Joe Straus is marking his stragglers for everyone to see by giving them the most help. The Texas House Leadership Fund (the Fund), a political action committee controlled by the Speaker, has given to 13 candidates and the largest donations are going to endangered incumbents. Barbara Nash, the PAC’s top recipient, has collected $25,000. Nash,…
Murphy Turner connected to shadow PACs
Despite its best efforts at concealment, Austin consulting firm Murphy Turner and Associates has been connected to a shadow PAC, Texans for Conservative Government. Murphy Turner initially lied about its connection to the attack PAC but the group was eventually exposed by the Daily News. Texans for Conservative Government is one of many PACs that…
Straus the weak
Fourteen points of unusual Speaker weakness for Joe Straus Tea Parties, the most powerful force in Texas politics right now, uniformly oppose Joe Straus. Straus is on the wrong side of the other most powerful force in Texas politics, the Governor, by opposing the Texas Budget Compact, the Governor’s signature off-season policy initiative. Gov. Perry…
Vicki Truitt’s Trouble
Representative Vicki Truitt is in a bad way. Truitt-friendly Tim Madigan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram characterized Truitt’s win in 2010 as a “romp”. A well-funded Truitt beat a virtually unfunded field by 4 points. This spin betrays Truitt’s weakness. In reality, Truitt was weak in 2010, as she is now. Her constituents were alerted…
John Carona’s Liberal Alliances
Senator John Carona wants to be the next Lt. Governor of Texas. For that to occur he needs several things to happen, including a David Dewhurst victory in the U.S. Senate race. He also needs Texans to remain oblivious to his liberal alliances and agenda. It was reported this weekend that Carona was spreading rumors…
Got a campaign energy deficit?
If you’re a lobby-owned politician you probably aren’t very popular with the grassroots activists in your district. And, too bad for you, it’s grassroots activists who give campaigns their ground energy. This all means you probably have a pretty embarrassing energy deficit in your race right about now. If your huge money advantage isn’t enough…
Joe Straus tied to Texas Conservative Roundtable
When the Texas Conservative Roundtable was launched Texas Tribune editor Ross Ramsey noted it was set up to counter conservative groups like Empower Texans. At the time, we wrote the natural beneficiary of such a group was embattled House Speaker Joe Straus. Now Joe Straus has been tied directly to TXCR through his campaign finance…
Trial Lawyers Give to Geren
Campaign finance reports are out and we will be exploring them over the course of the coming week. Leading off we have one of Joe Straus’ lieutenants, Chairman Charlie Geren, receiving a $2500 donation from the Texas Trial Lawyer Association PAC. TTLA is a main funding source for the Democrat party in Texas and liberal…
Mark McCaig: bad actor
Mark McCaig is the kind of Republican that makes you say, “Who needs Democrats with Republicans like that?” McCaig has made it his business to try to annoy AgendaWise for some time now. He got legal rights to our old name, “Fix the Facts Foundation” when it temporarily expired, and acquired a DBA for “AgendaWise”.…
