Does Rep. Lloyd Doggett want his old district back or not? The congressional and legislative districts used in this year’s elections were temporary maps drawn by panel of federal judges in San Antonio. The maps were designed to be used this year, while the courts continued to sort out various legal challenges to maps drawn [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Congress’
Is there more redistricting for Texas in the cards?
The short answer is it depends. For the most part, Republicans are content to keep the interim map used for the 2012 elections — if the courts allow it. “I don’t sense a lot of anxiousness from either the state or congressional side to open back up congressional redistricting,” said Chris Perkins, a GOP pollster [...]
The dollar coin is an idea that just won’t die
It keeps turning up like a bad penny, as it were. American consumers have shown about as much appetite for the $1 coin as kids do their spinach. They may not know what’s best for them either. Congressional auditors say doing away with dollar bills entirely and replacing them with dollar coins could save taxpayers [...]
Plaintiffs want to proceed with new redistricting maps
Texas Redistricting: Plaintiff groups in the Texas redistricting litigation in San Antonio told the court that it should go ahead and start the process of drawing remedial state house and congressional maps for use in 2014, but disagreed slightly about the timing of the process. Under proposals from two plaintiff groups, the state would have [...]
Lampson-mentum
I always thought that with Nick Lampson in the race, CD14 would be competitive. Looks like national perception is catching up to that belief. Texas Republicans are ringing the alarm over a House race that had seemed a safe bet to remain Republican. The reason for worry is the third-quarter fundraising and spending totals that [...]
Endorsement watch: Martin and Sullivan
The Chron can’t quite believe that Steve Stockman is on the verge of being foisted on us again as a member of Congress, so they do what they can by endorsing his opponent, Max Martin. Max Martin is a credible, if long-shot, candidate. Martin, a retired pilot who now owns an education software business in [...]
Endorsement watch: Lampson and Gallego
I mentioned on Monday that the Chron had endorsed Nick Lampson for CD14. Yesterday, they wrote the endorsement editorial for him. Lampson, a native of Beaumont, first came to Congress in 1996 and served four terms from the Golden Triangle area before being defeated in 2004. He served another term from 2008-2010 in the district [...]
All the interviews for 2012
As we begin early voting for the November election, here are all the interviews I conducted for candidates who are on the ballot as well as for the referenda. These include interviews that were done for the primary as well as the ones done after the primary. I hope you found them useful. Senate: Paul [...]
Texas appeals DC Court redistricting decision
I suppose this was inevitable. Texas is appealing a federal court decision that denied preclearance to legislatively drawn redistricting maps, saying the court overstepped its authority under the federal Voting Rights Act, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced late Friday. That appeal won’t affect the current election. [...] Earlier this year — after the elections were [...]
Canseco’s poll response
Rep. Quico Canseco has released his own poll in CD23. New polling data released by Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco’s campaign shows the freshman congressman with a 10-point lead on his Democratic challenger, Pete Gallego. The new poll is radically different from the one released by Gallego’s campaign last month. That poll, conducted by the Democratic-leaning [...]
A national view on redistricting
The Atlantic has an interesting view of the redistricting process. Every 10 years, after U.S. census workers have fanned out across the nation, a snowy-haired gentleman by the name of Tom Hofeller takes up anew his quest to destroy Democrats. He packs his bag and his laptop with its special Maptitude software, kisses his wife [...]
Poll claims lead for Gallego in CD23
A poll commissioned by the League of Conservation Voters shows Democratic challenger Pete Gallego with a lead in CD23. Democratic challenger Pete Gallego is leading Republican incumbent Quico Canseco (43% Gallego / 38% Canseco) in the race to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. The 23rd is a swing district that is very competitive at 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 [...]
More on Texas proving the need for the Voting Rights Act
From the DMN: “There have been growing arguments that the Voting Rights Act is obsolete and should be struck down,” says University of Michigan law professor Ellen Katz, a nationally recognized expert on the Voting Rights Act. “But [Gov.] Rick Perry and the state of Texas, through their overreach in these cases, may have just [...]
Interview with Tawana Cadien
CD10 remains the strange barbell-like district that stretches from Austin to Houston that it has been since the DeLay re-redistricting of 2003; it was part of the Republicans’ previous failed strategy of defenestrating Rep. Lloyd Doggett. Originally seen as too Republican for a Democrat to bother contesting, it had achieved near-swing status by 2008 thanks [...]
