This is a big show of support for making bike trails on CenterPoint’s rights of way happen. Houston voters last fall approved a $166 million bond measure to expand the city’s trail system, to be matched by $105 million in private donations via the Houston Parks Board. About 78 miles of trails would get built, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Davis’
The war on women continues apace
Honestly, I’m surprised that it’s taken as long as it has for this to happen. Abortion clinics in Texas may soon face harsh new state requirements that pro-choice advocates say could greatly reduce access to abortion. Sens Bob Deuell (R-Greenville), Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) filed a bill this morning that would [...]
How much protection from liability do they need?
State Impact asks a good question. The electricity industry is among the biggest of the big spenders on lobbying the Texas legislature. So when bills are introduced giving the industry extraordinary protection from law suits, you can bet somebody’s going to cry foul. “It’s a very unusual bill,” says Andrew Wheat at Texans for Public [...]
January finance reports for area legislative offices
Just to complete the tour of semiannual finance reports, here’s a look at the cash on hand totals for area legislators. First up, the Harris County House delegation. Patricia Harless, HD126 – $308,221 Dan Huberty, HD127 – $69,058 Wayne Smith, HD128 – $218,425 John Davis, HD129 – $99,962 Allen Fletcher, HD130 – $46,559 Alma Allen, [...]
Dan Patrick wants to play doctor
Clearly, the man missed his calling. Before Texas’ abortion sonogram law passed last legislative session, some women seeking to end pregnancies in rural communities relied on telemedicine, with physicians — working in partnership with medical technicians or nurses — administering prescription drugs via videoconference to induce early-stage abortions. If new legislation filed by Sen. Dan [...]
What I’ll be looking for tonight
Just a reminder that I’ll be on KPFT tonight starting at 7 PM to talk about the elections. Here’s a preview of the things I’ll be looking for: 1. SD10 – Sen. Wendy Davis vs Mark Shelton: Easily the most important race on the ballot in Texas. Davis has been a progressive champion and a [...]
Cuts are not increases, no matter how you spin it
This is the Chron overview of HD134, which is once again the highest profile legislative race in the county, in part because it’s a referendum on the 2010 election and the cuts to public education funding that resulted from that election. In an area that takes great pride in its schools, [Rep. Sarah Davis] went [...]
30 Day campaign finance reports, selected legislative races
Here’s a sampling of 30 day finance reports from state legislative campaigns. I used the Back to Blue list as a starting point and added a few races of interest to me from there. Dist Candidate Raised Spent Loan Cash ========================================================== SD10 Davis 843,878 346,466 0 1,537,783 SD10 Shelton 606,586 153,204 0 566,825 SD25 Courage [...]
Endorsement watch: For Ann Johnson
I noted on Monday that the Chron listed Ann Johnson as one of its endorsed candidates. Yesterday they wrote the endorsement editorial to go along with that. The tea party turnout of 2010 gave Republican candidate Sarah Davis the narrow victory she needed to win in District 134, a prosperous swing district that covers areas [...]
No Planned Parenthood, no women’s health care
It’s a simple enough concept. Women’s access to affordable health care will be reduced if the state follows through with its plan to eschew federal funding for the Women’s Health Program and create a state program instead, according to a new study from George Washington University. The study, a follow-up to a May report from [...]
A question of how many
Yes, Democrats will pick up seats in the Lege this election. The question is how many seats. Texas political experts expect Democrats will gain at least seven House seats. “If the Democrats don’t get to 55 seats or more, the party has committed malpractice,” said GOP campaign consultant Eric Bearse. Most of the competitive legislative [...]
July finance reports for area State House candidates
Here’s a brief look at the July campaign finance reports for candidates in area State House races of interest. HD23 Raised Spent Cash Loan Wayne Faircloth 8,320 31,139 36,655 30,000 Bill Wallace 0 0 507 20,500 Craig Eiland 0 0 30,160 0 Craig Eiland 57,770 80,685 74,922 0 Faircloth and Wallace are in a runoff [...]
A place to start
At least one elected Republican is feeling a bit angsty about the Republican war on women’s health. For some GOP lawmakers, the issue gets deeply personal, and the line between party loyalty, allegiance to anti-abortion politics and public health is a tough balancing act. State Rep. Sarah Davis, a first-term Republican lawmaker from Houston, said [...]
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 [...]
State objects to court-drawn maps
No surprise. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office on Friday slammed an interim redistricting map proposed by a three-judge panel in San Antonio, saying the federal jurists overstepped their bounds in redrawing House and Senate district lines that could cost Republicans a half-dozen seats next year. “Contrary to (a) basic principle of federalism, the proposed [...]
Prioritizing the target list
So now that we’ve had a tour of the possible targets for the Democrats in 2012, how would I prioritize them? Let’s start with the districts I’d call the Must Haves, and the Really Nice To Haves: Dist Incumbent County ============================= 034 Torres/Scott Nueces 035 Aliseda multiple 041 Pena Hidalgo 078 Margo El Paso 101 [...]
New map, new opportunities: Harris County
For our last stop on this tour we look at Harris County, which provided several pickup opportunities for Democrats last decade. How will they fare this time around? Republicans started the last decade with a 14-11 advantage – they intended it to be 15-10 after drawing Scott Hochberg out of his seat, but he moved [...]
The Pitts budget
Here it is, and if it is a shock to you, you haven’t been paying attention. The House’s starting-point budget proposal would provide for a total budget of $156.4 billion in state and federal money, a decrease of $31.1 billion, or nearly 17 percent, from the current budget period. The budget proposes nearly $5 billion [...]
Gambling proponents still optimistic for some reason
The conventional wisdom, to which I subscribe, says that the results on this election are bad news for proponents of expanded gambling. One reason for this is that the Republican wave means more socially conservative members. Gambling proponents are doing their best to put a smiley face on their prospects in the new Lege in [...]
Here comes the late money
The 8 days out finance reports are in, and it’s about what you’d expect. Millions of dollars poured into Texas legislative campaigns during the past month as interest groups tried to maximize their influence and partisans readied for the upcoming fight over the redrawing of House and Senate districts. Those millions, predominantly from business owners [...]
Another poll in HD134
Back in April, the Ellen Cohen campaign released a poll showing her to be in strong position to win re-election. Nearly six months later, they have released another poll showing the same thing. The initial (uninformed) trial heat in the HD 134 race currently shows Cohen leading by a 57% – 30% margin and holding [...]
Fundraising: Harris County State Reps
I’ve collected fundraising reports for Harris County State Rep races of interest; they’re all beneath the fold. Here are the highlights: – In the rubber match between State Rep. Kristi Thibaut in HD133 and former State Rep. Jim Murphy, Thibaut has a slight lead in fundraising – she collected $116K to Murphy’s $112K – and [...]
Early poll in HD134
Despite the fact that they left her basically unchallenged in 2008, I get the impression that local Republicans are excited about the possibility of defeating two-term State Rep. Ellen Cohen this year. Certainly, she will face a stronger challenge from a more active candidate. To get an early feel for what the landscape looks like, [...]