Tag Archives: Election 2020

Endorsement watch: Three more for the Lege

Posted on September 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

In numerical order… Rep. Jon Rosenthal, HD135: As a political novice Jon E. Rosenthal pulled off one of the biggest upsets of 2018 when he knocked off 12-term Republican Rep. Gary Elkins to win the state House District 135 seat … Continue reading →

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NYT/Siena: Trump 46, Biden 43

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The second of two polls from yesterday, both of which are interesting in their own way. The NYT story about the poll, which included results from Iowa (Biden leading by3) and Georgia (tied), is behind their firewall, so I’ll give … Continue reading →

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Quinnipiac: Trump 50, Biden 45

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Here we have a new Quinnipiac poll, one of two that came out yesterday, and it’s a bit of a puzzle. In Texas and Ohio, two states where President Trump won easily in 2016, the president holds a slight lead … Continue reading →

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The HCDE makeover

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

One more world to conquer in Harris County. The future looked bleak for Texas’ last remaining county education department in early 2019. After years of state-level efforts to abolish the Harris County Department of Education, a new majority of trustees … Continue reading →

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Hotze and crew appeal to SCOTX to stop the extra week of early voting

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go again. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is facing a lawsuit over his extension of early voting for the November election from prominent members of his own party — including state party Chairman Allen West, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller … Continue reading →

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Let’s not overstate the no-straight-ticket effect

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

With all due respect, this is some ado about not very much. With straight-ticket voting no longer an option in 2020, the Harris County Clerk estimates the average resident will spend a significantly longer time in the voting booth this … Continue reading →

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Is the GOP punting CD07?

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That’s one possible interpretation of this, though probably not the most likely. The National Republican Congressional Committee has canceled about $2 million worth of advertising it had reserved for campaigning in the Houston television market, according to several Democratic and … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rashad Lewis

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Moving closer to my home base but staying in mostly rural territory, we visit CD36 where Rashad Lewis is running on the Democratic ticket. Lewis is a former city council member in Jasper, where he won as a write-in candidate … Continue reading →

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Sixteen point six million

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That’s our current total of registered voters in Texas. Texas has once again shattered vote registration records, adding more than 1.5 million voters since the last presidential election. Texas now surpassed 16.6 million voters, according to the latest numbers announced … Continue reading →

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Don’t expect any surprises in the judicial races

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a simple reason why the Democratic candidates and incumbents are expected to win all the judicial races in Harris County, as they did in 2016 and 2018. I’ll tell you why in a minute, but see if you can … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: The Susan Collins of Texas

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Three things in life are certain: Death, taxes, and certain Chron endorsements. The voters in state House District 134 — a swing district that covers all or parts of River Oaks, Bellaire and Meyerland and includes the Texas Medical Center … Continue reading →

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Two more polls of Texas

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Trump is up two in this one. Florida and Texas remain tight battlegrounds in the presidential election, according to CBS News Battleground Tracker polls released Sunday. The current margin in both states is 2 percentage points, with Democratic nominee Joe … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: No Briscoe

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron follows the basic principle that bad acts should not be rewarded, and bad actors do not belong in positions of trust and power. In his two terms representing House District 128, Rep. Briscoe Cain has quickly acquired a … Continue reading →

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Interview with Hank Gilbert

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I will have a few interviews to present for the November election. Nearly all of the people I wanted to talk to in the greater Houston area were in contested primaries, and thus I have already interviewed them, but there … Continue reading →

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Recruiting poll workers

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

One good thing Facebook has ever done. Facebook has set out to recruit poll workers, providing free ads for state election officials to help fill jobs at voting centers in a very unusual election year. “With the election less than … Continue reading →

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A matter of timing

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the stated reason why SCOTX overturned the earlier decision that booted three Green Party candidates off the ballot. The Texas Supreme Court in a new opinion Friday explained its decision to reinstate to the November ballot Green Party candidates … Continue reading →

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CD03 poll: Taylor 44, Seikaly 43

