My candidate lost last night to a bad man. I poured time and treasure into the race and am sad today, but I never give up and will pledge my continued support to Lt Col Rick Noriega if he decides to run for Senator Huchison's seat. I lick my wounds, but am not out of the fight.
I spent 12 hours yesterday at my polling station stopping voters on their way to the poll to talk to them about Lt Col Rick Noriega and why they should send him to Washington as their Senator.
I would lead off by saying I was a veteran and that I was out there to support a currently serving veteran. That initial pitch line stopped everyone -- even those who were there to vote for Senator McCain. Texas is very proud of its military and there is a respect accorded to those who serve.
To probably three hundred voters I said the following talking points that I tailored based on their reaction and appearance:
He spent a year in Afghanistan and he is against the way the war is being waged. He wants to end the war. He is for health care reform and against the waste of 7 million dollars per mile on that border wall that won't stop anyone. He is against the bail out of Wall Street. He is for better treatment of veterans and more money for education. He is for immigration reform. He organized and ran the relief effort in Houston after Katrina and Rita. He has served us for over ten years in the Texas legislature and his wife sits on the Houston City Council. He worked his way up from private to Lt Col and commands the historic Alamo Brigade just north of us at Camp Bullis. We need more military in Washington. He is a good man who will do right by us.
I had well over 250 people come out of the poll and give me a thumbs up or a salute or actually come over and say they voted for the colonel.
Over 50 percent of the eligible voters in my area voted early and the total number of voters set a record in the end for that polling station. I know my precinct and the other precinct's that voted there went overwelmingly for Colonel Noriega and yet Cornyn was returned to office to work his evil.
Senator Cornyn outspent Lt Col Noriega eight to one and gloated with Governor Perry at the victory party in Austin last night that he would lead the Republican party back to power. There is even talk of Senator Cornyn being a presidential candidate.
Not on my watch and hopefully not on yours.
Senator McCain is not a Bush clone, but Senator Cornyn definately is.
PS: To all of you who wrote email asking if I was dead or gone forever, nope. You are not so lucky.
I've been busy doing what I could for my candidate, hosting my parents for about nine days for dad's first post surgery trip, attending the very first Ranch Roundup held by Kinky Friedman to raise money for the Utopia Rescue Ranch, and celebrating my favorite day of the year, Halloween, by taking in my very first Burlesque and Freak Show - both of which were revelations in their way.
Perhaps I will take a break from politics and sexism and write about those experiences for a while. But now the trunk of my car is over full with campaign signs and I'm off to return them to HQ.
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Comments
Glad to see you're alive and well, LT. I've kind of missed your acerbic wit.
Rated.
So glad to see you back. Hey, everyone deserves a vacation!
rated
It's heartbreaking to truly believe in a candidate, then see their seat go to someone else. But I honestly believe that the positive energy we put into our country feeds into the greater good, no matter what happens.
I'm glad you're out there caring about what happens.
Perhaps the Lt. Col. and supporters like you can lead Texas into awareness of the damage Gov. Goodhair and Sen. Cornyn do to their fellow citizens.
Looking forward to hearing about the Burlesque and Freak Show.
The photo you picked is very good. If you look at the back ground you can see all over Afghanistan. What a dry place it seems and what a blue sky. Although he has a side arm, Noriega is the sort of guy who would never pose like a macho idiot with a scary rifle.
But we did have some good wins in the DFW area. There is, indeed, reason for HOPE.
LT thank you for getting out there and working so hard
Rance, you are wrong.
Steve is right, with folks like you fighting the fight, Texas will return to its progressive, independent-minded roots.
Rick Noriega Demands John Cornyn Return All Ted Stevens Donations
by National Desk
October 29, 2008
Despite Pledge, Cornyn Has Yet to Return Full Amount from Convicted Politician.
Houston, Tex. -- The Rick Noriega campaign today demanded that Sen. John Cornyn return all political contributions from Sen. Ted Stevens, who was yesterday convicted of seven corruption charges. Despite an earlier promise to donate all Stevens money to charity, Cornyn has yet to return $10,000 that he received from a Stevens political action committee.
"John Cornyn should live up to his word and return all money from his colleague and contributor, Ted Stevens," said Martine Apodaca, spokesman for the Noriega campaign. "Given Cornyn's previous links to Jack Abramoff's money, it's critical that he wash his hands of all donations from a politician convicted of corruption."
