You can smell the desperation.
Still a crook any way you look
There’s one thing Republicans really want Texans to be thinking about as they prepare to cast their ballots for U.S. Senate – China.
In the last week, several groups backing Attorney General Ken Paxton have dropped millions on broadcast advertisements that warn about the Chinese Communist Party buying land in the state.
In an election where affordability has dominated voter’s concerns, the threat of Chinese land ownership may seem like a random topic. Even some Republican operatives think so, with one calling it the party’s “eighth best issue.” Others see it as an attempt to win back Republicans who aren’t sold on Paxton before the campaign enters its final stretch.
“It is pretty niche,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a former campaign manager for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. He said the message is definitely going for the core activist base, but that “Cornyn Republicans also care about this.”
Republican enthusiasm dropped after the bruising primary between Paxton and Cornyn. A Fox News poll from July showed Paxton winning about 90% of Republicans when a candidate’s share of their own party is usually expected to be much higher. Paxton was only winning about 80% of Republicans in a Texas Politics Project poll from last month. These surveys also showed Talarico winning significantly more independent voters.
“The most recent polling continues to indicate that Republican enthusiasm is lower than expected for Texas elections, and that not all Republicans have consolidated behind the top of the ticket candidate,” said Josh Blank, director of research at the Texas Politics Project. “What’s going on right now is not a general election message. It’s a message aimed squarely at Republican voters to get them reengaged and to get them mobilized.”
[…]
Blank said the ads also underscore how Republicans have lost some of the most salient talking points that drove the last election.
“Immigration and border security have declined significantly as a primary concern of Texas Republicans,” he said. “The evaporation of this focal point has left Republican candidates searching for stand-in issues that mobilize the same kind of concerns among the Republican base about changes to culture and society.”
As campaign season begins to heat up, several said it’s not quite time yet for campaigns to put out their major general election messaging, and around mid-September ads will reorient to issues that concern wider swaths of voters. Blank said “it would be surprising if we’re seeing a lot of ads in late October about foreign land ownership.”
Regardless, Republicans in Texas are heading into a tough midterm. The pressure is on for Paxton to win back any voters he’s lost.
“I don’t think a bunch of Republicans are going to go vote for Talarico, but I do think it’s a possibility some of the Cornyn voters don’t vote for Paxton,” Steinhauser said. “The big wild card is independent voters.”
I suspect I won’t be able to avoid seeing some of these ads while I’m innocently trying to watch college football. It’s impossible to really disengage these days. Maybe we’ll see some effect in the polling, but even if we do, who knows if this was the main cause or if it had anything at all to do with it. I’m sure Paxton is just relieved that someone, anyone is spending money on his behalf. Link via Campos.
They’re hoping GOP voters won’t notice that after decades of so-called pro business deregulation/tax cuts and, inept, corrupt, bigoted Republican control of all of the governmental levers, everyone in Texas, including GOP voters, is materially worse off, except Abbot, Patrick, Paxton, their cronies and billionaire owners.
If an epidemic of Chinese land ownership in Texas is really something we should be concerned about (doubtful), like the sudden resurgence of the measles, it occurred on their watch.
The Giant Chinese Land Grab hovers around 1% of Texas’s total area, depending on who you’re asking. But they’re furrin commies (with a kajillion private companies benefiting from loads of government support) who don’t look like us, speak English, and have their own secret code …sorry, alphabet, so we gotta hate ’em.
Edit:
**strike “speak English, and” and insert “talk in a totally different language”**
If you are watching college football, you aren’t innocent.
Perhaps the wildcarders should be listened to more.
Why? – Because they will be easier to persuade than committed Trumpers and oldstyle Republicans.
So what do wildcards want? Not just to hear (campaign bla-bla, i.e., “messaging”), but policy “goods.”
Where is the serious policy discourse for seriously thinking wildcards that are watching and shaking or scratching their heads at all the propaganda?
On YouTube Talarico keeps imploring me for $5 (“Five Dollars”) to stop the billionaires.
What kind of math is that?
He might be better off with my two cents.