Bud Kennedy seems to think this photo that ran on W&C earlier in the year played a part. I think that is giving this website waaaay too much credit. What do you think?

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Wendy Davis appears to have upset Kim Brimer in the District 10 State Senate race, 147,561 to 140,613. Libertarian candidate Richard A. Cross received 7,584 votes.

When the Young Conservatives of Texas released their endorsements yesterday, who they endorsed was not nearly as revealing as who they didn’t endorse — including State Rep. Charlie Geren and State Sen. Kim Brimer. Geren was among three representatives they did not endorse because “they vote WORSE than the Democrats (or at least some of them) but they do it while running as ‘conservative republicans.’ They do not deserve the vote of any conservative or Republican this cycle.”

In a comment, one YCT member said of Brimer: “Well — and not to speak on behalf of the organization — but there seems to be a pretty clear reason for Brimer. He scored in the 50s on YCT’s legislative ratings this session — and has a 64 career score. Thats just not good enough — even for the Senate.”

Now this is just weird: The S-T’s Tony Spangler reports that State Sen. Kim Brimer accused Chief Justice John Cayce, a fellow Republican, and the 2nd Court of Appeals of dragging its feet in his appeal, which ultimately defeated his legal challenge to Democrat Wendy Davis‘ eligibility on the November ballot. “It sounds like he is disappointed in the outcome and is grasping at straws and looking for people to blame,” Cayce told the S-T.

And I mean handicap in the horserace sense. Paul Burka provides a clear, quick overview of Kim Brimer’s legal gambit against Wendy Davis. Bottom line: two out of Brimer’s three post-election options might have some legs because of help from Republican friends. Interesting Burka quote: “If he’s going to carry the fight to the bitter end, do it, but don’t announce to the world that you’re a sore loser before you’ve lost. Nothing Brimer has done in this race makes sense to me.”

Thoughts?

Tired of getting your policy positions filtered through us or “the media”? Here are your chances to see State Senator Kim Brimer and his challenger, former Fort Worth City Councilmember Wendy Davis debate on the topics of the day.

(All information provided by the Davis Campaign and is accurate as of when I’m typing this post.)

Thursday, October 9 - Tarrant County League of Women Voters candidate forum. Bedford/Hurst Senior Center, 2819 R.D. Hurt Road, Bedford, 6:30 p.m.

Monday, October 13 - Coalition of Retired Employees/General Employees of the City of Fort Worth candidate forum. Botanic Garden Auditorium, 3220 Botanic Garden Boulevard, Fort Worth, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, October 14 - Tarrant County League of Women Voters candidate forum. University Christian Church fellowship hall, 2720 South University Drive, Fort Worth, 6:30 p.m.

Monday, October 27 - WFAA TV live debate (no studio audience - TV only). Channel 8, 7:30 p.m.

Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith calls out Kim Brimer over his never-ending legal challenge to Wendy Davis‘ candidacy:

“There’s a point at which one’s continued attempt to erect procedural roadblocks to a contested election is revealing of, you know, one’s total lack of stones. … if you can’t beat her at the polls and you instead beat her in advance in the courts, we’re gonna know what happened, and your constituents are gonna know it too. Stones, Kim. Stones. Show us you have them. Drop this legal nonsense and get on with the election.”

OK, I’m an established Wendy Davis homer, so you already know what I’d say about this, but I wanted to open this up for discussion:

From J.R. Labbe’s Sunday column: “Republican Kim Brimer and Democrat Wendy Davis are formidable political foes. Both are experienced public servants and savvy campaigners. If and when the day comes that the Texas Supreme Court says Davis is qualified to run for the state’s Senate District 10 seat, voters will have a tough decision to make on who will best serve their interests in the state capital.”

I thought the sentence had an interesting construction. Is this going to the Supreme Court? Does the Supreme Court need to rule Wendy eligible to run? I wasn’t aware an appeal had been filed or that the she wasn’t eligible to run today. Did I miss something?

And is anyone else tired of the courtroom stuff and wanting to discuss real issues? If so, what are your key issues in this race?

Man, those Odyssey One Source polo shirts are really comfortable! I can totally see why Kim Brimer would want to wear one in a parade.

Thanks to Alan Calhoun at Odyssey One Source for the totally unsolicited, really nice polo shirt.

Clearly I’m no good at spin, so I apologize to both candidates for the clumsy attempt at it. I still maintain that it was probably a bad idea to wear a shirt with a corporate logo to an “official” campaign function. However, I can also see how the corporate logo could have been overlooked, since the shirts are designed for exactly the kind of hot weather we had lo those many Saturdays ago.

End result: I apologize. Thanks to everyone who called me on my BS.

Editors Note: There’s no way to post this without it seeming partisan, but it’s an interesting question, so I thought I’d throw it out to our readers.

This picture is of State Senator Kim Brimer at the recent “Celebration of Freedom Parade” in Crowley.

(Photo courtesy George Wada)

The shirt he’s wearing has the logo of Odyssey One Source (an HR services outsourcing firm based in Euless).

Now, assuming that a politician’s sole motivation for appearing in a parade is to wave the flag and get some name recognition, was the decision to wear this shirt (of all the MANY, MANY shirts I’m sure he owns) a good one? I hope to goodness it was unintentional, but if it wasn’t, what does this say about his feelings toward “the working guy/gal”?

I suppose I should find it refreshing that a politician nowadays would NOT obsess over every little bit of their public image, but in this case, and particularly in this location (Crowley, a pretty blue-collar town), I must admit that I’m flabbergasted that neither Brimer nor anyone in his entourage would question this choice of apparel.

But enough about me — What do you think?