O'Rourke Says He Will Not Attend Friday's Debate With Cruz [#TXPOLITICS 24/7]

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat running against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in Texas' U.S. Senate race, announced that he will not attend a debate that had been scheduled for this Friday, blustering that it "is not going to happen."

The Daily Caller reports that O’Rourke was appearing at the 2018 Texas Disability Issues Forum in Austin when he said, "Friday in Dallas is not going to happen, but I'm convinced we will debate. I'm convinced there will be a number of debates."

O'Rourke complained that Cruz's campaign has "attempted to dictate" the time, the moderators, and the subjects for the debates. He said, "We're working through those differences, and we're trying to introduce more of a collaborative style to the negotiations than he may be used to."

Lupe's Lost A Gun - Gubernatorial Candidate, Former Dallas Co. Sheriff, Misplaced Gun Loaned To Her By Dept. [#TXPolitics 24/7]

"Janey's Got a Gun," Aerosmith wailed in their 1989 hit song, but Lupe? Well, Lupe has misplaced hers.

That would be gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez, former Sheriff of Dallas County, who has reportedly lost a gun issued to her in 2011.

Authorities are trying to determine how it disappeared, and it's a safe bet that her campaign is currently in meltdown mode.

The Star-Telegram reports that Valdez was issued a Beretta 9mm pistol on Oct. 3, 2011, as a loaner from the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department Range masters gun range inventory to carry as her on-duty weapon.

Valdez was lent the firearm after her personal gun, which happened to the same model gun as the loaner, “sustained a malfunction,” the police report stated. It is likely that the weapon, valued at $649, could have been stolen or misplaced during Valdez’s transition, the police report stated.

She resigned her position with the Sheriff's Office in May, when she began running for governor - the first openly gay candidate to do so.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

Of course, Valdez is facing political fallout from the loss of the weapon, and her failure to report it in a timely manner - and from some unlikely sources.

The Dallas News editorialized, "Not having a clear accounting for this gun sends the wrong signal to law enforcement officers and the public about the seriousness of losing a weapon. Ultimately, this is a matter of whom we trust to carry a gun on the public's behalf."

#EmpowerTexans Highlights "Least Popular Lawmaker In America" #NancyPelosi's Endorsement Of Beto O'Rourke [#TXPolitics 24/7]

Conservative group Empower Texans has taken a swipe at Democratic US Senate Candidate Beto O'Rourke after he earned the endorsement of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The free-market focused non-profit clearly hopes to stir Republicans to action in November and help incumbent Ted Cruz by highlighting what it no doubt sees as a damaging endorsement by the California Democrat, a liberal lightning rod whom the group calls "the least popular lawmaker in America."

Under a scary, black-and-white photo of Pelosi, the group's Capitol Bureau Chief, Brandon Waltens, wrote on its website:

"Earlier this week Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi descended upon the Lone Star State to raise money and support for Democrats running for Congress, who, if enough of them win, allow for her to retake the position of Speaker of the House.

While campaigning for Veronica Escobar, the Democrat nominee and likely heir to the congressional seat currently held by US Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, Pelosi praised O’Rourke for his position on immigration, reportedly telling the crowd she was, “very excited about the leadership that Beto O’Rourke has brought to [immigration issues] and what hopefully he will bring to the Senate.” 

The top of the ticket for Texas Democrats, O’Rourke is running against Sen. Ted Cruz in a race that has received attention and fawning from progressive activists and liberal media nationwide.

As President Donald Trump has pointed out in recent weeks, Pelosi’s position on immigration is weak, to say the least, with Trump calling Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues out on their dream for open borders."

#GovAbbott Tweets, Then Deletes, Mis-Attributed Churchill Quote About Fascism [#TXPolitics 24/7]

Like many overzealous social media users, Gov. Greg Abbott fell prey to a fake quote early Tuesday, sharing it and then deleting it later in the morning once he realized the mistake. Twitter, and the media, were of course unforgiving.

