Paul Sadler to run for US Senate

Just two days after fellow Democrat Ric Sanchez dropped out of the race, state Rep. Paul Sadler of Henderson has filed to run for U.S. Senate. [...]

Two Democrats have filed: Sean Hubbard and Daniel Boone. But the big name until last week was Sanchez, a retired lieutenant general who once led U.S. forces in Iraq. His campaign never got traction. That and personal troubles — his home burned down over the Thanksgiving holiday — prompted him to get out.

Sadler, in a brief telephone interview, said he has been thinking about the race since Hutchison announced her decision. Sanchez's announcement last week tipped the scales, and he filed with the Texas Democratic Party this afternoon.

Sadler was elected to the House in 1990 and served through 2002, ending his tenure with three terms as chairman of the Public Education committee. While George W. Bush was governor, Sadler chaired the special committee that worked on the tax bill Bush proposed as a remedy for public education problems. He lost a runoff election in 2004 to Republican Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, in a race for the Texas Senate.

Sadler has a solid background in both business and politics.

Sadler is the Executive Director of The Wind Coalition. The Wind Coalition is a non-profit association formed to encourage the development of the vast wind energy resources of the south central United States. The Wind Coalition is active in two particular regions: ERCOT and SPP. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the electric transmission grid covering most of Texas. The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) grid covers all or parts of seven unique states: Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana. As the Executive Director, Paul is responsible for the policy and regulatory development concerning wind energy in eight states. [...]

(He) served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1991 - 2003. During his tenure in the Texas House of Representatives, he served on numerous committees including Education, Judiciary, Pensions and Investments, Health and Human Services, Calendars and was one of eight members designated to the Legislative Budget Board. His most significant committee work, however, was in the area of education. Sadler served on the House Public Education Committee from 1993 - 2003 (serving as Chairman of the committee from 1995 - 2003), chairman of the Select Committee on State Revenue and Public School Finance in 1997, and chairman of the Select Committee on Public School Employee Health Insurance in 2001. Paul was the only house member to serve as chair of more than one committee in the same session; he had dual chairmanships in two sessions in 1999 & 2001. His accomplishments include the re-write of the Education Code in 1995 (known as the 'Ratliff-Sadler Act'); enactment of public school employee health insurance for the first time in the history of the state; passage of a $3.8 billion education package, which at the time included the largest property tax cut in the history of the state; provided teacher pay raises for three consecutive sessions for the first time in the history of the state; established critical need programs for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten; the ninth grade initiative targeting students at risk of drop-out; and increased funding for public school facilities.

This part is interesting:

As then-Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry stated, "What the Legislature is all about (is) competing interests coming together and splitting differences. Unless it's education -- then you do everything that Paul wants." Sadler has received numerous awards for his legislative work. He was singled out by Texas Monthly during each of his legislative terms, being named to the Ten Best List in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001.

Here's more from Sadler on the prospects of wind energy. And here's more from him on the past legislative session's education woes. And here's what he said about working with George W. Bush when he was governor:

Long before Bush wrote his book (Decision Points), former state Rep. Paul Sadler wondered aloud how his friend would handle the consequential choices to come.

Sadler, an East Texas Democrat who worked with Bush on education, had an early impression of the governor's management style. As governor, Bush was particularly susceptible to a small coterie of advisers around him, what Sadler calls "the voices in the room.''

"He surrounds himself with people who were largely likeminded," Sadler said. "Look for the dominant personality in the room. He will trust that dominant personality." [...]

Sadler believes the decision to invade Iraq was a mistake, driven by a circle of single-minded advocates. And he said Bush, following Rove's hard-nose politics, abandoned his promise to stem the hyper-partisanship of Washington.

"The ultimate responsibility has to rest with him," Sadler said, but he wonders whether history - and the Bush legacy - might have been different had he been less susceptible to the dominant voices in the room.

"I still consider him a personal friend and I hesitate to criticize him," Sadler said. "But those of us who were friends and who are friends, over the years we have said many times, who hijacked our friend? Who hijacked him?"

Can't say I'm thrilled about the part in bold.

Sadler sounds like the perfect TDP establishment candidate: East Texas conservaDem, good record in the Lege (especially if you consider that part about the property tax reduction good), been in the renewable-energy business since losing his last election.

