It's an issues thang

A well-respected progressive blogger last week, in reaction to a perfectly ridiculous and semi-entertaining news release about how some creepy guy stole General Land Office Commissioner candidate Hector Uribe’s photo to put it on his own dating website page, tweeted “time to focus on GLO issues” Meanwhile, the stolen photo incident got some love by mainstream media.

Another progressive blogger has criticized Uribe twice for his tongue-in-cheek news, once for the dating website creep, and again for a release notifying media that Uribe had performed CPR on a guy on the Capitol grounds. Similarly, the CPR incident was covered by mainstream media.

The second blogger said it best (naturally, since he wasn't constrained by 140 characters):

Uribe's campaign should be using its press releases to attack the Republican incumbent and to announce Uribe's own policy ideas (assuming they actually exist).

But, funny thing - they do exist, by the bucket-full.

 Uribe has already debated incumbent Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson on the issues face-to-face – to my knowledge Hector Uribe and Jerry Patterson are the only statewide opponents to do so this year, so far. Not a word about it from either of these bloggers - or from any news organization I know of, except the news organization that sponsored the debate.

Uribe issued a major piece entited “On Energy, Texas needs leadership,” in which he advocated for Texas’ renewed commitment to sustainable energy like wind and solar power. The Austin American-Statesman thought it was news-worthy and printed it in full. Neither of these two gave it notice though, nor did any other blogger I know of.

Uribe gave a barn-burner of a speech at the Democratic state convention in Corpus Christi, in which he talked about the Republicans defending oil companies while the Gulf of Mexico turns to “liquid death” in the midst of a massive oil spill. Uribe laid out his thoughts on the oil spill, specified disagreements with his opponent on the issue, and explained what he would do on drilling safety if he is elected Land Commissioner. The Dallas Morning News gave the speech some mention, but the speech saw little coverage by mainstream media, and none by either of these two bloggers.

Uribe has taken on Patterson on the Christmas Mountains issue, saying Patterson’s attempt to sell the land to private interests constitutes a broken promise, and pledging that Uribe’s first act as Land Commissioner will be to transfer the land to the National Parks Service. But many may not know about that pledge, because neither of these bloggers covered it.

Fact is, each of these bloggers has an important point – candidates should focus on issues. But in this case neither takes any personal responsibility for covering the issues on which Uribe has focused, and each seems unaware that few statewide candidates have been focusing on issues as much as Hector Uribe. And who can blame them for being unaware of that, since media – these bloggers included – didn’t cover them?

A campaign will do whatever works. And when attempts to point out solid issue differences fall flat, a campaign will try something else. And meanwhile, Uribe is traveling the state talking about these important issues, even if campaign flacks like me often resort to cheap attention-getting tricks to highlight candidates. 

Reporters are in the same boat. When they write about serious campaign issues, and their readership falls, reporters will try something else.  That’s why many campaigns – including Uribe’s – have sometimes turned to humor, and why humor is being well-covered these days, both in mainstream and advocacy media.

Does coverage like that mean voters know a single additional thing about that candidate’s views? Nope, and it's a shame. But it’s not for lack of trying. And Uribe’s campaign won’t give up – he’ll be talking about the issues all year long, whether the newspapers or these two bloggers cover it or not.

So for those critical of the direction this or any other campaign is going, it’s a good criticism – and exploring that criticism might best start with a mirror, and a critical analysis of political discourse and waning interest on some issues among voters. 

Meanwhile, I'll do my part - if you're a mainstream reporter, or progressive blogger, who before now had no idea that Hector Uribe has been talking about the issues all along, shoot me your email address and I'll happily add you to Hector Uribe's distribution list.

And incidentally - oops - I just did it again. I used blogger criticism as an excuse to highlight Hector Uribe's issues. More political flack cheap tricks. My bad.

Update: one of the two above bloggers, the one with the more extensive quote, had widely-hinted on his blog that Charles Kuffner, publisher of the leading "Off the Kuff" blog, agrees with him. Kuff interrupted his vacation this morning long enough to email me the following:

I strongly disagree with that characterization, which I will state on my blog when I am back online. I've said Hector is my favorite candidate this cycle, and I meant it.

Thank Kuff!