2 observations about the rail effect:
you might want to consider the plunge in Wong's vote percentage in 2002-04-06 in the possible LRT-alignment precincts, which range from as little as 10 pts up to 17 pts - huge drops even in precincts Wong carried in 02 and 04. Her high-handed attempt to ride on Culberson's antirail coattail without canvassing any constituents south of 59, her badgering of the West U city council, her pretentious lecturing to concerned civic associations (other than Afton Oaks) definitely had something to do with voting patterns in those precincts.

in Sept and Oct there was an under the radar effort to inform voters in precincts 137, 360, and 570 - the Westpark alignment precincts - that Wong had lied about polling her constituents in those precincts before going public with her anti-Richmond position. The issue was couched in terms of what constituents deserve from an elected official in regard to effective representation and honesty rather than specifically the LRT alignment. Cohen's campaign had absolutely nothing to do with this block-walking/emailing effort, which was organized and executed by Repub, Dem, and Ind neighbors fed up with Wong's LRT act.

Rumor has it that James Campbell is the Chronic's code name for circular file.

I have sent an email to Rad Sallee and James Campbell pointing this out and asking why my work was not acknowledged.

There's only an obligation to acknowledge your work if your work was quoted or otherwise incorporated in the story. Are you asserting that Rad Sallee copied your work without attribution?

That would be a pretty strong assertion, for which you've provided no evidence. And that's more Rick Casey's style than Rad Sallee's.

If by "our area", Scarbrough means "the precincts east of Kirby that include Richmond", then Scarborough is right. That's definitely Democratic turf. However, if she meant all of HD134 (which is my interpretation)

Her business is east of Kirby on Richmond. Thus, your interpretation is likely wrong.

I am not alleging plagiarism. I am pointing out that I reported this on the Chronicle's site two weeks ago. It is certainly possible that nobody was aware of this. I wanted to make sure that they were.

Moreover, I think that there should be more awareness of what content exists in the Chron reader blogs. I believe that someone should have known about this. Had it appeared only on this site, that would be different. But it appeared on their site, under their brand. I believe there should be some awareness of that.

I read the article in the paper today and the analysis did not make sense. Ms. Scarbrough's business is just east of Shepherd. For some reason, she gets quoted all the time and it appears that her opinions are representative of the neighborhood. I can assure you, as someone who lives one block from her business, THEY ARE NOT!! Only the businesses on Richmond (at least east of Kirby) are anti-Richmond rail. Those of us who live near Richmond are in favor of rail on Richmond.

Kuff,

In all fairness to Rad, he likely does not read the Chron blog. Although, there should be one of the editors alert enough to check it from time to time.

It seemed to me that Rep. Wong's opponent benefitted significantly from the pro-urban rail "special interests."

This is the nature of politics.

BTW - Matt Stiles wrote an interesting story about the significant number of contributors to COH politicians who blatantly violated the "blackout period" seemingly with impunity.

Does Rad live in Afton Village? His reasoning in that piece is sloppy: Martha Wong got beat soundly, it had nothing to do with rail, so that means that rail is bad bad bad. He still doesn't understand that 100-year infrastructure projects can't be built from the perspective of a two-year election cycle. He should resign from the Chronicle and go to work for Culberson's office.