No changes to interim maps
I noted this Friday afternoon, but in case you missed it the San Antonio court has ruled that the interim maps will be used as is for the November election. Texas will use its current district maps for the upcoming November election, a panel of federal judges ruled Friday afternoon, ending the possibility of another [...]
Challenging the interim maps
One of the questions that came out of Tuesday’s redistricting preclearance ruling was whether or not it would affect the interim maps for this year. Some of the intervenors have asked the San Antonio judges about that. Several key minority and Democratic groups took a first step Wednesday toward challenging Texas’ interim redistricting maps, put [...]
Don’t forget Joaquin
You can’t have a story about one twin and not have one about the other, am I right? When his minute-older brother gives the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, Joaquín Castro will be nearby, as he always is and has been for big moments in their 37 years as identical twins. On Sept. [...]
Interview with Candace Duval
Texas is unfortunately full of lousy Congressmen. Lamar Smith of CD21 has been on that list for over 20 years. Candace Duval is running to take him off it. Duval is an entrepreneur and realtor who once worked on the staff of Comptroller Bob Bullock. She now resides in Austin. Here’s what we talked about: [...]
Federal court denies preclearance on all redistricting maps
The long-awaited ruling in the preclearance lawsuit by the DC Court
Interview with Max Martin
The one new Congressional district to reach into Harris County is CD36, which stretches from Clear Lake and eastern Harris County up to Polk, Tyler, Jasper, and Newton Counties. Max Martin is the Democratic candidate running in this new district against retread wacko Steve Stockman. Martin is a retired pilot who started out as a [...]
Interview with Jim Dougherty
One of the effects of redistricting was to take CD02, which used to run from Kingwood out east into Jefferson County and move it entirely into Harris County, where it now runs southwest into Spring Branch and inside Loop 610. The first Democrat to take on this oddly-shaped district is Jim Dougherty. Dougherty is a [...]
Interview with Rep. Gene Green
Let’s get this round of interviews off with a strong start with a visit with Rep. Gene Green, who has been a fixture in local politics for a long time. First elected to Congress in 1992, Rep. Green was elected to the State House in 1972 and to the Senate in 1985. Rep. Green is [...]
Fall interview season begins tomorrow
I know that we just finished the primary runoffs, but we’re also now more than halfway through August, so it’s time to start doing interviews with candidates for the fall. I’ll be up candid, I don’t know exactly how many interviews I plan to do. For the most part, I don’t anticipate re-interviewing candidates that [...]
Some children left behind
Oops. Nearly half the public schools across Texas failed to meet tougher federal academic standards this year, according to preliminary data released Wednesday. The failures spiked sharply from last year, when a quarter of the state’s schools missed the mark. Nearly all the districts in the Houston area earned failing grades under the federal No [...]
2012 Democratic primary runoffs
All state results here. Best news of the night was Paul Sadler‘s easy win. Can we please raise some money for this guy? Congressional results: James Cargas in CD07, Pete Gallego in CD23, Rose Meza Harrison in CD27, Marc Veasey in CD33, and Filemon Vela in CD34. I’m delighted that three quality members of the [...]
Election night returns
For your convenience: Statewide Democratic results Looks good for Paul Sadler. Going to be a long night in CDs 23 and 33. Statewide Republican results Ted Cruz has a modest early lead. Wackjob John Devine is leading Supreme Court Justice David Medina. Steve Stockman is leading in CD36, and Donna Campbell is crushing Jeff Wentworth. [...]
Runoff Day
At long last, the 2012 primary season is about to be over in Texas, other than perhaps the HCDE race. To say the least, it’s been a long, strange trip, one that I hope goes down in the books as a bizarre aberration, never to be repeated or approximated. If you have not voted yet [...]
Congressional runoff stories
A couple of Chron stories about area Congressional primary runoffs for your perusal. CD14: Sometimes [CD14 GOP candidate Randy Weber] mentions that he was designated the most conservative member of the Texas House during his two terms in Austin. “We don’t knock on a lot of moderate doors, because my message doesn’t really resonate with [...]