This is some very good news!
Wendy Davis, the Texas Democratic candidate for governor, reported eye-popping fundraising numbers on Tuesday evening, another indication that the Lone Star State governor’s race will be a high-dollar, high-profile race.
The state senator, who is facing Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott in the race to succeed Rick Perry, raked in more than $12.2 million from July 1 to Dec. 31 from more than 70,000 individual donors, an impressive figure even in vast Texas, where campaigning statewide is astronomically expensive.
The total figures put Davis “way past the credibility threshold,” said Davis spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña in an interview. “They are huge, huge numbers showing there is so much support and momentum for her race.”
Davis catapulted to fame over the summer when she waged a lengthy filibuster that temporarily derailed a restrictive abortion measure, drawing notice from Austin to Washington. But she still faces an uphill battle in the deep-red state against Abbott. Abbott spokesman Avdiel Huerta said the Republican’s campaign raised $11.5 million in the same period, and that Abbott has $27 million cash on hand. He stressed that about 97 percent of the contributions came from within the state.
Does anyone else find it ironic, or heinous, that our discussions in the ‘arena’ of politics has devolved to a Madison Avenue fixation on fundraising. Cause nothing says “boy howdy, now that’s a good idea” like how much a billionaire contributes to a campaign. I really hate the extreme anti-American radicals the Reich-wing has on the Supreme Court. When they right the obituary for freedom and democracy 5 September 2005 will be our ‘Kristallnacht.’
In this case, it was difficult for Davis to get people to take her seriously, because “serious” people get a shitload of PAC money. She’s proved that they have to take her seriously, and it will help her fight back in the huge media market that is Texas. Whether we like it or not, most people vote according to what they see on TV.