Cornyn takes on East Texas
Posted on 10/04/2002 1:58:57 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Cornyn takes on East Texas
10/04/2002
TEXARKANA, Texas - Governing is a team effort, John Cornyn tells voters, and he's not the guy who called President Bush's tax cuts "devastating" and "irresponsible."
That would be his Senate rival, Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas who Mr. Cornyn says is a big-city liberal "who just doesn't get it."
"We're not running for mayor of Texas. ... Politics is a team sport, and I'm proud to be on the team that's led by our great president, George W. Bush," Mr. Cornyn told two dozen backers at a Texarkana country club Thursday, scooping up $10,000 for his effort to succeed Sen. Phil Gramm
The Kirk campaign has rejected the complaints and it fired back Thursday that the Republican's ideas to change Social Security investments risk the financial health of workers.
In the vast conservative reaches of East Texas, many voters hew to their Democratic traditions, but only if they're satisfied that the candidate asking for their vote is strong on national security, tax cuts, family values and gun rights.
"I think our future depends on his election. This will control the balance of things in Washington," said Bowie County Commissioner John Addington, the first Republican elected in the county. "It's not just because he's a Bush team man. He's the best man for the job."
Ramona Lewis, a retiree who used to work for Mr. Addington when he ran the Red River Army Depot, said she can't abide the thought of Mr. Kirk going to Washington.
"Look at all the things he stands for: abortion, gays and lesbians. It's like daylight and dark, from a moral Christian perspective," said Ms. Lewis, a resident of Maud, west of Texarkana.
Ms. Lewis may not count as a swing voter, but there are plenty of East Texans who haven't made up their minds, and Mr. Kirk plans to spend Saturday and Sunday barnstorming across East Texas to try to reach them.
No clear winner
Dr. Larry Carter, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Tyler - another city Mr. Cornyn visited on Thursday - said both candidates need to spend as much time as they can in the region.
AP Senate candidate John Cornyn appeared with Tyler Detectives Clayton Perrett (left) and John Ragland at a rally. |
"Neither one has seemed to set East Texas on fire. They like for them to come through and show respect but neither one has it locked up," he said. "No one has a clue about East Texas. ... George W. killed them over here, but nobody else is that strong. Not [Gov. Rick] Perry, not Cornyn."
Democrats still outnumber Republicans in this third of the state, at least in terms of party affiliation. But voting patterns indicate plenty of ticket-splitting, even among the famed Yellow Dog Democrats - the ones who'd rather elect a mutt than a Republican.
"You have to be conservative over here no matter which party you're in. If you mention you're a liberal, and you stick one of the Clintons in there, that's as low as you can go. That's fighting words," Dr. Carter said. He predicted that Mr. Cornyn's efforts to tie himself to the president will help.
Still, he said, "Kirk's made a good impression over here. He's pretty friendly, if nothing else."
The region's rural character and expansiveness mean it is divided into several TV markets, so candidates intent on pursuing an air barrage have to buy time out of state, in Shreveport, La., from where stations reach into places such as Marshall and Longview.
Sixty percent of Bowie County voters supported Mr. Bush for president, a slightly lower margin than he won in his 1998 gubernatorial race. But this is hardly a reliable GOP turf. That same year, Democrat John Sharp beat Rick Perry in the lieutenant governor balloting, with 54 to 45 percent of the vote. And Bowie sided with other Democrats who lost statewide, like Mr. Sharp, in the contests for comptroller, agriculture commissioner, railroad commissioner and state appeals courts.
East Texas tour
Mr. Cornyn was supposed to hit three East Texas cities on Thursday, but he had to cancel his Nacogdoches stop because the "first responders" who were supposed to appear with him - police and emergency workers - were busy responding, helping refugees from Hurricane Lili.
He started the day in Tyler, the unofficial capital of East Texas, appearing with police and emergency workers at the public library to voice his support for Mr. Bush's proposal to spend an extra $3.5 billion to train and equip local authorities to deal with bioterrorism and other threats.
"When you dial 911, that phone doesn't ring in Washington, D.C. It doesn't even ring in Austin. It rings right here in Tyler, Texas," Mr. Cornyn said.
