Category Archives: Election 2008

The Chron’s Alan Bernstein rounds up the finance reports for the countywide candidates, and there’s some good news and some not-so-good news for both sides. Democrat Adrian Garcia, the Houston councilman, easily outraised incumbent Tommy Thomas in the race for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Get ready to see Michael Skelly and his family on TV. Democratic congressional challenger Michael Skelly brought an unusually early and extensive start Tuesday night to the next season of political TV advertising in the Houston area. Skelly, who has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A sample of fundraising numbers for the second quarter, based on press releases received: – From Larry Joe Doherty in CD10: Larry Joe Doherty, Democratic nominee in the 10th Congressional District, will report receiving over $247,000 in campaign contributions from … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We knew it was coming, and now via QR (and BOR and Greg), here it is: Chris Bell will make his formal announcement of candidacy for SD17 on Sunday. You can view a PDF of his announcement here, which highlights … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Chron has a curious article about former HPD Chief Clarence Bradford, who is now running for District Attorney as the Democratic candidate. I say “curious” because I can’t tell if it’s a special one-time-only story about one candidate, or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So one of the things I wondered about regarding the “nation of whiners” thing was whether or not Pete Olson, the CD22 challenger who once worked for Phil Gramm, would be asked to comment on Gramm’s remarks now that John … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The following is a guest post from State Rep. Pete Gallego, who is one of the leaders of the House Democratic Caucus. On March 4, 2008, over 2.8 million Texans voted in the Democratic primary. As one of the 2.8 … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Straws in the wind. For years doctors and many other health professionals showered contributions Republicans, who favored less government regulation of health care and helped scuttle Hillarycare, But no more, as doctors court Democrats now in control of Congress and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Carolyn Barta of Dallasblog has been busy doing overviews of various races of interest in the Dallas area. Here she is on the race for HD112: Two Asian-American women are competing to succeed State Rep. Fred Hill in District 112. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Among the many signs of Democratic resurgence this year is the increase in Democratic fundraising. Groups like Blue Texas and TexBlog PAC have emerged on the scene to help Democratic challengers gain ground in the Legislature and elsewhere. One person … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Missed this when it first appeared: The Texas Blue has a nice interview with Harris Count Tax Assessor candidate Diane Trautman. They’ve got a player embedded in the post so you can listen there, or you can download the MP3 … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Chris Bell for SD17 train gets ready to leave the station. Democrat Chris Bell, a former Houston congressman who made an unsuccessful bid for governor two years ago, is expected to take a big step today toward a run … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Pretty good story on the recent campaign clash between Rick Noriega and Sen. John Cornyn over veterans’ issues. The brewing dispute between Cornyn and Noriega over veterans issues escalated amid debate over an expanded GI Bill. Congress passed the measure, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I thought we were done with ballot access battles. Looks like I was wrong. State Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, filed a lawsuit today against Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Steve Maxwell, Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie and his … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Texas Observer has a nice bio of Supreme Court candidate Linda Yanez, who if elected this November would be the first Latina on the Texas Supreme Court. She’s got an interesting life story that’s worth your time to read, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s probably not a good idea to do stuff that makes your boss have to answer questions like these on camera. I agree with Boadicea that Elise Hu asks a good question: Is this kind of masquerade ethical when it … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The last ballot access battle for 2008 that I am aware of has been resolved. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, will have a Democratic opponent this fall. State District Judge Margaret Cooper ruled [Monday] afternoon that Bill Dingus, a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Once you’ve been shown to be a sock puppet, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that you’ve always been a sock puppet. Yesterday, Burnt Orange Report unmasked prolific commenter “Buck Smith” as actually being Dave Beckwith, a Cornyn … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Vince has the writeup on TexBlog PAC‘s endorsement of Sherrie Matula at last Thursday’s fundraiser. Matula’s race represents one of those races that a lot of folks in the “bricks and mortar political establishment” may have underestimated in the early … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember David Beckwith, the campaign consultant for “Big John” Cornyn? Apparently, he’s been a busy boy at the Burnt Orange Report. When a staffer for Lt. Col. Noriega made a dumb mistake and falsely represented himself as a blogger to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now here is a more tangible manifestation of the Obama strategy for Texas: Raising a bunch of money for State House races. Alexa Wesner caught Obamania before it became fashionable. The West Lake Hills woman, who’s known Barack Obama since … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Monday is the quarterly reporting deadline for campaign finances, and if you haven’t been buried under an avalanche of emails soliciting donations, you probably don’t follow politics that closely. If you are at all inclined to donate to a campaign, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m really rather amazed at how long this has been in the news. Is U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s Big Bad John campaign video a big black eye for him? His staff says absolutely not, painting the attention-getting video as a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In my earlier post about that Texas Lyceum poll, I wondered about the partisan ratio that the pollster used. I see now that Harvey Kronberg is on the case. In response to our query, Lyceum pollster Daron R. Shaw sent … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Lone Star Project highlights another bit of funny bookkeeping from State Sen. Kim Brimer: Campaign finance records show that Republican State Senator Kim Brimer (SD10 – Fort Worth) has again used campaign contributor funds for personal gain. A complete … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Interesting. The political action committee of the Texas Medical Association, furious about a Thursday night vote on a Medicare-funding bill, is going to rescind its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn’s reelection bid, association spokesman Brent Annear said. Cornyn and Sen. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is a pretty remarkable letter to the editor in today’s Chron. The type of sheriff we need Regarding Tuesday’s Page One article “Sheriff aims to polish his star / Thomas takes the heat for mistakes but blames ‘politics’ for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The TexBlog PAC fundraiser last night was a big success, drawing in a crowd of over 50 people and raising more than $7000 to help take back the Texas House. You can see photos from the event, taken by Patty … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just a reminder about this: See you there! Continue reading →

Good news – Rick Noriega was the winner of the PAC For A Change contest, which will bring him some much-appreciated fundraising help. In just one week, over 25,000 PAC for a Change community members voted in our “Choose a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I had the chance to meet Eric Roberson, who is running for CD32 up in Dallas, while I was in Austin for the Democratic convention, but due to my short stay our schedules didn’t allow for an interview. Fortunately, he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Today is the big day! Please join host Mustafa Tameez and sponsors: State Representatives Ellen Cohen, Jessica Farrar, and Ana Hernandez Houston City Controller Annise Parker Democratic Candidate for U.S. Congress Michael Skelly Democratic Candidate for State Senate Joe Jaworski … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I am happy to pass along the following announcement: TexBlog PAC Proudly Endorses Chris Turner TexBlog PAC formally endorsed Democrat Chris Turner for State Representative today. Turner is running in House District 96, in southern Tarrant County, against Republican incumbent … Continue reading → Continue reading →