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From Nate Cohn: If there’s any single competitive district you could look at on Election Night to know whether Texas went blue, this might be the pick — Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) 8:47 AM – 17 September 2020 All we get … Continue reading →

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Voter registration during a pandemic is hard

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Especially when online voter registration is not an option. In the first seven months of 2020, new registrations in Texas were down nearly 24% compared with that same time frame in 2016, according to numbers from the nonprofit Center for … Continue reading →

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Appeals court sides with Hollins in mail ballot applications case

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It’s up to SCOTX now. A Texas appeals court on Friday upheld a district court ruling that denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to block Harris County officials from sending mail ballot applications to the county’s 2.4 million registered voters. … Continue reading →

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Adding to the team in Texas

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Shot: Joe Biden is a lot closer to winning Texas at this point than Donald Trump is to winning Minnesota, if the polls are anywhere close to right. — (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) 2:15 PM – 14 September 2020 Chaser. Joe … Continue reading →

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Smoots-Thomas takes a plea

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

A sad but hardly unexpected end to this story. The ex-judge in an orange jail uniform stood before a judge in black robes, swore to tell the truth and tried to make sense of her predicament. “My world truly turned … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: Three to get started

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

But first, why do endorsements, anyway? If newspapers are objective, why do you recommend candidates? Newspapers don’t endorse candidates. Editorial boards do. The editorial board is separate from the newsroom. It is made up of opinion journalists with wide-ranging expertise … Continue reading →

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The Green Party owes Ken Paxton a thank-you note

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

He did them a solid, that’s for sure. In the legal fight to exclude minor party candidates from the November ballot, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton took a flexible view of time and deadlines. After the Texas GOP filed suit … Continue reading →

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Harris County preps to print mail ballots

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

How many they have to print remains an open question at this time. For the first time, Harris County will pay a third-party vendor to print mail ballots, a move intended to help the county clerk handle what is expected … Continue reading →

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CD25: Williams 45, Oliver 43

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Congressional polls, they keep coming. Progressive Democratic candidate Julie Oliver is in a close race with her GOP incumbent opponent Rep. Roger Williams, a new internal poll finds. The poll of 400 likely voters by EMC Research shows Oliver … Continue reading →

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SCOTX puts Greens back on the ballot

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That sound you hear is my head spinning. The Texas Supreme Court has ordered three Green Party candidates to be restored to the November ballot after Democrats successfully sued to remove them. Last month, a state appeals court sided with the … Continue reading →

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SCOTX extends stay in Harris County vote by mail case

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I was set to be super outraged about this, but as you will see it’s not quite as bad as it first looked. The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked Harris County from sending mail ballot applications to all registered … Continue reading →

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Hegar targets open carry

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I’m all in for this. Former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar, a Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, is calling for an end to open carry. The issue has never attracted the same sort of urgency from gun safety … Continue reading →

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The case for voting in person

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From Wired, an argument for worrying less about voting by mail because voting in person is still a fine way to do it. Casting a ballot in person, it turns out, isn’t so dangerous after all. Early in the pandemic, … Continue reading →

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County’s plan to make in person voting safer is having an effect

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

So says this poll. Voters with the highest risk of suffering COVID-19’s worst effects say they’re more likely to vote early this November, according to a Rice University study. A poll of nearly 6,000 Harris County voters found roughly 80% … 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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Now we wait on SCOTX

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Shouldn’t have to wait too long to get a resolution to the “Harris County Clerk wanting to send out mail ballot applications to all registered voters” question. A day after a court ruled against him, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton … Continue reading →

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CD21 poll: Davis 48, Roy 47

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Second poll in this district. Between August 31 and September 4, Garin-Hart-Yang interviewed a representative sample of 401 likely general election voters in Texas-21st CD. The survey, which was conducted on both landlines and cell phones, was fully representative of … Continue reading →

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One lawsuit about voting locations thrown out

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This was filed just a couple of months ago. Continuing to fend off attempts to alter its voting processes, Texas has convinced a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that sought sweeping changes to the state’s rules for in-person voting … Continue reading →

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