This is one of the stranger “draft somebody” movements I’ve seen. A movement has been building among local Republicans over the past few months to encourage Susan Reed to run for state attorney general in 2014. Reed, the hard-nosed, four-term Bexar County district attorney, would be the first female AG in the state’s history, a [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Bexar County’
More counties for Medicaid expansion
All of these are from last week. Bexar County: On a bipartisan vote, Bexar County commissioners Tuesday urged Texas lawmakers to expand the state’s Medicaid program and take advantage of federal matching funds under the Affordable Care Act. “From 2014 to 2017, expansion will bring $27.2 billion in federal revenue to Texas for just over [...]
As if you needed another reason to support Medicaid expansion
Even more data on why Medicaid expansion makes sense from Texas Impact. The study, by former Texas deputy comptroller Billy Hamilton, says Texas shouldn’t pass up the chance to insure up to 2 million of its more than 6 million uninsured people. Hamilton cited other benefits. Expansion of the Medicaid rolls would “provide relief to [...]
Straight ticket voting and judicial races elsewhere
You may be wondering, after reading my post about straight ticket voting and judicial races if the same thing is true in counties other than Harris. I got to wondering that myself, so I checked out the results from a dozen other counties for 2012. County ST Advantage Contested Races Closest Win # Affected ================================================================== [...]
What kind of debt is it?
Comptroller Susan Combs is real worried about city and county debt, y’all. Local governments are loading down Texas taxpayers with debt without providing them enough information about the amount already owed for roads, schools and other public projects, State Comptroller Susan Combs contends in a report released Wednesday. Titled “Your Money and Your Debt,” the [...]
Counties may try to expand Medicaid on their own
The Washington Post reports on the efforts of county and hospital district officials in some of Texas’ largest counties to bypass Rick Perry’s refusal to expand Medicaid for Texas and seek approval to do it themselves for their own jurisdictions. George Hernandez Jr., CEO of University Health System in San Antonio, came up with the [...]
Medicaid expansion: Not as expensive as the state claimed it would be
Remember last year when the state Health and Human Services Commission claimed that Medicaid expansion would cost the state of Texas $27 billion over ten years, causing every Republican in the state to have a fainting spell and a hissy fit about how that would bankrupt us all? Turns out that estimate was a wee [...]
How about those new Latino Congressional districts?
In the end, not so much. Originally hailed by Latino leaders as a way to boost opportunities for their community, the newly redrawn Texas congressional map has led to a pair of white Democrats claiming the nominations in districts that were crafted with Latino majorities. The result could be that five of the state’s 36 [...]
Express-News overview of Romo versus Doggett
Some interesting tidbits in here. Despite the minority makeup of a newly drawn congressional district, a San Antonio Latina candidate faces a steep uphill climb against a white Austin liberal with a long tenure in the nation’s capital. Sylvia Romo, the Bexar County tax assessor-collector, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, are battling with political newcomer [...]
“Crazy” ants come to Austin
They’re on the move. There’s a new ant in town, and wherever it goes, fire ants start disappearing. It also doesn’t sting or bite. But don’t get excited yet. The Rasberry crazy ant which showed up in Travis County and Round Rock this fall swarms into homes by the hundreds of thousands in search of [...]
Interview with Sylvia Romo
One of the most closely watched Congressional primaries this cycle will be in the new CD35, the district to which Rep. Lloyd Doggett moved after redistricting and the second interim map made his CD25 hostile territory. In this Austin-to-San Antonio district he will face Sylvia Romo, who announced her candidacy in that district very early [...]
Residency is more state of mind than anything else
From the “Home is where you say it is” department. Her dogs live there, her mail arrives there, and her “stuff” is still there. But Delicia Herrera insists she no longer lives at the home she owns on SW 39th Street. The house sits in Texas House District 124, and the former city councilwoman is [...]
No, San Antonio will not be getting an MLB team any time soon
You are right to be skeptical. It’s a development that has become as predictable as yellow pollen in the spring. A Major League Baseball franchise, struggling financially, seeks a new stadium deal, a new location, a new life. In the midst of resulting contention, options are explored. Such as relocating to another area. San Antonio, [...]
Meet the new rail debate, same as the old rail debate
I feel like I’ve heard all this before. Opponents of the planned downtown streetcar system said Tuesday that county officials broke a promise with voters when they agreed to use advanced transportation district funds to help fund the project. The group contends that multiple pieces of campaign literature used to promote the ATD tax in [...]
CD35 will still have a contested primary
It won’t be Doggett versus Castro but it still ought to be interesting. The battle for a newly drawn congressional district will pit two seasoned Democratic politicians against one another: Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Sylvia S. Romo and former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez. On the first day of filing for the March primaries, Romo said [...]
San Antonio moves forward with streetcar plan
San Antonio City Council has voted to approve funding for a five-year transit expansion plan that includes a streetcar line. The vote all but guarantees construction of the city’s first urban rail project since San Antonio ended its electric streetcar operation in 1933. “I do believe what this plan does is it looks forward,” [Mayor [...]
Bexar County legislative hopefuls
Some news out of Bexar County about Democratic legislative candidates. Two former San Antonio councilmen who left office this summer because of term limits are back in politics and gearing up for their first partisan campaigns for seats in the Texas Legislature. Former Councilman Justin Rodriguez, a Democrat, officially announced his candidacy for the District [...]
