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Posted on 11/28/2009 11:05:15 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan
Nov. 23--AUSTIN A Fort Worth attorney Tom Schieffer dropped out the Texas governor's race today and urged the remaining Democratic candidates to unit behind Houston Mayor Bill White as the party's best chance to beat Republicans next fall.
Schieffer's withdrawal came amid strong reports that White, who is now running for the U.S. Senate, will switch races to run for governor as the Democratic consensus. White said he will make a decision by Dec. 4.
There was no immediate indication that other Democratic candidates planned to accept Schieffer's request. A spokeswoman for Austin entertainer Kinky Friedman said Friedman plans to remain in the race.
The rapid-fire developments, which come in advance of the Dec. 3 start of the month-long candidate filing period, would abruptly alter both the governor's race and the Senate race.
Schieffer, former U.S. ambassador in the Bush administration, was the first major candidate to enter the Democratic primary race for governor but reportedly has struggled to ignite enthusiasm. He has since drawn several opponents, including Austin author Kinky Friedman, Fort Worth educator Felix Alvarado, Whitehouse rancher Hank Gilbert and Houston hair care magnate Farouk Shami, who has pledged to put $10 million of his own money into the race.
White was one of two Democrats, along with former Comptroller John Sharp, seeking the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had been expected to resign while she challenges Gov Rick Perry in the Republican gubernatorial primary. But Hutchison recently revamped her timetable, and the expectations of prospective candidates, by announcing that she would remain in the Senate until after the March 2 primary.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates were scheduled to meet with State Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie today, but a Democratic source said the meeting had been planned in advance of Schieffer's decision to discuss party unity and develop a strategy for beating Republicans in the November general election.
Schieffer said discussed his plans with White on Sunday after driving to his home in Houston. It was then, he said at a mid-afternoon news conference, that he made his decision to withdraw.
"I am urging all of those who are not named Bill White" to withdraw and back the Houston mayor, Schieffer said, telling reporters that White has the best chance of raising money and attracting broad-based support. Schieffer cited his own problems with fund-raising as a major factor in his decision to withdraw.
White has repeatedly dismissed speculation that he planned to shift races, but the talk resurfaced after Hutchison announced her latest resignation timetable. White spokesman Katy Bacon said the mayor would have a statement after Schieffer's announcement.
"I will listen to your views on how we can best work together to do what is right for Texas," White said Monday in a press release.
As the developments spread in blog reports, Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, endorsed White as "the next governor of Texas," saying the Houston mayor can help deal "with the challenges of our times," ranging from jobs to health care.
Schieffer, who represented Fort Worth in the Legislature in the 1970s, began eying the race after returning to Texas following eight years of diplomatic service for President Bush, first as ambassador for Australia and later as ambassador to Japan. He announced an exploratory campaign in March after he and his wife drove toured Texas by car to re-familarize themselves with Texas and get a sense of the state's political landscape.
He formally entered the race on July 25, standing in front of Fort Worth's Luella Merrett Elementary, where he started his public education decades earlier. Throughout his campaign, he repeatedly portrayed himself as a life-long Democrat and assailed Perry Texas in the wrong direction. But he also confronted questions from Democratic activists over his long-time friendship with Bush, a one time investment partner in the Texas Rangers baseball organization.
"I think I served the country with distinction," Schieffer said of his service for Bush. "I think I did some good things while I was there."
He said he voted for Bush for Texas governor and president because of their friendship and business ties in the Texas Rangers baseball organization but stressed that he has otherwise been a consistent supporter of Democratic candidates.
Although Schieffer entered the race with the aura of a presumed front runner, Democratic insiders said he never seemed to gain traction and sometimes struggled to connect to rank-and-file voters. In a Nov. 4 poll by the University of Texas/Texas Tribune, he placed second among Democrats with 10 percent, running behind Friedman, who had 19 percent. Following the survey, he acknowledged that he needed to do a better job of selling himself to the voters.
Gilbert, the Democratic nominee for agriculture commissioner in 2006, depicted Schieffer as "an establishment candidate" and accused Schieffer of copying his ideas for education.
Schieffer stayed away from criticizing Democratic opponents and concentrated on what he called a "crisis of leadership" under Perry, citing statistics that he said placed Texas at or near the bottom in various social and education categories. He also called for boosting early childhood development, improving access to health care, helping uninsured children, stabilizing tuition rates, improving water and air quality, and using toll roads as a last resort.
In mid-summer campaign finance reports, Schieffer reported $505,842 in political contributions and a $200,000 loan from Lyndon Olson, a Waco rancher-businessman who is Schieffer's campaign treasurer. Schieffer also spent nearly $74,000 of his own money.
The biggest donations came from Dallas investor Edward "Rusty" Rose and his wife, Evelyn Potter Rose, who each donated $100,000. Schieffer, Rose and future President George W. Bush were in a partnership that bought the Rangers in 1989. Schieffer became team president in 1991 and oversaw construction of The Ballpark in Arlington.
Schieffer was elected to the Legislature in 1972, at the age of 25, and served three terms until losing a re-election bid in 1978.
Schieffer, who was born in Fort Worth and grew up in River Oaks and Benbrook, lives in Westworth Village. He is the younger brother of CBS newsman Bob Schieffer.
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To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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Freepmail me or ping me from the original thread to get on/off the 2010 Texas Governor's Race ping list.
