Strother Bother

There's a saying that if the press starts talking about a campaign operative, then something's gone wrong. Now even Democratic insiders are wondering whether Colin Strother, the campaign manager for Rep. Dawnna Dukes and spokesman for Democrats for Reform (allegedly a Craddick D front) is helping or hurting his candidate.

Last week, Strother told the Chronicle the only reason that Dukes signed the Democrats for Reform agenda last session was because the House Democratic leadership had failed to provide one. Now House Democratic caucus chair Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, has called to call Strother's statement "blatantly false": the leadership was working on an agenda (the more extensive Moving Texas Forward, which links policy ideas to filed bills), and that he knew it was coming. Next Philip Martin, then chief of staff for Houston Rep. Garnet Coleman, called to say that he was collating the bill list while Dukes et al were holding their divisive press conference. Strother, when asked, said that he couldn't understand why they were even bothered about this after all this time.

This isn't Strother's first media confrontation: first there was his online dust-up with Matt Glazer at Burnt Orange Report over whether Dukes missed a committee meeting for a trip to Las Vegas (she didn't: she missed it for a trip to San Diego). Then there was this week's brusque exchange of views with KVUE's Elize Hu.