Battle for the Senate in Texas

PEOPLE:

Si se lo puede.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Not too long ago, Democrats in Texas were chanting Si se lo puede "we can do it" in any language. But just weeks away from the election, Democrats find one of their own, 48-year-old former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, with a good shot of retiring Senator Phil Gramm's Senate seat, a Republican seat the White House does not want to lose.

RON KIRK:

You all are excited. I am excited, too. We can do it. Yes, we can. We have two big issues facing this campaign. One is protecting our freedom, and we're doing that. We will make America safe. But we also have to fight and protect our families as well. You need a Senator who will work with your representatives and your congress and your county judge to make sure we create the kind of jobs so you have the money to send you kids to school, to own that home, to invest in your businesses. (Applause)

RON KIRK:

People who look at politics nationally, honestly, most people a year ago didn't even have Texas on the radar screen. They thought this was, you know, Bush country, solidly Republican; put that one in the Republican column.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Kirk is a moderate. As a two-term Dallas mayor, he was known as a pro-business Democrat who brought people together. The last time he ran, he was reelected with 74% of the vote in a city that was majority white and Republican. Kirk beat out four other candidates, including an incumbent Houston congressman, for the party's nomination in April. If he wins, he'd be the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate from a southern state since reconstruction, and the only black U.S. Senator.

CAL JILLSON:

And the question in this race is, in a state that leans Republican by about ten points, can Ron Kirk generate enough excitement and enthusiasm…

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Political scientist Cal Jillson from Southern Methodist University has been following Kirk's career.

CAL JILLSON:

He's a big man; he's open; he's ingratiating, he's friendly. He's a natural politician. He works a room, he slaps people's backs, he rivets their attention when he talks to them. So when he enters a room, all eyes turn to him. He also has wonderful campaign stump speaking skills. So he's got the pizzazz, the energy that might make this very close. ( Cheers and applause )

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

And Jillson says Kirk is one of a new breed of black Democratic candidates who no longer focus on civil rights.

CAL JILLSON:

The new group of black Democrats coming up, of which Ron Kirk is one, are more moderate, Clinton third-wave Democrats comfortable with business, willing to talk to business, but being sure that their constituents get their due as well. These are the people who think that in order to have jobs, you have to have healthy businesses, and that's new for black Democrats.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Kirk's opponent is 50-year-old two-term Attorney General John Cornyn. In every sense of the word, he is President Bush's man.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

I am here because there's no doubt in my mind that John Cornyn needs to be the next Senator from Texas. ( Cheers and applause ) he's the best man with whom I can work. He's a man who can help us get some things done to make America a safer and stronger and better place for all of us.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The President has already made two campaign appearances for Cornyn, a commercial, and the White House has not ruled out more stops before election day.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

We've got to have a man like John Cornyn representing our state in Washington, and there are a lot of reasons why.

REPORTER:

The President's influence was evident at a Cornyn campaign event in Dallas for Republican women.

SUE RINGLE:

All Republican women and… and more than just Republican women, almost all women love George Bush and what he's doing for our country, and we need someone to work with our President rather than be an antagonist.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Former advisor to the President, Karen Hughes, was also on hand.

KAREN HUGHES, Presidential Adviser:

One of the most concrete and specific things we can do in Texas to help President Bush is to elect John Cornyn to go to Washington to work with him for a safer and a stronger and a better America.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Attorney General Cornyn says he best represents the conservative values of Texans. He's proud of his record of cracking down on deadbeat dads and prosecuting pornographers, and he's quick to endorse President Bush's war on terrorism.

JOHN CORNYN:

The way we keep the peace is by staying strong. We need to also protect our homeland against a new kind of threat that we did not dream could have occurred on our own shores just a scant year or so ago.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Meanwhile, the Cornyn campaign has portrayed Kirk as a left-of-center liberal Democrat who is out of step with mainstream Texans.

COMMERCIAL SPOKESPERSON:

Hillary Clinton, working hard for Ron Kirk.

COMMERCIAL SPOKESMAN:

President Bush is working hard for John Cornyn.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Kirk says Cornyn has relied too heavily on support from the President.

RON KIRK:

Look, this fellow's been in law… in office, a statewide office, for eight years, and he can't stand up and say, "here's why I ought to be Senator." If the only reason he can give you to vote for him is that "I know George Bush and I'll do what he says," this election is not a referendum on George Bush. It's a referendum on what the people of Texas want. Who they believe will bring the most passion, the most intensity, and the most effectiveness to the job of looking out for their interests, for their kids, for their business, for our future.

JOHN CORNYN:

I am proud of the people who supported me in this race and I'm delighted to invite them back home to Texas. These are people we're proud of, the President and Dick Cheney, others. Politics is a team sport. Are you going to be with the President and on his team, not that you'd agree with him 100 percent of the time, but that you share a similar view of government in our lives? Or are you going to be on Tom Daschle's team or Hillary Clinton's team or Teddy Kennedy? That's why Ron is reluctant to bring those folks here to Texas, because he knows that the people of Texas are pretty conservative.

JOHN CORNYN:

Thanks, appreciate it.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The most contentious issue between the two candidates has been their positions on Iraq. Both initially said they were with the President if he found sufficient evidence for a military strike against Saddam Hussein. But when Cornyn criticized Kirk for dragging his feet in supporting a military strike, Kirk lashed out. Appearing before a San Antonio veterans group, he said minorities would likely be in the frontlines, and added, "I would be curious to see if we would go to war – if the first half-million kids to go came from families who made $1 million." Analysts called the remark a blunder.

CAL JILLSON:

It hurt him in two ways. Texas and lots of the south is pro-gun, pro-military. So to get sideways with the President on Iraq is not a good thing. And to raise the issue of race is also not a good thing, because he has run as a moderate business-friendly Democrat. Texans, white Texans, want to believe that civil rights is a phenomenon of history, and now everybody has a straight-up fair chance.

JOHN CORNYN:

And then he took it down a really a low road in making divisive comments about race and class that factually I don't believe to be true. But certainly, it just was changing the subject to something that, I think, cheapened the contribution and commitment that our fighting men and women make on a daily basis.

RON KIRK:

There were 350 veterans in that room. Every one of them understood what I was talking about, that my concern was that if I'm going to ask your child to go to war for us, I owe it to him, or her, to make sure that we give them every tool available to come home safe alive.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Kirk is expected to get 90 percent of the black vote, but he also needs people like Dallas businessman Jordan Davis, a Republican who's leaning toward Kirk.

JORDAN DAVIS:

I think he's a pro-business candidate. And that's one of the things that I… as a person that's got an interest in how Dallas does, and how the economy is, I think that's the number one issue on most my peers' radar right now, is what's the economy going to do? And he's always been pro- business, both as mayor, and I think he'll represent that fairly going forward in… on a national concern as well.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The big unknown is what influence the man at the top of the state ticket will have on the Senate race. The Democratic challenger for governor is Tony Sanchez, a moderate pro-business candidate who has already spent tens of millions on his run for the state House against Republican Rick Perry. It's another tight race, and analysts wonder if Sanchez's ability to spend millions more to get Hispanics to the polls election day may help Ron Kirk in a state where two-thirds of registered Hispanics vote Democratic.