I don’t follow Texas politics, but why would Hutchison, who is hardly the GOP’s best senator resign to run against another Republican? Is Rick Perry a bad governor? I thought you all liked him?
That’s the question on everyone’s mind down here. Why KBH insists on dividing the Republican party in Texas with a nasty primary race is beyond me.
...okay, so I’m not crazy. She’s just being ambitious as the cost of her own party.
__________________________
REMEMBER THIS,TEXANS:
Feds Have Built Only 32 Miles of 700 Mile Double-Border Fence Originally Mandated by Congress
“One reason DHS has been able to do this is an amendment that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Texas) slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill that Congress passed on December 18, 2007. Hutchison’s amendment put a loophole in the fence law that allowed the secretary of Homeland Security not to build the fence Congress had mandated the year before.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/43422
REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE FOR GOVERNOR
We all seem to want someone to dismantle the liberal messes already there, but the Republicans we get seem to just want to limit the damage of what's already been done. Texas is conservative in most places, but Austin is like San Fransisco of the South. How is Houston and Dallas sanctuary cities? Things like that are hard to go against when it's so mixed in with Texas politics. Most pols seem to just go along to get along. I want someone that will impeach judges and Mayors that do not reflect the laws of the state. Perry or Kay Bailey just aren't that kind of pols. In a communist dictatorship, they would purge all who go against them, but we just wanna be friends, I guess.
“REMEMBER THIS,TEXANS:
Feds Have Built Only 32 Miles of 700 Mile Double-Border Fence Originally Mandated by Congress
“One reason DHS has been able to do this is an amendment that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Texas) slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill that Congress passed on December 18, 2007. Hutchison’s amendment put a loophole in the fence law that allowed the secretary of Homeland Security not to build the fence Congress had mandated the year before.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/43422
REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE FOR GOVERNOR “
Thanks, just thought it needed as much post time as possible. She’ll never get my vote. As for Schieffer - never heard of him.
There's quite a few people upset at him about the proposed Trans Texas Corridor project due to the amount of land required for it. Also quite a few conservatives were upset about his executive order making the Gardasil vaccine mandatory for sixth grade girls to attend school.
Don’t forget about manditory seatbelts in the back seat ant the Anti-Tanning Law.
I don’t follow Texas politics, but why would Hutchison, who is hardly the GOP’s best senator resign to run against another Republican? Is Rick Perry a bad governor? I thought you all liked him?
Perry got less than 40% of the vote last time he was elected. At the end of this current term he’ll have served 10 years as gov. and 2 as Lt. Gov. If he would win again it will be 14 years as governor. It’s damn time for him to move on and go back to growing cotton up in Paint City. Texas doesn’t need a King for life.
The guy is a bred and born democrat. His father was an elected democrat and Perry was elected as a democrat to various Texas offices. In 1988 he was the Texas state chair for the Al Gore for President campaign. In 1989 he recognized the political winds changing in Texas and became a member of the GOP. He’ll blow with the wind no matter the direction.
In 95 days we’ll see who is the next nominee from the GOP.
Folks...Deport would get off his death bed to trash Rick Perry....he is a minority....but like all minorities he is vocal. Please keep that in mind.
What have I said that is untrue of Perry? He proposed taking the land at the rate of 1 sq. mile for every four miles of TTC. He issued an EO mandating vaccination of young girls with Gardasil. So no I don’t like him as I think it’s time for him to move on. That said I did vote for him as Lt. Gov. and for Gov. in the past two elections. But that is history and won’t happen this time.
Have a good one.
Thanks!
I live in California now, but I grew up in Texas and was good friends with Mr. Hutchison’s daughter. I’m probably not the best person to ask about why I like KBH over Perry. (I’ve only met her once, so I really don’t have a personal opinion about her. I’ve just watched her career because I knew the family.)
I’m also an Aggie which you would think make me like Perry more.
Perry is more like a career politician. He does what it takes to get elected. He’s smarmy. I really didn’t like his stand on Guardisil or the trans-Texas corridor.
KBH is definitely a career politician, but she’s not as smarmy as Perry, and she has always solidly been a republican. Her husband has been involved with the Texas Republican party for over 30 years. I know he has a lot of respect for Reagan. He’s also the reason I became a republican. He used to take us kids out to post up campaign posters and such.
I don’t like KBH’s stance on the wall and of course she voted for the bailouts.
Neither one is perfect. I personally think Perry should have stepped aside. He’s been governor long enough. However, I really don’t think it’s good for KBH to step down as senator to run for governor.
It’s not a great situation.
In 2005, she told a group of supporters that she "would love to be governor". Rumors in 2008 were that she's tired of Washington and wants to go back to Texas to "raise" with her kids, Governor of Texas is hardly the job for that. She said in 1994 that she would not hold her Senate seat for more than two terms, she's in her third. She also said that she would resign to run for Governor, she now says that she will resign after the primary.
Perry panders to the Religious Right (and I use Religious, rather than Christian, since he also panders to conservative Muslims) every time he runs, but in practice, he sells out to big business (foreign construction company, big drug company, etc). KBH is a card carrying member of the country club Republicans. The Dems have a big business democrat, a populist, and a typical demo fighting it out.
Thanks for the ping, Paleo. Interesting & informative thread. Thanks to all posters.
Schieffer who? Guess this is why he dropped out of the race.
Looks like KBH is causing a traffic jam on the Democrats side too.
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