Wendy Davis appearance last night draws indignant media response

The Davis campaign seems to have itself in some hot water with the state media, after they restricted access to coverage of last night's Travis County Democratic fundraiser to the Texas Tribune, which streamed the video.  James Moore, who co-authored Bush's Brain and now serves as the executive director for the Progress Texas PAC, delivers another blow.

At a Travis County Democratic Party fundraiser the campaign banned reporters from the dining area where she was circulating with supporters and speaking to the crowd. Journalists had to watch the event on a video feed provided by one of the media outlets. Nobody gets the actual facts or the sense of an event by watching it on television instead of being present in the room. This is the kind of decision that accomplishes nothing for the campaign and only agitates journalists, who, based upon (Wayne Slater's) Morning News story (about the Davis bio discrepancies), are beginning to suspect Davis is withholding details that are relevant to the public.

If you really want to go "inside baseball", then you can read this comment stream from former newspaper reporter RG Ratcliffe's FB wall, which has several other reporters who've covered Texas politics weighing in, and if you want the story straight from the Twitter feed, then you need to follow SAEN/HC reporter David Rauf and TCDP chair Jan Soifer.  Update: And a somewhat shorter and calmer discussion started by Kimberly Reeves here.

Candidates need to talk -- especially candidates who are considered the underdog. Wendy Davis ought to be running toward reporters, not away from them. Let them interview her on any and every topic they desire and then print and broadcast and post what she says from the Coastal Bend to the Franklin Mountains and from Boca Chica Beach to Dalhart. There is no other way for her to win than to be open and forthright. A candidate lacks credibility talking about running a government in a different manner when they campaign like every other person who has wanted to be governor.

Don't exercise control; exercise honesty and complete openness. Davis has big-time money in her race now and equally large interests in seeing her succeed. Those pressures have turned her campaign, in its early stages, into an operation that looks stage-managed and carefully orchestrated, which leads to mistakes. It has been credited with making pronouncements like her "origins story is now off limits," and, in an effort to change the narrative, had the candidate start talking about gun rights and fighting a state income tax. 

The first blog on the scene was, unfortunately, PJ Media, a notably conservative outfit.  I won't bother exerpting anything from there, but they have the embedded Tweets of the exchange between Rauf and Soifer if you want the abridged version of what the dispute was about.

The job of journalism is not to provide a hallelujah choir for candidates; it is to screen that candidate, dutifully and fairly, for the public office and the trust the candidate is seeking to acquire. Yeah, I know, there are Davis supporters who will suggest fairness has been absent but I haven't seen that. Unfairness is scheduling an interview with a reporter for one newspaper and then canceling and giving it to a reporter at another paper at the same time, which was an act of the Davis campaign.

Don't do that, senator. Reschedule so both newspapers can interview you. And talk, talk to anyone and everyone who will listen to you and most especially talk to reporters who can send your point of view far and wide across the state. It's your best chance to win. And don't be managed. People are sick of managed candidates. Give voters the hard truth. That noise on a state income tax and gun rights isn't going to fire up the Democratic base and you aren't going to get anyone to come over from the other side with it, either. It will, however, make some supporters scoff, and reporters think you aren't ready for the big game.

You owe journalists nothing, of course, but if you work this right, they can help you win for the people who see hope for this state in your story. 

I can only add a similar warning to what has been said before about the Davis campaign's mistakes: they cannot afford to continue making them.  Update: You don't have to read tea leaves to understand that there are more attacks coming.  The open question remains: how will Wendy Davis and her campaign staff respond to them?

If the Republicans are allowed to shape her story, to define her in the most unflattering of ways -- and if she takes one or two weeks to respond -- then you go on and can drop the curtain.

More from the Texas Observer.

Why Democrats shouldn't nominate Republican donors

Because Republicans will pwn them.  In this corner, the challenger David Alameel, with the egg all over his face.  In that corner, the defending champion "Big Bad John" Corndog.  This is the response the good doctor received to his request for a refund of his donations to Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, Mitch McConnell, and all the other GOPers he's written big checks to over the years.

“Thanks in part to your support for Texas conservatives like myself, Gov. Perry, Attorney General Abbott, and others, Texas has implemented a successful pro-growth agenda, marked by prolific job creation thanks to lower government spending, less taxes, and limited regulations,” Cornyn wrote in an open letter released by his campaign.

“Without your help, conservatives across Texas could not have fought back against the big-spending, big government, pro-choice agenda that Democrats in Washington, D.C. have tried for so long to impose on our state,” the letter said. “That fight continues, and, regrettably, it is one for which no dollar can be spared.”

I am at a loss as to why Wendy Davis endorsed this guy.  Update:  And Leticia Van de Putte as well (despite her obviously pointed and kind words for him).  Well, at least until the first-quarter campaign finance reports come out, anyway.  The only thing worse than Alameel being the Democratic nominee would be Kesha Rogers being the nominee.  And if those two are in the runoff...

Let's hope the Dems have at least learned that you should just say, "I made a mistake", and not "I want a refund".  You don't often hear wealthy people say that, though.  Even when they are Republicans running for office as Democrats.

More at Texpate and Off the Kuff.

More on what BGTX is up against

Really good stuff here from Greg Wythe on the non-standard and varying interpretations of the voter/photo identification legislation implemented in Harris County last fall.

The fundamental flaw in the “no big deal” argument is the logic that only the most dire outcome (a voter being turned away) or the most stringent cure (a provisional ballot) represents the entirety of the law’s negative impact. It’s somewhat similar to evaluating the crime rate based on the number of state executions carried out in Huntsville. Among the secondary problems are things like lengthening lines at polling places or dissuading voters from registering to vote if they feel a photo ID is all that is needed. There are other concerns, as well. But we likely won’t get a full taste of that until November 2016.

