Patrick v Van Arsdale

This has the potential to be popcorn-worthy.

Republican Sen. Dan Patrick says criticism he has leveled against one of the House members from his district is based on the Republican's votes, but it also appears to have an element of payback from the 2006 elections.

Patrick, R-Houston, recently sent his campaign precinct chairs an e-mail that fell just short of endorsing Patrick business partner Michael Kubosh in a re-election challenge to state Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, R-Tomball. Patrick did not name Van Arsdale in the e-mail, but accused him of doing the "Austin shuffle."

Van Arsdale in the 2006 primary had endorsed one of Patrick's primary opponents and sent out an e-mail questioning Patrick's residency and honesty.

Patrick, a talk show host on KSEV radio, said he is ignoring the last campaign in his complaints about Van Arsdale.

"He (Van Arsdale) was the only one who came out and, you might say, campaigned in a negative way," Patrick said. "I could care less about that. My focus is on the issues and only the issues."

Remember, this is the same Dan Patrick who sent out a mailer calling Rep. Fred Hill a snake not too long ago. You might say he knows a thing or to about negative campaiging himself.

Patrick said he won his Senate seat last year with 80 percent of the vote in some portions of his district. He said that means he expects the House members in his district to vote the way he does in representing their constituents.

"It's clear that Mr. Van Arsdale has not voted in line with his district, and he has surely not voted in line with me," Patrick said.

Kubosh said he is still exploring a race against Van Arsdale. He said he did not talk to Patrick about the e-mail before it was sent out.

[...]

Kubosh voted in the 2006 Democratic primary and ran as a Democrat against Patrick.

It's more accurate to say that Kubosh "ran" as a "Democrat" against Patrick in 2006, since there's little evidence he did any actual campaigning, and less evidence that he shares any values with most Democrats. Yet despite being little more than the Not Dan Patrick option on the ballot last year, he still ran ahead of nearly every actual Democrat on the ballot in SD07. Which is to say that fewer people voted for Dan Patrick than for just about any other Republican, or if you prefer that more voted against him than just about any other Republican. Remember that when Patrick touts how much support he got in the election.

Anyway. Burka mentioned this in passing a couple of weeks ago. In most respects, this is a pretty normal primary fight, driven as much by personality as anything else. Nothing unique to Republicans, of course, though any time you've got Dan Patrick teaming up with Debbie Riddle, the unintentional comedy factor is cranked up. So fire away, folks. We'll enjoy the show.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 19, 2007 to Election 2008