Tag Archives: Williamson County

An alternate route to Medicaid expansion

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I’m okay with this. Texas Democrats have tried for years to convince Republican state leaders to increase access to Medicaid. Now they think they have found a way to do it with or without their help. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett … Continue reading →

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Counties of interest, part three: Around Travis

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Part 1 – Counties around Harris Part 2 – Counties around Dallas/Tarrant Travis County has been at the forefront of the Democratic renaissance in Texas, punching well above its weight with both performance and turnout. Its blue essence has been … Continue reading →

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A high level look at the changing suburbs

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib takes a broad and high-level look at what I’m digging into now. Although they didn’t get the blue wave they expected, Democrats narrowed the gap with Republicans in five of the most competitive and populous suburban counties in … Continue reading →

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A closer look at county races, Part 1

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

In this series of entries, I’m going to take a trip through the local election results pages on some counties of interest, to get a closer look at how they went this year and how that compares to 2016. We … Continue reading →

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The “blue spine” and the rural counties

Posted on November 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Point: For the third consecutive election cycle, Democrats saw their advantage over Republicans grow in the 21 counties along Interstate 35, allowing them to further chip into the Republican dominance that has lasted for nearly three decades. The result was … Continue reading →

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A few thoughts about Election 2020 before Tuesday

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Just a brain dump, to get this all out there before we find out what happened. Let’s start with this: After the conclusion of three weeks of early voting, 9.7 million Texans have cast ballots, crushing previous early voting totals … Continue reading →

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CD31 poll: Carter 43, Imam 37

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Another interesting Congressional race poll. With less than two months to go until Election Day, an increasing number of eyes are looking toward Texas, where Republicans are fighting to keep their grip on the once-reliably conservative state. There is perhaps … Continue reading →

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Despite it all, voter registration keeps increasing

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

You love to see it. Not even the worst pandemic to hit Texas in a century was enough to stem the surge in voter registrations that has remade the state’s electorate over the past four years. Just since March, Texas … Continue reading →

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Ready or not, here we vote

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Hope it goes all right. Poll workers [began] greeting voters from behind face masks and shields as early voting begins in primary runoffs that will look and operate differently from any Texas election in the past 100 years. Although the … Continue reading →

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Javier Ambler

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Remember his name. Javier Ambler was driving home from playing poker on March 28, 2019, when he failed to dim the headlights of his SUV to oncoming traffic. A Williamson County sheriff’s deputy initiated a stop and began chasing him … Continue reading →

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The May elections will not happen

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not in May, anyway. Citing the state’s stay-at-home order, the Texas secretary of state is instructing municipalities to delay their May 2 elections. In an email to local election officials sent Thursday afternoon, the state’s director of elections, Keith Ingram, … Continue reading →

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Primary precinct analysis: Who did what in the RRC race

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Railroad Commissioner primary was a bit like the Senate primary – multiple candidates (though not nearly as many), not a whole lot of money, but the candidate who did best in fundraising was also the leading votegetter. Here’s a … Continue reading →

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Primary precinct analysis: Everyone did something in the Senate primary

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

So while we wait for actual precinct data from the primary, I thought I’d take a look at some county-level data from the non-Presidential races, as they have the county-by-county breakdown on the SOS election night pages. The US Senate … Continue reading →

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Let’s talk turnout

Posted on March 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Just a few random bits and pieces about turnout from the primaries. On the one hand, I think it’s great that Dems got the turnout that we did, in Harris County and around the state. On the other hand, I … Continue reading →

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Primary early voting: Comparing 2020 to 2016

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron looks into the early voting numbers around the state. Experts cautioned that early voting data should be taken with a grain of salt — for one because the subset of people who vote early aren’t necessarily representative of … Continue reading →

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Who will carry the flag in CD31?

