How to Turn People Off of a Campaign

Standard disclosure applies here: I support Rick Noriega for Senate. But some of his supporters have clearly lost their minds. Case in point ...
---------------------------------------------------------

Sorry Vince, this may very well qualify as the most delusional rant I've seen on the state of the Senate primary. And I mean flat-out bat-sh%t crazy. A few points stand out among the madness ...

“Incredible effort” a “constant travel and fundraising schedule?” Number one, it’s no incredible effort to do much traveling when you’ve loaned yourself $10 million from your own personal fortune. Number two, I’m aware of no “fundraisers” that Watts has actually had.

So it doesn't count as travel if your campaign has actual money? And for the record, I'm aware of more fundraisers in Houston for Mikal Watts than I am for Rick. For someone promoting himself as "terribly well-informed," this is a clear outlier.

Barbara Radnofsky had more press at this point in her campaign than Mikal Watts is getting around the state and Radnofsky had about one percent of Watts’ money.

I'd be real interested to see some documentation on this. For now, I'll call bunk. BAR had a lot of small-town coverage and started far earlier. But I also seem to recall a lot of reports basically leaving out the fact that she was running for Senate. As to the press that Rick and Mikal have gotten thus far ... it ain't bad. Watt's shop is clearly superior at planting stories. Noriega gets some obligatory run here and there, but his press outfit is clearly not yet ready for primetime.

The only places Watts seems to be traveling are, in fact, the Rio Grande Valley, the Gulf Coast (where he practices law) and very Republican areas like Lubbock.

Just plain factually incorrect, Vince.

Let’s face it: anyone who is reasonably intelligent can respond to Karl Rove’s attack machine because Rove’s attacks are so transparent and bogus. And, it doesn’t take $10 million to effectively respond to the attacks, either.

That kool-aid must be getting stronger and stronger as each day passes. I don't even need to add commentary to this one ... I'm pretty sure the flaws of it stand on their own.

Let’s face it: he can rack up as many endorsements as he wants from mayors of towns with 300 person populations, but what matters are grassroots supporters, of which Watts has few visible ones.

Unfortunately for the Draftniks, Watts has more visible support than Rick these days.

Somewhere in my otherwise pleasant (if overworked) weekend, I get a nasty email from another one of the Draftniks asking the following:

I keep checking your blog, don't you have anything sh%#@y to say about the impotence of people power?

Seems they're real happy that Rick has hit the 500/$30,000 mark. And if that holds, racking up 800 donors by the end of the quarter might very well be a strong likelihood. One issue I have with this, though ...

Rick Noriega for Senate
Texas Bloggers         300   $19,486.75
Blue America            97    $2,670.83
Rick Noriega for Texas 	47    $3,190.00
Candleman                2       $50.00
KSG in Texas             1      $100.00
blueisland               1       $50.00
---------------------------------------
SUBTOTAL               448   $25,547.58

Nominee Fund

Texas Bloggers          35    $1,402.02

=======================================

TOTAL                  483   $26,949.60

There's also the dough that Kerry's blast email raised for the nominee fund that puts the combined Noriega+Nominee fund at just under $40k. Now, I'm not one to dismiss either Rick's $25k or the bloggers' effort in raising nearly $20k for Rick (over $20k total). It's by no means an insignificant accomplishment already. If I see 800, my sincerest hat goes off to those who made it happen. But the overstatement of fact - or worse, the complete dismissal of fact - and the arrogance that seems to be driving the blogger-powered movement is what's utterly off-putting about this whole campaign.

Oh, and I have nothing negatory to comment about genuinely people-powered movements ... I just don't think it applies to the Noriega campaign until proven otherwise.