Texas
Related: About this forumCongratulations to Paul Sadler, our nominee for U.S. Senate
Democrats selected Paul Sadler, a former member of the Texas House, as their nominee for the U.S. Senate. Sadler handily beat retired teacher Grady Yarbrough. A Democrat last won a statewide election in Texas in 1994.
Maybe it's time we broke that spell by really taking on the lunatic Cruz!
w8liftinglady
(23,278 posts)There is literally a media blackout.I'll post more tomorrow.It's a big deal.
Vogon_Glory
(9,117 posts)The print edition that I bought in Austin had next to nothing about Paul Sadler's victory, save only in passing in a paragraph covering the Tea Party person beating Dewhurst. What was even more distressing was the small typo showing the totals for the Democratic primary win: someone at the News dropped a decimal place and it looked like Yarbrough won 79k plus to Sadler's 13K+ win.
We've got our work cut out for us this fall, but at least Democratic voters didn't nominate the gentleman dilettante to run against Cruz.
Liberal In Texas
(13,548 posts)The DMN is blatantly biased for repub candidates. For 2 days the DMN was acting like Cruz was already a senator. Wed. and Thur. I couldn't find anything in the paper about the Dem primary winner, but on the front pages of both days it was Cruz tributes in huge type and many pictures with many more stories inside.
The DMN was always right-leaning (like in the 1980s and 1990s) but now they've completely abandoned any sense of journalism.
Javaman
(62,521 posts)Hopefully the Democratic Party has taken notice and Texas will become a battle ground state.
that would be really nice!
I get so tired of living in this red state of hysteria.
TxVietVet
(1,905 posts)I'm very glad he's running. I expect the media blackout exclude him for this is a conservanazi-run state.
They want to present that they have NO opposition. I often tell some of their supporters that "no oppostion means either there's lots of corruption or a revolution is coming".
MagickMuffin
(15,936 posts)From the Fort Worth StarleGram, of course the info is buried at the end of the Cruz love feast
Sadler, an East Texas lawyer, has long been the front-runner, despite not raising even a fraction of as much money as his Republican counterparts, because of his decade of service in the Texas Legislature that included rewriting the state education code and handling a variety of controversial issues.
During his tenure, he headed the powerful public education committee and was broadly considered one of the Legislature's top authorities on schools.
In the May primary, he and Yarbrough, a retired San Antonio educator who has sought office in the past as both a Republican and Democrat, emerged from a field of four to be the top vote getters. Sadler drew 35.1 percent of the vote to Yarbrough's 25.87 percent.
Tuesday night, Sadler appeared to easily be on his way to victory.
With 1,129 of 7,965 precincts reporting, Sadler had 62.44 percent of the vote to Yarbrough's 37.55 percent, according to unofficial results.
"I'm obviously excited about this," Sadler said. "I want to thank a lot of people. We really had an old-fashioned campaign - a lot of miles driving, a lot of meeting people and shaking hands.
"I'm excited about the race coming up in the fall," he said.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/07/31/4141851/bitter-battle-for-us-senate-nominations.html#storylink=cpy
As everyone here probably knows I considered voting for Yarbrough. But after learning about him here I quickly changed my mind.
I even called Sadler's office and was fortunate enough that he walked through the door and I got to speak with him. So, needless to say by the time we finished our conversation he won me over.
Unfortunately, Sadler will have an uphill battle on his hands as Cruz has tons of money. Here in D/FW our local channels continued showing Cruz / Dewhurst ads during EVERY commercial break (not sure what it was like that elsewhere, but I would believe it was the same). Even during the news casts they never mentioned that there was a Democratic Party runoff, but gave a huge amount of time to the Cruz / Dewhurst runoff. It was disgusting and showed a total lack of reporting of the news! This probably had a lot to do with low voter turnout for our Party.
They_Live
(3,232 posts)...even if it is only about his lack of coverage. His campaign manager needs to hop to it! It's all about visibility, and it shouldn't take much to make Cruz look like a psycho.
MagickMuffin
(15,936 posts)He needs a press corp to follow him around. I'm pretty sure Cruz will have news "reports" following him around the State. Our side should also have the same advantages. We NEED a level playing field.
