Damian LaCroix
As of the Monday candidate filing update from the HCDP, Damian LaCroix has made official his primary challenge to Sen. John Whitmire in SD15. He announced his challenge in August, and what I said at that time still holds true for me as a voter in SD15 – I’m not interested in making a change unless it’s a clear upgrade, and so far I don’t see any evidence of that. I intend to interview both candidates for the primary, so we’ll all get a chance to learn more at that time.
Other than the District Attorney race and a rerun in CD07, this is the only other local Democratic primary action of which I am aware. There are of course several statewide primaries – Wendy Davis has an opponent, Kinky Friedman will square off against some guy named Jim Hogan for Ag Commissioner, and there are now four candidates for US Senate with the entries of David Alameel and a dentist from Odessa named HyeTae “Harry” Kim – but not that much in the legislative primary department. There are two open seats, HD50, where Celia Israel appears to have a clear path in March to try to succeed Mark Strama – she’s in a runoff for the special election right now – and HD23, where I have no idea who has filed to try to succeed Rep. Craig Eiland. Seriously, does anyone know anything about this one? There are several potential candidates, I just haven’t heard if any of them has actually filed or even announced. State Rep. Marisa Marquez of El Paso, who caught some (deserved) flak for backing Republican Dee Margo in his failed re-election bid against Rep. Joe Moody, has an opponent. She’s the only House incumbent I’m aware of who’s been challenged.
There are also two new Democratic House challengers on the scene – Laura Nicol in HD133, and Amy Perez in HD150. These are obviously two tough districts, but it’s good to see new faces and it’s especially good to see more Democratic women running for office.
There are still plenty of offices for which no one has filed as a Democrat. Texpatriate bemoans the lack of candidates in Tarrant County, despite its higher profile this year. In Harris County, there are three races to watch. One is County Judge, where Ed Emmett so far appears to be getting a free ride. I’m a believer in running everywhere, but it’s hard to get too worked up about that. Emmett does a good job, he has a ton of goodwill still from his performance during Hurricane Ike, and he’d be tough to beat. Given that this may be his last term, I’m fine with concentrating on other races, like DA and County Clerk. County Commissioner Precinct 2 is harder to swallow. Glorice McPherson has said she’s running against first term Commissioner Jack Morman, but she hasn’t filed yet and she’s unlikely to raise the kind of money needed to mount a serious challenge. Precinct 2 was very competitive in 2012, but that was under the old map, and we don’t know how it will perform in an off year, even one with as much promise as this one. Still, giving Morman a free ride, or just an easy ride, would be a big disappointment. Finally, as BOR notes, Rep. Harold Dutton still hasn’t filed in HD142. He’s the last holdout among Democratic legislative incumbents, and a last-minute retirement announcement is not out of the question. The deadline is December 9, and that’s sure to be a busy day. What are you hearing out there?
Re HD23: No Dems listed yet. But Wayne Faircloth (’12 nominee) has filed for the GOP, as well as Bob Senter(?).
Glorce McPherson announced she planned to file as a Republican against Commissioner Morman at a recent GOP club meeting
Well,what I will say about Tx Senator John Whitmire is this,over the years the hundreds of tdcj inmates ive worked with from inside texas prisons,both male and female inmates,sometimes I run a cross an injustice,for example tdcj inmate kamesha brown out of harris county had been in solitary confinement for over two years in the lane murray unit,i protested to the warden an it had no effect,then I decided to contact whitmires office=he agreed to investigate kamesha browns status=I received a call from whitmires staffer Lawrence coleman=Lawrence explained to me that kamesha had assaulted another inmate in a fight that was severe and that the sen was concerned,i explained to Lawrence that she had been in there over two years=that was long enough,i told Lawrence to tell the senator “kamesha is ready to be released”,a week after I received a call from Lawrence that whitmire had decided to recommend to the director of tdcj that kamesha should be released,i discovered a letter in our po box from kamesha that she had been returned to population after 2 years and 2 months.i was amazed for multiple reasons,the main one being that heres a guy that is really involved and living up to the letter of post.i would think that Damian will have an uphill battle in which he has zero chance of winning.
Joshua ben bullard
Lon Burnam has a challenger in HD 90