Sen. Dan Patrick’s general consultant, Allen Blakemore held a tele-conference this afternoon to discuss their victory Tuesday and the upcoming runoff. I had to laugh when Blakemore talked about Patrick winning the areas with people, eventually saying that David Dewhurst is liked by cattle and farm animals while Dan Patrick is liked by people. Ouch.
You can listen to the tele-conference below:
While we were on the call, Dr. Steve Hotze and the Conservative Republicans of Texas released a Baselice poll showing Sen. Patrick with a strong lead in the runoff.
Baselice Poll – Dan Patrick vs David Dewhurst 2014 Runoff
One of the topics addressed was campaign finance. The question was if Patrick could compete financially with Dewhurst. Blakemore said that this campaign had been a little different in that this was the first time Dewhurst had loaned his campaign money rather than just opening his checkbook. That isn’t technically true because Dewhurst has loaned his campaign money in the past, as I noted here. But I think that in the broader sense, Blakemore was correct because Dewhurst hasn’t, as of yet, poured personal money into this race.
I asked Blakemore the obvious question – after the results of the Baselice poll, do you think Dewhurst can see the writing on the wall and is thinking about bowing out. Blakemore said that those discussions are probably part of their campaign but I needed to ask Dewhurst. True enough on both accounts.
But how do I broach that question to a guy that I support and admire? Tough call. I do not see a way for David to win this race, even if he spends millions on negative advertising. Think about the personal attacks on Patrick over the last couple of weeks of the campaign, including Dewhurst’s, and how they didn’t move the polls in the direction hoped. Over 70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of statewide Republican primary voters rejected him after 10 years in office. I hope that David and his family are seriously thinking about the damage that a very negative campaign will do to his legacy. Sometimes, a graceful exit is the right thing to do, both for your own legacy and for the good of the Republican party.
As I said before, there is no need to be scared of Dan Patrick as Lt. Governor. Look at his work as committee chair of Public Education before you think about abandoning the party and skipping the box or voting for the Democrat.