No MLB or NFL for SA any time soon
San Antonio is many things, but a Major League Baseball or NFL city is isn’t, and won’t be any time soon. Those are the findings of California-based Premier Partnerships, which recently submitted the results of a six-month feasibility study commissioned by Bexar County and San Antonio to determine the viability of professional sports in the [...]
San Antonio approves long term transit plan
The board of VIA Metropolitan Transit, the transit agency for San Antonio, has unanimously approved a long term roadmap that will bring rail construction to the city. San Antonio is the largest city in the U.S. with a bus-only transit system, according to the plan. The city’s only previous electric streetcar system was discontinued in [...]
Oh yeah, someone is running in CD23
Scott Stroud reminds me that the Democrats do have a candidate for that other Congressional race in Bexar County. Although Democrats are already buzzing about the looming Interstate 35 tussle between Congressman Lloyd Doggett and state Rep. Joaquín Castro for a new congressional district, Congressman Francisco “Quico” Canseco’s defense of his sprawling district might turn [...]
Doggett v Castro by the numbers
Greg looks at primary results from the last two cycles in the newly drawn CD35, and finds confirmation of the convention wisdom that Rep. Lloyd Doggett has his work cut out for him against State Rep. Joaquin Castro. Go take a look and see for yourself, then check out NewsTaco and Somos Tejanos for a [...]
Who gets prioritized?
Bexar County is beginning to experience what Harris County has gone through for decades: Dealing with lots of growth in unincorporated areas. In Bexar County, the population swelled by 320,000 in the past decade. Providing government services to the now 1.7 million residents has become a costly proposition — especially with one-third of new arrivals [...]
Veasey’s Congressional plan
We didn’t get a Congressional map from the Senate Redistricting Committee, though we may now get one in a special session but that didn’t stop State Rep. Marc Veasey from drawing his own before sine die. In Veasey’s map, thirteen of the state’s 36 districts would be minority districts, all of which would lean Democrat, [...]
Still going after Doggett
Scott Stroud suggests there’s a new ploy by Republicans in the works to get rid of Rep. Lloyd Doggett. Congressman Lamar Smith, the Republican charged with redrawing Texas’ congressional districts, has floated a map that would transform Doggett’s district into one that barrels from Austin down Interstate 35, 18-wheeler style, through San Antonio’s East Side, [...]
San Antonio and New Braunfels
The San Antonio metro area has grown again. New Braunfels, the second-largest city in South Central Texas, now is part of the newly expanded and renamed San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has grown from four to eight counties. Defined by the federal government as a geographic region that shares social and economic ties, [...]
New map, new opportunities: Travis, Bexar, El Paso
On to the urban counties. I’m grouping these three together because there’s really only one opportunity in each, and none of them are truly “new”. But never mind that. Let’s look at some data. District: 47 Incumbent: Paul Workman (first elected in 2010) County: Travis Best 2008 Dem performance: Barack Obama, 44.75% HD47 was the [...]
Bexar Dems vote to oust Ramos
Good. Bexar County Democratic Party leaders voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to remove ailing and embattled Chairman Dan Ramos for misconduct and neglect of duty. The 104-5 vote by the party’s executive committee came despite a desperate attempt by Ramos to call off the meeting. Ramos, who has ignored calls for his resignation since March, didn’t attend [...]
Bill to help oust Dan Ramos passes out of committee
Nothing unites people like having a common problem. Legislation that would allow the Texas Democratic Party to intervene in the leadership dispute in the Bexar County Democratic Party was approved Thursday by the Texas House Elections Committee. With the 7-1 vote, the measure by state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, is eligible for consideration [...]
Dan Ramos needs to go
I’m a little late to the table in commenting on the hateful remarks of Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Dan Ramos, and I apologize for that. Let me just say that there’s no place in civilized society, let alone the Democratic Party, for that kind of ignorant, homophobic crap. Ramos should be ashamed of himself, [...]
San Antonio moves past Dallas
They’re #2! Not that it really matters. [San Antonio's] 1.3 million residents put it at the No. 2 spot for Texas’ largest cities and had the office of Mayor Julián Castro declaring San Antonio’s “rising prominence as one of America’s fastest-growing big cities.” San Antonio followed Houston, the state’s largest city with 2 million residents, [...]
Social media guidelines in San Antonio
Interesting. There’s no standard policy or set of procedures governing how public entities or their employees should use social networking sites. Agencies are in various stages of evaluating what constitutes proper online conduct. Bexar County is writing a social media policy that would address personal networking. There’s nothing about it in the county’s computer resources [...]
Redistricting hearing in San Antonio
It’s that time of the decade again. Monday’s joint hearing of the House Committees on Redistricting and Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence — on the University of Texas at San Antonio’s downtown campus — marked the unofficial kickoff for that process. The first Texas redistricting meeting held this year outside of Austin, it attracted some of [...]
VIA thinks bigger on streetcars
They may be scaling back in Dallas, but San Antonio’s transit agency will apply for more federal funds to build a more extensive streetcar network. VIA Metropolitan Transit’s board of trustees voted Tuesday to spike a federal grant application for up to $25 million because it could have ended up costing the agency and its [...]