Turnout has been huge for the gubernatorial race. According to the Quorum Report [sub. req.], Democratic polling firm Opinion Analysis finds that in the five major counties, 16.7 percent of the Republican vote is coming from people who voted in the Democratic primary in 2008 (in Travis County, it’s 28 percent). The report notes that these are not regular primary voters. Key quote:
“Is this crossover good news for Kay Bailey Hutchison? Not necessarily, but I doubt that they are crossing over to stand up and be counted for Rick Perry.”
SweetCharity reports on Limbs For Life’s Co-founder Craig Gavras‘ admission last night to years of living a lie and puts in her two cents’ worth.
Yesterday it was the Wall Street Journal. Today it’s the New York Times. And this story has more teeth when it comes to analyzing Energy Future Holdings’ (EFH) enormous debt:
Today, the TXU deal is unwieldy and unpredictable. The buyout was, in effect, a gargantuan bet that natural gas prices would keep climbing; instead, plunging prices coupled with a hobbled national economy have cut into the cash the company generates. …
TXU, rechristened as Energy Future Holdings when the deal closed in October 2007, is hardly the only private equity bet suffering these days. Many other deals from the height of the buyout boom are mired in problems, as companies buffeted by the weak economy or overwhelmed by once-plentiful and oh-so-cheap debt are struggling to stay upright.
“There is no doubt that these are good companies with bad balance sheets,” says Colin C. Blaydon, a professor at Dartmouth’s business school who specializes in private equity. But some of the companies, he says, are so deeply buried that an economic rebound might not be enough to let them pay their debt.
“The cash flows are not going to be strong enough to let them fully recover and dig their way out,” he says.
It mentions other private equity bets. But this story is all about EFH, and it can’t make the company or its owners happy.