Senate runoff turns on style, experience, not policy differences

The Austin-American Statesman ^ | July 28, 2012 | Kate Alexander

[Cincinatus' Wife]

When the dust clears after Tuesday's U.S. Senate runoff, voters in the Republican primary probably will have chosen Texas' next senator.

Their decision is expected to shape Texas politics for years to come.

It has been a bitter, bruising and expensive battle between Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz, a former state solicitor general.

Little divides the two on core policy matters. They are both conservatives who oppose President Barack Obama's health care reform, have called for significant cuts to the federal budget and support stronger measures to secure the border with Mexico.

But they differ greatly in terms of style and experience. Cruz, who has never held elected office, touts himself as a "conservative fighter" and an outsider, while a more subdued Dewhurst points to the lengthy list of conservative legislation that has passed during his tenure presiding over the Texas Senate.

The contest highlights a shift within the Republican Party.

"The whole message of the success of Cruz's candidacy, whether he goes all the way or not, is that there is substantial dissent within the Republican Party ... that is going to have to be confronted in some way by elites in the party," said Jim Henson, who directs the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

Cruz has effectively exploited that dissent, in part out of necessity to break through the juggernaut at the top of the GOP, Henson said. But Republicans have cultivated a healthy skepticism of government that has made incumbents vulnerable, he added.

[Carry_Okie]

They are both say that they are conservatives who oppose President Barack Obama's health care reform, have called for significant cuts to the federal budget and support stronger measures to secure the border with Mexico.

There, fixed it.

One of them actually means it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Silly you. You’re just supposed to read (and believe) the headline.

:)

I like the idea that they know tea party voters are alive and well and P.O.’d.

[madrastex]

I was eligible to vote for the first Reagan term, and have never been so bombarded with messages,emails, and duelling bitter ads!
The RINOs need to realize that they truly are an endagred species, and do not represent ordinary citizens.
I had an interesting discussion with my (Vietnames immigrant) barber who is Catholic. He said that their whole church was adamantly opposed to BHO. They work seven days a week, but can’t afford health care, and resent supporting those on the dole.
Hopefully some of the 50% who pay no taxes will be so blasted on Ripple and bath salts that they wont make it to the polls and screw up our votes!!

[freekitty]

Or maybe neither of them means it.

[ballplayer]

I beg to differ,the Republican elite have already addressed the split,they have told the Tea Party go to hell by pushing rino Romney,probably Pawlenty as running Mate,Dick Cheney now joining the Slandering of Sarah Palin Jeb Bush Pushing another Latino amnesty loving Rubio,they are the New Conservatives dont you know. Traditional American Values are Now and Have been for some time become radical right wing,racist and Homophobic

[TexasCajun]

Dirty Dewhurst’s attack ads ad nauseam only make the man seem small, desperate & obsessed .

[Carry_Okie]

Or maybe neither of them means it.

Could be. We do know which one demonstrably does not.

[ImpBill]

Well I had to identify as a Republican, when I am not and haven’t been since 1998, just so I could vote for Ted Cruz, both in the primary and last week in early voting for the run off. Any conservative with a “new face” and core values will get my vote regardless of party.

[achilles2000]

You would think that the editorial writers could have grasped the simple thought that most politicians in a primary say similar things. What is unusual is to have a primary candidate who just might means what he says - and it isn’t Dewhurst.

[Bender2]

To the Good Wife: "During the early voting period, me and big have been... Cruzing!

But since big doesn't live in Texas... I have to vote for him--

Thanks... Bend!

And when big and Bendy go cruzing.. . they wear me out!

You sure got that... right!