
The coalition is silent, however, on how to pay for higher standards and their other demands.
Among the other priorities are flexibility in course requirements so that students can learn some core lessons while also getting career-skills training.
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Carter still a no on rescue bill
Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, is still against the financial rescue plan, at least for now, Carter spokeswoman Carmen Fenton said.
“He hasn’t change his mind, but he is reading over what the Senate put in the bill,” Fenton said.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett also remains opposed (“from bad to worse,” he says) and we’re waiting to hear from Rep. Michael McCaul.
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Noriega disagrees with Senate vote on rescue plan
State Rep. Rick Noriega, the Democrat trying to unseat Sen. John Cornyn this year, says he would not have supported the plan that the Senate passed overwhelmingly last night.
“Texans should not support a bailout that has insufficient protections for the taxpayers, doesn’t go far enough in reining in out of control executive salaries, has little relief for people in real distress, and doesn’t heal the systemic rot that led to this crisis in the first place,” Noriega said.
He also says, “The lack of prudence and unfettered wheeling and dealing that allowed abusive and reckless loans, shoddy investments, poorly understood financial instruments, and market excess would still be in place after this bill passed. It’s like spending $700 billion to clean up a flood in your house without fixing the leak in the roof.”
Cornyn, of course, voted for the plan, as did his fellow Republican, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
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Texas senators vote for rescue plan
Texas GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison voted for the financial rescue package, which the Senate just approved by a wide margin.
We’ll update as soon as we have reaction from Rick Noriega, Cornyn’s Democratic opponent this fall. Considering the amount of votes this bill got from Democrats, he’s in a bit of a tough spot.
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Perry plays both sides on rescue plan
Gov. Rick Perry is sending mixed signals on how he thinks Congress should act on the financial rescue plan that the Senate is considering tonight.
Earlier today, he put out this statement:
“In a free market economy, government should not be in the business of using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America. Congress needs to take off its partisan gloves and work together to bring both short and long term stability to the credit markets. They need to stop blaming each other and start thinking about solutions that put the taxpayers of this country first.”
One could reasonably conclude, by virtue of the fact that he said government should not use taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America, that Perry was therefore against the rescue plan.
But earlier in the day, Perry, the head of the Republican Governors Association, and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, head of the Democratic Governors Association, sent out a joint letter to Congress urging them to “leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package.”
The letter does not explicitly state that Congress should pass the bill before the Senate tonight, but it uses very similar language as those who have been urging passage of the so-called bailout plan this week.
Here’s a key part of their short letter: “It is time for Washington, D.C. to step up, be responsible and do what’s in the best interest of American taxpayers and our economy.”
They also said, “Americans across the country and in every demographic are feeling the pinch. If Congress does not act soon, the situation will grow appreciably worse. It’s time for leadership. Congress needs to act now.”
We sought clarification from Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle about whether Perry supports or opposes the Senate plan. She didn’t offer much.
“As the governor’s statement said, they need to take off the partisan gloves and work together to bring both short-term and long-term solutions to the credit markets and protect taxpayers,” Castle said. “The senators have to make their own decisions.”
Well, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison made the decision to respond to Perry’s solo statement.
Said Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak, “Texans can only conclude that Governor Perry opposes the sales tax deduction, protecting them from the Alternative Minimum Tax, extending tax credits for refinery expansion and providing over $600 million in tax credits to help rebuild Texas communities damaged by Hurricane Ike, all of which are contained in this bill.”
Hutchison is voting for the rescue plan. She’s also likely to run for governor in 2010, an office that Perry may run for again himself.
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Hutchison plans to vote for rescue plan; Perry pans it
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison plans to vote for the financial rescue plan tonight, her spokesman told the Cox Washington Bureau today.
And we could have our first issue in the race between Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry if they both run for governor in 2010. This statement just arrived from Perry:
“In a free market economy, government should not be in the business of using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America.”
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Likely no debate in railroad commission race
A debate between the candidates running for the Railroad Commission of Texas appears to be on the rocks.
The campaigns of Republican Michael Williams, the incumbent, and his Democratic challenger Mark Thompson had been trying to arrange a face-to-face.
But so far none of the public television stations have been willing to show the debate, Thompson said at an Austin American-Statesman editorial board meeting. He is lukewarm to an radio debate opportunity that was offered.
“I would like see a real debate,” Thompson said. “It tells a lot when you get to see the people.”
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Latest comments
Cornyn assisted Bush rape the middle class by neutering regulations/regulators and encouraging Wall Street to make big profits any way they want, as long as they contribute to his campaign! Has there been a bill of GW’s Cornyn voted against?
... read the full comment by jpt51 | Comment on UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega's camp cries foul Read UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega's camp cries foul
Beware of the men who blow hot and cold in one breath. They would be Perry and Heflin.
... read the full comment by Peter Stern | Comment on Perry pumps up Texas economy Read Perry pumps up Texas economy
I recall when the senate called a special meeting with the petroleum CEO’s about the price of gasoline and the enormous profits the gas companies were making. One by one senators were asking in depth questions. When it came time for Mr. Cornyn to
... read the full comment by Harry | Comment on UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega's camp cries foul Read UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega's camp cries foul
I recall when the senate called a special meeting with the petroleum CEO’s about the price of gasoline and the enormous profits the gas companies were making. One by one senators were asking in depth questions. When it came time for Mr. Cornyn to
... read the full comment by Harry | Comment on UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega's camp cries foul Read UPDATE: Cornyn airs third TV ad, Noriega's camp cries foul
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