Dewhurst Rocks Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club

David Jennings’ commentary on the Big Jolly Politics blog describes the positive transformation of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.  Based on the reputation as a right-leaning, conservative blog, Jennings caters to his intended audience of Texas Republican voters.  This post was extremely intriguing due to the first-hand experience Jennings has to offer based on David Dewhurst’s recent appearance at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club.  Jennings provided context of his proximity to the Lt. Governor by including a fantastic photo of David Dewhurst kissing his wife at the beginning of the event.  In addition, Jennings references his previous conversations with Dewhurst about running based on his reputation.  All of these references help build Jennings’ credibility and establish context for his revised view of Dewhurst.

Essentially, Jennings’ argument is that the David Dewhurst he once knew as a stiff, standoffish politician has become a “warm, confident, hand-shaking, back-slapping, fist bumping, relaxed candidate.”  Rather than simply running on his strong record like he did last election, Dewhurst now appears to have the full complement of skills to retain his position in the next election.  Jennings cited the fact that Dewhurst circled the room greeting people and then pushed his way through to embrace his wife Trisha.  Dewhurst’s warmth and confidence in this setting demonstrated the presence he had gained.  When Dewhurst answered a question regarding reaching out to the Latino community, Jennings said that Dewhurst calmly answered the question in fluent Spanish.  Regarding Dewhurst’s poise, Jennings cited Dewhurst’s handling of the recent HB2 legislation dealing with abortion and women’s health. At the event, Dewhurst reiterated that he respected the crowd’s right to protest, but as a leader, he was still going to pass the bill.  Dewhurst also joked about the 250 troopers he brought in for the session, saying that if you ever wanted to speed on the highways of Texas that was the week to do it.  First hand examples such as these help shed light on the composed, personable nature of David Dewhurst that you normally cannot get from news story.  Ultimately, Jennings’ logical conclusion is that with his relaxed demeanor, strong leadership record, and improving appeal to Hispanic voters, David Dewhurst looks to be a strong favorite for reelection.

While the overall quality of David Jennings’ commentary was outstanding, I have two small criticisms.  First, he cited a key campaign quote by David Dewhurst and then proceeded to state that it was not an exact quote but it was close enough.  I understand that it is a blog post, but as a member of the journalist community, I would expect Jennings to clarify a quote that is a key theme to Dewhurst’s future campaign.  Second, Jennings discussed a question asked by a rising Republican leader RW Bray regarding appealing to minorities and youth. While Jennings said that Dewhurst’s unsatisfactory answer was his only stumble of the night, his failure to include Dewhurst’s actual answer hurt the overall context of the criticism.