TED STEVENS DONATIONS TO JOHN CORNYN:
Cornyn Aide said Senator Would Donate Money from Ted Stevens to Charity. Following the Sen. Ted Stevens indictment, it was revealed that Sen. John Cornyn had received at least $10,000 from Stevens in the current campaign. An aide to Sen. John Cornyn indicated that he would donate the money to charity. "Both senators from Texas received money from Stevens' PAC. Sen. John Cornyn's spokesman said the senator will give an equal amount to Big Brothers Big Sisters," a news report stated. [Abilene Reporter-News, 7/31/2008]
Cornyn Donated $10,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. According to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission Sen. John Cornyn's campaign donated $10,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of American on 7/31/2008. [FEC.gov, accessed 10/27/2008]
However, Cornyn Has Received a Total of $20,000 from Stevens' Northern Lights PAC. According to Campaign finance data retrieved from CQ Moneyline, Sen. Cornyn has received a total of $20,000 from Stevens. [2007-2008 Northern Lights PAC Distributions, CQ Moneyline, accessed 10/27/2008; 2001-2002 Northern Lights PAC Distributions, CQ Moneyline, accessed 10/27/2008]
Brought to you by the committee for a permanent Democratic majority? :P
I had hoped his military background might help him get elected too, because San Antonio puts more emphasis on service than a lot of the rest of the country (with 4 military bases, and Camp Bullis--technically 17 miles out of SA). Just a bit of context for those poo-pooing.
Thanks to all of you for swinging by.
I ran into an in-law of Lt Col Noriega yesterday and there is a good chance he will be on the ballot again in 2010 running for Hutchison's Senate seat. The rumor mill in Austin has it that Senator Hutchison will be challenging Governor Perry in the Republican primary. Noriega now has name recognition and would be much stronger in 2010.
I also hope the national democratic party would spare him some support in 2010 which was not done this time around. I don't think they ever imagined he would come as close to Cornyn as he did. If Cornyn had gotten only four percent less, there would be a run off right now.
In today's Houston Chronicle there is an article about depressed Democratic turnout in Harris County (Houston). The desultory turn out is attributed to the lack of national level campaigning in Houston. Yes, Bill and Hillary Clinton came to Texas to help Noriega in the Northern and Eastern parts of the state, but nothing much was done in Houston. There is deep resentment here that Texas is treated as a big ATM to be raided by the presidential candidates and is then ignored. Even one stop by Obama in Houston could have turned the tide for Noriega.
Also, all those numbers and articles about fund raising are correct. Lt Col Noriega out performed expectations with his fund raising, but was grossly out spent by Cornyn. Cornyn's ads did not refer to his party and saturated the air waves for two weeks before the election. I don't think the republican candidate for Hutchison's seat would have that sort of war chest unless they are independently wealthy and provide considerable self financing.
But all was not negative here in Texas this year. The Legislature is balanced on a knife edge and could fall either way. There are recounts in the lower house that will determine which party controls. The lower house could be blue this year.
YES, BLUE THIS YEAR.
That capitalized sentence is not a mistake. There could be a democratic Speaker in Texas this year. This would be a huge change as the Speaker is incredibly powerful in Texas. The current speaker, Tom Craddick of Midland, is a dinosaur and general impediment to progressive thought.
I attribute the lions share of the remaking of the Texas house to one organization. It is called Annie's List. They recruit, train, and back female candidates who are pro choice. The Annie's List leadership does their research. They target seats they know they have a chance of winning and pursue them vigorously, sometimes years out.
This election, Annie's List candidates swept eight of their nine house races.
The Annie's list candidate for state senate was a remarkable woman who put herself through Harvard law as a single mom and won a hotly contested race up in Dallas. Her winning guarantees the Democratic ability to block legislation.
There is one senate seat going to a run off. Chris Bell, the fellow who opposed Perry in the 2006 Governor's race is facing a female Republican. It would be great to pick up that additional seat. Bell is an amazing guy and a great legislator. He has an Act Blue page going and he needs to raise fifty thousand quickly. If you have a spare ten or twenty dollars you can chip in, it would make a huge difference.
I will get hot on the freak show, but I really need to write about my recent experiences with cancer. I made references in some past comments over at Pretend Farmer's to going to Mexico to buy a drug that may be a cure for some types of cancer and I have learned a great deal since then. It is called DCA and I will find the time to get something written about it soon. Since my father's run in with cancer in September, I have come to realize that cancer is all around me and I was just not as aware of it until now.