![David Alameel](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20141030040309im_/http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/files/2013/12/AX056_1D10_9.jpg)
David Alameel at a U.S. House candidate forum April 9, 2012, at Salon Las Americas in Dallas. (Eve Edelheit/staff)
update: Alameel used to be much more fond of Cornyn. In 2004 and 2005, he and his wife donated $8,000 to the senator’s campaign plus $7,500 to Cornyn’s political action committee, federal campaign records show. Tuesday’s story here on Cornyn’s GOP primary challengers so far.
WASHINGTON – Democrats could have a champion able to force Sen. John Cornyn to spend heavily to defend his job next year: David Alameel, a wealthy Dallas dentist who’s spent lavishly for candidates in both parties.
“I’ll just do whatever it takes. Money is not an issue for me. It’s more whether or not I feel I can make a difference,” Dr. Alameel said today by phone. “We need new ideas. Not just the same politicians with the same redundant parroting of talking points.”
Alameel, 61, joins three other Democrats and a handful of Republicans gunning for Cornyn. The filing deadline for the March primaries is Dec. 9.
It’s his second bid for office. Last year, he spent a staggering $4.5 million running for Congress in the new minority-dominated district eventually won by Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. He ran fourth in a field of 11 in the Democratic primary, collecting 10 percent of the votes.
He’s determined to do better against Cornyn, whom he derides as “an establishment figure” and “tactician” whose main focus is on trying to outflank Democrats and get reelected. “He’s part of the problem. He produced big deficits and big government and he has absolutely no solution other than giving tax breaks to the rich,” Alameel said.
The odds in Texas remain strongly in favor of Republicans running statewide, though Alameel – unlike other challengers to Cornyn – has the resources to force a competitive race.
“Sen. Cornyn looks forward to discussing his record and welcomes Dr. Alameel into the race,” said Cornyn campaign manager Brendan Steinhauser.
Alameel describes himself as “not your typical Democrat. I’m conservative in many ways and have worked with both parties. I’m very pro military, very pro national security.”
His campaign spending alone demonstrates that he’s no typical Democratic bundler. Rather, he’s spread the wealth in both parties.
At the federal level, he and his wife Martha have donated about $727,000 in the last six years, all to Democratic candidates and committees.
In Texas races, Alameel has donated $1.4 million in the last 15 years, much of it to top Republicans.
Attorney General Greg Abbott, the GOP front-runner for governor, got $165,000, including $50,000 as recently as 2008 – though state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, his top Democratic rival next year, got $30,000 last year.
Alameel gave Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst $250,000 from 2002 to 2008. Gov. Rick Perry got $75,000 in 1998.
His favorite, though, was Carole Keeton Strayhorn. That “one tough grandma” got $375,000 in her independent bid for governor in 2006, plus $75,000 as a Republican in the decade before that, according to records compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
Today, Alameel said Republicans show a “lack of compassion for their fellow man,” and on health care and other issues, they’re far more eager to fight President Obama and deprive him of victories than to solve problems facing most Americans.
In Democrats, he sees too much fondness for big government and deficit spending. “Democrats love to help people but they go about it wrong. … Too small is not good. Too big is not good. We need smart government.”
Like most Democrats, Alameel takes strong issue with Cornyn on immigration policy. Cornyn has opposed so-called “comprehensive” reform that would allow eventual citizenship for the 11 million people in the country illegally.
He estimates his fortune at over $50 million. That’s on the low end of estimates from the mandatory candidate disclosure form he filed in Feb. 2012; using the form’s broad ranges, he listed assets worth $40 million to $125 million, and annual income topping $5 million.
“I’m not doing this for a job. I don‘t need a job,” Alameel said. “And I don’t need to spend 80 percent of my time begging other people for money, or to tell the Democratic base, `You’re right, we should just keep attacking Republicans.’ ”