Lubbock Left

Democracy for Texas has a poll about which Democratic Senate candidate to support — Rick Noriega or Mikal Watts. What I like about this poll is that they have posted each candidate’s answer to the DFT Questionnaire, which gives a pretty good idea of where each candidate stands on many important issues.

Rick Noriega DFT Questionnaire

Mikal Watts DFT Questionnaire

This is a great resource if you are following this exciting race for the Democratic Party nomination.

The Texas Democratic Party straw poll for Presidential primary candidates continues through Friday. Live results are available as well. And, unlike the Texas GOP straw poll, it’s free!

And furthermore, unlike the GOP straw poll, half the candidates are not missing, no supporters of a particular candidate are turned away, and no claims of fraudulent counting have been alleged.

Ha!

I saw Garnet Coleman, one of Texas’ finest Democratic leaders, speak at the monthly Texas Democratic Women meeting today. He was wonderful, and his appearance brought the biggest turnout I have ever seen at a local TDW meeting (I have been to a few).

He talked quite a bit about the Speaker’s race, education, CHIP, and other priorities for 2008-2009. If events unfold as they are trending, we’ll see a new speaker (odds are good that there will be 76 people pissed off at Craddick), a Democratic majority in the State House, restored funding to CHIP, re-regulated college tuition, and a public school funding system that makes sense and actually funds our schools.

In what I couldn’t help but think was a remarkable coincidence, Coleman referred several times to Grover Norquist’s rhetoric about shrinking the government, which was the same rhetoric on my mind earlier this week for the Katrina anniversary. What is sad is that the Norquist school of neoconservatism — which is nothing short of an attempt to totally dismantle our government — has been the policy of the Republican overlords at the federal and state level since 2001. His point was very dire: the neocons are succeeding in their attempt to cripple government. Look at CHIP: 230,000 kids cut + 100,000 kids restored = still 130,000 kids not covered while Texas’ population continues to boom. Worse, Bush is now playing the same games with CHIP at the federal level. Sometimes I feel like Texas is the playpen for the most vile Republican policies out there.

But, there’s hope. With seasoned, effective leaders like Garnet Coleman (along with Jim Dunnam and Pete Gallego) and high-performing newcomers like Crosbyton’s own Joe Heflin, I think our odds of making things better for Texans in 2008 and beyond are looking pretty good.

Edit: The A-J covered the event.

Today is Robert Pratt’s first day back on the job, and he already had to get a shot in at Mikal Watts, who had a very successful meet-and-greet with local activists last Friday. He had the typical line of attack that anyone with half a brain would see coming: Watts is a … *gasp* … SUCCESSFUL TRIAL LAWYER !!!

It’s too bad for Pratt and his cohorts that Watts understands how to speak about his successes as a personal injury attorney. This line of attack will go nowhere, as every such attack only provides another opportunity for Watts to demonstrate how he has stood up for the little guy time and time again.

The one interestingly boneheaded twist was that Pratt went after Watts specifically for winning large settlements against big corporations that made unsafe products but decided to sell them anyway, like Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone. Pratt actually said that “corporations are made up of consumers,” as if to imply that going after multinational corporations that put profit before public safety was somehow hurting our citizens.

Robert Pratt doesn’t understand that consumers and investors are two different sets of people. More accurately, everyone is a consumer while only a few of us are investors. Furthermore, the fact that corporations are “made up of consumers” is even more trivial when you consider that most investors own a small fraction of a corporation. Really, a few powerful individuals and groups — the BIG investors — actually run a corporation. (I would also argue that those of us that are unknowing investors through compulsory stock-based retirement plans don’t count as investors either, but that’s for another post.)

So Robert, bring on your corporatist rhetoric. The Watts campaign — and those of us politicking on the ground — are ready for it.

http://www.wattsforsenate.com/

The first statewide Democratic Primary candidate for the ‘08 cycle to visit Lubbock is Mikal Watts, potential candidate for U.S. Senate against our current bum-to-be-thrown-out John Cornyn. He spoke this morning at a breakfast for local Democratic activists and fielded questions from the audience.

My question for Mikal was why should we support him over the other big-name Senate candidate in the Democratic Primary: Rick Noriega. Mikal’s response was in three parts:

1. He (Mikal) has already put forward incredible effort through a constant travel and fundraising schedule, and will continue to do so.
2. He can respond fast and well to the Karl Rove attack machine that will be coming with Cornyn’s campaign.
3. He will compete and win in ALL areas of Texas, not just the historically Democratic areas.

I liked his answer, and I told him so. The choice between Watts and Noriega is still going to be a difficult one for me, mostly because David Van Os, my favorite Texas Politician, endorsed Noriega. But, I feel like I could stand proudly with Mikal Watts if he is our candidate.

Again, Mikal Watts’ website is:

http://www.wattsforsenate.com/

Former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams will be at the helm of the Republicans’ biggest PAC in Texas — Texas Victory PAC. They are a statewide coordinated campaign that focuses on voter contact activities (phonebanking, mail, canvassing) and conservative message-spreading. Pratt had him on-air for a segment today (after a particularly offensive first hour, maybe worthy of another post).

Folks, this is a big deal because Williams is probably the most connected person in the State after his (moderately disasterous) stint at SoS. Sen. Cornyn is more vulnerable than he has ever been before, but the machine-right is gearing up for the race very early and very well.

We’ve got our work cut out for us.

Just came back from a wonderful lunch meeting of our local chapter of Texas Democratic Women that featured State House Representative Joe Heflin as the speaker. He told the group about his experiences in this past legislative session and about plans for the future.

One of the things I like best about Joe Heflin is his strong stance on public education. He is one of the key representatives responsible for keeping vouchers out of Texas. Rural residents, like Joe’s constituents, especially have no use for vouchers; they would just be taking tax dollars away from their already struggling schools. Our public schools, even the rural ones, work well when they are funded properly.

Texas Democratic Women is a great grassroots organization, and the South Plains chapter is the fastest-growing in the whole state. Check ‘em out!