Thank God! No Bills.....

So I forgot to check my mail on Saturday(it happens) as I was too busy crying in my beer over the Longhorns loss.  Checking the mailbox on Monday after work, I expected to be faced with bills and Valpak coupons.  What I got instead both baffled me and angered me.  Not one, not two, not three, but four paid advertisements by a political candidate, the same political candidate.  Now this guy must think I have the world's shortest attention span or he has the biggest print ad budget in history.  The ads didn't work because I can't remember who he was, but I found myself thinking" do we really need four mailouts in 2 days for a county commissioner's election?"  My response to myself was: "welcome to Texas Politics".  I am a registered voter and consider myself fairly competent when it comes to the issues, but I don't need to see 10 political ads while I'm watching football on the weekend.  The most contentious race in my neck of the woods(Round Rock) is between incumbent Democrat Diana Maldonado and challenger Republican Larry Gonzales.  This race has gotten nasty with Gonzales calling Rep. Maldonado "no show" because of an apparently poor voting attendance rate since her election.  For her part, Diana M. has claimed Gonazles has been untruthful and has shortcomings of his own.  With that being said, can they please duke it out somewhere other than my mailbox and television?  Republicans are expected to do well nationwide, and that includes here in Texas where many of the Democrats that rode Obama's coattails to victory in 2008 will be out of a job come Wednesday next week.  Geez, maybe bills aren't that bad....

Who Will Be Governor in 2012?

Texans are about to go to the polls in November to vote for Governor.  Rick Perry has held the office since 2000 when George W. Bush won the presidency.  Phillip Martin of the Burnt Orange Report, along with others, has speculated that much like his predecessor, Perry will eventually seek the highest office in the land.  Martin recounts that Paula Burka of Texas Monthly was hot on the trail of a story involving the Texas Governor's real ambitions.  It's no secret that governors make up a significant number of past presidents, Barack Obama broke a string of them, but Martin delves further and cities sources that show that members of Perry's inner circle registered the domain rickperry2012.com as early as 2007.  It is not uncommon for a popular governor such as Perry to test the waters officially and unofficially.  Newt Gingrich was all but drafted into the 2008 Presidential Race, but bowed out to head up conservative leaning activist groups.  There was a major push to draft former VP and 2000 loser(winner) Al Gore into the race as well.  Word is he declined because he was working on the successor to the Internet(his invention).  Martin somehow believes that having Perry or anyone on his behalf inquire as to his possible future beyond Texas politics is a bad thing.  Believe me, if you can survive Texas politics, Washington is easy.  Democrats need to do a better job distinguishing themselves between Republicans in the future in this state, otherwise Rick Perry could be governor for awhile.  I just don't see how this is a good reason to elect Bill White(who is believe is a fine man and was a good mayor in Houston).