Bill Miller - Political Consultant Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, we got it. Do you need money to run
for the US? Endit? I get that six twenty two
is their time here in Houston's Morning News. But what
do we make of the fundraising expertise of Representative James
Tallerico raising over six million dollars six point two to
be exact, in the first three weeks since he announced
that he's going to pose Colin Allready for the Democrat

(00:20):
Senate nomination. Thist ask Bill Miller. He made a kind
of a big deal, didn't he, Bill about saying that
he was only interested in raising money from small individual donors.
Can you raise six point two million in three weeks
from small individual donors?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, it's a very impressive number, and you know, and like,
you know, money is you know, in the case of
the large number of devils in the details. You know.
I'm not saying it's untrue. I'm just saying it's hard
to fathom that he can raise that much money for
small donors in that short period. If he can, he's

(00:54):
a phenomenon and I'll give him credit for that. If
it's not true, why make the claim. It's an impressive
number no matter where it comes from. But if you
are found to not be exactly truthful if you want
to call it that about where this money comes from,
that's the problem. Don't diminish the to take the takes impressive.
I mean, six million dollars in three weeks is a

(01:17):
hugely impressive number.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, his opponent in the primary, Colin Albred, raised four
point one million, but he took him three months to
do it. So what does that tell us about maybe
a lack of enthusiasm on the Democrat side for Colin
Allred running for Senate again.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, I think that underscore is exactly his problem. He's
run and he's lost, and you know, retreads and it's
great you can learn from losing. I'll grant you that.
But I do think the Democratic Party is looking for
fresh spaces. They're looking for someone who can win, especially
a state wide race, which has been decades since they

(01:54):
did that. So, you know, Tellerico is the guy at
the moment, and we'll see if it holds well.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
And how difficult, in your mind, Bill Miller, how hard
is it to beat an incumbent If let's assume, for
the sake of argament here that John Cornyn survives his
primary challenge, I'm not so sure that's going to happen
because he's not very popular in Texas right now. But
if he does survive, how difficult is to go up
against an incumbent when you're running for the United States Senate.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, I would say, if you're trying to win a race,
you always want to pick a race that's open, being
a non incumbent race, that's the ideal situation. If you're
going to pick a race where you are challenging an incumbent,
you want to pick one in a state where you
know it's a swing state and you've got an opportunity.
In a state like Texas, which is not a swing state,

(02:42):
and you have an incumbent, it's virtually impossible to defeat
that person. I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm
just saying it's nearly impossible.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Maybe this tells us Bill Miller that they think that
John Cornyn will get primary and Ken Paxon will be
the nominating and therefore they wouldn't have to face any.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think you're right. I think that that's why both
individuals are in the race. They're hoping that the incumbent
is defeated in the primary and that it will be
an open seat, which gives him a better opportunity to
win it.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Hey, let me quickly ask you to here more on
than the state of Houston politics here. I think Mayor
John Whitmyer, much to his credit. You know, we've had
Democrat mayors all around the country refusing help, in particular
from the federal government when it comes to finding crime.
Governor I haven't announced his his task force earlier this week.
Houston is going to be the guinea pig in this
and the mayor is happy to have all the help

(03:35):
he can get his hands on. That's a refreshing change
of pace.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, Mayor Whitmeyer. You know, remember when he was the legislator,
he made his name criminal. He was chairman of the
Criminal Justice Committee. You know, he's he's well versed in
kind of what this is all about. What chrime does
is the community, how the community feels about it. So
him taking that position is not surprising to me. But
I think it is exactly using your work super refreshing

(04:02):
and I'm certainly glad that he's doing it.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
All right, Bill, thank you appreciate your time. That's political
consultant Bill Miller