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San Antonio Express-News

October 24, 2007 Wednesday  
METRO Edition

S.A. lawyer was wrong candidate in wrong place at wrong time

BYLINE: Jaime Castillo, STAFF

SECTION: METRO AND STATE NEWS; Pg. 1B

LENGTH: 633 words

The ubiquitous political body snatcher, also known as "spending more time with the family," has claimed yet another victim.
But, while the real reason behind Mikal Watts' aborted U.S. Senate campaign can be debated, it doesn't change the fact he was the wrong candidate in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It's understandable that the likable San Antonio trial lawyer said he was getting out of the race before it started because he wants to spend time with his children. 
But one has to wonder if the Democrat's desire to tuck his kiddos into bed would be as strong if certain things hadn't come to light even before operatives for Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn had a chance to Swift Boat him.
First, there was the release of an embarrassing letter from Watts, then a Corpus Christi trial lawyer, to opposing counsel in 2001.
In it, Watts pressured his counterpart to settle a $60 million personal injury lawsuit because of Watts' firm's "heavy" campaign donations to certain appellate court justices, "all of whom are good Democrats."
Now, according to the reporting of San Antonio Express-News colleague John MacCormack, Watts has some ties to Mauricio Celis, the owner of Corpus Christi-based CGT Law Group International. Celis currently is being investigated for practicing law without a license.
It isn't clear whether the taint of either of these episodes -- and the near certainty of nasty future TV ads about them -- helped push Watts from the race.
But the fatal mistake here was that Watts and his handlers got into the game in the first place. It's even worse that they did so based on the advice of Washington insiders who knew next to nothing about Texas.
After moving to San Antonio with designs on rebuilding the Bexar County Democratic Party from the bottom up, Watts quickly changed his focus.
Last spring, Watts got the attention of the Beltway after raising more than $1 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at an event at his Dominion home.
As the story goes, the head of the DSCC -- U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York -- was among those in attendance who immediately started courting Watts as an opponent for Cornyn.
Watts was the perfect candidate for national Democrats. Not only could he raise money for them, Watts could save national Democratic money as a candidate by being able to largely self-fund his own Senate race.
The calculus ignored the fact that "trial" and "lawyer" are dirty words in a state that still tilts to the right. It also ignored Watts' total lack of experience in any political office.
And, say what you want about identity politics, the strategy completely glossed over the lack of contrast Watts would have brought to the Democratic ticket against Cornyn.
In a business where appearance counts, Watts on the stump and on TV simply was going to be a younger version of Cornyn -- a tall, balding white guy.
Even more humbling for Democrats is the fact that the strategy of propping up mega wealthy candidates out of the blue has been tried to no success before.
Laredo businessman/banker Tony Sanchez failed in his $60 million bid for governor in 2002. And more recently, Alamo Heights businessman Lukin Gilliland Jr. loaned himself $700,000 and spent more than $1 million in a 2006 congressional race, only to come away with 11 percent of the votes.
Watts' departure does open up an opportunity for state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston. He doesn't have Watts' money, but he does have a story and political experience.
As a member of the Texas National Guard, Noriega in 2005 ran training facilities in Afghanistan.
But, like the Democrats' recent track record in statewide races, he is as yet unproven.
To contact Jaime Castillo, call (210) 250-3174 or e-mail jscastillo@express-news.net His column appears on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

LOAD-DATE: October 24, 2007

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

DOCUMENT-TYPE: Column

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

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