There's more you should read at the link, and Greg's going to have some followup posts but the end result is the same: lots of confusion, plenty of aggravation for voters, and an atmosphere of intimidation which results in people leaving the polling place without casting a ballot.  And for Republicans, that's a feature and not a bug.

When you see Steve Stockman walk out of the SOTU, when another Congressman threatens to throw a reporter over the Capitol railing, and another throws a temper tantrum on teevee, just keep in mind that Republicans love them some democracy so much that it makes them crazy.  But they only love it as long as they're the ones in power.

Do you think Greg Abbott understands what the greatest challenge to him getting elected governor is?  It's not the he said/she said BS, it's not how much money he can raise or spend, it's not which side has the most volunteers or enthusiasm.  It's not the unpredictable, intangible events that happen through the course of a campaign season to sway the electorate.   It's not even some combination of all those factors.

It's this.  Making voting by people who won't vote for him as difficult as he possibly can, in order to discourage them from voting at all.  Getting Texans to vote who have a poor habit of doing so is the mountain Battleground Texas must scale, and Greg Abbott is at the top of it, pushing boulders down at them.

I almost typed "kicking boulders", but thought that might seem insensitive.

Charles has some more.

Update: Greg's second post detailing some of the things he experienced last November as an EV clerk at the Bayland Park poll in southwest Houston is up.

Northwoods

I really enjoy Swamplot, the local real estate blog that works in some awfully good snark at opportune times.  Here, they catch what the daily let sail right over their heads.  First, the Chronic with the advertorial.

Toll Brothers is the latest in a long line of developers to use the word “wood” in the name of its new master-planned community on the north side of town.

The luxury homebuilder is calling its nearly 700-acre development Northwoods, joining other famous woods, including Kingwood, The Woodlands, Woodforest and Springwoods Village.

And now, the moneyshot.

You know the old joke about suburban developments: That they’re typically named after the natural features that they replace. But in proudly announcing the name it has chosen for the new 692-acre residential development the company is planning near the yet-to-be-built northern segment of the Grand Parkway between I-45 and U.S. 59, Toll Brothers may have made that cliché seem quaint. According to the publicly traded homebuilder, which is working with Cernus Development on the project, the top selling point for this new community is its proximity to the new corporate campus ExxonMobil is building just 6 miles to the west. Northwoods will have room for 1,000 homes built by Toll Brothers and other builders, along with “resort-style amenities that take advantage of the mature trees and topography,” including trails, parks, lakes, and a recreation center.

It’ll also have the same name as a 62-home subdivision in the Little Rock suburb of Mayflower, Arkansas, where an ExxonMobil pipeline accident last March resulted in the release of 210,000 gallons of diluted bitumen from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, onto the streets and back yards of the middle-class neighborhood.

Somebody needs a GPS device to locate the irony.  George Orwell couldn't have predicted this.

Immediately after the spill from the Pegasus pipeline, a quarter of the homes in Northwoods were evacuated. The gloppy nature of the oil product, which until the pipeline break residents had no idea was flowing near their homes, made cleanup very difficult. As of 2 months ago, almost half of the homes in Northwoods had either been listed for sale or been bought up by ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil demolished 3 of the 20 homes it bought after a soil assessment found oil had leaked into the foundations. After months of complaints by residents who said they were still feeling effects of the toxic fumes, Arkansas governor Mike Beebe ordered free medical exams for Northwoods residents.

Keystone XL runs a little to the east of Northwoods Texas, so I'm sure they'll be okay.  Happy househunting, all you new XOM managers!

Is it insensitive to say Greg Abbott is "running" for governor?

The so-called nefarious intent implication that Greg Abbott's sycophants have tried to link to Wendy Davis' unofficial campaign slogan has already been batted away.  There's a question still worth pursuing, and it's this entire business of whether simple words, phrases, or images used to describe elections, or by politicians in the course of their campaigns, is in some way unfair or unkind.

John Coby raises a real good point here.

His unfortunate story is known to most political savvy people. He ran under a tree and was paralyzed when it fell on him. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps after winning the $10 million lawsuit lottery. He then permanently latched himself to the tit of the government as an elected official. Everyone, including me, wishes he had used a treadmill that day, or ran on the other side of the street, or ran on a high school track, but he needs to stop painting himself as a victim on a daily basis.

Over the next few months there will be statements made such as "Greg Abbott has no legs to stand on concerning... " or "Abbott is running on a campaign of fear". These are common political statements and should not be construed as an attack on his unfortunate situation.

Abbott's attacks on his opponent will be as fierce and low-life as his party's attacks on former Senator Max Cleland, a decorated Vietnam war veteran who lost both legs and an arm. Abbott is expected to stoop as low as a political crack whore in order to win. What is not expected or appreciated is his constant whining when someone returns the political favor.

"Standing with Wendy", "On Her Own Two Feet", "walking a mile in her shoes", and other similar innocuous bipedal references are being twisted into pejoratives presumably aimed at the Candidate on Wheels.  The most notable of those efforts was pulled off by convicted criminal and serial liar James O'Keefe, with a helping hand from corporate media that should know better (and do better).

Going a step further: if vermin like Erick Erickson want to keep adding to their doll collection, then "Coathanger Ken" moves into fair play.  And it's just a short hop from there to "Crippled Ken".

See what I did there?

Greg Abbott needs to pull up his big boy underwear, stiffen the steel implant in his spine and get ready to take it, especially if his minions are going to keep dishing it.