09.24.07
Follow Up On Krusee, Ogden Posts From Friday
There’s no doubt it’s great news that Rep. Krusee would want to be seen campaigning with Gov. Rick Perry. Perry is not going to help him at all with Independents and anti-toll/TTC voters. Krusee already has about $325,000 CoH (as of June 30, 2007). He must think it’s going to take a ton of cash to brainwash voters in HD-52 into forgetting about all the bad things he’s done. Looking at the 2006 numbers for HD-52, Perry did even worse in 52 (38.8%) than he did statewide (39.3). [Many are looking to the Willett(R) - Moody (D) race for possible Democratic upsets in 2008, where in HD-52 it was W-52.2%, M-47.8%]. Krusee, of course, barely broke 50% against a candidate that had little money, but much heart. This time he won’t be so lucky and it’s doubtful cozying up to Perry and his TTC pland will help. Neither will the Craddick flip-flop, as one commenter said to the earlier post:
The only time that I have been the least proud of Krusee as my State Rep was when he gave that speech against Craddick.
It did look like Krusee did something right, even though at the time it was almost assured that Krusee had jumped off the sinking ship to try and save himself. Now we know he’s figured out his only chance at keeping this seat is to run way to the right, and amass as much money as he can however he can, in a district that’s becoming more Democratic by the day.
As for state Sen. Steve Ogden, Senate District 5, again pure speculation that he will run for Congress, but the numbers in CD-17 do favor a Republican. Rep. Chet Edwards has seriously outperformed all Democrats in this district since its creation in the DeLay redistricting scheme of 2003. Ogden carried 69.4% v Wyman (who didn’t even campaign) - which was less than KBH (70.5%) - in the part of CD-17 that overlapped SD 5. Ogden has, as of July 16, 2007, almost $700,000 CoH. That’s quite a bit of cash for a state Senator that’s not facing reelection for a while. Again the numbers may look good for a Republican but Edwards has been resilient, is a tireless campaigner, and is well-funded.