11.19.09
The latest in the Democratic Primary for Govenror
Again there will be five as Houston billionaire Farouk Shami officiallly announces his candidacy today. Kuff has much more on him and other rumblings in the primary, Shami and Shapleigh. Shami made his money in hair care products and the TexasTrib has this article on him, A Candidate to Dye For. Shami has vowed to put in $10 million of his own money into his campaign. But he’s a billionaire, that’s like me putting in $100.
Three of the five candidates on the Democratic side were in Fort Worth last night for a forum at the hosted by the The TCU Democrats. The FWST had this on the forum, Democrats criticize Perry’s policies.
Three of the five Democrats running for governor talked about transportation and education and assailed Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday night at TCU.
The first candidates forum of the race featured former U.S. Ambassador Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth, East Texas rancher Hank Gilbert and Fort Worth teacher Felix Alvarado.
[...]
“Today our state education system is doing a reasonably good job for our high school students to be successful in the 1980s and the 1990s,” Alvarado said. He said the state can get more funding for schools by allowing casinos to be built around the state.
Gilbert said Texas has an uneducated work force “because this administration and this governor put it there and none of them are smart enough to pull the wagon out of the ditch.”
Schieffer faulted Perry for rejecting more than $500 million in stimulus money for unemployment benefits.
“I think the only reason he did that was he wanted to argue in a Republican primary that he was more conservative than somebody else,” Schieffer said.
[...]
Throughout the event, Gilbert’s campaign sent out e-mails to the news media and posted comments on Twitter, nearly all of which were excoriating Shieffer’s remarks and ignoring Alvarado.
“We think Schieffer is one of our principal opponents,” Gilbert campaign spokesman Vince Leibowitz said.
Anyone can read those emails at Gilbert’s rapid response web site The Scoop, in the Knockdown in Cowtown section. One thing many recent statewide Democratic campaigns have failed to do is not use new media to it’s advantage. The Gilbert campaign is clearly not going to make that mistake, and they should be commended for it.