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Wendy Davis’s Media Meltdown
National Review ^ | 02/04/2014 | John Fund

Posted on 02/04/2014 9:05:10 AM PST by SeekAndFind

It’s been a rocky rollout for the Wendy Davis campaign in Texas. She announced for governor four months ago on the strength of the massive public attention paid to her 13-hour filibuster of a bill limiting abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. But since then her media operation has been so rocky, seasoned Texas journalists are mocking it.

David Mann, editor of the liberal Texas Observer, wrote a blunt article calling her campaign a “media fail”: “The Wendy Davis operation is about the worst at media relations that I’ve ever seen. Her team’s mismanagement of the press is damaging her candidacy.”

Mann recounts several not-ready-for-prime-time moments, from sending reporters to an incorrect location for a media event to “refusing to confirm basic campaign scheduling details” out of suspicion of the media. Noting Davis’s media problems began as soon as she announced in October he, links to a November column by Sandra Sanchez, opinion editor of the Monitor, the leading newspaper in South Texas.

Sanchez openly admits she wants “to believe that Davis could win and be our next governor” but concludes that isn’t likely to happen if the “missteps, gaffes and goofs” she witnessed during a Davis appearance in Pharr, Texas, continue. Sanchez wrote: “It was embarrassing to watch as a campaign staffer prematurely announced Davis’ arrival and urged everyone to stand up and chant, which they did for several minutes until it was obvious that Davis wasn’t there. ‘I thought she was here,’ a worker mused into the microphone to the quizzical and confused glances from the crowd of 60 or so.” Sanchez herself tried to ask a question about Davis’ recent response to an abortion question but “before (Davis) could articulate, her new press aide Rebecca Acuña jumped in and said ‘that comment was taken out of context.’” Acuña then called Sanchez late that night requesting she change a headline on the Monitor’s website.

Every campaign has a shakedown phase, but Mann notes that Davis’s problems have been ongoing. In January, after serious questions were raised by the Dallas Morning News about Davis’s account of her life, there was little substantive comment from the Davis campaign for eleven days. Then reporters were invited to a dinner sponsored by the Travis County Democratic Party where Davis was going to explain herself. But when reporters arrived at the dinner, an event they had received a media advisory for, “they were turned away.” Only the Dallas Morning News reporter was allowed in. Other reporters were directed to a live-stream link of the speech on the Internet. “This is not unlike someone sending you an invitation that says you’re invited to a party, but, hey, you can watch it on Skype,” Mann wrote.

Democrats have reason to worry they have a candidate who is untested and mercurial. Frances Martel of Breitbart News has documented Davis’s history of “fluid political allegiances” in her career, which include having contributed to George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, voting in Republican primaries as late as 2006, and last month declaring herself in favor of expanding gun rights despite an “F” rating from the NRA during her years in the Texas state senate.

Davis’s response to charges of opportunism has been to view them “as a compliment” because people don’t “necessarily know what my ideology might be because I wasn’t driven by that.” There apparently is so much about Wendy Davis we don’t know. And if she keeps her current media team she will have a difficult time explaining her sides of the story.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: abortionbarbie; ditzy; gregabbott; meltdown; texas; wendydavis
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1 posted on 02/04/2014 9:05:10 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

2 posted on 02/04/2014 9:06:25 AM PST by red-dawg (<<< click.)
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To: SeekAndFind

When even the media turns against a liberal; you know the fail is bad.

And its even gonna get worse for the abortion queen

This is turning out to be some fun campaign.


3 posted on 02/04/2014 9:09:44 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is the vetting process. She’s unfit for higher office, and therefore will not be nominated as her party’s candidate.

Conservatives need to learn how this is done.


4 posted on 02/04/2014 9:10:06 AM PST by babble-on
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To: red-dawg
More like:
 photo texastoast_zpsfd3d5251.jpg
5 posted on 02/04/2014 9:15:51 AM PST by henkster (Communists never negotiate.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I think Mzzz. Davis thought that media would be her friend, seeing as she's a Dem and all. She didn't count on real reporters writing real stories.

OTOH, this could be their intent: get all these "bad" stories out now so that when the real campaign starts they can say, when questioned, that those stories are old and have already been dealt with, "Next question!"......

6 posted on 02/04/2014 9:17:45 AM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: red-dawg
Toast?

I don't think so.

Toast looks good first thing in the morning. Davis? Not so much.

Toast is tasty. Davis? Not so much.

Toast will keep you from starving. Davis? Not so much.

Toast is useful. Davis? Not so much.

7 posted on 02/04/2014 9:19:53 AM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: red-dawg

:-D


8 posted on 02/04/2014 9:20:00 AM PST by patriotsoul
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To: jeffc
She didn't count on real reporters writing real stories.

An easy mistake to make, though.

9 posted on 02/04/2014 9:20:35 AM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: SeekAndFind

-Gee, I wonder if Wendy will make a campaign stop in Midland?
-Gee, I wonder of I can get a press pass as a reporter for FreeRepublic.com if she does?
-Gee, I wonder if I can ask her a question regarding abortion during that campaign stop.

I’ll even submit it to her handlers for consideration.


10 posted on 02/04/2014 9:26:35 AM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym defines the science.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Does this ditz have a credible opponent in the Dem. primary?


11 posted on 02/04/2014 9:33:41 AM PST by Old Retired Army Guy
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To: Responsibility2nd

When the media turns on a Lib, you know they have sniffed out the fact that this is a person who could damage the Lib brand for a LOOOOONG time to come.


12 posted on 02/04/2014 9:38:22 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Izzy Dunne

Toast doesn’t kill babies. Davis? Not so much.


13 posted on 02/04/2014 9:38:23 AM PST by unseelie
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To: SeekAndFind
Just Say No to the Abortion Barbie !


14 posted on 02/04/2014 9:41:54 AM PST by TexasCajun
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To: SeekAndFind

15 posted on 02/04/2014 9:42:07 AM PST by McGruff (I'm a Conservative. Not necessarily a Republican.)
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To: babble-on
She’s unfit for higher office, and therefore will not be nominated as her party’s candidate.

Wendy will have the Democratic Party Nomination for Governor. She will bring in the money from outside Texas. The only primary opponent is Reynaldo “Ray” Madrigal.

According to the Texas Democratic Party Website, Ray doens't even have a website, facebook or twitter account set up.

http://www.txdemocrats.org/party/candidates

Reynaldo "Ray" Madrigal couldn't remember just how many times he had run for office. Madrigal, 71 hasn't won any election, yet.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2014/jan/24/corpus-christis-ray-madrigal-makes-a-run-at/

Wendy is the Democrat nomination for the general election. I suspect Madrigal won't get half her votes.

16 posted on 02/04/2014 9:43:43 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Old Retired Army Guy

No. See post #16


17 posted on 02/04/2014 9:44:43 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: SeekAndFind

Only Wasserman-Schultz is a more frightening, abortion-loving harpy.


18 posted on 02/04/2014 9:46:52 AM PST by headless_thompson_gunner
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To: babble-on

yes, before the general election when the media “finds out everything” that they did not know five days before that election.


19 posted on 02/04/2014 9:47:39 AM PST by Maine Mariner
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To: SeekAndFind

When the old hippie Leftist Texas Observer is mourning Windy’s downfall, you know she’s a real dud.....but she does have expensive tastes, so she’d like to bilk the ugly women in other states out of thousands in campaign donations.


20 posted on 02/04/2014 9:48:46 AM PST by txrefugee
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