A new Research 2000 poll released last week indicated that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is narrowly leading a relatively unknown challenger – Texas State Representative Rick Noriega (D-Houston) -- 51%-35% in his 2008 re-election bid. However, just 40% of those polled said they would re-elect the Republican Senator, while 35% said they were ready for someone new.
This leaves a significant opening for Noriega -- a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard and veteran of the fighting in Afghanistan -- to exploit.
Cornyn is one of the most unpopular Republican Senators in Congress and has been a lapdog for George W. Bush since succeeding Phil Gramm in 2002.
The Research 2000 poll asked, “If the 2008 election for U.S. Senate were held today, would you re-elect John Cornyn, would you consider voting for another candidate, or would you vote to replace Cornyn?”
The response: *Re-elect - 40%, *Consider Someone Else - 15%, and *Replace Cornyn - 35%.
Cornyn’s re-elect numbers are anemic. He is barely above the "50 percent" mark and doesn't have any room to spare. The "Noriega" and "Replace" numbers line up perfectly and add up to 50%. It appears the key to Cornyn’s defeat will be about peeling that "consider someone else" bloc away from the junior senator from Texas.
Cornyn also scores poorly by voters over the age of 60 -- never a good sign for a candidate since those are the people most likely to vote.
Research 2000 is an independent polling organization that works for newspapers all over the country. This was not a partisan poll and is an excellent starting point for analysis of the 2000 election.
John Cornyn arguably is the worst U. S. Senator /ever/ for El Paso.
As Texas Attorney General, Cornyn led the campaign to shut down the Tigua Indians’ Speaking Rock Casino and Entertainment Center in 2001. Speaking Rock was closed in February, 2002, after the U. S. Supreme Court agreed with Cornyn’s charge that the casino violated Texas’ anti-gambling laws.
A story in the /New York Times/ on February 13, 2002, reported the sad details.
After nine years in operation, the Speaking Rock -- operated by the Tigua Indian tribe – was ordered closed on Monday night after the United States Supreme Court refused to grant a stay to let the 70,000-square-foot casino remain in operation while tribal leaders fight a protracted legal battle with state authorities who want the casino shut down. . . .
“The economic impacts of the shutdown are expected to resound far beyond the sliver of Tigua tribal land on El Paso's outskirts.
“A state report has indicated that losing the casino will cost this area 2,200 jobs and at east $60 million in payroll at a time when El Paso is already hard hit by the loss of 14,000 jobs since 1995 because of military base closings, global competition and the economic slowdown.
"Tigua leaders worry about the effects on the tribe's 1,248 members. Half the tribe's work force was unemployed before the casino opened in 1993. Recently the tribe's unemployment rate was 1 percent.
“’Indian tribes are encouraged to become self-sufficient and we're always criticized for expecting federal handouts or state welfare programs,’'' said Albert Alvidrez, tribal governor for the Tigua Indian Reservation of Texas. ''’But now, when we provide for our own communities, lift ourselves up by our bootstraps and become successful, the government wants to shut us down because of the competition.’''
“Mr. Alvidrez said state officials wanted to shutter the casino, which provides $55 million to $60 million a year to tribal programs in education, housing, and health care and employs nearly 800 people here, because Speaking Rock competed with the state's own lottery and other sanctioned gambling.
''’The state operates 14,000 lottery terminals, there are 45,000 state-licensed slot machines in Texas, plus horse tracks, dog tracks, carnivals and two other Indian tribes that have casino gambling. Does closing down the Tigua Indians stop gambling in Texas?'' Mr. Alvidrez said. ''No, it just stops competition on our particular reservation.’''
When John Cornyn ran for the U. S. Senate, lobbyist Jack Abramoff contributed $1,000 to his campaign, the maximum amount legally allowed. Cornyn also received $6,250 in contributions from Las Vegas casino interests who opposed Indian gaming, some of which were made at the same time Cornyn was pushing to close the Tigua's casino in El Paso.
Although Cornyn denies any ties to convicted lobbyist Abramoff, the public record clearly reflects that Abramoff certainly had ties to Cornyn. Abramoff, along with his partner Michael Scanlon, pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges, including allegations of defrauding six Indian tribes of about $80 million between 2001 and 2004.
Former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed claimed in a 2001 e-mail to Abramoff that he choreographed John Cornyn's efforts as Texas attorney general to shut down two Texas Indian tribes’ casinos.
The e-mail from Ralph Reed was released as part of the federal investigation into Abramoff’s activities.
In 2001, Abramoff was working as a lobbyist for the Louisiana Coushatta tribe to prevent rival gaming casinos from siphoning off its Texas customers. While representing the Tiguas in El Paso, he paid Reed as a consultant while Reed lobbied to get the Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta casinos closed in Texas. Cornyn used the court ruling in the Tigua case to shut down the Alabama-Coushuttas' casino.
On November 12, 2001, Reed sent Abramoff an e-mail message stating, "Get me details so I can alert Cornyn and let him know what we are doing to help him."
Similarly, on November 13, 2001, Reed wrote, "I strongly suggest we start doing patch-throughs to [Texas Governor Rick] Perry and Cornyn. We're getting killed on the phone." Also, on January 7, 2002, Reed sent Abramoff an e-mail stating, "I think we should budget for an ‘ataboy’ for Cornyn."
"We have also choreographed Cornyn's response. The AG will state that the law is clear, talk about how much he wants to avoid repetition of El Paso and pledge to take swift action to enforce the law," Reed wrote.
Cornyn claims he was unaware of Reed's work with Abramoff.
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blacked out references to Cornyn in the e-mails it released to the public. Critics say the Senate committee’s unredacted emails should be made public even now. They charge that McCain’s obscuring Cornyn's name to protect a fellow Republican is not in the public interest -- but the truth is.
In previous Reed e-mails released by the committee, Cornyn's name was not removed.
The previously released e-mails showed that in 2002 Abramoff and Scanlon secretly funneled millions to Reed to help fund the campaign to get the Tiguas’ El Paso casino shut down. The lobbyists then persuaded the Tiguas to hire them to help reopen it.
A spokeswoman refused to respond directly to questions seeking details about how Ralph Reed had "choreographed" a response from Cornyn.
Reed's e-mails suggest Cornyn's work was instrumental to Abramoff in fending off competition for his client.
Cornyn’s heavy-handed efforts to shut down Speaking Rock stand historically as one of the hardest blows ever delivered to economic prosperity in El Paso. Cornyn’s assault on the Tigua tribe should be remembered by El Paso voters on November 7, 2008.