No excuse why he can't raise all the money he needs to win from the Texas Democratic lawyers, unlike Chris Bell and even Bill White. Right?

Update: The Chron has this...

"We have a reputation as a state for business. We have a senator who's good for business. It's time for us to have a senator that's good for the people of this state," Sadler said. "That's what I'm going to be doing."

Update II: From the end of the filing day yesterday comes word that Jason Gibson of the Houston Trial Lawyers Association and Eric Roberson, who ran previously for Congress in the 32nd District (Plano area) in 2008 and aborted a campaign for the statehouse in 2010, have also filed for this race.

Update III: Roberson clarifies that he is actually running for a seat on the Fifth District (Dallas) Court of Appeals, Place 11.

T'was the Week before Christmas Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is all about the wassailing as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff has a look at candidate filings in Harris County as of what was once the deadline date.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees the grim side of a corporate-ruled America; the climate change controversy may be a conspiracy and we are the targets.

BlueBloggin notes that special interests are really not very special when they represent the mindless, dangerous attitudes of corporate extremists who don't want to be accountable for their actions. Let Me Sell you A Lie: EPA Consequences of HR 10 aka the REINS Act shows that corporations really do own America's lawmakers.

Bay Area Houston calls Rick Perry one rotten bastard.

Death sentences and the use of the death penalty are at a record low, mostly because of the corruption and injustice in our criminal justice system. It's led WCNews at Eye On Williamson to wonder: is the death penalty dying?

Third-party presidential candidates may make some noise and perhaps even some news in 2012, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw gives us the heads-up on the latest episode of Rick Perry, fraud and hypocrite. Check out Double Dipping Rick the Hypocrite.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes Greg Abbott asked the US Supreme Court to poop on Texas' politicians and voters. That's a Republican for you.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote a post considering the life of the real St. Nicholas. Jolly old St. Nick was a foe of the death penalty who was said to have brought back to life children who had been cut up and were going to be pickled.

McBlogger takes on PolitiFact's pathetic attempt to beat up Congressman Lloyd Doggett.

Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left wonders Do They Know It's Christmas in Washington ... or anywhere else in the world.

Sunday Funnies

Your Christmas gift is that there will be no more debates

Gingrich, Romney ready for Iowa sprint:

Given his likely strength in the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary, Romney may be able to survive a so-so finish in Iowa. It appears more important for Gingrich to win Iowa, or come close, and Thursday's two-hour televised debate in Sioux City probably helped his cause.

It wasn't so much that the former House speaker had a solid second hour after a somewhat shaky start. It's more that Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texan, expressed his anti-war, anti-interventionist views so vehemently that he may have turned off mainstream Republicans who otherwise might have helped him to a surprising first-place finish.

My favorite line, from Dr. No ...

"Do terrorists go to Switzerland and Sweden to commit terrorism? No, we're bombing them."

He has been stealing this joke from Osama bin Laden for some time now. It's also not factual. Speaking of untruths:

"I balanced the budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt." -- Newt Gingrich

Gingrich was off on both claims concerning the budget. The budget was indeed balanced for four years, but it’s a stretch for him to take credit for more than two of those years (since he was no longer in Congress). As for paying off $405 billion in debt, the data we found shows the debt actually increased during Gingrich’s four-year tenure as speaker by more than $800 billion.

I think Mitt Romney has to be feeling a lot better about his prospects this morning.

Roundup of some highly readables

With a little extra downtime on my hands as a result of my stepmother's passing Tuesday, and with all arrangements completed and awaiting services and committal Saturday, here is some of what I am reading this morning to share with you.

-- Michael Li has everything you want to know with respect to the latest on the Supreme Court's Texas election clusterfudge. That's a good half-hour's worth alone.

-- Rahm Emanuel is a thug. And like my friend Neil, I hope Occupy takes over his town next May.

-- Seven Occupy the Port of Houston protestors were released yesterday after a judge ruled that an arm tube was insufficient evidence to represent a felony charge of using "anything" in the act of civil disobedience.

There is justice occasionally, and sometimes it is sweeter than a clementine.

-- Plumes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times worse than carbon dioxide, are streaming into the atmosphere as Arctic permafrost thaws. It's pretty much over for humans (and the rest of most living things) on this planet now. The only question left  is how much longer do we have.

