Daily News Roundup, 11/19/07: Primary, On Again

Not content to take it easy the weekend before Thanksgiving, politicians provided us with all sorts of news. Prime among them and today's first story: Rick Noriega has drawn a primary challenger in Ray McMurrey, a high school government teacher from the Corpus Christi area.

McMurrey will make his official announcement on Tuesday, which will also officially signal the end of Noriega's time as the lone candidate in the race. I suspect that Noriega's campaign will keep its focus on Cornyn, and not just because of the following quote:

Noriega's campaign said McMurrey's entry into the race is a sign that people are frustrated with the status quo on issues such as the progress on the war in Iraq, education and health care.

-snip-

"It's everyone's right to express their political opinions," said campaign consultant James Aldrete. "I have no idea of his message but there is a lot of frustration that the country is off track. Our focus is definitely on Cornyn and on ways to get the country back on track."

The dynamic of this primary race will be interesting to watch. The dynamic of how Tom Craddick is currently managing himself and his earned media is another matter entirely — this editorial in the Star-Telegram examines how the Speaker is engaged in an odd statewide full-court press to get the word out that everyone who hasn't automatically bent to his will is a bad person, and allied with every Texas political bogeyman you can imagine. We've said this several times this year — if you're explaining, you're losing — Craddick seems to think it is very very important for him to explain what he did and why during the session. His assertions, though, sound less like thunderous warnings from the mount and more like appeals for pity. From a guy who wielded such a heavy hand for so long in Austin, this appearance of weakness is surprising, if not downright off putting.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, Rick Perry's Miracle Mystery Million may weigh him down in his quest to ascend to a national stage. That this might become a millstone that makes Perry less attractive to presidential candidates as a running mate is a possibility, but the other implications are a little more disturbing. What if the Texas Ethics Commission ends up agreeing with the sentiment the Republican Governors Association is expressing, that the laws are insufficient and don't apply to them?

If the governors association is not a political committee under Texas law, what is it?

"The fact of the matter is, the law is not precise in pigeon-holing or defining what a group like the RGA is," said Ben Ginsberg, the association's lawyer, who helped lead the Bush-Cheney 2000 Florida recount. "The laws aren't always perfectly crafted to put everyone in."

It's an argument that, if correct, could open up the floodgates of anonymous money flowing through groups such as the Republican Governors Association into Texas campaigns.

Let me be the first to say it: yikes. This is why Bell's suit is important — something like this needs to be cleared up legally to avoid the kind of future where national political forces can moneybomb state races anonymously, which is more or less what happened here.

Lastly today, something strange happened in presidential politics over the weekend: Senator Obama engaged in what can only be called a pre-emptive strike. Concerning some alleged dirt on Obama which the Clinton campaign decided against using, Obama got out in front of something that only existed in a Bob Novak column and condemned others against SwiftBoating him, which hadn't happened. Yet.

Now don't get me wrong — from a tactics standpoint, this seems to have worked out, giving Obama a chance to talk about how he's better than attack politics even in the absence of any such attack. So, score three news stories over the weekend for the politics of hope, etc. When you think about it though, this could open up all sorts of existential possibilities for campaigning; that or it will be the subject of a Woody Allen movie, in which a candidate for Congress shapes his entire campaign around what people haven't said about him, but might.