Chad’s Morning Brief: Election 2014 is Officially Underway in Texas, Rick Perry on Ted Cruz, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of November 11, 2013. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.
Election 2014 Is Officially Underway
Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis made it official over the weekend has the filed for governor. According to the MySA.com, the two rallied supporters on the first day of the filing period.
Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott and Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis showcased their warring visions for Texas as they filed for governor Saturday.
The two, who are expected to be their parties' gubernatorial nominees, rallied supporters as they filed their paperwork on the first day that candidates could do so for their party primaries.
“What I know is that Texas is not ready to go down the pathway of this ultra-Washington, D.C., California-style liberalism that Wendy Davis represents,” Abbott said. “If Texans want to keep Texas conservative, keep creating jobs, improve education opportunities for the children of this state, they need to elect Greg Abbott as their next governor.”
Davis, who has an uphill battle to try to reverse Democrats' long absence from statewide office with her effort to succeed GOP Gov. Rick Perry, didn't mention Abbott or Perry by name but said Texas needs new leadership.
“It's time for a governor who believes that you don't have to buy a place in Texas' future — inside deals, special-interest tax breaks, favors for political cronies. That's not how we ought to be doing business in Texas. Instead, it's time to give all Texans a voice in their future and a place in Texas' future,” said Davis, who cited her support for educational opportunity as the foundation for a strong economy.
Each candidate was asked about abortion by reporters after they spoke to supporters.
Davis, who rose to fame by filibustering strict abortion regulations this summer, said recently in the Rio Grande Valley that she is “pro-life,” referring to her support for disadvantaged children and their parents.
She said Saturday she was trying to “get away from labels” in using the phrase and focus on Texas' best interest.
“I will never back away from the position that I hold that women should be safe, that access to abortion should be legal and safe, and that protecting women's health under the law and the constitutional protections available to them is very important,” she said.
Abbott, who opposes abortion, twice failed to directly answer whether he would like to — or seek to — overturn Roe vs. Wade, by which the U.S. Supreme Court set out the right to abortion.
“My view is that as a pro-life Texan, we want to do all we can to protect life in the state of Texas,” Abbott said. He said that's what the new state law does “and we will continue that fight.” Asked if he supports the Supreme Court decision, Abbott said, “You know I'm not a supporter of Roe v. Wade.”
In citing his office's defense of the new abortion restrictions in court, he said the law is meant “to ensure that we do all we possibly can to protect the health and safety of women” and “do more to protect innocent life.”
As Davis works to attract women voters as part of her effort to build a winning coalition, Abbott said women can be assured that “just as I have fought against domestic violence, just as I have fought to arrest sex predators, just as I have fought to collect more than $27 billion in child support ... I will continue to be a champion for women economically in this state.”
Davis, who has name ID because of her filibuster and is expected to be able to raise the money needed to run a competitive race against the well-financed Abbott, presented hope to backers. “For the first time in a long time, we have a clear path to victory,” she said.
“Imagine a Capitol where all Texans are heard, and politicians are there to do the people's business. That reality is absolutely within our reach,” she said.
Wendy Davis can try and shed all the labels she wants, but no one is buying it. She is a far-left liberal who would take Texas in the direction of financial ruin. Her policies aren't good for Texans.
Perry on Cruz
If Rick Perry runs for President in 2016, he could face Ted Cruz in the Republican Primary. Right now Cruz is polling much better than Perry and the belief is that Cruz is much more conservative than Perry. The question many have is how Perry would hit Cruz in a possible primary fight. The Dallas Morning News has an example of what Perry's line might be.
Gov. Rick Perry returned to Iowa on Thursday, meeting with business and political leaders and shunting aside frequent questions about whether he is hawk-eyeing another presidential run.
Iowa will be the first state to hold a presidential contest in 2016, and Perry said that if he were to run again, he’d visit the state often. The governor touted his record in three terms in Texas, along with the state’s economic resilience.
“It’s fun to be back in Iowa again and see some old familiar faces and continue a conversation that we started almost two years ago,” Perry said after a business luncheon sponsored by Americans for Prosperity.
The governor has said it’s too far in the future to discuss whether another White House run is possible. Perry finished fifth in the 2012 Iowa caucuses after disastrous debate performances and gaffes on the campaign trail doomed his once-promising campaign.
Perry, who has announced he won’t run for governor again, said his goal over the next year is to promote GOP state leaders in 2014 elections. He is traveling through the nation arguing that red states have better economic policies and business growth than blue states.
It has roiled Democratic governors and kept him in the national spotlight. And it provides him a platform to talk about how state governments are working while Washington flounders.
“The answers for the country are going to be found in these state capitals, not in Washington, D.C.,” Perry told The Dallas Morning News in an interview.
He said he and most Americans are tired of Washington brinkmanship. While polls show most Americans blame the GOP for forcing last month’s federal government shutdown, Perry said he doesn’t believe it harms Republicans any more than it does Democrats.
“It’s ‘a pox on both their houses,’ is what Americans think, because Washington is dysfunctional,” Perry said.
Asked if he’s dismayed that a fellow Texan, Sen. Ted Cruz, pushed for the shutdown, Perry said, “Everybody gets to go out and do their thing. That’s his thing. My thing is governing.”
Don't be surprised if the above line in bold is Perry's theme for 2016.
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