Yesterday Texas Governor Rick Perry endorsed Sen. Tim Huelskamp for Congress.
“There is only one candidate in this race that will keep the state of Kansas and our nation moving forward in the right direction, and that’s Tim Huelskamp…I do not make this endorsement lightly and only offer my support when I am certain of a candidate’s strong conviction…Tim is without a doubt one of those candidates and I am proud to offer my endorsement of his campaign.”
The endorsement comes after many others from leading conservatives like Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Concerned Women of America, Kansans for Life, the Club for Growth and others.
Huelskamp also participated in many Tea Parties across the first district, including Goodland, according to the Hays Daily News.
"I'm running for Congress," Huelskamp said, "and I urge you to look at our record." Huelskamp presented a conservative agenda, telling the group that it was a pleasure to sing the Star Spangled Banner and to say an opening prayer. "I keep telling school kids, at least in the state Senate, we can have an opening prayer," he said.
Shifting gears quickly, Huelskamp asked if people thought they were taxed enough already. Once, twice and finally three times, he asked the question, getting a resounding "yes" from the group.
In another little twist, Christian Morgan, former campaign manager for Jim Barnett's failed bid for Governor, posted a deliciously interesting item on Facebook a few days ago, not once, but twice. Morgan now works for the same firm that is running the Barnett for Congress campaign, although up to this point there was no evidence that he had any interaction with the Barnett account. I personally thought Morgan's boss would keep him as far away from Barnett as possible, due to that nasty little divorce the two had at the end of Barnett's failed campaign.
How odd is it that Barnett would hire his former campaign manager's firm when he essentially sued Morgan to keep from paying out unemployment benefits that he demanded? But it's just plain bizarre that Morgan is actually involved in Barnett's congressional campaign. Of course, Morgan's track record with Barnett isn't so hot, so I guess maybe it's a good thing?! My favorite part though is going to be Morgan tearing through all of his political friends on Facebook and trying to figure out who ratted him out. :)
And finally, as near as I can tell, Operation Rescue has become the first organization to call for Rob Wasinger to drop out. In a press release published on christiannewswire.com, OR stated its case rather bluntly.
The latest polling data shows Republican primary candidate Rob Wasinger trailing so badly that he cannot win the hotly contested Kansas 1st Congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Jerry Moran.
Even though Wasinger has spent over $200,000 in advertising, every poll puts him in the single digit range with his best polling data at 8 percentage points.
Wasinger is struggling because he is considered by many Kansans to be a Washington insider since he spent the majority of the last two decades living in Washington, D.C. where he has been out of touch with the issues facing the people of Western Kansas.
The release makes no mention of other candidates, and I don't see them endorsing any specific candidate in the Big First. It'll be interesting to see if other pro-life groups follow suit.
Sen. Tim Huelskamp topped the field in fundraising in the first district once again, new FEC reports show.
With almost $129,000 in contributions in the first quarter of 2010, Huelskamp ended with over half a million dollars in the bank. Of his nearly $130K raised, nearly $20K was from unitemized contributions.
Jim Barnett was second at $107,000 raised but with almost $100,000 spent, he was only able to bank $382,000 at the end of the quarter. The bigger surprise here is that I only saw one "Requested" in his contributors employment information. That's be good and bad for the Barnett campaign. Good in that they have apparently figured out that you have to ask folks giving to your campaign lawfully required information. Bad in that they've now demonstrated they can competently file a campaign finance report and so now the public is left wondering what happened during all of the previous quarters.
Barnett's large expenditures include one for over $16,000 to Axiom Strategies (a la Jeff Roe) and $23,000 to Wilson Research in Oklahoma for, "Campaign Research and Strategies." Well, I guess Barnett never promised to be the economic engine of the Big First.
Speaking of which, no report yet from the Wasinger campaign.
Tracey Mann tanked, and that's putting it lightly. With just over $65,000 raised and almost $45,000 spent, he ended the quarter with just over $261,000 in the bank. Shadwick came in a very distant fourth (so far) at $22,800 raised, $18,600 spent and $23,400 in the bank. Sue Boldra almost raised $15,000 and has $17,200 cash on hand.
All in all, looks like a great quarter for the Huelskamp campaign. I'll update later with more information about interesting contributors and expenditures, and I'll let you know how the Wasinger campaign made out when they get around to filing.
UPDATE:
Wasinger looks like he just filed, and not too many surprises here. $111K in contributions, $102K in expenditures means only $213K in the bank. Lots of Virginia, lots of Massachusetts, lots of out of state contributors. And despite assurances that his campaign would be the economic powerhouse the Big First, he seems to be quite enthralled with spending large sums on media in Virginia. So Wasinger squeaks into a second place in contributions raised, but fourth in cash on hand.
The Huelskamp campaign launched the first TV ad in the first district with a reminder of Sen. Huelskamp's record on taxes and fiscal responsibility. The ad, titled “Tax Day,” runs 30 seconds in length and is a positive, issue-oriented profile of Senator Huelskamp and his record of fighting for lower taxes.
"Other candidates talk about opposing taxes, but Tim Huelskamp has a proven track record of fighting tax increases to prove it,” said Huelskamp spokesman David Ray. “That's why he won numerous awards for keeping taxes low and why the Club for growth has endorsed him.
Huelskamp has been building a war chest for some time now and it's refreshing to see him spending his campaign resources so wisely. Huelskamp is correct to size up this contest as a clash of records, mainly that he has a record of fighting for the taxpayer while Barnett has a record of fighting for more government control.
This ad nails the sentiment of so many voters in the first. There's a lot of politicians that talk the talk, but there's only one candidate in this race with a record of walking the walk.
In another little twist, Christian Morgan, former campaign manager for Jim Barnett's failed bid for Governor, posted a deliciously interesting item on Facebook a few days ago, not once, but twice. Morgan now works for the same firm that is running the Barnett for Congress campaign, although up to this point there was no evidence that he had any interaction with the Barnett account. I personally thought Morgan's boss would keep him as far away from Barnett as possible, due to that nasty little divorce the two had at the end of Barnett's failed campaign.
