Is it hypocrisy: Leppert Amnesty Website

The Tom Leppert campaign, perhaps in response to the overwhelming success of the Roger Williams microsite http://www.theobamaeconomy.com/ with its slick video attacking Barack Obama, has introduced a No Amnesty website (which by the way doesn't have its own unique URL).

Problem is, Tom Leppert oversaw a sanctuary city and backed the creation of an Office of Immigration Affairs "dedicated to assimilating immigrants, legal and illegal, into the city of Dallas" as described by the Dallas Morning News.

We talked about this in our most recent post describing how Tom Leppert was liberal as a Mayor and is running as a conservative for the United States Senate.

It may seem we are coming down hard on Tom Leppert, but they really are self inflicted wounds. A record is something that can be pointed to, and what voters base their judgement on. Barack Obama, like most Democrats, ran as a moderate leaning fiscal conservative (unless he had a slip of the tongue), but has governed as the most liberal President in American History.

Tom Leppert governed as a Liberal and wants Republicans to believe he is a conservative. The question is will Republican Primary voters believe the past or the present/future?

Leppert: Liberal as Mayor, Conservative as Candidate, will this square with Republicans?

Tom Leppert seems to hope all Republicans will forget how he governed and instead believe how he is selling himself.

First, the tax issue. As a newly elected Mayor, when no one was mentioning him as a Republican Senate candidate, voted to raise taxes 1%. Then, when Leppert was making the rounds, future Republican Senate candidate flip flopped and voted against a tax increase.

Of course, as Mayor, Tom Leppert was a strong advocate of the City owning a Convention Center hotel. In fact, he choose to campaign for the issue in front the Dallas County Young Democrats. When he wasn't on the radar as a Republican Candidate, one could assume it was OK to be seen with a leftist organization like the Young Democrats.

Then the SEIU issue. As the man seeking the office, again when no one was mentioning him as a future candidate, sought hard to get the endorsement of one of the most radical labor unions in the country. Candidate Leppert tried, unsuccessfully, to distance himself from his past only to have it proven by the SEIU with photographic proof.

And now we have this: Right after the election, Tom Leppert said he was committed to opening up an office of immigration affairs in Dallas saying he was disappointed that the massive left-leaning immigration bill did not pass the Senate. (ht to @BJPolitics @dpjennings of Big Jolly Politics for bringing this to the forefront)

From the 2007 Dallas Morning News Article:

Claudia Herrmann, an immigrant who heads one of the largest Mexican hometown or homestate associations in the Dallas area, is also bending Mr. Leppert's ear. Four days after Mr. Leppert's victory, Ms. Herrmann wrote him a three-page proposal on how she believes an office of immigrant affairs should work.

"We applaud that you have recognized the need to create a Dallas Office for New Americans," it read, "to help immigrants from different countries as well as international refugees to adjust to their new life in Dallas."

So now, he is endorsing a left-leaning idea to help illegal aliens stay in Texas? Wait, now they are no longer criminal illegal aliens, they are "international refugees," which I guess makes it ok.

All of this has been chronicled here in various pots. We're not endorsing any candidate for Senate, but will point out issues the all face. Right now, it's just very hard to imagine that a candidate who has raised taxes, increased debt, cozied up to the labor unions, advocated for the LGBT community, and wanted to have safe houses for illegal aliens is your prototypical Texas Republican Senate candidate. Of course, the primary voters will be the one to judge that.

Obama Texas Style - Roger Williams Campaign Responds

If there is one person who is very unpopular in Texas, it's President Barack Obama.  Last year, when Tropical Storm Hermine hit Texas - Governor Perry requested federal aid to assist Texans and he was denied by Obama.It was a bi-partisan request to the President that was flatly turned down.

Fast forward to a month ago when Texas was ravaged by wildfires. Again, request denied by Obama. As Ed Morrissey points out,

Critics might be tempted to point out that Texans like their 10th-Amendment independence, but Texans also fork over a lot of tax revenue that funds federal disaster relief, too. With over 2.2 million acres destroyed already — which equates to over 3400 square miles, or roughly seven times the size of Los Angeles, 50 times the size of DC, and three times the land area of Rhode Island — a federal declaration of disaster seems warranted, and the real question is why Barack Obama hasn’t acted.

Perhaps it's because the President simply doesn't like Texas? We know he doesn't like a certain Texas television reporter, Brad Watson, because he DARE ask him to answer questions.

Which brings us to today. The President is here in Texas and one Senate candidate has used the visit to remind voters the difference between what Obama is doing and what he would like to do if he were elected. Roger Williams' campaign created http://www.theobamaeconomy.com/ and included a very well done video described by Pajama Media Blogger Bryan Preston as being "movie trailer quality."

Williams twitter account has had constant activity all day long, generating a lot of buzz that included a morning interview on Dallas' WBAP Radio with Mark Davis, a regular fill-in for Rush Limbaugh.  The other candidates barely had anything out there in social media, nothing even coming close to what Roger William's team accomplished.

Governor Perry was masterful in using a us versus Washington DC attitude in his recent re-election campaign, and it looks like the Roger Williams team is continuing that focus. He is the only actual business owner in the race, something he has pointed out in the interviews he did the past 24 hours.

Today's advantage clearly goes to Roger Williams.

