Wayne Thorburn is a longtime Republican political strategist and author of Red State: An Insider’s Story of How the GOP Came to Dominate Texas Politics. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t have anything nice to say about Davis. But even Thorburn won’t bet the farm on an Abbott victory.
With two weeks left before the election, anything can still happen. The most memorable screw-up in recent Texas political history (possibly excluding Rick Perry’s debate appearances) occurred when Clayton Williams told a rape joke on the campaign trail when he ran against Richards in 1990. The wealthy Republican candidate then made things worse by saying he’d paid no income taxes in 1986 during a down economy.
Williams, who’d enjoyed a 20-point lead over Richards in summer opinion polls, saw that lead shrink and, by election night, disappear due to his own hubris. (All these years later, Williams hasn’t run for office again but he’s still influencing politics –– he donated more than $100,000 to Abbott’s campaign.)
But Williams was an unpolished candidate, a rancher and businessman with little political experience. Abbott is a political animal, unlikely to trip over his own tongue. Even after Williams flapped his gums, he still came close to winning.
Richards won “by less than 100,000 votes against a guy who was a real screw-up,” Thorburn pointed out.
Abbott’s miscues have been strange and even comical but thus far mostly insignificant. An early appearance with Nugent, whom Abbott called a “fighter for freedom,” was a public relations train wreck. Nugent, after all, once described in an interview how he went a month without bathing and defecated in his pants for a week to avoid being drafted. In that respect, you could say he was fighting for freedom from the U.S. Army. He later recanted the story and said he received a student deferment.
Nugent has also been a notorious pursuer of women and underage girls, and has released “Jailbait,” a song about having sexual relations with young girls. The song includes the lines, Wait a minute, officer / Don’t put those handcuffs on me / Put them on her, and I’ll share her with you.
None of that is unusual for a rock star. What’s unusual is that Abbott would go near this guy in a campaign where all he needed to do was not shoot himself in the foot.
“We will not allow the women of Texas to be treated like this,” Davis wrote in February in one of her campaign’s frequent e-mail dispatches. “I won’t mince words –– I find Ted Nugent disgusting. And I find it disgusting that Greg Abbott is sharing a stage with him.”
She accused Abbott of making a predator “the new face of his campaign.” The news media covered the story for a week or so, but then Nugent-gate faded.
Meanwhile, Davis flaunted her own celebrities. Willie Nelson played at one of her fundraising events in Austin. And Richards’ daughter Cecile issued a statement of support: “The press has always underestimated the power of a well-organized, energized grassroots campaign in Texas,” she said. “They did it with my mother –– and they’re doing it again with Wendy.”
After those early potholes, Abbott’s campaign seemed to smooth out, until the news of his involvement in the Texas Enterprise Fund became an issue. Questions arose about Abbott’s role in overseeing the fund after an audit showed many millions of dollars had been given to politically connected companies that hadn’t even submitted applications asking for money. People connected with those companies had donated about $1 million to Abbott’s campaign coffers.
Abbott has mostly touted himself in his ads, coming across as a soft-spoken man with grit and determination fighting for Texans and their children by reforming schools, protecting the border, ending Obamacare, and defending traditional values (that is, no gay people getting hitched ’round these parts, and no legal pot smoking).
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Excellent article but with one exception. I would disagree with Glenn Smith’s statement that if the electorate knew the truth about the corruption of the last 12 years the Republicans wouldn’t stand a chance. The Texas electorate has become so complacent and so gullible during that time that they would believe anything the Repub’s told them. All they’ve been running on for the last 6 years is Obama and abortions and they continue to clean up across the state. Also remember that this is the party that has Dan Patrick running for the most powerful office in the state and thinks Konni Burton is fit for office.
i was further inspired by wendy on “daybreak” (wfaa, local channel 8 news) in an interview with alexa conomos. i believe wendy was correct in her prediction that “if all our supporters vote, we will win this race”. more is more so donate & vote because this girl is a much better poster child for texas than the last two gubernatorial goobers. long live dixie chicks.
re: corruption.
Evidently the voters are not the only gullible parties. Buddy Barfield, a longtime Dewhurst aid and crony has recently been indicted for stealing $2 million dollars from Dewhurst’s failed senate campaign which he allegedly spent on his mortgage and kids tuition, according to today’s Dallas Observer Unfair Park. Makes you kind of wonder,doesn’t it?
Baggers are going to be baggers, repugs are going to be repugs, hammer-heads are going to be hammer-heads—what else can they be? Just for spite, with a basis grounded in stone stupidity, these selfish half-wits shut the United States of America down—we couldn’t pay our bills, our promises, nor our obligations. A bigoted & hateful rancher in Arizona sent the U.S. government home with it’s tail between it’s legs, when it demanded payment for grazing his cattle on U.S.Government property. The U.S. had a choice to either retreat or kill hundreds of snot-slinging, jerk-off, Tea-Bagging peckerwoods. These two examples are only a tiny hint of both who and what we are dealing with. If we are so indifferent, or so wealthy, or so lazy that we allow this demented madness to continue, well, what goes around comes around. This nation was based on stealing the continent from the natives, hanging the witches, enslaving the Negros, poisoning and defecating on the natural resources, subjugating the female Anglos, while pretending to love Jesus. What’s new here? The problem here is not who Wendy is nor who Abbott is but who Texas voters are— and our problem is as big as Dallas.
