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Medina ‘up front’ in bid for governor
Published October 25, 2009
WHARTON — Sitting in her nondescript office with a few campaign signs and a fax machine, Debra Medina said it isn’t much for a gubernatorial candidate’s campaign headquarters.
“We run a pretty decentralized campaign,” she said with a smile.
The 47-year-old Wharton business owner spends most of her days going to chamber of commerce luncheons, fundraisers and campaign stops all over Texas to vie for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Medina, who wants to end property taxes and reduce government intrusion in the economy, calls herself a “Ron Paul protégée” and is looking to take over the governor’s mansion on the same Libertarian-leaning ideals as the Lake Jackson congressman.
But much like Paul’s quest for the White House in 2008, Medina doesn’t seem to have much of a chance at winning or having an impact on the race between political heavyweights Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison, Brazoria County Republican Party Chair Yvonne Dewey said.
The support for both Perry and Hutchison is too strong, she said.
“They’ve both been in office for a long time,” Dewey said. “Each one of them has their fan base.”
SHOESTRING DREAMS
Medina doesn’t have a lot of money in her coffers and most of the 3 percent support she earned in a September poll by Rasmussen was earned by going from one town to the next for community events, she said.
Medina has gone all over the state, and last week spent her time in the Panhandle and West Texas.
“I was here at 5:30 a.m. and for the next 130 days we’ll work seven days a week,” she said.
Still, the same Rasmussen poll showed Perry with 38 percent and Hutchison with 40 percent less than five months before voting begins for the March primary.
The most interesting statistic of the poll, supporters said, was the 19 percent who said they were undecided. There are many voters who are looking for an alternative to the two long-serving politicians, supporters said.
Medina, who owns a medical consulting business, is becoming a good alternative to the mainstream Republicans, said Bruce Bolock of Lake Jackson, who backed Paul and now is supporting Medina.
“She relies on funding the same way,” he said.
Paul’s presidential run in 2008 garnered national attention for his fundraising prowess and his ability to mine donations from the Internet.
Medina said she’s raised about $120,000 so far, and though she has presence on Web sites like Facebook and YouTube, she has not received the windfall Paul did.
“There will be a tipping point, but so far, it hasn’t come,” she said.
Instead of big marketing campaigns, Medina said she’ll continue to hit the streets of Texas looking for support. Medina said when she isn’t at an event to give a speech or a fundraiser, she’s usually giving radio interviews.
LOCAL SUPPORT
Many Brazoria County residents who pushed Paul for president in 2008 are starting to do the same for Medina as governor, said Elizabeth Rogers, another convert.
“She’s up front and she doesn’t beat around the bushes,” Rogers said.
The support comes largely because of her ideas, but it’s also because of her nature, supporters said. Medina, a former Wharton County Republican Party Chair, has for years had a potluck supper at her home outside Wharton on the first Friday of every month.
Bolock said he has been to several of those dinners.
“Anybody’s invited to it,” Bolock said. “We eat and talk about what’s happening in our country.”
Medina said if she were to go from her chamber banquets and community halls to the governor’s mansion, she wants to find a way to bring an abrupt end to property taxes.
Taxing property makes homeowners tenants in their own homes, Medina said.
“We don’t own property, we rent,” she said.
Medina said she’d want to find a way to replace the property tax with a broadened sales tax, which is more equitable.
“It’s not easy to dodge,” she said. “It is easy to administer.”
Texas has the 13th largest economy in the world, and the business margins tax is preventing corporations outside the state from moving here, Medina said.
“We want to make sure that we get government out of the way,” she said.
MONEY AND VOTES
While Medina might draw support from those who helped raise several million dollars for Paul’s presidential campaign, she likely will end up with the same number of votes, Dewey said.
While Paul raised more than $35 million during his campaign, he won only a handful of delegates in the mostly winner-takes-all Republican primaries, compared with the 1,191 needed to secure the nomination.
And despite the national attention to his campaign, Paul received only 15.8 percent of the vote in Brazoria County compared with winner John McCain, who received 48.7 percent during the March 2008 primaries.
Support might grow for Medina as the March 2010 primary approaches, but she likely will not win. Nor will she likely affect the race between Perry and Hutchison, Dewey said.
“I really don’t think she’ll have that big of an impact,” she said.
For Medina, she isn’t worried about her campaign funding. She believes getting out there and spreading her message will pay off, she said.
“We run a shoestring campaign,” Medina said smiling. “How awesome would it be if we just won this race with shoe leather?”
John Tompkins is senior reporter for The Facts. Contact him at 979-849-8581.
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