Democratic Senate candidate Ron Kirk has a lot
he should be worried about.
There’s the new polling in Texas that shows him for the first
time trailing Republican state Attorney General John
Cornyn in a race the former mayor of Dallas was thought to
have in hand heading into the home stretch.
And there are the miscues on the stump that have started popping
up. Last week, Kirk, who is African-American, told an audience that
he was opposed to unilateral action against Iraq and that his
opponent would oppose it too if rich kids were going to be on the
front line of the war. Almost immediately the Kirk campaign had to
apologize.
Then there are the charges that Kirk is a kind of reverse
carpet-bagger. No one questions his Texas roots, but instead of
running a home-grown campaign, he has undertaken a Senate run that
is almost wholly financed by out-of-staters. As previously reported
by The Prowler (click here,
here
and here),
Kirk has been criss-crossing the country, from New York and Los
Angeles, San Francisco to Washington, D.C., raising money to get
him elected. The likes of John Edwards,
Hillary Clinton, Vernon Jordan
and pal Bill Clinton have all jumped in to help in
the cause. Better than 60 percent of the money Kirk has raised has
been out of state. And when final Federal Election Commission
contribution filings are made before the New Year, some Democrats
believe that number will be higher still.
“Given conservative politics in Texas, it’s probably pretty
tough for a liberal to raise the kind of money he’d need in state
to run against a guy like Cornyn,” says a Democratic National
Committee fundraiser. “Kirk has to go outside for the cash.”
But instead of worrying about his sinking poll numbers, or his
missteps on the campaign trail, or his lack of grassroots funds,
Kirk seems determined to continue on the same track. He has
fundraisers planned on the West Coast later this month, and just
returned from a big fundraiser in Washington, D.C., where Vernon
Jordan hosted him while leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus
were in town. In all, Kirk expects to net more than $1.5 million to
help his campaign.
But instead of using that money to pay for lots of media buys in
a large state where media spending is essential to get the word
out, Kirk is purchasing some of the most expensive air time a
candidate could afford: slots on top-rated syndicated show “Oprah”
and on NBC’s hit show, “The West Wing.”
“He certainly isn’t trying to reach out to new voters,” says a
Texas GOP operative in Houston. “Most of the people watching those
shows are probably voting for him anyway. It’s just throwing good
money into a hole. It’s that kind of thinking that has him behind
in the polls.”