Here's an excellent way to attack Cruz. Point out how bad he will be to Texas
From ThinkProgress:
1) Ted Cruz Believes George Soros Leads A United Nations Conspiracy To Eliminate Golf: In 1992, President George H.W. Bush joined the leaders of 177 other nations in endorsing a non-binding UN document known as Agenda 21. This twenty year-old document largely speaks at a very high level of generality about reducing poverty and building sustainable living environments. Nevertheless, Cruz published an article on his campaign website claiming that this non-binding document is actually a nefarious plot to abolish unsustainable environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads. To top it off, Cruz lays the blame for this global anti-golf conspiracy at the feet of a well-known Tea Party boogieman The originator of this grand scheme is George Soros.
Oh Boy
2) Ted Cruz Wants To Gut Social Security: In an interview with the Texas Tribune Cruz labeled Social Security a ponzi scheme and outlined a three-step plan to gut this essential program. Cruz would raise the Social Security retirement age, cut future benefits, and implement a George W. Bush-style plan to privatize much of the program. In other words, in addition to forcing them to work longer for fewer benefits, Cruz would place retirees at the mercy of a fickle stock market. Had Social Security been privatized during the career of a worker who retired near the end of the Bush Administration, that worker would have retired with less money in their privatized account than they would have if theyd simply kept their money between their mattress and box spring.
3) Ted Cruz Wants To Party Like Its 1829: The Constitution provides that Acts of Congress shall be the supreme law of the land, and thus cannot be nullified by rogue state lawmakers. Cruz, however, co-authored an unconstitutional proposal claiming two or more states could simply ignore the Constitutions command and nullify the Affordable Care Act so long as they work together. Although the Constitution does permit states to join in interstate compacts that have the force of law, under the Constitution such compacts require the consent of Congress and can be vetoed by the President. Cruz falsely claimed that states do not need to meet these Constitutional requirements to undermine laws they dont like.
4) Ted Cruz Is An Islamophobe: At a campaign event earlier this month, Cruz touted another of the Tea Partys favorite conspiracy theories, claiming that Sharia law is an enormous problem in this country. Although it is common for far right politicians to claim that American law is somehow being replaced with Islamic law, these claims have absolutely no basis in reality. Few American courts have ever even mentioned Sharia or Islamic law, and those that have generally only do so in contracts or similar cases where a party before the court agreed to be bound by Sharia law.
5) Ted Cruz Campaigned On How He Helped Texas Kill A Mexican: Cruzs very first campaign ad encouraged GOP primary voters to support him because he helped make it easier for Texas to kill an illegal alien. According to the ad, Cruz fought all the way to the Supreme Court after the UN and World Court overruled a Texas jurys verdict to execute an illegal alien. In reality, the case Cruz won had nothing to do with whether Texas had the authority to kill this man. Rather, it concerned whether Texas could defy a treaty requiring it to inform foreign nationals who are arrested of their right to request assistance from the consul of his own state. Even North Korea honored this treaty that Cruz fought to undermine.
Ted Cruz is a LOSER! He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a legislative branch of government. And of course because of the Repubs anti-intelligence stance his voters have NO critical thinking skills to understand anything past his talking points.
Ted: "Vote for me because you guys are non thinkers and are idiots!" His base: Aaaaa "OK!"
sonias
(18,063 posts)Thanks for grabbing that research.
sonias
(18,063 posts)That's the ticket. If we could get some national money in this race and expose the Cruz man for the nut bag he is then maybe the November Texas voters will give Sadler a chance. Primary voters are always more red meat based. November voters are a better representation in Texas. At least we hope.
I certainly hope that there will be debates where Sadler could show how crazy and unqualified Cruz is.
I now the Tea Party types are already celebrating another tea bag in the U.S. Senate.
w8liftinglady
(23,278 posts)So far,we've only got it covered on current TV.
w8liftinglady
(23,278 posts)Rachel,ed,daily Show
Can you find time to cover the Texas Senate race?There has been a media blackout against Paul Sadler in favor of Cruz,the Tea party darlin and recipient of major Republican superpac funding.WE NEED SADLER in Senate...help