Matt Mackowiak is Bill Flores’ Campaign Manager. When you hear Bill Flores speak, see his campaign material or the campaign strategy played out, or experience a tactical response from him or the campaign relative to something Chet Edwards does – you are seeing Matt Mackowiak – NOT Bill Flores.

That is my firm belief: that you are NOT seeing Bill Flores. The Bill Flores who has been described to me by dozens of party leaders and supporters is not the one you see. The one you see is trying to win on national issues and losing on local issues. He’s taking statistically calculated positions that are not in congruence with the Conservatives and Republicans in this District – but mesh perfectly with the national party’s playbook.

The quarterback is Matt Mackowiak, who in essence works for the NRCC, whether they pay him or not, because his future clients will come from the NRCC. He is The Candidate for future jobs…gunning for something important in the 2012 election cycle.

The NRCC has a playbook for national politics that includes recruiting self-financing candidates so they can save money yet still control the outcome by providing that candidate with “support” in the form of “consultants” like Matt whom they say are top-notch.

The self-financed Bill Flores has never done this before. He is smart enough to let people who know what they are doing do it, which is probably one of the keys to his success in business. The Henry Ford rule in practice: I’m not the smartest guy in this industry…so I hire the smartest guy.

However, Matt is 28, has never run a campaign before, and has only cut his teeth in the field of public relations in Washington, better known as the field of “spin.” A field he perfected as Spokesperson for Kay Bailey Hutchison…most likely the connection that got him the position with Bill, who was an ardent supporter of her gubernatorial run.

Bill is a straight shooting Texan. So are (more…)

While I still believe Bill Flores is not a Conservative to the standards of Ronald Reagan by which I measure a politician’s claim of ideological bent, I believe he is a Republican and not a RINO, and Conservatives have a good chance of being represented by him in Congress merely by the fact that we do not know what he will do when he gets to Washington. Bill is a smart man, and knows that continued Congressional tenure relies on dutifully and faithfully representing We, The People.

Scott Kimble wrote a very good piece about the use of the term RINO vs. Republican, and we at American Writes have taken to using that terminology he explores. If you missed it, check it out here before you go on.

Facts are stubborn things. Mr. Flores has experienced that at the hands of this very blog. Chet Edwards is about to experience them more pointedly.

But first… (more…)

There’s a headline for ya. In fairness, it should say “My Perception Of Bill Flores Was Wrong,” but that doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily.

I cannot explain to the full extent how wrong I was or why I think I was wrong in one short blog post…and a long one would make you lose interest and take away an opportunity for me to have you come back for more over the course of a few days.

So, let me set this up, and then invite you to return here as I unwind this story.

I have the good fortune and blessing to be friends with (more…)

Colin Witt, most recently the Communications Director for the 2010 Rob Curnock For Congress campaign, has launched his long-anticipated blog. You can find it at www.ColinWitt.com.

Colin is a talented and smart young man, wise in his years of Central Texas living and in tune with the politics of Middle America – and Middle Texas. He hails from the Waco area, right smack in the middle of Congressional District 17.

As a member of the media I enjoyed working with Colin while he juggled campaign communications, and Colin was always respectful of my time and my questions…no matter how hard they were. Colin gave me complete (more…)

Not to be confused with the watershed event in the Pacific Theater during World War II, or the small hamlet in East Texas – though that Midway (75852) has more in common with the topic du jour.

But only because it happens to reside in the 17^th Congressional District of Texas.

But even that is insignificant, and the likelihood that either candidate has even visited Midway, except to drive through or fly over it, is pretty remote.

But you can be guaranteed there are Chet Edwards supporters there, and Bill Flores supporters there. I know, because one of each has contacted me. (more…)

So I was encouraged to visit GOPisforme.com, a Ning social network, and check out the blog post “Where is Rob Curnock?”

I did, and you can click on the link above to see the whole scenario that played out, or you can click on this PDF to see the discussion as it was when I finally decided it was a hopeless cause.