Holland, you should see a therapist. All your comments begin with your “a=a; b=b; c=c” argument — which is true but meaningless — and abound with references to baggers, hammerheads, repugs, peckerwoods, ad nauseum. In your above rant, only the last sentence references Davis and Abbot, the subjects of the article.
Stouty, you need to kiss my foot. What do you eat? You need to get a decent job and amount to something. Who assigned a flake like you to suggest to any good Democrat what they need to do? Are you one of those Startle-Gram nit-wits? You, Stouty, are precisely who I was addressing, why don’t you grow up and amount to something? Have you no shame? Are you any kin to Gregg Abbott, you put me in mind of him. For many, many years the Weekly wasn’t bothered by jerks such as yourself. Have you no shame? You one of those stinking Baggers? Grow up, get a life.
Benny, your heroine, Wendy Davis’s campaign just pulled another dumb-blonde blooper, tweeting a photo of young people “who just voted for Wendy”. They turned out to be College Republicans — in Virginia! And she wants to run the state? Lord help us.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2014/10/22/confirmed-wendy-davis-literally-has-the-worst-n1908828
Stoutstinker, you continue to outdo yourself . Is your Startle-Gram office still inside the Men’s Room at the Greyhound Station? Is it still printed over in Dallas and bussed back over here? Let me up, Dude. The very first & best thinking of your piece-of-snot hero, Mr.Abbott, was to select the worse criminogenic, douch-bag child molester in the Western Hemisphere to rally the low-achieving knuckle-heads to his cause…Mr. Ted Nugent, Esq. Nothing more needs to be said. God forgive them for they are fools. Puh-lease!
“He later recanted the story and said he received a student deferment.”
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Ted Nugent received his student deferment in 1967, 2 years prior to the pants defecating incident at the induction center. And he got his deferment when he was touring with his band and not attending college so his deferment was fraudulently obtained. That’s a crime.
Nugent and all other eligible young men were then subject to the Draft Lottery in 1969 which got rid of all deferments. His lottery number was 163 which means he should have been drafted. Lottery numbers 1 to 185 got notices that first year of the lottery and that’s when he probably did what he originally claimed.
May I ask if anyone in chat considers this article biased? May I ask why do you support democrats? Texas is Texas for a reason, here you still have a better chance at becoming successful, here you can afford things. There is an overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, emphasis on overwhelmingly amount of evidence that shows the struggle democratic states like Cali, Illinois, NY, RI, NH, etc. are facing. If you don’t like Texas then why don’t you move? The states I just mentioned will eventually be the same as Texas when it becomes democratic due to the heavy out of state influence. Just remember that your children will move out of this state when it is expensive and they’ll continue the cycle of moving into cheap republican states, they’ll complain, and that state will become democratic with more strict laws, higher cost of living, more government spending, etc. Even states that spend a crap load of money on education like Cali have literally the same education as Texas, Texas is ranked in the top 20 states for education (search it up) and both TX and CL have C- as average, in some ranking TX surpasses Cali (for instance math scores) Just remember when your family leaves this state because of what it is to become, remember who’s fault it will be, do not blame the republicans, independents, hillbillies, rednecks, whatever you want to say, remember it will be your fault, eventually the cycle will start over until the whole U.S.A. is consumed in this delusional mental state
I am not saying the republican platform is perfect or even close to it, but statistically it is the best option when it comes to assisting the economy. No not 99% of all republicans believe in religion, are anti-environmental, etc. you’d be surprised by how many people are lied to about this. The republican party has plenty of environmentalist, atheist, etc. its just that everyone (especially young people) are caught up in the whole lie about all republicans being white (that’s racist), anti-women, anti-gay, anti-globalwarming, etc. I have had plenty of discussions with democratic supporters (a lot of my friends) and I’ve showed them what the party is about I understand how you can “prove” that republicans are “evil” but these are the extremist, maybe if you’d actually do some research on your party’s opponent you would be more informed on which side is better for the country as a whole, you’d know that 90% of republicans aren’t anti-globalwarming- anti-atheist, anti-gay, racist, etc. I myself am a Hispanic republican, I used to support the democratic side due to me being lied to about the opposing side being evil. The reason why I switched was due to economics, literature (research opposing sides), economics, environmental science, etc. I am also an environmentalist, I recycle as much as possible, my home has green appliances, and my family has been “trying” to consume more plants (lets just say I am usually the one who eats all the fruit, vegetables, etc.) Basically don’t buy into propaganda do your own research.
Whose economy? The misguided Bible-thumping Peckerwoods or the rich, precious, little baby greed-heads at school? The reason why you switched, I expect, is because you’re in college (probably TCU) and all your associates are baby Repugs. You’re not old enough to have the personal experience, luckily, to be that selfish or black-hearted. Clearly there was an attempt to raise you right. It is obvious that you came out of good stock, but you’re getting to big for your britches. Read up on Thomas Jefferson’s religious beliefs, he was, I expect, even smarter than the authors of your religious research. You’re headed for grief with the Hotty-Totty hot-dogs. Don’t fall for it, you’re a good guy. I’m praying for you.
I agree with most of what you say, but all parties are subject to a certain amount of influence and corruption even.