A blogger for the North Texas Tea Party used this picture of a fictitious missing-child milk carton to protest Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's absence from recent GOP forums for U.S. Senate candidates.
Aides to Dewhurst, though, have suggested privately that he won't actively campaign until September. Even then, it's not clear he'll show up at the sorts of events that are being sponsored with some regularity by tea party groups, county Republican party organizations and Republican women's clubs. But at a July 30 New Revolution Now event at the state Capitol, Austin tea party activist Dean Wright said he highlighted Dewhurst's absence -- and that of Democratic Senate hopeful Ricardo Sanchez -- by placing name cards and empty chairs for them at the candidates' table.
"We even addressed one question to Mr. Dewhurst and he was 'no comment,'" Wright recalled, saying he posed as Dewhurst. "We're coming from the grass roots and we've been totally ignored by Dewhurst and Sanchez."
Perhaps with that on his mind -- or perhaps Dewhurst always has the tea party on his mind -- his campaign manager Jim Bognet on Monday sent supporters an email that highlights one of the lieutenant governor's few campaign-related appearances since filing for Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat on July 20: A link to a radio interview he granted Houston talk-show host Joe Pags last Wednesday.
"I have always been a very conservative person, a strong fiscal conservative person," Dewhurst says. "We have taken the philosophy [of] our friends in the tea party, where we reduced spending and we balanced our budgets and we respect states' rights. We started that years ago."
The federal deficit and debt problem, he said, are much on his mind.
"I'm running because my wife and I have prayed about this ... we've been praying about it, praying about it for about a year, and I just can't take it any more, looking at TV, looking at Washington and seeing what a mess," Dewhurst said. He fended off a question about whether a successful Rick Perry presidential campaign might make him want to be governor and not pursue the Senate race. Dewhurst said he could've run for Senate in 2002, but as land commissioner (running for lite guv), he wanted to help solve the state's problems on budget, school finance, medical malpractice lawsuit and homeowners' insurance matters. Now, he said, the big problem's in Washington.
"I want to go up there and be a bullhorn and twist arms and make people understand that ... you have to live within your means," he said.
UPDATE: Dewhurst campaign spokesman Enrique Marquez said his candidate "has been building a campaign and reaching out to supporters and voters across the state." Marquez, asked to respond to the jibes about Dewhurst's no-shows, said Dewhurst "looks forward to participating in town hall meetings and events across Texas to discuss how we can get our country back on track and stop President Obama's liberal, job-killing agenda."
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/08/post-30.html
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