[UPDATE: 24 July 2010 - I was informed this morning that the entire thread has been taken down by Duke. Make of that what you want - at least here we don't alter the historical record if we say or do something we regret later. This is YOUR Republican Party, friends - eating their own and then being shamed into deleting it because it shows disunity. Incidentally, today is the day after the Unity Rally in Waco, which is more interesting by who wasn't there than who was!]

Evidently the GOP is NOT for me. Big Surprise.

You’ll notice Mike Hoover, of McGregor, attacking me and not the facts I present. You’ll also notice I didn’t call anyone names or anything like that to deserve such a personal attack.

It’s a classic liberal tactic now being employed by Republicans, evidently.

In fact, that Liberal tactic is artfully explained here. We are not alone, Conservative! But wishing “conservative” and “republican” mean (more…)

Now how come we didn’t hear about this? This is great news for Bill Flores!

And I know a thing or two about homeschooling – we’ve been homeschooling for ten and a half years. (I know, that scares some lurkers)

Now, I have issues with a lot of homeschooling organizations, attitudes and culture, and the HSLDA is not immune to my criticisms, but then again, I want a perfect world.

In the long run, the HSLDA is a good group o’ folks.

From the Flores Campaign Site: (more…)

This post is primarily for people who want clarification from my Follow Friday tweet about JIDF. But if you read it before seeing that #FF tweet, then it still clarifies and the link to follow if you choose is at the bottom of the post.

Here’s the exchange I will refer to throughout this post. I suggest you either read it first or this post first…but don’t try to read them concurrently. Below is the impression I got; it’s no commentary on the person or the organization, just the behavior I encountered.

I caught this conversation quite by accident @JIDF (Jewish Internet Defense Force, Run by founder David Appletree) had with @ConchoQueen (someone I didn’t run across until this exchange). What you see is what I saw. I chimed in when I saw JIDF say he would rather “burn in hell” than “accept Jesus as anything other than a regular guy.”

I saw this as an ad hominem attack on Christians – or at least a rude and unnecessary punch. You don’t need to use that kind of language to say you don’t have any intention of following Christ. In the leadership position David is in, relative to his stated purpose for the JIDF (covered later), it’s probably something you would just want to let pass. Imagine William Bennett saying “I would rather burn in Hell than accept that Moses was (more…)

Oh, boo-freaking-hoo. Take my plane and go home…

See the screenshots below, first one of me logged in under my @KristoferCowles Twitter account which Flores blocked and you can see streaming on the right sidebar of this blog, and the next being one under a different Twitter account I have. These screenshots were taken within five seconds of each other (You can click on the image to get the full screen view):

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Twitter 101: Blocking someone does not stop them from following your tweets. All they need is the RSS feed of your timeline; a Twitter account you don’t know about; an RSS feed of a search for your handle; follow hashtags you might fall under; or all of the above. Blocking someone DOES mean you won’t see their tweets that mention you and they can’t see your tweets on your Twitter timeline or theirs – which doesn’t matter if they use any of the above methods to keep up with you.

It also does not stop them from responding to your tweet with a tweet of their own referencing your recent tweet – which is probably why I was blocked – but it does (more…)

Recently, there have been some conversations on facebook and comments on this blog that have gotten some attention from various camps. I even tweeted last Friday the following:

Sometimes I just don’t understand the @flores4congress campaign. The latest FB tactic toward me is fascinating. Am I THAT important? #tx17

It’s a rhetorical question…

To be clear, this was an unexpected Friend Request that I was tweeting about. What made it a campaign tactic instead of a request of friendship from one person to another with no ulterior motives, pretense, tactics, or strategies involved was that at the same time, American Herald Scott Kimble and American Write-In Colin Witt received the request from the same person.

You’ll recall these two gentlemen were top officials in the Rob Curnock campaign. Me, I’m just a (more…)