After the election a group of political observers gathered in Austin to debrief. Musing about the Senate District 10 race one journalist said there was no one happier that Wendy Davis had retained control of the seat than Speaker Joe Straus. Add Shelton’s consultant Bryan Eppstein to the list, since he lobbies for Texas Medical Association (TMA). TMA strongly supports ObamaCare, and supported Wendy Davis.
Why was Wendy Davis important? Had Mark Shelton been successful in taking out Davis the GOP would have two thirds control of the Senate. This would make the “two-thirds rule”, a Senate tradition that empowers the minority party, obsolete. A Shelton win would have benefitted Lt. Governor Dewhurst who has signaled a shift to the right after an electoral defeat this spring.
Unlike Dewhurst, Straus has been more outspoken than ever about his aversion to leading Texas conservatively.
The Shelton race was squandered via incompetence, as AgendaWise wrote last week. Shortly after posting our article we received additional reports on how ineptly the campaign was run, including volunteers offering services not being utilized and requested signs not being distributed. These are the basics.
Reports of Eppstein failing to take advantage of easy support were bolstered by insight from The Young Conservatives of Texas.
The group wrote that Eppstein often “refuses to work with the conservative grassroots to support their [conservative candidates] election.” YCT also performed an analysis of the election and revealed that Romney voters crossed over en masse to vote for Davis. Another strike against messaging that did not take advantage of Obama being at the top of the ticket.
In our post primary analysis Eppstein was the second worst major consultant in competitive race performance, winning 3 out of 9 races.