Thursday, February 4, 2010

Let she who is without sin cast the first stone... lobbyists...

Kay released a negative attack ad today against Rick for having lobbyists on his staff, and staffers who become lobbyists.


First of all bashing lobbyists is an easy populist move... but it is cheap and short sighted... there are "good" lobbyists and "bad" lobbyists. Your own lobbyists are good. The other guy's lobbyists are bad.

Lobbyists represent the NRA, tax watchdogs, and Right to Life... they represent companies who don't want government to steal all of their money and force them out of business... they represent conservative activist groups, liberal groups, and everything in between... they represent churches, obscure groups with few members, and big groups with lots of members... if we banned lobbyists the "special interests" would have even more influence than they do now.

The only lobbyists that I have a problem with are lobbyists that are funded with tax payer money to lobby for more tax payer money so they can hire more lobbyists who then go and lobby for more money and so on... this actually does happen... see almost any governmental organization for proof of this... somehow I doubt that Rick or Kay have many of these kind of lobbyists.

All of that being the case... let she who is without sin cast the first stone.

The line at the end of this ad is ironic. It says that there are two ways to get things done in Austin... get rid of Rick... or elect Kay...

Why is that ironic?

Kay does the same things with regard to lobbyists that she bashes Rick for... Kay has dozens of former lobbyists on her staff... and Kay's staffers become lobbyists... everyone knows this. Kay is so far from squeaky clean on this issue that it makes you wonder why she would go down this road knowing the rubber/glue axiom that is so prevalent for political hypocrites... bashing someone for something you do as well is a quick way to earn major backlash from voters...

The biggest winner from Kay's new ad won't be Kay whom people see correctly as an incumbent in her own right and a part of the lobbyist system herself. Kay will not be the beneficiary at all from any peeps who see this ad and peel away from Rick... the biggest beneficiary will be Debra Medina...

Kay's team doesn't seem to see that she has yet to give anti Rick people a reason why they should pick her. Kay is all the things they don't like about Rick, but amplified... this ad doesn't give people a reason to flock to Kay. It is basically free advertising for Medina though... Medina's campaign should write a letter to the Texas Ethics Commission asking them whether they should report it as an in kind expenditure from Kay's campaign for Medina's campaign...

Maybe that is Kay's strategy... to force a run off and hope to miraculously win in April one on one... but I don't think she understands how much in peril she is of being passed by Medina for second place...

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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.