Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday, March 25, 2026. No particular day of celebration or remembrance. Spring is in full swing this morning around the Florack Shack. My alarm clock, with Alexa's help, has been waking me with the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun" for the last few days.
1609: Henry Hudson embarks on an attempt to find a northwest passage to Asia for the Dutch East India Company, but will explore North America instead.
1776: Continental Congress authorizes a medal for George Washington.
1807: British Parliament abolishes the slave trade throughout the British Empire; a penalty of £120 per slave is introduced for ship captains.
1863: The first U.S. Army Medal of Honor is awarded to six Army soldiers by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in Washington, D.C.
1900: The U.S. Socialist Party forms in Indianapolis.
1919: Woodrow Wilson's dream of a League of Nations becomes a reality after the League Covenant is adopted at the Paris Peace Conference.
1954: RCA manufactures the first color TV set, featuring a 12.5-inch screen and costing $1,000. (That's about $9,800 in today's money.)
1967: The Turtles' "Happy Together" goes #1. It stays there for three weeks.
1995: Boxer Mike Tyson released from jail after serving three years.
Birthdays today include: Arturo Toscanini, Italian cellist and conductor; Ed Begley, American actor (12 Angry Men, The Unsinkable Molly Brown); David Lean, English film director (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Ryan's Daughter); Jack Ruby, nightclub owner who murdered assassin Lee Harvey Oswald; Gene Shalit, book and film critic and television personality (The Today Show, 1973-2010); Jim Lovel, U.S. Navy aviator, mechanical engineer, and NASA astronaut (Gemini 7, 12; Apollo 8, 13); Gloria Steinem, feminist and publisher (Ms Magazine); Johnny Burnette, rockabilly singer-songwriter and guitarist ("Train Kept A-Rollin'"; "You're Sixteen"); Hoyt Axton, songwriter, singer ("No No Song," "Joy To The World," "I've Never Been To Spain"); D.C. Fontana, educator and the first female writer on Star Trek; Aretha Franklin, singer ("Respect," "Think," "Chain of Fools"); Paul Michael Glaser, actor (Starsky & Hutch); Elton John, singer-songwriter ("Rocketman," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Candle In The Wind"); Robert O'Reilly, stage and screen actor (Star Trek Klingon Chancellor Gowron); actress Sarah Jessica Parker; and Jeff Healey, Canadian blind blues-rock guitarist.
(Sheesh, a longer list than usual.) If today's your day as well, Happy Birthday!
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I told you a couple weeks ago that I'd be watching this Texas Senate race closely. In the doing, I found a rather interesting note from RealClearPolling this morning.
In the Republican primary runoff between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the polling is showing Paxton up by five points in the RCP average (45% t 40%). This goes directly to my less-than-enthusiastic commentary on Cornyn a couple of weeks ago. The interesting part here is the wild variance in ad spending between the two. It says a lot about the strategy of each campaign, as you'll see.
John Cornyn:
- According to Ad Impact, ~$64M–$69M in total ad support/spending (campaign + allied groups)
- CBS News says roughly $59M+ of overall ad spending is tied to him in one dataset
Ken Paxton:
- Ad Impact says ~$3.6M–$4.1M in total ad support
- The Houston Chronicle says Paxton’s been notably spending very little early, holding resources for the runoff
Notice, please, that this doesn't include money from the NRCC, which added to Cornyn's purse going into the primary. As I suggested at the beginning of March, Cornyn has spent a total of at least $100 million.
Cornyn obviously had a massive budget advantage, particularly before primary day. His front-loading strategy has been making use of this advantage with saturation-style ad buys before primary day. And yet, even with all that, Paxton is beating him in the polls by a shade over five points, as of yesterday.
Paxton, who had less at the outset, is now in a position to outspend Cornyn for the runoff period, which can only solidify his lead. The only negative about this plan is that Paxton will end up paying a somewhat higher cost for each ad flight. Watch for his ad buys to be ramping up quickly despite the somewhat higher per-flight cost.
My read is one that doesn’t favor Cornyn winning the runoff. He spent a lot up front in an attempt to redefine the race. The polling numbers suggest this effort was not fully successful.
Meanwhile, Paxton’s tactics seem to be focused on turnout for the runoff. He also seems to be focusing his ad buys on less urban areas, where ad flights tend to be less expensive. In this case, it also happens to be where support for Cornyn seems weakest.
So, it appears that Paxton is gambling on a high turnout of his supporters. From some of the chatter I see coming from Texas, Cornyn's voters are not nearly as motivated as Paxton's. The question now is if that trend will hold.
You may have noticed I've not mentioned James Talarico, the Democrat nominee, as yet. That's because I think he has a better chance of becoming the next Ayatollah. Far as I can see, his only positive in this race is that he managed to oust Jasmine "You're all racists" Crockett. A poll from Impact Research shows Talarico with a theoretical lead over both Cornyn and Paxton, but only by a point — and the poll was taken before his 2021 "Six Genders" bit was reported on, which, as you may imagine, isn't playing well with Texans. His total record in the Texas legislature isn't helping him, either.
The runoff election in Texas is set for May 26. If it were held today, my read is that it would be Paxton's to lose. About anything can happen, of course, between now and then. This is how things stand at the moment, however. I'll be watching.
Thought of the day: "It's Tuesday that is the start of my week; The day I celebrate having actually survived Monday." — Unknown
Take care of yourselves today. As you go through your day today, whatever happens, do not lose sight of your values and who you are. See you tomorrow.
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