Category Archives: Election 2014

Equality is just too much work

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It’s spring break, I have family in town, so I’m just going to outsource this to Team Wendy:

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What anti-gay bills?

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From Lone Star Q: Ken Paxton, the odds-on favorite to be Texas’ next attorney general, says he isn’t familiar with recent “license to discriminate” bills in Arizona, Kansas and other states even though he co-authored a similar measure in 2013. … Continue reading →

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No love for Dan

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s one vote he won’t get. Whether incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst can make up for a big primary night loss to challenger Dan Patrick in a May runoff may depend on if he can successfully court the supporters of … Continue reading →

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Residency is hard

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Fascinating story about residency and elections in Galveston. Two of the three candidates for Galveston mayor are challenging the residency of front-runner Jim Yarbrough, the former county judge who was expected to coast to victory in the May municipal election. … Continue reading →

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ECPS: Abbott 49, Davis 42

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Via Texpatriate, the Emerson College Polling Society has a poll of the Texas gubernatorial race that shows Greg Abbott with a seven point lead. According to a new survey conducted by the Emerson College Polling Society, Texas Attorney General Gregory … Continue reading →

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Ramon Romero

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Fort Worth Business Press profiles Rep.-elect Ramon Romero and his winning race against longtime incumbent Rep. Lon Burnam in HD90. Ramon Romero Jr. describes himself as “that poor boy from Poly,” one of eight children of immigrant parents who … Continue reading →

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Still more from the Pratt files

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

What a mess. Embattled family court judge Denise Pratt, under investigation again this year by the Harris County District Attorney’s office, was removed from five more cases on Thursday by a visiting senior judge who criticized the freshman jurist’s recent … Continue reading →

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The case for Kinky

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib sums up the reasons for voting for the Kinkster in the runoff. The race for agriculture commissioner is far down the list, both in terms of voter interest and the interest of people who write checks to political … Continue reading →

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The Dew is in it to win it

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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Oh yeah, that other election

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve had the primary, and we’ll have the runoff in late May. In between, there’s the special election in SD04 to replace Tommy Williams. Overshadowed by a heated primary season, a special election will be held on May 10 in … Continue reading →

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Enough with analyzing Democratic primary turnout already

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Seriously, enough of this. Republicans saw a turnout of 11.4 percent of registered voters, or 1.5 million people, in 2010 when their primary featured the long-awaited clash between Gov. Rick Perry and then-U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The GOP primary … Continue reading →

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Comparing Davis and White

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

In 2010, Bill White received 517,487 votes in the Democratic primary, for 76.0% of the vote. Wendy Davis just received 432,065 votes, for 79.1% of the total but 85,422 fewer votes than White. As is always the case, the change … Continue reading →

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A new day for the Harris County GOP?

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

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. … Continue reading →

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The name game, primary style

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, Democrats have had some issues in recent primaries with random results based on low information and name variations. Turns out Republicans have those issues, too. This year, names may have also factored in other races, including the … Continue reading →

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Rasmussen: Abbott 53, Davis 41

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

We have our first non-UT/Trib poll result for this cycle. The latest statewide survey of Likely Texas Voters shows Abbott with 53% support to 41% for Davis. At this early point in the campaign, there are surprisingly few voters who … Continue reading →

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What will The Dew do this time?

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Go negative or go home is the strategy the pundits have selected for him. Political experts have a bit of advice for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s re-election campaign: go negative or go home. The incumbent Senate president was crushed in … Continue reading →

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Davis and South Texas

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. Democrats are banking on the Hispanic vote as a key part of their strategy for finding a way back into state office, but Sen. Wendy Davis lost several heavily Latino South Texas … Continue reading →

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The Trib explains itself on its polls

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them. The ongoing challenge of public polling is to reconcile popular expectations about what polls “mean” at election time with our own desire to provide the public with information about mass opinion on politics and policy. We begin … Continue reading →

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We may still have Steve Stockman to kick around

