Category Archives: Election 2008

The last countywide office that I will examine in my Early Overview series is one that I would normally call the most obscure office in Harris County. That would be the office of Harris County Department of Education trustee. In … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Rick Perry’s pollster Mike Baselice has released a poll showing John McCain with a significant lead over either Democratic candidate for President in Texas – he pegs McCain with a 52-36 advantage over Barack Obama, and a 51-36 edge over … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s official – State Sen. Kyle Janek has handed in his resignation letter to Governor Perry. Perry now has to set a special election date, which I’d guess will be November 4, same as the regular election. He can always … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We are back from a lovely Carnival cruise from Galveston, which was a lot of fun except for the long wait to debark followed by the 90-minute trek through Customs. You haven’t lived till you’ve done that with two small … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Like Ezra, I’m curious about the governor to the east, Bobby Jindal. Republicans have been excited about him and he’s allegedly on McCain’s short list for VP. But I can’t really figure out why, besides being young and ethnic, he’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

OK, I admit it. Even I can’t think of a scenario under which the race for Harris County District Clerk makes it onto the public’s radar. It’s a low-profile, clerical office. There are no scandals surrounding it that I know … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Clay Robison mentions a possibility for the Dems in SD17. Democrat Chris Bell, who lost a race for governor two years ago, is being encouraged by some Democrats to run for the District 17 state Senate seat soon to be … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A gentleman named Dean Becker of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition just published interviews with Harris County DA candidates Clarence Bradford and Pat Lykos. The subject is primarily the “war on drugs” and its effects, but there’s some more general stuff … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The day before his scheduled court date, now-former State Rep. Nathan Macias has dropped his lawsuit to overturn the result of the GOP primary in HD73. Macias had sought to overturn his 17-vote defeat to [Edwards Aquifer Authority Chairman Doug] … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember this? Amid his election campaign and a wave of ethics controversies in county government, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett christened an ethics task force Wednesday with the aim of placing new restrictions on officials’ on-the-job behavior and relationships with … Continue reading → Continue reading →

At this point in the overviews, I’ve basically covered the races where I think the candidates have a good chance to affect their vote totals in a significant way. The remaining races, for County Attorney, District Clerk, and Harris County … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We have a second announced candidate for State Sen. Kyle Janek’s soon-to-be-open seat. Houston lawyer Grant Harpold has announced that he will run to replace outgoing State Sen. Kyle Janek. Harpold, a Republican precinct chairman, said if elected, he will … Continue reading → Continue reading →

On the heels of that Rasmussen poll showing him within four points of Sen. John Cornyn, a second poll has confirmed that Rick Noriega is running a close race. Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/5-7. Likely voters. MoE 4% (9/24-26/07 … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The first thing you have to come to grips with in discussing the race for Harris County Tax Assessor is that Paul Bettencourt got almost 25,000 more votes than George W. Bush did in Harris County in 2004. No other … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Houston Politics blog flags a fundraising letter and accompanying clip sheet (both PDFs) from the Clarence Bradford for DA campaign, which prominently feature Chuck Rosenthal’s follies, and ask the question “Is Rosenthal still a campaign issue?” To which my … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I give these candidates a lot of credit for guts. Hispanic residents making their first run for office are on Saturday’s ballot for City Council in Farmers Branch and Irving, where illegal immigration is a major issue. […] Farmers Branch … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I am a member of the TexBlog PAC board. The following email was sent to our supporters list yesterday. Please donate to Diana Maldonado and TexBlog PAC! Last week, TexBlog PAC made its inaugural endorsement. After a lengthy discussion about … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is a pleasant surprise. It’s time to add United States Senator John Cornyn to the list of potentially vulnerable Republican incumbents in Election 2008. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state find Cornyn leading Democratic state legislator … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Having successfully wrung a settlement out of Harris County in the Ibarra case – making a nice piece of change in the process – you’d think Lloyd Kelley would be done making headlines for awhile. You’d be wrong about that. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember how I said the County Judge race would be high-profile? And so it is. The Democratic candidate for chief of Harris County government criticized the Republican incumbent’s approach to ethics reform Friday in a demonstration of how Democrats plan … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Unlike the DA race and the County Judge race, both of which feature candidates that have a number of similarities, the race for Harris County Sheriff has two contenders with vast differences. Incumbent Sheriff Tommy Thomas has been around forever, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Looking at an email I received inviting me to a fundraiser for one of the candidates for the 14th Court of Appeals got me to thinking about those races yesterday. The Appeals Courts – the 1st and 14th Courts of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A reader named Kay sent me a link to this Google spreadsheet, which shows how counties that had more than 10% turnout in the Democratic primary runoff voted in the Railroad Commissioner race. Short answer: Mark Thompson did pretty well … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Diana Maldonado, the first endorsed candidate of TexBlog PAC, sent us the following email: Dear Texas BlogPAC and Friends, I want to thank you and your donors for your generous contribution to my campaign. We will use your contribution to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In my overview of the DA race, I noted that the Chron took former HPD Chief Bradford to task for the 2002 K-Mart raid. That prompted a response from the Rev. William Lawson, who saw a double standard in how … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The race for Harris County Judge is a little hard to get your arms around, because there hasn’t been anything like it in so long. Never mind a competitive race, there hasn’t even been a contested race in November for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

James L. at the Swing State Project takes a look at the “top 75 non-open seat House races this cycle in terms of each challenger’s cash-on-hand competitiveness”, which is defined as the ratio of the challenger’s cash-on-hand to that of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m very pleased to make this announcement. Last night, TexBlog PAC made our first endorsement of the 2008 general election cycle- Democrat Diana Maldonado, who is running in House District 52 (Round Rock). The unanimous endorsement is the result of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

State Rep. Nathan Macias, who was knocked off in a ridiculously close Republican primary last month and who has filed suit alleging various frauds and misdeeds did him in, has a date set for his lawsuit. The first hearing on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Garnder Selby considers the state of the Senate race in Texas. Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of The Cook Political Report, says: “Given how poor the national political climate is for Republicans, it’s hard to completely write off any Democrat.” Still, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m going to start my Early Overview series with a look at the DA race, as that has arguably been the highest-profile county race so far. There are several things about this race that set it apart from the others, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now that we know what all of the countywide race matchups will be, I thought I’d take a little time to look at the individual races for the non-judicial offices that will be on the ballot this November. It’s a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So you thought that Michael Skelly raised a mere $750K this quarter? I’m here to say he did better. Actually, his campaign and this press release say it: With $796,809 raised in the first full quarter of 2008 and $666,506 … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As we know, there will be a special election sometime this year to replace State Sen. Kyle Janek, who currently represents SD17 and who plans to resign in June. We also know of one declared Republican candidate, and a whole … Continue reading → Continue reading →