I was part of an hour long conference call last night with Richard Morrison, who ran in District 22 against Tom DeLay last year, his campaign consultant Nathan Wilcox, and about a dozen other progressive Texas bloggers. Charles Kuffman from Off the Kuff was awesome in putting the group together. DeLay only got 55% of the vote in his very Republican district last year, and Morrison is geared up to keep picking away at DeLay’s lead.

I got on the call a little late, so I missed the opening remarks. The format was QA, and of course my dogs had to start a barking frenzy in the middle of the call. Apologies. Relampago and Crianza sometimes just have vocalize their opinions on Tom DeLay.

When I got on to the call, the discussion had turned to comments by DeLay and John Cornyn about the judiciary. Morrison, who is a lawyer, was pretty clear that it is an issue of basic constitutional law and how we’re governed by a system of checks and balances. The judiciary is there for that reason. Morrison declined to discuss the Schiavo situation, simply stating that she and her family are in his prayers and their situation do not deserve to be dragged into politics. Turning back to the comments about the judiciary, Morrison was very clear that he felt Cronyn’s comments put judges lives in danger and undermines democracy. He felt that Cronyn should apologize.

Someone (and apologies to everyone else, I was trying to listen, but I didn’t get names) asked about money and resources at the national level, and we talked a little about campaign strategy and lessons learned from the 2004 effort. The DCCC has been approached, and they were supportive in the last campaign, but right now it’s a little early to get a commitment. Nathan Wilcox pointed out that staffs change quite a bit between races, so allies may not be in the same places as they were during the last campaign. As for messages to tie to other campaigns and not-for-profits, Morrison has not yet filed candidacy for the race, so at this point he cannot coordinate through advocacy groups.

Morrison was quick to take some credit for DeLay’s being vulnerable in District 22. 55% is not great for a 26 year incumbent in a strong Republican district. In past campaigns, DeLay never had to say things to defend himself. Now, the more we—and more importantly, the good people of District 22—know about him, the worse they're going to feel about him. He noted that when he decided to run last year, he acknowledged the possibility of a four year campaign.

As for campaigning now, in some ways it’s easier now because some people take calls when asked for money because there's name recognition. On the other hand, DeLay will be aware that there's a problem so he'll take it a little more seriously than last time.

Morrison said he learned a lot from the last campaign. For example, he’d assumed that the Clear Lake area was likely to be a good target because they were new to the district and did not necessarily have their loyalties to DeLay established. However, instead Morrison found that those who’ve known DeLay longest like him the least. Fortunately, he can learn who base is and where weaknesses are from last campaign. He wryly noted that it will never going to get to the point where it's easy, because trying to win as a Democrat in Texas is hard.

One major difference between this campaign and last year’s is that DeLay has brought in a guy named Sam Dawson to help this campaign. Last year, DeLay’s daughter ran his campaign, and in the interim, DeLay dramatically raised his profile nationally not in a good way. Morrison expects dirty tricks in the next campaign.

This time Morrison will have money to respond. One of the important lessons that he learned was that if a negative ad runs, you have to have a positive ad to run the next day. Chet Edwards, the only at-risk Democrat to win last year, had this approach and it worked well. $300,000 in Houston. In the last campaign, Morrison couldn't respond to negative ads, and there was a big swing towards Bush in the last weekend, so DeLay was able to ride on that wave.

One thing that delighted Morrison was the thought that towards the end of the campaign, DeLay had to ask Karl Rove (who is noted to have a, er prickly reputation) to ask if President Bush could do an automatic call in the last week on behalf of DeLay to all of Ft. Bend county. Imagine having to make that request to Karl Rove. The DeLay campaign also changed up all their signs in the second week of early voting from "Tom DeLay" to "Team Texas Bush and DeLay."

Someone noted that in the 2004 campaign, party association was important for Bush and for redistricting and asked if that be as much of an issue in 2006. Looking at the other incumbent Democrats, what happened? Party will not be as big of a tie in to Bush this time. There is a bloody battle in Republican primary for Governor, and that party is split. If Hutchison wins, DeLay will not align himself with her due to differences, and a lot of Republicans are sick of Perry. As for lessons learned, Morrison again referenced immediate responses to negative ads.

In order to get the Democratic message out, we need to run a good candidate in every race, and all of them have to be on the same message. Not just one guy saying it. Morrison says that he’s working to recruit candidates in the district and he thinks that he’s convinced one very good one will run.

Someone asked about Ronnie Earle’s investigation of DeLay. Morrison pointed out that the investigation is only useful if DeLay is indicted, because Republicans in the district think the investigation is partisan. Issues like the trips, messing with the constitution are more likely to appeal to Republicans, because they don’t’ seem partisan.

Someone asked if Howard Dean’s affiliation was a good thing in the last campaign. Morrison wholeheartedly affirmed. He pointed out that regardless of actual positions, local Democrats will be associated with the national Democrats. Charlie Strahorn, a loyal partisan Democrat for ages but in no way shape or form a liberal was labeled as such during the battle in west Texas over his seat. If a Democrat is going to be labeled as a liberal no matter what, it’s better to take advantage of the benefit and don't run from the associations. Morrison said that his wife saw an ad about Morrison and Kerry and it looked like they ate donuts together every day for breakfast. Morrison only met the man once.

