From the inbox: The first batch of over 38,000 postal ballots for the May 27, 2014 Primary Runoff Elections have been mailed and will be arriving in voters’ mailboxes this week. This mailing represents the highest number of mail ballots issued for a mid-term runoff election in the history of Harris County. The previous high […]
Posts Tagged ‘Republican Party’
Who’s afraid of the Republican slate?
I was reading this story about a kerfuffle in the Republican runoff for Railroad Commissioner when a thought struck me. A Republican candidate seeking a post that regulates the state’s oil and gas industry said he won’t cut ties to his energy business if elected to the Texas Railroad Commission – a state board that […]
Pratt Mess gets messier
How much worse can it get? Hundreds of divorce, child support and custody cases dating back to 2012 will have to be revisited – and possibly sent back to trial – as a court administrator sorts out what he called the “random chaos” left behind by former District Family Court Judge Denise Pratt. The freshman […]
National ag groups not happy with Republicans
It’s all about immigration reform. Craig Regelbrugge, who co-chairs the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, says a large majority of his group’s members — which include large and small farming enterprises and growers all around the country — are Republican, and many give to the GOP. But he’s increasingly hearing from members who are so […]
How can we miss you if you won’t go away?
Denise Pratt is a gift that keeps on giving. Denise Pratt may not be gone just yet. Two days after announcing her immediate resignation as presiding judge of the 311th family District Court – and the suspension of her re-election campaign – Pratt sent a text message to supporters on Sunday asking them to “call […]
Precinct analysis: Republican primary election
I’ve done the Democrats, so now let’s take a look at the Republicans. In this case, I did have a few specific questions in mind, so my approach here will be a little different. First, we all know that Steve Stockman’s performance art piece campaign against Sen. John Cornyn didn’t amount to anything, but did […]
Always going backwards
That’s the Republican Party of Texas. When the Texas Republican Party made a guest worker program part of its 2012 platform, it was hailed as an important step forward for the party. The GOP needed to adjust itself, people said, to appeal to a new generation of Texas voters, and reorient itself toward some kind […]
Pratt resigns
Good riddance. Under investigation by Harris County prosecutors for dismissing hundreds of cases without notice, embattled family court judge Denise Pratt resigned Friday, abruptly ending her re-election bid. The freshman Republican jurist campaigned as a conservative advocate for children and families, touting her unique policy of keeping boyfriends, girlfriends and lovers of recently divorced litigants […]
GOP primary turnout comparison
There’s been plenty of focus on Democratic turnout in this past primary, and while Republican turnout gets a nod in there, I haven’t seen it be the focus of any stories yet. In part, I suspect that’s because Wendy Davis and Bill White are a ready-made comparison, but Greg Abbott was essentially unopposed while Rick […]
The Dew is in it to win it
Let the attack ads begin! Despite mounting pressure to throw in the towel, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst skipped a Wednesday deadline to take his name off the May 27 primary runoff ballot, instead committing himself to an expensive come-from-behind battle against challenger Dan Patrick for the next 12 weeks. The 11-year-incumbent trailed Patrick, a Houston […]
A new day for the Harris County GOP?
Lisa Falkenberg postmortems the changing of the guard at the Harris County GOP. Now that [Paul] Simpson defeated [Jared] Woodfill in the Republican primary election earlier this week, [Rep. Sarah] Davis is hoping her past experience with him is prologue. She and others are looking to Simpson to provide a new kind of leadership, one […]
Primary results: Harris County
The big news here is that there were no surprises on the Democratic side, in particular no unpleasant surprises. By far the best news was that Kim Ogg easily bested Lloyd Oliver in the primary for DA, with over 70% of the vote. I doubt we’ve seen the last of this particular plague on our […]
Harris County GOP to yell at cloud on Monday
Lone Star Q: Calling gay people “sodomites” and U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia a “would-be dictator,” the Harris County Republican Party announced it will host a news conference Monday morning in response to Garcia’s ruling Wednesday striking down Texas’ bans on same-sex marriage. The event at county GOP headquarters seems like a pretty obvious ploy […]
Chron overview of Harris County GOP Chair race
This race has provided quite a bit of entertainment for us armchair types. The race to head the Harris County Republican Party is about as far down the ballot as you can get. As such, it typically generates neither news nor drama. This time around, however, the contest to decide who will run the largest […]
Gallup’s poll of Latinos in Texas
I have four things to say about this. Texas Hispanics are decidedly Democratic in their political party preferences, 46% to 27%, but that 19-percentage-point Democratic advantage is much smaller in Texas than the average 30-point gap Democrats enjoy among the Hispanic population in the other 49 states. And white Texas residents are decidedly more Republican […]
Pay no attention to Mark Jones
This is a really bad idea. At least for the time being, the Republican primary is the decisive election for the governance of Texas. In contrast, the most pressing issue facing Houston-area Democratic primary voters will be whether they prefer safe mainstream candidates or provocative and potentially damaging outsiders as the party’s long-shot nominees for […]
January campaign finance reports for Harris County legislative candidates
This could take awhile, and that’s with me limiting myself to contested races. First, the Senate. SD04 Brandon Creighton Steven Toth SD07 Paul Bettencourt James Wilson Jim Davis SD15 John Whitmire Damian LaCroix Ron Hale SD17 Joan Huffman Derek Anthony Rita Lucido Here’s a summary chart. For the record, Davis, Whitmire, LaCroix, and Lucido are […]
Endorsement watch: EQTx for Davis
Sarah Davis, that is. A gay rights group Tuesday backed its first Texas Republican in a primary election, for better or worse. State Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, will find out in March if the endorsement, from Equality Texas, a gay rights advocacy group, will help or hurt her re-election bid. The announcement marks […]
Chron overviews of the other candidates for Governor
On the Republican side, everybody wants to be the next coming of Ted Cruz. As Attorney General Greg Abbott sweeps toward the GOP nomination for governor, other Republicans are reminding voters that he’s not alone in the party primary. Waging longer-than-long-shot bids against Abbott’s superior name identification and huge war chest are conservative commentator and […]
What is the sound of one politician switching?