On Tuesday morning, Abbott tweeted a meme that mistakenly attributed a quote about fascism to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The quote states, "The fascists of the future will call themselves anti-fascists."

The Dallas Morning News reported:

Abbott tweeted the meme at 1:10 a.m. Tuesday, adding "some insights are timeless." He deleted it at around 10:20 a.m, after it had been retweeted more than 1,400 times. More than 2,600 people responded, many of whom pointed out that the quote was not Churchill's.

The governor's spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment before it was deleted. Abbott was then asked about the tweet at a press conference early Tuesday afternoon.

"What I tweeted was a sentiment that I had," Abbott said at a news conference on changes to the state's bail laws. "It was irrelevant to me who may or may not have said that in the past. I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism for saying it. If no one else said it, attribute the quote to me because it's what I believe in."

The graphic was actually created for the satirical website 9gag.com, which is known for its off-the-wall and sometimes off-color posts. Millions of visitors share memes from the site, and from others like it.

The paper, like others, of course took Abbott to task for other facts he got wrong on twitter, such as the story that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had threatened to fire players who didn't stand for the national anthem.

The fact is, the Internet is awash in falsely attributed quotes. Thousands are falsely attributed to Confucius, the Dalai Lama, and the Buddha. Even former presidents like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are the frequent targets of many falsely attributed quotations.

Sites like quoteinvestigator.com/ and Wikiquote are good places to check before sharing a graphic online. We also might suggest to both Gov. Abbott and Pres. Trump that 2 am and 3 am tweets may not be the best idea.

Good News/Bad News For #TedCruz: First TV Ad Released; Cook Political Report Downgrades Race [#TXPolitics 24/7]

Sen. Ted Cruz released his first TV ad Friday, but also got some bad news from an influential political source.

His ad, "Harvey," touts the incumbent Republican's efforts, both on the ground in-state and back in Washington, DC, to deal with the cleanup efforts after Hurricane Harvey swept through the state last year. (Watch the ad, below)

A news release on the senator's campaign site says, in part:

"When Hurricane Harvey came ashore last August, Senator Cruz was on the scene to be with storm victims. After the waters receded, Senator Cruz got to work helping his neighbors recover and rebuild.

In Texas, Senator Cruz dedicated his staff to ensure recovery efforts were occurring in the fastest manner possible. This included visiting the affected communities multiple times, distributing supplies and later helping cut government red tape. In Washington, Senator Cruz led the effort in the Senate to pass major disaster relief bills providing billions in needed relief to Texans impacted by Harvey. These measures were critical in the recovery efforts for Texas."

But just as fortune was blessing Cruz with the goodwill that surely will come with this ad, it was taking part of that away with a bit of unwelcome news.

The influential Cook Political Report is moving the US Senate race from "Safe Republican" status to "LEAN Republican." That's jaw-dropping in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. But polling has shown Cruz 11 points ahead of Beto O'Rourke, his Democratic opponent (Quinnipiac’s May 23-29 survey) to within two points in the Texas Lyceum poll (July 9-26 of 441 likely voters.)

"Suffice it to say," write's the Cook Political Report's Jennifer E. Duffy, "that O’Rourke has made incredible progress in a pretty red state, at least when it comes to running for statewide office. The race moves to Lean Republican. Whether it ever gets to Toss Up remains to be seen."

Few political observers, and few Republicans, are predicting an O'Rourke win at this point. But many GOP officials in the state are probably not at all OVER confident at this point.

It's important to note that before it was released, Cruz's pollster Chris Wilson published an article on Medium calling out the Lyceum's alleged past bias and oversampling errors.

"Dating back to 2008 the Texas Lyceum has generously given Democrats a massive house effect boost of seven (7!!!) points," he wrote, "The Texas Lyceum drastically overestimates the share of Hispanic voters in the Lone Star state. This of course has the impact of decreasing the white vote share under 50%."