-- Finally, in the context of a) not ending this post on a depressing note, and b) offering a bit of comedic value besides a toon, there is yet another GOP not-so-presidential debate tonight on Fox moderated by something called a Cavuto.

Hilarity should ensue. Seriously.

Update: Oh yeah, one more thing: There is Only One Issue in America, according to Steven Van Zandt. As a disciple, he is of course correct.

Third-party presidential candidate news

Because no one else will ever blog about it.

Glenn Beck, Joe Scarborough tout Ron Paul as third-party candidate:

Some conservative commentators are laying the groundwork for backing Texas congressman Ron Paul as a third party candidate if the Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich to face Democratic President Barack Obama. Even as many on the right warm to the liberty-loving lawmaker, more of the mainstream media is beginning to consider him a factor in the GOP primary battle already underway.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman and longtime Gingrich critic, today spoke favorably about a possible Paul general election candidacy as a reaction to “big government” conservative Gingrich. The co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program invoked the words of conservative radio show host Glenn Beck in welcoming a potential Paul insurgency in the 2012 general election.

“Yesterday, Glenn Beck said something that I guarantee you a lot of small-government conservatives, like me, have thought. And that is, if I have to choose between Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich, a guy that George Will said would have been a ‘marvelous Marxist’ and who is the opposite of being a small-government conservative — if Ron Paul’s running as a third-party candidate, I’m going to give him a long look. Because I can’t vote for the two guys who worship at the altar of big government in their own separate ways. And that’s the problem with a Newt Gingrich candidacy. He’s not a small government conservative.”

Really, it makes perfect sense. But Paul still has a shot at scrambling the GOP race if he wins Iowa. He trails Newt in the latest poll there by a single point.

Over the past week, Gingrich's 9-point lead has shrunk to a single point over the folksy Paul, according to Public Policy Poling.

Gingrich is clinging to a narrow 22% to 21% edge over Paul, with Mitt Romney at 16%, Michele Bachmann at 11%, Rick Perry at 9%, Rick Santorum at 8%, Jon Huntsman at 5%, and Gary Johnson at 1%.

Gingrich has dropped 5 points in the last week and he's also seen a significant decline in his favorability numbers.

Republican-leaning independents are going to need some place to go if Gingrich -- or for that matter, Paul -- should manage to capture the GOP nom.

But all that's hardly actual third-party news.

The Green Party's leading candidates for president, Kent Mesplay and Jill Stein, held a debate in California two weeks ago. Stein will appear at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a public interview with Matt Rothschild of The Progressive this Friday.

Harry Braun, running initially as a Democratic challenger to President Obama and now as an independent, has a campaign focusing on a democracy constitutional amendment that will in turn enable fossil and nuclear fuels to be replaced with wind and solar-based hydrogen systems "on a war-time speed" basis. He has a weekly radio show where he elaborates on these and other of his issues.

My thoughts on the ineptitude of continuing to support all of the candidates of the leftish member of the two-party duopoly were posted here last week. My argument in favor of third parties is: what have you got to lose? If you're a Republican and the party nominates someone you can't support, your vote for a third party candidate, be it Libertarian or Constitution or some other is a message to the GOP to shape up. Likewise -- and particularly since this is Texas, where your presidential vote isn't going to matter anyway -- you can send a message to the Democrats to get their shit together.

Go ahead and vote for the Republicans and/or Democrats (or Libs or Greens) down the ballot that you prefer. But until we get more choices everywhere, nothing meaningful is going to change.

Update: I wrote this post intending to include this news about Rocky Anderson.

A new political party has entered the fray as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2012 elections. On Monday, former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson announced he will run for president with the newly formed Justice Party. Although hailing from a solidly red state, Anderson has been known as one of the most progressive mayors of any major U.S. city in recent years. During his two mayoral terms from 2000 to 2008, Anderson was an outspoken champion of LGBT rights, environmental sustainability, and the antiwar movement in opposition to the Iraq War. Vowing to fight the influence of money over politics, Anderson kicked off his campaign on Monday with a pledge to limit individual donations to $100 a person. Anderson and the Justice Party say they hope to build a grassroots movement heading into the November 2012 elections. "We launched the Justice Party because the entire system is so corrupt," Anderson says. "It’s so diseased. We know that the public interest is not being served by anyone in the system right now, particularly the two dominant parties who have sustained this corrupt system and who are sustained by it."