I’m not talking total number, I’m talking what share of the vote will be cast early. The professionals think it will be a lot. “The early vote is more important this time than perhaps in any cycle in my lifetime in Texas,” said Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak, 32. Upping its importance this time is what [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Republican Party’
Another story about parents and education cuts
I really want to believe that there’s an uprising in the works and that the Lege could be a very different place for the better next year, but I’m reserving judgment on that for now. Deep cuts in school funding approved by the Texas Legislature last summer could energize angry parents in a way similar [...]
Early voting begins today
Feels weird to be talking about early voting for the primaries now, doesn’t it? Well, ready or not after all this time and all these twists in the road, here we are. Here are your early voting locations and schedule. I note with interest there is a new EV location in the Galleria area – [...]
Endorsement watch: The list so far
The Chron printed their list of primary endorsements so far yesterday. It’s more impressive for what they haven’t done yet as early voting starts. After a couple of years of getting most of their business done before actual voters started weighing in, this year was back to bad old habits of taking their sweet time. [...]
Chron overview of the Tax Assessor primary
Having just reported on the vehicle registration problems at the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office, the Chron now writes about the GOP primary for that office. A Houston Chronicle story Friday reported Sumners’ staff is working overtime to process a backlog of auto registrations so motorists are not ticketed for driving with expired decals. [Challenger [...]
The out candidates
There are four LGBT candidates running for the Lege this year. Since 2003, when Austin Democrat Glen Maxey left the Texas House, no out LGBT person has served in the Texas Legislature. The Lone Star State is now one of only 18 states that lacks an openly LGBT state legislator, according to the Gay and [...]
Endorsement watch: Fertitta and Lykos
The Chron makes its endorsements in the two primary races for District Attorney. On the Democratic side, they make the easy and obvious call for Zack Fertitta. Zack Fertitta represents a new generation at the Harris County courthouse, and deserves to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for District Attorney. Youthful and energetic, Fertitta has an [...]
30 day financial reports, Harris County offices
Candidates for county offices who are in contested primaries are also required to submit 30 day campaign finance reports. I’ve been going through the County Clerk’s campaign finance reports page to collect what’s there; ones for Democratic races are on the 2012 Primary page. Since I whined so piteously last time about how sucky the [...]
The other PPP April polls
In addition to their Presidential poll, Public Policy Polling asked about the Senate race and the future of Rick Perry. In their poll of the GOP Senate primary, they see things tightening up. Every time PPP polls Texas the Republican Senate primary gets closer and closer. What was a 29 point lead for David Dewhurst [...]
Chron profiles of Lykos and Anderson
We’ve already had an overview of the GOP DA primary, but that race is apparently too big for just one story, so now we have profiles of the two candidates, Pat Lykos and Mike Anderson. I figure if you’re following this race closely there’s not much stories like these are likely to tell you that [...]
So long, Santorum
That sound you hear is Texas Republicans crying in their beer. Rick Santorum’s withdrawal today from the 2012 presidential contest makes Texas Republicans, once again, all but irrelevant in their party’s nomination process. The drawn-out nature of the race had given party activists rare hope that this would be the most competitive presidential primary since [...]
Nasty yet nice
The Chron’s characterization of the GOP primary race for District Attorney as a nasty fight between polite people strikes me as apt. Complaints about Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos buzz through Houston’s criminal courthouse. Assistant district attorneys, police officers and criminal justice bloggers talk about her being targeted by two grand jury investigations and [...]
What radicals?
I was reading this Patricia Kilday Hart column about how nobody outside Texas paid attention to the sonogram bill until the Virginia brouhaha and the Doonesbury series, which is a good albeit frustrating read, when I came across this bit that was frustrating for an entirely different reason: In the Texas Legislature, votes like Davis’ [...]
Re-Filing deadline roundup
The re-filing deadline was Friday, and as expected there was a flurry of activity on the final day. I’m going to do a news roundup to highlight what went on and who’s now running for what. You can find a list of filings that the Texas Democratic Party is aware of here, but bear in [...]
Mighty pricey Main Street you’ve got there
My Irony-O-Meter goes to eleven. A Houston-based super PAC is targeting a dozen Democratic and Republican incumbents to reshape the political landscape in five states, including Texas where critics say an election law loophole is being used by a wealthy family to buy a seat in Congress. The Campaign for Primary Accountability, a conservative political [...]
Harris County GOP to harass Mayor Parker about gay marriage
Bring it. The Harris County Republican Party is calling on its members to tell the mayor to back off on same-sex marriage. In an email blast sent out Monday, Chairman Jared Woodfill asks recipients to call or email the mayor “and tell her to support the Constitution and stand up for traditional marriage.” Parker recently [...]
