Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis' (D) four-month-old Texas gubernatorial campaign has been taking a beating lately. The newest slam is from Texas Observer, generally viewed as a left-leaning publication, whose Dave Mann on Friday provided a takedown of the campaign's media operation.Mann called Davis' press team the "worst" he's ever seen, and wrote that it's hurting her campaign:
[...] I have covered many political campaigns in Texas the past decade, so I know what it looks like when a campaign handles the press well.
And the Wendy Davis operation is about the worst at media relations that I’ve ever seen. Her team’s mismanagement of the press is damaging her candidacy.
Mann went on to detail numerous examples from the campaign trail. He wrote that her campaign's handling started to become a problem in November, when Davis was very late to a campaign event. One of her staffers, though, introduced her, prompting a smattering of applause for a candidate who hadn't yet arrived. It also prompted an opinion column in The Monitor entitled, "Wendy Davis is not ready for prime time."
Mann's piece comes as the Davis campaign is struggling to combat questions about her biography, which Mann said has been another poor moment in media relations. The campaign advertised a major speech to "set the record straight," but only allowed one outlet to cover the event.
David Saleh Rauf, a reporter for The San Antonio Express-News, has been ripping the Davis campaign and the Texas Democratic Party on Twitter over the past week:
Hey @jansoifer -- why did your group bar state press Monday but give exclusive access to one outlet to hear a gubernatorial stump speech?
— David Saleh Rauf (@davidrauf) January 30, 2014
. @jansoifer @TCDP It's a flat out lie to deny that you barred the state press corp and granted exclusive access to one outlet.
— David Saleh Rauf (@davidrauf) January 30, 2014
"Even half of local Austin broadcasters did not pick up" the @WendyDavisTexas story on Monday. Great strategy. #tx2014
— David Saleh Rauf (@davidrauf) January 30, 2014
In a statement, the Davis campaign dismissed its apparent media troubles, noting that the campaign still has a while to go.
"We're going to continue to focus on the priorities of Texas families: improving our schools, creating jobs, and taking care of our veterans when they come home from fighting overseas," Bo Delp, the campaign's communications director, told Business Insider.
" Wendy Davis will be the next Governor of Texas, and this is going to be a long, hard-fought campaign — sometimes the media will like us, and sometimes they won't."
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Reported by Business Insider 1 day ago.