06.25.07
Dewhurst’s Money
Clay Robison at the HChron has a piece up about how the real business of politics has started now that the ban on fund raising, that goes with a legislative session, has expired, It’s time for real political business. The one thing that this article brought to my attention that I had either forgotten or never know was this:
According to his most recent finance report filed in January, Dewhurst, a multimillionaire, had slightly less than $1 million in his political fund and more than $7 million in outstanding loans, most of which he lent to his campaign or guaranteed.
Despite an easy re-election race last fall against little-known Democratic and Libertarian opponents, Dewhurst borrowed more than $3 million, spent a similar amount on TV advertising and several hundred thousand dollars on slick mailouts to promote himself, apparently to generate enough electoral strength to discourage would-be gubernatorial opponents in 2010.
Dewhurst, in essence, has so much money that he could just blow $3 million plus on a reelection campaign, with no serious opponent, to do nothing more than boost him name ID for a gubernatorial election 4 years down the road. That sure seems like a huge waste of money.