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m not sure if the right expression for this is “Praise the Lord!” or “Lord help us”. Rep. Steve Stockman is down for now, but not out forever, he says. In his first interview since Tuesday night’s primary defeat to … Continue reading →

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The UT/TT primary polls were completely useless

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I expressed my contempt with the UT/Texas Trib’s Democratic primary poll result for the US Senate race last night, which they richly deserved. Sure, pollster Jim Henson admitted that “the first person to raise some money and run some ads … Continue reading →

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Primary results: Statewide

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

So Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott won easily. They never had to sweat their primaries, so on Tuesday night Attorney General Greg Abbott and Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis turned their attention to a fall election that is shaping up … Continue reading →

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Primary results: Legislature and Congress

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The big news on the Democratic side is the close loss by longtime Rep. Lon Burnam in HD90, who fell by 111 votes to Ramon Romero Jr. I know basically nothing about Rep.-elect Romero, but I do know that Rep. … Continue reading →

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Primary results: Harris County

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

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% … Continue reading →

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Watching election results

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m going to do my best to follow election results tonight, and will post updates as I can here. I’ve got family obligations this evening, and with polling locations opening late in some counties like Travis, I have no idea … Continue reading →

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Primary Day is today

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Today is the day when we begin to get a temporary respite from the mailers, robocalls, and TV/radio ads, as the people who didn’t vote early make their way to the ballot box for the primaries. In Harris County, a … Continue reading →

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We want Dan!

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

We say we do, anyway. Ask Democratic Sen. Leticia Van de Putte which Republican candidate for lieutenant governor she would like to battle in the general election — incumbent David Dewhurst, Houston Sen. Dan Patrick, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson or … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: The Chron still loves Orlando

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

They don’t love him enough to endorse him during or before early voting, but they do still love him. [Republican] primary voters should give [County Treasurer Orlando] Sanchez a place on the November ballot. Sanchez, 62, is a former three-term … Continue reading →

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What the Trib’s pollsters miss about their own polls

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Having published their poll results, Jim Henson goes back and analyzes their gubernatorial poll, pronouncing it all a big success. The partisan responses to the poll results have been similarly predictable. The Republican chorus is singing I-told-you-so, chalking up Davis’ … Continue reading →

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Kirkland v Fleming goes national

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Lisa Falkenberg writes the followup column on George Fleming and his repeat attempt to underwrite a campaign challenge to Steven Kirkland that I figured she’d write. Fleming’s contributions to a political action committee called Moving Texas Forward – $75,000 from … Continue reading →

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Texas Farm Bureau unhappy with anti-immigrant Republicans

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It’s an opportunity for Democrats, assuming they actually mean what they’re saying. When Republican agriculture commissioner candidate Eric Opiela appeared on television sets across Texas recently to declare “No amnesty under any circumstances,” he was no doubt attempting to appeal … Continue reading →

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Early Voting concludes for the primary

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Here are your final daily early voting totals for the March primaries in Harris County. As is usually the case, the last day was the biggest. Republicans ended up with 75,400 early votes, Democrats with 30,108; that’s about 10,000 more … Continue reading →

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Who will be the next Steve Stockman?

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

No one can truly replace Steve Stockman, one of the most gifted performance artists that the Congress has ever seen, but many are trying to win his now-vacated seat. In some ways no one can replace Steve Stockman, who chose … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: Hey, there’s still a little bit of early voting left

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the “You just can’t rush these things” department, the Chron endorses James Cargas in the Democratic primary rematch in CD07. Whomever wins in the Democratic primary for U.S. House 7th District will face an uphill battle in a Republican-friendly … Continue reading →

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The UT/TT poll’s track record in past Democratic primaries

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The one result in that UT/TT poll from Monday that has people freaking out is the one that shows nutball LaRouchie Kesha Rogers leading the Senate race with 35%, followed by David Alameel with 27%. I expressed my skepticism of … Continue reading →

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