We’re two weeks out from the start of early voting, and I don’t feel like I know any more about the prospective candidates for Lieutenant Governor than I did when they first announced their candidacies.
[T]he odds remain long that a Democrat will knock off [Lt. Gov. David] Dewhurst in the fall, said Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political science professor who studies state and national politics.
[Marc] Katz still will be selling sandwiches next year, Jillson predicted.
“Ronnie Earle and Linda Chavez-Thompson have visible strengths,” he said. “Earle is a Texas populist in the (Ralph) Yarborough/(Jim) Hightower tradition, and Chavez-Thompson is a national Hispanic activist. Neither is terribly well-known. Hard to tell who wins the primary, but neither is likely to have the money to stand in against Dewhurst.”
I can’t argue with any of that. Not only do none of them have any money, at least as of the January finance reports, but as far as I can tell none of them has a real campaign, either. I have not gotten as much as a press release from any of them, which is not the case for any other candidate that has a realistic shot at being on the ballot in November. For all of the excitement and apparent establishment-backing of the Chavez-Thompson candidacy, I expected more. There’s time for November, and I don’t think she or Earle would have to match Dewhurst in fundraising, but more than this is certainly needed.