#TedCruz Camp Attacks #BetoORourke For Taking PAC Money After Swearing It Off [#TXPolitics 24/7]

A spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz says Cruz's Democratic opponent, Beto O'Rourke, is "misleading" voters, because he's taking funds from an anti-Israel Political Action Committee after saying he wouldn't accept PAC funding. O'Rourke's campaign denies the charge.

In a release put out this week, the campaign, after noting that O'Rourke said he wouldn't accept any PAC donation, saying they had "…really corrupted our democracy," Cruz spokesperson Emily Miller is actually taking funds as a congressman from at least one, J Street PAC, which she called "anti-Israel."

She said O’Rourke, "travels all over Texas claiming that PACs are corrupt, and he’s made his alleged rejection of PAC influence a cornerstone of his campaign. But now we know that O’Rourke’s actions have not matched his words, and he has accepted significant fundraising support from the extremist, yet influential, anti-Israel J Street PAC to aid his candidacy. If O’Rourke does believe that PAC support is corrupting, then he should immediately return the $172,285 raised for him by J-Street PAC."

The J Street PAC speaks glowingly about O'Rourke on its website, but says it did not contribute directly to O'Rourke's campaign. Rather, the group said it used its resources to collect contributions from "371 unique donors" on the candidate's behalf, according to The Dallas Morning News. The funds were then "bundled" and contributed to the campaign, a common DC practice.

O'Rourke campaign spokesman Chris Evans said the campaign is, "proud of the 215,714 individual contributions coming from real people that helped us out raise the sitting senator and his PACs by more than two to one in the last quarter."

The O'Rourke campaign website links to an article in the Independent Recorder headlined, "Beto O'Rourke advised PACs to remain outside of his race. They aren't listening."

In Bombshell Announcement, #Austin Mayor Pulls Plug On #CodeNext, Controversial, Multi-Year Rewrite Of Land Development Code [#TXPolitics 24/7]

Austin Mayor Steve Adler has called for the city to "cease" the CodeNext process, the controversial overhaul of the city's land development code that began in early 2017.

In a letter posted Wednesday afternoon to the City Council message board, Adler cited the growing divisiveness and a "poisoned process" to rewrite Austin's land-use development code.

The code, which was championed by Adler, has seen numerous delays, and much pushback from the community. The rewrite is over budget and has cost taxpayers at least $8.5 million in fees to contracted consultants, mostly to California-based Opticos Design Inc., reports the Austin Business Journal.

Divisions and rancorous debate raged over CodeNext's plans to envision many neighborhoods as more dense, which opponents argued would destroy their character.

#LyceumPoll: US Senate Race Close; Statewide Republicans Have Wide Leads, Including Gov. #GregAbbott, Lt. Gov. #DanPatrick [#TXPolitics 24/7]

The 12th Annual Texas Lyceum Poll, conducted from July 9-26, 2018, is being rolled out today, and Republicans will surely be happy with the results in most races.

For  governor, among likely voters, Gov. Greg Abbott’s lead has grown to 16 points, with 47% expressing support for the incumbent Republican Governor to 31% for Democrat Lupe Valdez.

For Lt. Governor, among likely voters, Dan Patrick’s leads with 39%, with 29% expressing support for Mike Collier.

The US Senate remains a tight one, as Sen. Ted Cruz battles the first strong Democratic challenger for a statewide race in decades. Among likely voters, the margin between Cruz and O’Rourke is unchanged, with 41% expressing support for the incumbent Cruz, 39% expressing support for O’Rourke.

For TX Attorney General, among likely voters, incumbent Republican Ken Paxton leads Democrat Justin Nelson 35% to 25%, obviously with a large chunk of the electorate undecided or uninterested in this race.

A majority of Texans say that things in the US are off on the wrong track (53%), compared to 34% of Texans who say that things are moving in the right direction.