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This primary interests me mostly to see if we can get a truly viable challenger in this district or not. No one person has emerged yet, that’s for sure. Democrats who want to be Republican U.S. Rep. John Carter’s challenger … Continue reading →

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Our first look at how Engage Texas will operate

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting move. As people filed in and out of the massive driver license office in Southwest Houston on Tuesday morning, two workers at a tent affiliated with a conservative advocacy group asked if the passersby would sign a petition or … Continue reading →

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Raising money to register Republicans

Posted on August 3, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Just keeping an eye on things. A new super PAC focused on registering new Republican voters in Texas has raised nearly $10 million from some of the state’s biggest GOP donors, according to its first report to the Federal Election … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: 2018 SBOE

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

There are 15 State Board of Education positions, currently divided 10 GOP to 5 Dem. They’re bigger than State Senate and Congressional districts but no one raises any money for them so they’re basically decided by partisan turnout. As with … Continue reading →

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SOS screws up again

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Are you kidding me? The list of missteps in the Texas secretary of state’s review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens grew again Monday, when the office inadvertently added additional people to its already flawed list of voters flagged … Continue reading →

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Another reason David Whitley has to go

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

County elections officials feel like they can’t trust him or his office right now. That’s a big deal. As the Texas secretary of state’s office rolled out its botched effort to review the citizenship of nearly 100,000 voters, Betsy Schonhoff … Continue reading →

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A trio of updates about that bogus SOS letter

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Most counties reacted skeptically, as well they should. The Texas Tribune reached out to 13 of the 15 counties with the most registered voters on Monday; Galveston was the only one that indicated it would immediately send out letters, even … Continue reading →

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Meet KP George

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

He’s the new Fort Bend County Judge. In December, that strange suspended-in-motion month between his election and taking office, K.P. George was checking out the quaint old domed Fort Bend County Courthouse, soon to be his domain. In November, to … Continue reading →

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The changing tides in Central Texas

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

From the Statesman: Six Democrats came within 5 points or fewer in six Texas races, including three districts in Central Texas where Republicans traditionally win easily. Democrats now hold 13 of 36 Texas congressional seats. “This is about persistence. This … Continue reading →

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Omnibus election report

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

It’s after midnight, I’ve mostly posted stuff on my long-dormant Twitter account (@kuff), and I will have many, many thoughts in the coming days. For now, a brief recap. – As you know, neither Beto nor any other Dem won … Continue reading →

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Projecting Tuesday turnout

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the statewide view. By the time the polls closed Thursday, 33.7 percent of registered voters in Bexar County had voted, well past the 17.3 percent turnout at the same point in 2014, the last midterm, and close to the … Continue reading →

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Early voting Day 5: It’s been a long week (in a good way)

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Did I mention it’s been busy? Voters across the state have come out in massive numbers during the first five days of early voting, and soon, more Texans will have voted early in 2018 than in all of 2014’s early … Continue reading →

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The meta-campaign for Senate

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s talk about what we talk about when we talk about the Senate campaign. It’s the most backhanded of compliments. U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s campaign for U.S. Senate has caught so much fire throughout the state that the new favorite … Continue reading →

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State has not appealed the voting rights case on language interpreters

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting. Texas has spent years defending its voting laws in court, regularly appealing rulings that found state lawmakers violated the rights of their voters. So when a federal appellate court in August ruled against the state’s restrictions on language interpreters at the ballot … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit rules against Texas’ voter interpreter law

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Texas ran afoul of the Voting Rights Act by restricting the interpretation assistance English-limited voters may receive at the ballot box, a federal appeals court found. In an opinion issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit … Continue reading →

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The rural/suburban tradeoff

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Martin Longman returns to a point he has been making about the way the vote shifted in the 2016 election. Let’s try to be clear about what we mean. Hillary Clinton won a lot of votes in the suburbs from … Continue reading →

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The bathroom bill is a threat to Quidditch

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

How much more do you need to know? It’s not quite time to get out the broomsticks in Round Rock. A national quidditch tournament headed to town next year has been put on hold while legislators consider the bathroom bill … Continue reading →

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MJ Hegar in CD31

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Very cool. In a Texas congressional district that includes one of the country’s largest military bases, a military hero is betting she can stage a political upset. Air Force veteran MJ Hegar is launching a Democratic challenge against U.S. Rep. … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit to hear AALDEF lawsuit appeal

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

This happens today. Amid last-minute efforts to overhaul the state’s voter identification law in light of an ongoing legal fight, the Texas Legislature gaveled out without addressing another embattled election law that’s now moving forward in federal court. The U.S. … Continue reading →

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