Last night, John Sharp followed in rival Bill White‘s recent footsteps by holding a fundraiser at the Senate Democratic hopefuls’ local venue of choice, The Belmont. This time, it was all about women voters, women office holders, and women’s rights.
Austin Democratic Rep. Donna Howard was one of the attendees, and she explained why she’s backing Sharp’s candidacy. Not least, she said, was his management of property tax reductions without cutting services when he was comptroller. She said, “I don’t know that anybody other than John Sharp could have pulled off the coup that he pulled off, bringing together a bipartisan group of 24 different business industries and somehow, with John Sharp’s leadership, found common ground.”
However, the race may be getting mean, with Sharp complaining that it’s White operatives behind rumors that he’s weak on a woman’s right to choose. Howard told the crowd that she was confident that he’d defend the current laws.
Last night, Sharp got to put Howard, her neighbor Valinda Bolton, Round Rock’s Diana Maldonado, Houston’s Senfronia Thompson and a bunch of other female state reps on the board. White’s not doing too bad on the state house support either. So far, he’s got 34 state reps and counting on his endorsement list, including Austinites Dawnna Dukes and Mark Strama. He even managed to pick up former Democratic Congressman Charlie Wilson (yes, he of Charlie Wilson’s War infamy).
Sharp’s strategy is pretty clear: If Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison stands down and there’s a special election, it could be in as little as 37 days. As he noted, that means early voting could start in 11 days. His big advantage over Houston Mayor White? He argued that he has better name recognition, and that will translate into votes at the state level faster than it could for “some regional candidate” (naming no names). He pointed to his two lieutenant governor runs: In 1998, when Rick Perry won by two points, and in 2002, when Sharp lost to David Dewhurst by six points. On both occasions, he easily beat the spread at the top of the ticket, as Democrats got obliterated by 37 points and 18 points respectively in the governor’s race. With the Democrats only narrowly trailing this time around, he argued, “If I can make up 18 points or 20 points, I can sure as hell make up four point or six points in a special election.”
This article appears in September 18 • 2009.
