TX-10: In the name of science, 314 Action labels Mike Siegel a loser [View all]
If you are a Democratic voter living in that gerrymander along the Pflugerville to Katy corridor that is Texas’ 10th Congressional District, you might have received a campaign mailer — or two or three or four or five — from a super PAC called 314 Action telling you that Mike Siegel, who was the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2018, is a loser.
“Siegel already lost to McCaul,” says the mailer with the cinema motif. “We’ve seen this show before and it doesn’t end well for Texas Democrats.”
“Once upon a time Mike Siegel lost to Mike McCaul,” says the mailer with the Brothers Grimm typeface. “Mike Siegel is living in a fairy tale. He can’t beat Mike McCaul. Dr. Pritesh Gandhi can.”
As a super PAC, 314 Action is able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as it doesn’t coordinate with a candidate. With a mission to elect scientists to office, its name is a nod to pi — the 3.14 ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle.
It has spent heavily in two recent Democratic primaries in which its candidates emerged victorious — Cameron Webb, who would be the first black physician to serve as a voting member of Congress, from Virginia; and Nancy Goroff, who would be the first female Ph.D. scientist to serve in Congress, in New York.
But its biggest investment this cycle is in Texas’ District 10, where it has spent nearly $600,000 on behalf of Gandhi, the associate chief medical officer at People’s Community Clinic in East Austin. It also funded negative advertising against Austin attorney Shannon Hutcheson in the March 3 primary and Siegel, an Austin civil rights attorney, in the July 14 runoff.
https://www.statesman.com/news/20200710/in-name-of-science-314-action-labels-mike-siegel-loser
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