Thanks to overwhelming support from the grassroots around Texas, State Representative Rick Noriega has become Democracy for America's first U.S. Senate endorsement for 2008! Thousands of Democracy for Texas supporters and Texans from all walks of life joined together to voice their support of Rick's candidacy.
A message from DFA Chair Jim Dean will be coming later this week. But don't wait for it - make a contribution to Rick's campaign today!
Click here to Contribute Online
Democracy for America poll last week was completely and unquestionably pwned by Rick Noriega.
This week, democrats from across Texas joined the members of Democracy for Texas in their first endorsement poll in the organization's history.
Here's an email from Democracy for Texas:
Subject line: And the DFT endorsement goes to….
You have spoken loud and clear. With overwhelming support from all over the State, Rick Noriega is the stand-out choice of the grassroots to face John Cornyn in the race for the U.S. Senate. The final results are:
All Voters DFT Members Before Poll
Noriega 78.4% 86.2%
Watts 21.6 13.8
Total votes cast: 1,931 *
We're excited that our first endorsement is for such a terrific candidate, one who drew comments such as these:
"I am extremely impressed with Rick Noriega's clarity of thought and purpose as well as his passion and organization."
"Rick is the right man at the right time."
"Rick Noriega is the candidate supported by grassroots Texans all across our State because he is the candidate who has the integrity to represent all Texans…"
"…Rick is tough enough to stand toe to toe with any Republican…"
"Rick Noriega has "walked the walk" and has a progressive voting record to show for it!"
Over the coming months, we'll give you ideas of how you can help Rick in his campaign. Right now, the best way you can help is to sign up on his website and make a contribution before the end of the quarter on September 30.
Join the Noriega for Senate campaign here.
Make a donation here.
We appreciate the thoughtful answers of both candidates to our questionnaire. And many thanks to all of you who took the time to read their answers and vote, especially those who made a contribution to help us defray the cost of the poll.
We look forward to an exciting primary season and to sending John Cornyn home in November!
Your DFT Steering Committee –
Erik Azulay, Glen Maxey, Mark McCulloch, Karl-Thomas Musselman, and Fran Vincent
P.S. Marla Camp, one of the founders of Democracy for Texas, is on sabbatical from the Steering Committee while she focuses on her successful new magazine, Edible Austin. Marla will continue to be involved in DFT, and we look forward to having her back in a leadership position as soon as possible.
* In order to address concerns expressed by some participants about the elimination of questionable votes, we have counted all (including those in question) votes except those that were clearly duplicates, those cast after the deadline, and a handful from out of state.
Formal results won't be released until Monday (here), but with the trends that have been released, NoriegaBlog is confident in calling this poll for Rick Noriega, who has had a significant lead over Mikal Watts since the polling began. Here are the official tallies (percents only, to avoid ballot stuffing).
Wednesday Noon Update:
Rick Noriega- 78%
Mikal Watts- 22%
Thursday Noon Update:
Rick Noriega- 82%
Mikal Watts- 18%
Friday Noon Update:
Rick Noriega- 74%
Mikal Watts- 26%
Saturday Noon Update:
Rick Noriega- 77%
Mikal Watts- 23%
We'll wait for the official word Monday! Thanks Democracy for Texas!
That's right. Over 100 Mikal Watts' votes from two IP addresses, one of them verified to be from the San Antonio area, has been stuffing the Democracy For America Senate Endorsement Poll. None of them had physical addresses (respondents are required to live in Texas), or comments to verify they were actual people.
From Karl-Thomas Musselman, DFT Webguru on BOR:
I don't know who you are but you are doing a disservice to your candidate and the integrity of the poll. All of your votes will be thrown out. As the operator of the poll (in my role as DFT's webmaster), I've implemented additional measures on our recently upgraded account to preemptively block this behavior on behalf of either candidate.More from Burnt Orange ReportThe Democracy for Texas steering committee is taking this poll seriously and we have been impressed by the response to date- both in number and in the passion of the canddiates' supporters. We look forward to hearing from more of our members and other legitimate Texas voters.
In case you thought I was joking the first time around, we SERIOUSLY want you to vote in the Democracy for Texas Poll. DFT wants an accurate gauge of Democrats in Texas. Who would you want as your next Democratic nominee for the US Senate from Texas? You have until Saturday, but why wait?
VOTE NOW!
DFT Announces Senate Endorsement Poll
John Cornyn has been on the wrong side of countless issues that are critical to Texans in general and DFT supporters in particular. Beyond that, well, he’s just an embarrassment. But we’re not telling you something you didn’t already know, right?
Democracy for Texas has never endorsed a candidate for public office. But this race is too important to the future of our state and our country not to put all of our resources behind the candidate we feel best represents our “socially progressive, fiscally responsible” philosophy.
Two candidates - State Representative Rick Noriega and Mikal Watts - are running to be the Democratic nominee to oppose Cornyn. Which one should get DFT’s support?
Both candidates submitted answers to a DFT Issues Questionnaire, linked below.