UPDATE: Today's events were also covered nationally by The National Review's Jim Geraghty and by The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis. It is this kind of national buzz the Williams campaign has to be happy they're getting.

The Social Media Antagonists

If you've followed the candidates on twitter, you'll notice that they are starting to have antagonists flame their campaign. This can be a very useful tool, and thus a harmful one against whom it is directed, if used in moderation.

For @tomleppert, it's @FakeLyndon. This guy/gal is all over Leppert and is consistently pointing out his numerous flaws (in the eyes of @FakeLyndon of course). He doesn't reference a website that chronicles his comments

While @tedcruz has to deal with @lawyersandtaxes. While L&T doesn't just exclusively go after Cruz, they are a thorn in his side. They bring up an excellent point on his fundraising:

In reality, the numbers tell a different story.  According to the FEC, Cruz took in 61 donations over the federal contribution limit, including six donations over $9,000 and two $10,000 contributions received on the final day of the reporting period.  

Not mentioned by L&T there was the Ted Cruz acknowledgement that they have a high number of facebook users...but we chronicled an issue that is bound to come up and that is he used State Attorney General Campaign money to build a following that is benefiting a Federal U.S. Senate race campaign. It is a violation of federal law to use state money for a federal campaign, so if resources were used for one how does it affect the other...this is murky waters for sure. We have a lawyer whose worked FEC cases checking into this.

There are sure to be more antagonists show up - and we're going to point them out. This is what makes watching campaigns fun.

Tom Leppert's Campaign Torpedoed?

Tom Leppert's biggest obstacle to winning the GOP Nomination seems to be Tom Leppert's record. We highlighted an issue that will be raised regarding his support for the LGBT community by participating in the Dallas Gay Pride parade, and now comes news he sought and received the support from SEIU.

Leppert's name came up via the race to replace him as Dallas Mayor when candidate Mike Rawlings said his support of the Service Employees International Union  was no different than the support it received from Leppert: Leppert was quick to try and distance himself because being associated with SEIU in any way, shape, or form is toxic or even a campaign ender in Texas. Here is how it was reported by Rudolph Bush in the Dallas Morning News:

Former Mayor Tom Leppert was pulled unwillingly into the race for Dallas (we corrected their misspelling) mayor today when Mike Rawlings noted that his pledge to support the Service Employees International Union was no different from a pledge Leppert made in 2007.That is a bit sticky for Leppert, who as you know, is now running from the hard-right to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.Leppert's campaign issued a statement trying to distance him from any pledge he may or not have signed in 2007 but stopped short of saying he didn't sign something endorsing SEIU."Tom would not sign anything supporting forced collective bargaining for all workers. He believes workers have a right to join a union if they choose, but more importantly, Tom has actively campaigned for workers' essential right to choose not to join a union if they don't want to by expanding Right to Work," said spokesman Shawn McCoy.But SEIU political coordinator Shannon Perez said today that there is plenty of information linking Leppert to support of the union. Details are forthcoming, she said."SEIU has ample evidence of Mr. Leppert's pursuit of our endorsement and his support for working men and women to have a voice at work," she said.

Notice at the end it is a he said/she said kind of argument. He didn't seek it and they said he did. Problem for Leppert is they have evidence.

Now go to today's Dallas Morning News coverage and you find pictures of Leppert wearing an SEIU shirt, talking to SEIU members, and a letter to State Senator Royce West (D) in support of the union.

To paraphrase a line from the movie Backdraft, "that's your career (in this case campaign) dissipation light going off." 

For a candidate that is already having to shake off criticisms that he is the Mitt Romney of Texas (I was liberal before I was conservative), news about him and the SEIU could potentially torpedo a campaign that's already taking on water, and fast.

Social Media Stats Update for month of April

Each month, we're going to do our best to keep track of how the candidates are doing with Social Media. It's important to we are also, for facebook, using their official site and not their personal site. It's the job of the candidate to get friends over to the official site. Also, from now on, the rank will be on the increase from the previous month:

FACEBOOK
Roger Williams 6,721 +741
David Dewhurst: 21,767 +407
Tom Leppert 1,429 +99
Michael Williams 7,921  +85
Ted Cruz 57,565

Ted is the clear leader in facebook fans, however, it's important to note that he purchased a lot of facebook ads to get his numbers up for the Attorney General's race. It might be interesting to find out what the TEC's take might be to use a FB account for a state race and transfer it to a federal race considering you can't use state funds for a federal campaign.

TWITTER
Michael Williams 1,663 Followers @williamsfortx +727
Tom Leppert 1,399 Followers @tomleppert +229
David Dewhurst 4,727 Followers @dewhurst4texas +189
Roger Williams 906 Followers @rogerforsenate +49
Ted Cruz 10908 Followers @tedcruz

We've added a new track, the number actual tweets. It's interesting to note how much they are using twitter and communicating to the voters. Some have had their account longer, so this is just a baseline for future months:

TWEETS
Dewhurst 654
Cruz 463
R Williams 390
T Leppert 281
M Williams 109

Back after a brief hiatus

Sorry folks, some personal business with my family took up more time than I thought. I will have some postings today, but of course everyone's focus is on the death of the man who killed thousands of innocent Americans. May he rest in hell.