Leaving his staff to remark on Noriega. Certainly a sign of excessive confidence:
With a major financial advantage and a lead in the polls over his Democratic challenger, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is running as if his opponent is the national Democratic Party, not state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston.
Since late last year, Cornyn has avoided directly engaging Noriega as much as possible. Any negative critiques of Noriega and his politics come from Cornyn's campaign manager and campaign spokesman.
"Cornyn sees himself as in two election fights — the one in Texas being the least important," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. "The one up in Washington for advancement within the Senate, I think, he has clearly in mind as well."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5922446.htmlThis "inevitability" now becomes the traditional media meme. Cornyn is adopting the "Rose Garden" strategy, like Bentsen and Gramm did before him:
In many ways, Cornyn's tactics are part of a classic front-runner campaign — appearing to tend to official duties more than re-election. In presidential politics, it is called a Rose Garden strategy, in which a president standing for re-election does not leave the White House.
Cornyn is not the first Texas senator to follow this path. Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen ignored his opponent on the road to a re-election victory in 1982. And Gramm scoffed at calls of his 1990 re-election opponent for a debate, saying he lacked credibility.
Cornyn's above-it-all strategy can continue as long as Noriega does not raise the profile of the race either in the news media or with paid advertising, said Jerry Polinard, a political scientist at the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg.
It is time for Noriega
to go on offense.