Patti Hart reviews the bidding.
On Tuesday, Jan. 8, your elected representative and senator will convene under the state Capitol’s distinctive pink granite dome in Austin for the first day of the 83rd session of the Texas Legislature. That is, unless you happen to live within the boundaries of Senate District 6, which until his recent death was represented by Houston Sen. Mario Gallegos.
The eastside Houston residents of Gallegos’ old district will go senator-less, for a while. How long that legislative limbo will last is up to one person who is not too keen on the election of a senator from a safe-Democratic district: Gov. Rick Perry.
When will the constituents of the late Sen. Gallegos finally have representation in the Texas Senate? Under a timeline prescribed in state law, it could be as late as March 30 before the Texas Senate welcomes Gallegos’ replacement.
As we know, Robert Miller has documented that timeline. Thursday, December 6 was one of the milestones on that timeline:
Gov. Perry must conduct the state canvas for the November 6 election no earlier than November 21 and no later than December 6. Sec. 67.012. After the canvas, Gov. Perry must call a special election within 20 days to fill the vacancy in SD 6. Texas Constitution Article III, Section 13.
Good luck finding an announcement that the election has been canvassed. The most recent news on the Secretary of State‘s webpage is that we have a new Secretary of State, though they do provide a weather report on their Twitter feed, because Lord knows such information is hard to find otherwise. As for Rick Perry, he’s got news about a business moving to The Woodlands and of course a tribute to Jim DeMint, each of which is clearly more important than certifying the election. Be that as it may, I placed a call to the SOS office yesterday and confirmed that yes, the canvass did take place. So now the 20-day clock is on for calling the special election. Anyone want to bet against the proposition that Perry will wait till December 26 to make the call? It sure would be nice if someone were to ask Rick Perry what his intentions are with this election, and why he is taking his own sweet time on it.
Anyway. On a side note, Rep. Carol Alvarado is touting a poll that shows her tied with Sylvia Garcia on initial inquiry, then taking an 8 point lead in a head to head matchup with Garcia after “positive biographies of both Alvarado and Garcia” were read to participants. That’s certainly nicer than being behind, but I figure polls are not likely to be too informative in this race, which is going to come down to who can get more of her supporters to the ballot box. I suppose the silver lining in Perry’s procrastination is that both candidates have plenty of time to build up their ground game.