One way or the other, today we’ll know who the Speaker is.
A bitter fight is expected on the Texas House floor today as two conservative Republicans battle for last-minute votes to become the next speaker.
Incumbent Tom Craddick and his opponent, Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, each maintained he had secured the necessary votes to win. But Pitts evidently was struggling to find more backers; on the eve of the election, he did not appear at a reception his camp organized for supporters and friends from his district.
Pitts loyalists said everyone was still working the phones “like crazy.”
“He’s shoring up members and picking up where he can, so that’s where he’s focusing,” one member said.
Between 10 and 12 House members, including Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, had apparently not committed to either candidate.
Pickett expects a floor fight that will last several rounds.
“It’s going to be an interesting, historic day,” Pickett said.
And it’s all going to happen in front of a full gallery, with busloads of various members’ supporters in from their hometowns. You really want to know what government looks like, kids, today will be more rule than exception, unique circumstances notwithstanding.
I’ve bounced from elation to despair and back again more times than I can count. I feel somewhat resigned today, and I confess that this doesn’t help my mood.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, who last month dropped her candidacy for speaker in favor of McCall, said Monday that she remained uncertain of Pitts.
“I’m interested in hearing from both sides,” Thompson said, reserving the option of voting “present, not voting.”
If Pitts hasn’t won over Thompson, I fear for his ability to keep enough Democrats on his side. Whether he has enough Republicans or not has always been the big question, but we can’t lose sight of this.
Elsewhere, Burka says that Pitts has claimed to flip a Republican committee chair. Capitol Letters reminds us again of the stakes in this battle. And Smarty Pants calls out the Craddick Dems.
It’ll all be over soon. Assuming that the battle doesn’t get re-fought at some point later on, of course. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: What Phillip says.
With Science Denying, Climate Collapse Denying Authoritarian Republican Robber Barons (no, make that Robber Queens and Kings) aided by the same kind of so-called Democrats, it is not just Texas that will suffer but the whole world.
Think of the money that they will give themselves and then compare it to the cost in people’s lives and the cost in many trillions of dollars to inundate (by ever faster rising sea levels or ever more catagory 5 and 6 Hurricanes) the coastal cities of Texas, of America and of the World.
It would be cheaper to just pay them to go away.
We can have all the political debate we want in the future, if we plan to have a future. Do we plan to have a future? This vote for Craddick says no. These kinds of so-called Democrats and Republicans with their extinction level job performance must have challengers.
And, as I understand it one of the voting methods that Texas Representatives do not want to use, is their malfunctioning yes and no buttons, which means many favor the evidence of paper for their vote. So do we.
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And this is why, right here in Texas:
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/8/46432.html
The Hillsboro Reporter
Election Complaint Under Investigation
by Art Mann
http://www.hillsbororeporter.com/default.asp?smenu=54&sdetail=7109&wpage=1&sc=10 12&hn=hillsbororeporter&he=.com
Affidavits alleging criminal conduct in Hill County’s November general election has apparently initiated an investigation.
snip
Vote fraud and voter disenfranchisement are alleged, perpetuated by, but not limited to, Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) in their use of secret, uncertified software code on the electronic-voting machines purchased from the company and used by the county during the election.
It alleges that every 10th vote cast on a machine for a Democratic candidate was flipped to the Republican candidate in that race by the software.
Bodovsky said Tuesday afternoon, January 2, that the allegation was based on a pattern he detected while monitoring the recount in the county judge, treasurer and two commissioner races.
The affidavit alleges that if the 10-vote flip is proven true, Republican candidates could have gained a 20-percent advantage on machine-cast votes.
snip
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http://electiondefensealliance.org/
EDA Press Release / Nov. 17, 2006
Landslide Denied!
Major Miscount in 2006 Election: Were 4% of Votes “Misplaced”?
Read the Full Press Release
Read the Report
Study the Exit Poll Data
Election Defense Alliance, a national election integrity organization, issued an urgent call today for an investigation into the 2006 election results and a moratorium on deployment of all electronic voting equipment after analysis of national exit polling data indicated a major undercount of Democratic votes and an overcount of Republican votes in congressional races across the country. These findings are an alarming indictment of the American election system in which 80% of voters used electronic voting equipment.
As in 2004, the Exit Poll and the reported election results do not add up. But this time there is an objective yardstick in the methodology that establishes the validity of the Exit Poll and exposes the inaccuracy of the election returns. These findings are detailed in a paper published today on the EDA website.
The Edison-Mitofsky media Exit Poll, posted Election Night on CNN.com, had a sample base of more than 10,000 voters, and showed Democratic House candidates winning over Republicans by an 11.5 percent margin.
The reported vote count showed Democrats winning by a 7.6 margin, 3.9 percent less than the Exit Poll and far outside the poll’s +/-1-percent margin of error. This discrepancy entailed at least 3,000,000 votes.
The Exit Poll was then adjusted, by a process known as “forcing,” to match reported election vote totals. The final result, posted at 1:00 p.m. November 8, showed Democrats winning by a 7.6 percent margin, exactly mirroring the reported vote totals.
The objective yardstick was the proportion of respondents who indicated they had voted for Bush or Kerry in 2004. The sample in the already weighted Election Night Exit Poll had 47 percent Bush voters and 45 percent Kerry voters, a valid sample given the very conservative assumption that Republicans and Democrats turned out with equal enthusiasm in 2006. However, after the forcing process, the sample contained 49 percent Bush voters and only 43 percent Kerry supporters. This 6 percent gap is more than twice the size of the 2004 Bush win of 2.8 percent. It indicates a significant over-sampling of Republican voters in the adjusted 2006 Exit Poll.
Such a gross oversample of Republicans was necessary to match the actual vote counts, which therefore could not have been an accurate count of the actual electorate. Had the intended votes been accurately tallied, this election would have produced a Democratic landslide of epic proportions.
Read the Full Report: http://www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org.
Read the full report:
Landslide Denied: Exit Polls vs. Vote Count 2006
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