Consistent pattern
Smith County is reliably Republican. Mr. Bush claimed 71 percent of the votes when he ran for president. Two years earlier, when every GOP statewide candidate carried Smith County, Mr. Cornyn outpolled Democrat Jim Mattox 2-1 - a substantially better showing than he made statewide. Mr. Bush pulled a 3-1 margin in his re-election as governor.
Flanked by Tyler police and emergency workers in a library auditorium, Mr. Cornyn vowed to support federal terrorism insurance.
William Bellenfant, senior vice president at Tyler's Mother Frances Hospital, and head of its emergency medical service, said he was disturbed by Mr. Kirk's recent comments about Iraq, when he questioned whether Mr. Cornyn would be so keen for a confrontation if the first half-million troops came from wealthy and white families - a statement for which Mr. Kirk quickly expressed regret.
"We need to get beyond that focus on things that divide us," Mr. Bellenfant said. "I think the president needs all the support he can get from people of all parties, and I think John Cornyn has shown positively that he can support the current president."
Social Security debate
As Mr. Cornyn stumped on national security, the Kirk campaign blasted his support for GOP efforts to "privatize" Social Security by allowing workers to invest part of their retirement savings in the stock market, an approach that Democrats consider too risky and costly to taxpayers.
Mr. Cornyn countered that Mr. Kirk has offered no alternative for saving Social Security from the ruin it faces in the next few decades, emphasizing that his plan would protect the pensions of seniors while letting younger workers decide if they want to invest some of their payroll taxes in stocks or safe government securities.
"This is just a typical scare tactic," he said. "I would point out, too, that Ron Kirk and his wife have done very will in the stock market."
E-mail tgillman@dallasnews.com
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
Texas: State Attorney General John Cornyn is running close in the polls to Democrat Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas. Current Senator Phil Graham is retiring.
Last reported poll done by Democrats: Cornyn 35% Kirk 39% Fairbanks Maslin Maullin & Assoc. (D) 9/22-24 3.6%
John Cornyn for Senate, Inc.
P.O. Box 13026
Austin, Texas 78711
..."Kirk's made a good impression over here. He's pretty friendly, if nothing else."
I'm afraid to ask, but why didn't the city Cornyn people want the bumper stickers?
FReeper McLynnan, I believe, was the intermediary who went and asked them. They said "Oh, no, thank you, we have plenty of bumperstickers."
I'm not sure if the contact person understood what was being offered or maybe was only a foot soldier and not a real decision maker.
West Virginia wanted them, so I didn't argue with Texas.
P.S. The Allard for Senate campaign in Colorado turned them down, too. But that one I understood, as Strickland has come out foresquare for the President, and the Allard people are trying to get a more liberal state to vote for him. The contact person diplomatically said they wanted to spend their energies getting the Allard name out.
I sent a bunch to Georgia, and I note that the last poll had Chambliss only 4 points down from Cleland, and I think it is Iraq that has put Georgia in play.
I know many even here in Dallas who are staunch conservatives yet vote for Democrats every time. Why? Because of horror stories of Civil War Reconstruction passed down from generation to generation. Very sad.
Your stickers promote a generic Republican vote, which is great, but the Cornyn campaign workers are undoubtedly more focused on his election.
John Cornyn 42, Ron Kirk 30 (Texas Senate)
And then there's the Broken Glass Republicans that would rather vote for a dead jackass than a live "Democrat"!
Do the people of Texas give any thought to the meaning of the SCNJ scam which says that the two major parties are jointly the Establishment?The only place I know of where a political party can be the Establishment in law is in a dictatorship. Here, the major parties can only stay major by keeping in touch with we-the-people--and upholding their own reputations.
The best remedy for an uppity political party is defeat at the polls--not just in NJ but nationwide.
Amen !! 
Dittos !! 
This Gillman guy seems to have a pretty good handle on east Texas politics. A more conservative and independent bunch I think you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere. A question I don't have an answer for is why east Texans have been a little slower than the rest of the South(cap intentional) converting to solid Pubbie. As Lieberman would say, "troubling". The notion that it harkens back to reconstruction days is arguable, but the Dim roots do run deep, and it started somewhere. It will take more steady diggin', and more importantly education, to bring 'em the rest of the way.
Wearing my hat as a CCRM Media Bias Fighter, I would lay much of the blame at the feet of our "free" press. In fact I would lay much of the blame for most of the ills in our country at the feet of the media, but that's another story...
FGS
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