Interview with Mike Anderson
Challenging Pat Lykos in the GOP primary for District Attorney is another person who has spent years as a judge, Mike Anderson. Anderson started out in the DA’s office after completing law school and spent 17 years as a prosecutor, including as a Special Crimes prosecutor in the Major Offenders Division. He was elected to [...]
The plaintiffs’ proposal for the Lege
I know it will break your heart to hear that Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill is a little peeved at Greg Abbott and Steve Munisteri because he thinks the Abbott map makes Harris County too Democratic. What got Woodfill going was Munisteri’s willingness to go along with a map Abbott produced that would cost [...]
Ames Jones resigns from the Railroad Commission
We have our answer about how confident she was in her defense of that lawsuit. Elizabeth Ames Jones resigned from the Texas Railroad Commission on Monday to devote herself full time to running for state Senate District 25, she said in a statement. State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, whom she is trying to unseat in the [...]
They want to be relevant
Texas Republicans are looking longingly at the utter depraved insanity excitement of the apparently competitive GOP Presidential primary and hoping that they will still have a voice in picking the winner. Texas may be “the conservative epicenter of this country,” as Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum proclaimed in Plano last week, but its chance to [...]
Interview with DA Pat Lykos
For my interviews this week, I’m going to take a brief detour from the Democratic primaries to converse with the two candidates in the highest profile Republican primary in Harris County. That would be the District Attorney race, and we begin today with incumbent DA Pat Lykos, who bucked the Democratic tide in 2008 to [...]
January finance reports: Harris County state races
In addition to county candidates, my 2012 Democratic primary election page has information about state and federal candidates who will be on the ballot in Harris County. There are numerous contested primaries, and while I’m not tracking information about Republican races on that page, I thought it would be useful to check on the finance [...]
Trying to save the April 3 primary date
The race is on to get new maps in hand in time to keep the April 3 primary date, since all the options for after that date are distinctly unpalatable in one way or another. On Friday, the State of Texas asked the San Antonio court to get its work done by January 30. The [...]
January finance reports: Harris County
January is a very busy month for campaign finance reports, since they are due for all levels of government. I’ve been busy updating the 2012 Primary Election pages for Harris County and elsewhere in Texas with reports as I can find them. Here’s an overview of some races of interest in Harris County. I’ll have [...]
Sullivan says he’ll step down if he wins primary
He’s hoping to defuse a campaign issue. Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan will submit his resignation in July if he wins the Republican nomination for Harris County tax assessor-collector in April’s primary, he said. The resignation would not be effective until January, when he would be sworn in as tax assessor if he wins the [...]
Redistricting litigation threatens party conventions
With the April 3 primary date now almost certainly no longer in play, the two parties’ biennial conventions are also at risk as the redistricting litigation drags on. The state’s Democratic and Republican parties made substantial down payments months ago to reserve convention and hotel space in June. But if the primaries are delayed again [...]
Lykos v Anderson
I obviously don’t have a dog in the Republican District Attorney primary fight, but I like a good high-profile political battle as much as the next junkie, so stories about it are interesting to me. [DA Pat] Lykos argues she is a reformer with three years of improvements under her belt while Mike Anderson, a [...]
Ballot failure
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Newt Gingrich will not appear on the Virginia presidential primary ballot, state Republican Party officials announced Saturday, after he failed to submit the required number of valid signatures to qualify. The announcement was made on the Virginia Republican Party’s Twitter account. On Friday evening, the Republican Party of [...]
When is a filing deadline not a filing deadline?
Answer: When there will be another filing period after the filing deadline, as will be the case in Texas, according to the Secretary of State. “Based on the federal court’s order handed down December 16, candidates will be permitted to file when the filing period reopens on a date yet to be determined and set [...]
We have a deal on a unified primary date
From the Inbox: Joint Statement from TDP and RPT on Agreement Regarding 2012 General Primary Election Parties have submitted a joint agreed proposal to the San Antonio federal panel. Today, the Texas Democratic Party (TDP) and the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) issued a statement announcing that the two parties have submitted a joint agreed proposal [...]
DC court sets date for preclearance trial, primary dates still up in the air
Via email from the Lone Star Project: [Monday], a three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Federal District Court set January 17, 2012 through January 26, 2012 as the trial dates to formally review the Congressional, State House and State Senate plans enacted by the Texas Republican leadership this summer. The DC Court will review [...]
Do over!
This should come as a surprise to no one. Steve Munisteri, chair of the Republican Party of Texas, told party members last week that, if the court-drawn interim maps stand, he would seek to have Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature pledge to take up redistricting again in the 2013 legislative session. He also said [...]