It depends. When Lawrence Meyers won a seat on the statewide Court of Criminal Appeals in 1992, he was the first Republican elected to the state’s highest criminal court. This month he made history again. After switching parties, Meyers, who had been a judge in Fort Worth, became the first Democrat to hold statewide office […]
More on the local GOP’s lawsuit against same sex spouse insurance benefits
Family Court? What’s up with that? City Attorney Dave Feldman said Wednesday that the city of Houston and Mayor Annise Parker were not given notice before a family district court judge halted a recent policy change extending health and life insurance benefits to city employees in same-sex marriages. “I’m not even sure how this ended […]
Harris County GOP sues over same sex spouse benefits for city employees
When Mayor Parker announced that legally married same sex spouses would be eligible to be added to city employees’ health insurance plans, I was certain that there would be legal action taken against that decision. The Harris County GOP has now supplied the legal action. The city of Houston’s recent policy change extending health and […]
How to assess the odds in HD134
Texpatriate informs us that two-term Rep. Sarah Davis will be getting a primary challenger in HD134 – Bonnie Parker, who lost to Davis in the 2010 primary, and who will unsurprisingly be attacking Davis from the right. There are three things I know about HD134: 1. Democrats have been urgently searching for a candidate to […]
Why some polls are less accurate than others
The local GOP had a rally Monday night that among other things featured a “straw poll” of the faithful to see who their preferences were in the upcoming primary election. Harris County Republicans worked to energize their base on Monday night with a rally at the Galleria, where a parade of statewide candidates pitched voters […]
In case Greg Abbott just isn’t right-wing enough for you
Meet his latest challenger. A tea party activist and frequent guest on Fox News has entered the race for governor in Texas, offering an alternative on the right of frontrunner Greg Abbott. Lisa Fritsch, an author and conservative radio host from Austin, announced Tuesday at a hamburger restaurant in Austin that she is seeking the […]
Chan challenges Campbell in SD25
An awful candidate against an awful incumbent. Two months after stirring national controversy by condemning homosexuality, Councilwoman Elisa Chan has decided to leave the council to run for the Texas Senate in 2014, challenging District 25 state Sen. Donna Campbell in the March GOP primary. Chan, 47, is taking on a first-term incumbent from New […]
How city candidates have voted in past primaries
This is great to see. The Harris County Democratic Party does not endorse candidates in the non-partisan City of Houston elections; however, in an effort to keep you informed as to which candidates are Democrats and which are not, we are providing this information page. Candidates and elected officials who are current Sustaining Members of […]
Dark money
It’s a small step, if it’s allowed to be taken, but the bill to require donor disclosure on so-called “dark money” is a step in the right direction. Senate Bill 346 takes direct aim at the cloak of anonymity that currently shields so-called “dark money” groups – those tax-exempt organizations whose donors drop big bucks […]
Who’s afraid of Battleground Texas?
The Republican Party of Texas for one, if you believe their fundraising appeals. In a heated fundraising letter sent this week to donors statewide, the Texas GOP calls the new Democratic voter-mobilization effort “a clear and present threat to you and your family.” “They’re coming to take away your guns,” the letter signed by GOP […]
Some things can’t be rebranded
Louie Gohmert, ladies and gentlemen. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) warned Wednesday that “radical Islamists” are being “trained to act like Hispanic[s]” and cross the U.S.-Mexico border. “We know Al Qaeda has camps over with the drug cartels on the other side of the Mexican border,” he said Wednesday on C-Span. “We know that people that […]
Trib poll shows Perry leading Abbott
Make of this what you will. Gov. Rick Perry would defeat Attorney General Greg Abbott by a nearly 3-to-1 margin if a Republican gubernatorial primary were held today, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Such a contest might never come: Neither man has declared for that 2014 race, with each saying he […]
Messing with the primaries
It’s like deja vu all over again. State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, has filed a bill to move up the primary one month in even-numbered years, to the first Tuesday in February. Patrick said people in both parties should support the measure because it would give Texas a greater say in presidential elections. “I’m tired […]