Don't Mess with Medina: Tea Party activist Debra Medina threatening to stir things up in Texas
Here's a news report from Canada about Medina's rising popularity in Texas:
The Texas Republican gubernatorial primary was supposed to be a really big battle between two very large and important Goliaths. But a little David showed up and is threatening to toss a bag of tea in both their faces.
Debra Medina, a nurse and entrepreneur, entered the GOP's gubernatorial primary with little to no fanfare. The "tea party" activist and Ron Paul organizer was expected to register, well, not at all. The first poll seemed to confirm her status as an also-ran -- registering a mere four per cent as against two-term Texas governor Rick Perry at 46 per cent, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at 35 per cent.
But then a few remarkable things happened. For one, Medina appeared to clean house in the first televised debate between the three candidates. Just about everyone thought Medina had won the debate. And she got a little bit of traction. In fact, and for two, she got just enough traction to be invited to the major televised debate, the state-wide "Belo" debate, aired on several major networks across Texas.
The Belo debate requires that a candidate receive 15 per cent in a major poll in order to be included. After the first debate, Medina managed to more than double her polling numbers from four to 12 per cent. That put Medina within the margin of error of 15 per cent, and the Belo folks decided that she should be included.
[...snip...]
That message is beginning to resonate more and more. Medina wants to eliminate the state property tax and replace it with an increased consumption tax. She is a fierce fiscal conservative, and recites the U.S. Constitution with a familiarity and ease that neither of the other two candidates seem to possess. She carries a gun in her car, and insists that Texas needs to be friendlier to the Second Amendment. She shares the convictions of Ron Paul fans, as well as the Tea Party movement sweeping the U.S.
Do I have proof that the message is resonating more and more? Sure I do. After the Belo debate, Medina's numbers moved from 12 to 16 per cent. Meanwhile, today, Public Policy Polling released an astounding poll (PDF), putting Medina's support at a whopping 24 per cent, compared with Perry's 39 and Hutchison's 28 per cent (margin of error at +/- 4.8 per cent).
Read the rest: http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2010/02/dont-mess-w...
