Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bush's Iron Triangle backing Kay?

I have gotten some tips from friendly readers and people in casual conversations about which political professions are lining up behind which Texas Governor candidates.

The word on the street is that Bush's "Iron Triangle" of Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, and Joe Allbaugh, not to mention others are all supporting Kay at varying levels. Bush money guy Ambassador Jeanne Johnson Phillips, a Hunt Oil bigwig, is also advising Kay, and Laura Bush's former Chief of Staff Andi Ball is a Senate staff senior adviser for Kay in Austin. Jim Francis and Pat Oxford, big Bush pals, are "overseeing" the Kay campaign.

This is the word on the street. I won't go too much into the lower level flacks, but Kay has brought in some Giuliani people (wasn't Rick Mr. Giuliani?) to run the show... a guy from Wisconsin, someone from Texas Victory '08, plus Hans "and Frans" Klingler from the Republican Party of Texas. You've also got Todd Olsen and that crew.

On the Rick side, you've got a lot of his same people as before, with maybe some less well known names. Dave Carney, who was the elder Bush's political guy, is an adviser, along with a bunch of Rick campaign alumni spread out all over state politics. The Delisi duo comes to mind. Also hearing that Rick will be tapping into manpower from pro-life groups for his field staff. How formally or informally all of these people are advising Team Rick remains to be seen.

It looks like the sides are lining up... both sides seem to be really conscious and aware of who the other side is bringing in to help run the multimillion dollar slug fest over the next year. I've also heard hints that Rove is not really helping Kay, but the Kay people don't mind people thinking that he's calling the shots.

Thoughts? Additions? Corrections? Subtractions?

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Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.