As you know, yesterday was the filing deadline for the primaries. Lots of things happen at the last minute, and the SOS filings page isn’t always a hundred percent up to date, so I’m hesitant to make final pronouncements about things right now. Here are a few things I do know about or have heard about, some of which I will double back to tomorrow, to suss out how they ended up.
– The one candidate who ultimately declined to run for Governor was Dwight Boykins, who announced over the weekend that he would stay put on City Council.
– Mark Phariss was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the overthrow of Texas’ anti-same sex marriage law. I noticed on the SOS page, and then saw it confirmed on Facebook, he is also now a candidate for office:
My Texas Senate District is District 8, formerly represented by Van Taylor. He has chosen not to run for re-election, but instead to run for the U.S. Congress to replace the retiring Rep. Sam Johnson. Republicans running to replace Van Taylor are Angela Paxton, Texas’ AG Ken Paxton’s wife, and Phillip Huffines, the twin brother of Don Huffines, who is already in the Texas Senate. Both of these candidates will, as you might suspect, work to enact Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s agenda, which, sadly and wrongly, will include legislative measures, like bathroom bills, that will hurt the State of Texas and its most innocent citizens.
No longer willing just to stand by, this past Thursday with the encouragement and support of my wonderful husband, Vic, I filed to run as a Democrat for the Texas Senate, District 8. While District 8 is a conservative district, a win is doable. Trump only carried it by 8 percentage points in 2016. With a big enough Blue Wave and your support, we can win, and I intend to do what is necessary to win.
There is another democratic opponent, a very nice fellow. The primary is March 6, so I have to get very busy and need all of your support in order to be able to challenge Paxton or Huffines.
On Friday, I obtained a tax i.d. number and set up a checking account. And I am in the process of setting up an account with ActBlue to accept online contributions, but it it will be a couple of days before it is operational. If anyone doesn’t want to wait (or if someone prefers not to make online contributions), checks can be mailed to Mark Phariss Campaign, 6009 West Parker Road, Suite 149-126, Plano, TX 75093. My campaign e-mail address is markphariss4district8@gmail.com.
SD08 will be a very challenging fight, but the value proposition in supporting a genuine leader like Mark Phariss over atrocities like Angela Paxton or Phillip Huffines more than outweighs it. If you’re making your 2018 campaign contributions budget, put in a line item for Mark Phariss’ campaign.
– Ivan Sanchez stepped down from the Houston Millennials group he founded to announce his entry into the field for CD07. That’s a daunting race to enter, as all the candidates that are already there have been there for months, long enough to have filed Q2 and Q3 finance reports. He starts out well behind in fundraising, but if even half the people who liked and shared his post and congratulated him on Facebook live in CD07, he already has a decent base of support.
– Progress Texas was keeping track of the races where a candidate was still needed:
Unchallenged Republicans
State House (click here to check out a Texas House district map to see who’s running – and not running – where)
HD 1: Gary VanDeaver (R)
HD 2: Dan Flynn (R)
HD 7: Jay Dean (R)
HD 9: Chris Paddie (R)
HD 21: Dade Phelan (R)
HD 25: Dennis Bonnen (R)
HD 30: Geanie Morrison(R)HD 32: Todd Hunter (R)
HD 54: Scott Cosper(R)HD 55: Hugh Shine (R)
HD 58: Dewayne Burns (R)
HD 59: Tan Parker (R)
HD 60: Mike Lang (R)
HD 68: Drew Springer (R)
HD 69: James Frank (R)
HD 72: Drew Darby (R)
HD 82: Tom Craddick(R)HD 86: John Smithee (R)
HD 87: Four Price (R)
HD 128: Briscoe Cain (R)
HD 135: Gary Elkins(R)
HD 150: Valorie Swanson(R)State Senate:
SD 31: Kel Seliger (R)
Judicial:
Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8: Elsa Alcala (R)
Chief Justice, 2nd Court of Appeals: Terrie Livingston (R)
Chief Justice, 10th Court of Appeals: Steve Smith (R)
Chief Justice, 11th Court of Appeals: Jim R. Wright (R)
Justice, 2nd Court of Appeals, Pl. 4: Bob McCoy (R)
Justice, 2nd Court of Appeals, Pl. 5: Sue Walker(R)Justice, 2nd Court of Appeals, Pl. 6: Lee Ann Campbell Dauphinot (R)
Justice, 4th Court of Appeals, Pl. 2: Marialyn Barnard(R)
Justice, 4th Court of Appeals, Pl. 5: Karen Angelini(R)
I’ve crossed out the ones for which candidates have since appeared. I’m so glad someone finally filed in HD135.
– You know who else filed? This guy, that’s who.
In the face of a storm of controversy and a slew of challengers, U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold indicated Monday he’s still running for re-election.
This time around, it will likely be a lonely battle for the Corpus Christi Republican.
“It’s lonelier than it’s been in past times, but he’s not alone,” said Farenthold’s chief of staff, Bob Haueter, on Monday evening.
I hope that means he’s under constant adult supervision. Have fun defending your record, bubba. I’ll have more tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the early recaps from the Chron and the Trib.
Charles,
For someone who has under 1,000 likes on his Facebook page, and very few likes per post, but has a strong following I am surprised you went there with describing this man’s campaign. One of his challengers Facebook sponsor page has over 2,000 likes, and she seems more credible than him. Given all the sexual harassment scandals and political resignations that are currently taking place I am surprise that this man with a hidden shady past decided to run for office. Perhaps the Chronicle can do some investigative reporting on all the candidates.
Perhaps we should have some kind of filing deadline for the inevitable women who are going to crawl out of the woodwork to accuse some or all of these folks? That would help them avoid the appearance that they just came forward with a story at the 9th hour for some kind of political shenanigans.