Morrison noted that people want to see someone who looks like they're fighting for them. He talked about an acquaintance in his church who voted for Bush because he felt that Bush is fighting for him. The acquaintance doesn’t necessarily agree with Bush, but the perception is that Bush will get something done for him. This is a key thing for Democrats to take advantage of, because we fight for things for every day people.

Morrison said that if he were to win, the first thing that he would want to accomplish on a national level would be to get attention back on the health care crisis. More locally, he wants to get the ball rolling for some sort of commuter rail to get people moving in the district. As it currently stands, there’s not going to be room, and traffic is going to go from bad to worse. The district should be planning for ten years down the line.

Someone asked about the eradication of environmental standards here in Texas, and Morrison noted that Mayor White has been great to assert that corporations do not own the air. Joe Barton is going to try and protect his contributors, but Mayor White is not likely to go along with that. The eastern part of the district is under the pollution a bit more than other parts of the district.

(Side note: I did some canvassing back in 1994 for USPIRG on clean water in parts of that district, and what struck me was that a lot of the people there were very concerned about wetlands eradication. Hunting and fishing are huge recreational activities for a lot of people in Ft. Bend, Brazoria and Harris counties, and those activities are adversely impacted if the wetlands aren’t there. The coalition that I was working with consisted of Clean Water Action, the Sierra Club, Ducks Unlimited and the National Rifle Association.)

I turned the discussion back to healthcare, since it’s my pet issue. I asked Morrison what he’d do about it, since, in my opinion, it’s pretty much a .quagmire. Morrison said that the mention of healthcare causes a lobbyist frenzy, and it’s a great way o raise money on both sides. Insurance companies start calling, etc, but as soon as the election is over you don't hear about it. He said that instead, we have to get America talking about healthcare. His idea was to provide a national catastrophic insurance similar to FEMA in order to help bring the costs down. It’s not the complete fix to the problem, but a good place to start. He also said that we all deserve the same insurance that our Congressmen have. He wasn’t sure how to accomplish that, but he thought it was a good goal to strive for.

Morrison noted that General Motors bond status down to junk status because of health costs this year. We have to do something about healthcare. Nationalized health care needs to be talked about in the public discourse. Morrison said that he’d written an editorial to the Houston Chronicle along these lines, but it didn’t run. When business community begins to feel the heat in the bottom line, then Democrats can catch that momentum and become leaders on the issue.

Morrison noted that small businesspeople are a target audience. This session they’re going to take quite a hit with the way that the Republicans have set up state financing. He wryly commented that the Republicans are a good opposition party but not a very good ruling party.

I noted that core GOP values like small government and deficit really don’t hold true for the Republican party and is there a way to capitalize on that. Morrison was emphatic that we bloggers start talking about the “birth tax”, which unfair for children. He noted that with the current deficits, every child born in the country starts by owing about $120,000 in taxes to cover the deficit and the number keeps growing. That needs to be emphasized more and more.

Someone asked if he were to do everything over again (aside from more money and more votes) what would he have done differently in the last campaign. He said that he would have spoken to more chamber of commerce and rotary clubs, talking about issues specific to the district. He said that he would have liked to have appealed to the businessmen, economic development opportunities. It’s a way to reach out to republicans, and the earlier that you get in the easier it is to avoid politics.

He emphasized that it’s important to not only get involved in the party, but also what's going on in the community. Committees, boards, chamber of commerce. If you’re active in the community, no one will mind bringing you in to talk.

I thought it was a good call. Obviously, we were a friendly group, if only because we’re anti-DeLay and generally pro-Democrat. His having run a very good campaign against DeLay gives him an advantage in my book, but I think more importantly, he’s looking at the realities of a fairly difficult district for ANY Democrat to win. I agree with his philosophy of a) running a good Democrat in every race, b) embracing rather than shying away from other Democrats, cuz we’re going to get linked to them anyways, and c) focus on issues that matter to everyone.

Obviously, I’m in total agreement about healthcare being the biggest issue on the national scene, and I welcome anyone who wants to come in with good ideas. On the local front, it seems that Morrison really does understand his district. Transportation is one of the biggest issues in this part of the country, and DeLay has been particularly unhelpful in getting alternative transportation out to Sugarland.

I found Morrison to be personable, quick to answer questions, opinionated and a generally good guy. He gave some good anectodtes, and he was very serious about winning this district.

ETA: Other bloggers talking about the call
Brains and Eggs
Pandagon
Southpaw
The Agonist (not there but plugged it anyways).

You can contribute to Richard Morrison's campaign against Tom DeLay here.

More bloggers talking about last night's call The Supreme Irony of Life
Norbizness
100 Monkeys Typing

Tags: politics: election 2006, politics: texas