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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Republican Party’
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 [...]
A Republican view of 2014 in Harris County
Big Jolly is feeling pessimistic about his team’s chances in Harris County next year. Now let’s look at who will be on the playing field for us. There will be a lot of statewide action, with unknown Dems – let’s ignore them for now. Sen. John Cornyn is a good conservative senator but at this [...]
Precinct analysis: City propositions
And we come to the city of Houston bond referenda, of which there were five on the ballot. Here’s the usual breakdown of them: Dist A Yes A No B Yes B No C Yes C No D Yes D No E Yes E No ========================================================================== 126 720 231 725 239 711 228 671 275 [...]
How’s that GOP Latino outreach going?
There are issues. On Election Day, it became clearer than ever how important Hispanics, as the fastest growing portion of the U.S. population, are to national political success. Republican Mitt Romney earned only 27 percent of Latinos’ support in his failed bid for the presidency. Now, as Republicans in Texas examine Romney’s loss, they are [...]
Who doesn’t like parks?
The usual suspects – cranks, malcontents, and the Harris County GOP, that’s who. Proposition B on the Nov. 6 ballot asks you to pay for part of that plan, of course. Not with increased taxes, though, [Mayor Annise] Parker insists. The bond measure asks voters to authorize $166 million in borrowing that the city plans [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
HCDE runoff will be held
So ruled a judge yesterday in the ongoing lawsuit filed by the HCDE to void the Democratic primary in Precinct 1 Position 6. The Harris County Department of Education told a federal judge Monday it wants to proceed with the lawsuit as a growing number of parties sought to dismiss the case. Sarah Langlois, general [...]
Devine versus Medina
So why did onetime District Court Judge and frequent candidate John Devine decide to challenge Supreme Court Justice David Medina in this year’s GOP primary? A couple of his colleagues in Harris County offer a reason that isn’t very flattering. Devine “couldn’t provide us with a philosophical reason (to oppose Medina). He could not point [...]
Yvonne Gutierrez: Republican support for women’s health?
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. We all know there is a lot at stake for the 2012 election cycle. All eyes are on Washington but the old adage is true — all politics is local. State Legislative races are crucial. Especially [...]
Precinct analysis: GOP President and Senate in Harris County
Though I didn’t have one originally, I now have a canvass of the GOP primary in Harris County from this year. Since it’s impossible for me to have data and not do something with it, I’ve taken a look at the Presidential and Senate results for each of the State Rep districts. Here are the [...]
Precinct analysis: GOP Senate
I’m just going to give highlights from this one. I only have the Democratic canvass for Harris County, so this is county by county data only. You can see the spreadsheet here. – David Dewhurst had a majority of the vote in 148 counties. Unfortunately for him, the largest one was McLennan, with 20,947 total [...]
Roemer suspends his campaign
A moment of silence, please, for the end of the Buddy Roemer for President campaign. Today, I am no longer a candidate for President of the United States. After 17 months of a wonderful campaign, the lack of ballot access in all 50 states makes the quest impossible for now. I still don’t know how [...]
Beating Bradley
The Statesman writes about the aftermath of the GOP primary for District Attorney in Williamseon County where voters resoundingly threw out John Bradley. Michael Morton wasn’t on the ballot, didn’t campaign and didn’t back a candidate, but the recently exonerated former inmate cast a long shadow on the Williamson County district attorney race, becoming the [...]
GOP results, statewide
Full, though not necessarily the most up to date, results, are here. The Trib and the Observer have good roundups as well. – Mitt. Yawn. He was at just under 70% statewide, with Ron Paul getting 11% and Rick Santorum 8%. You have to wonder what might have been if Santorum had held on through [...]
GOP results, Harris County
Bullet points for all these result posts, I was up way too late last night. See the numbers here and the chat transcript from last night here. – You could have sold me on any result in the GOP DA primary going into yesterday, but I definitely did not expect such a wide margin. Mike [...]
Races I’ll be watching for tonight
As noted this morning, I will be participating in a live chat tonight beginning at 7 PM at the Chron election blog. I hope you’ll come by and ask some questions about what happened today. There are many races to keep track of. Here’s a brief guide to some of the one’s I’ll be watching [...]
The Chron’s final endorsement list
Here it is, in all its pathetically incomplete glory. Compare to what they had done by the start of Early Voting and you can see that they never developed anything resembling a sense of urgency about this. It’s a pity and a puzzle, but there you have it. I’d love to know if they started [...]
Four Congressional stories
CD27: It’s a relatively unknown field of hopefuls trying to unseat incumbent Republican Blake Farenthold in the newly configured U.S. House District 27, an area that stretches from Bastrop County south to Nueces County. The field includes former Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald — well-known in Central Texas but not in the most populous part [...]
Three primary stories
TX Trib: 4 Democrats Vying to Replace Hochberg in HD-137 Observers say the winner of the contest for HD-137 is likely to be decided in the Democratic primary, whose four candidates are former Capitol staffers Joseph Carlos Madden and Jamaal Smith, Harris County prosecutor Gene Wu and Alief Independent School District board member Sarah Winkler. [...]
Final early vote totals
The pattern remained consistent till the end. Nearly 116,000 Harris County residents have made their selections in next week’s primaries through early voting and returns from a record batch of mail-in ballots. In all, 90,489 people voted in person at select polling stations open May 14 through Friday and 25,469 mail ballots were returned. Possibly [...]
Early voting after one full week
Here are your seven day early voting totals for the 2012 primaries, and some historical context to go along with them. Year 7 day Early 7 day % Final 7 day % Early % ============================================================== 2004 R 11,330 28,217 38.91% 82,212 13.78% 34.32% 2004 D 8,607 22,523 38.21% 78,692 10.94% 28.62% 2008 R 28,773 66,375 [...]
Wentworth and Jones sue each other
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a contender for nastiest primary race of the cycle. On Thursday, incumbent state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, sued challenger Elizabeth Ames Jones, a former railroad commissioner, alleging libel and slander. Emergency room doctor Donna Campbell is also running, but is not a part of this particular squabble. At issue [...]
Endorsement watch: Madden in HD137
The Chron picks Joe Madden as their preferred candidate to succeed Rep. Scott Hochberg in HD137. In the Democratic primary on May 29, an impressive slate of candidates has come forward to run for Hochberg’s seat representing the 137th District in the Texas House. But one would be hard pressed to find a first-time candidate [...]
Lawsuit filed against Justice Hecht’s ballot access
Interesting. Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht’s Democratic opponent has filed suit seeking to delay the printing of ballots and other election material to allow time to investigate potential problems with Hecht’s candidacy petitions. Several unfilled blanks in petitions from the Fort Worth area could invalidate signatures, leaving Hecht short of support needed to be [...]