Tag Archives: voter ID

Leo’s response

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here, for the record, is Harris County Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez’s response to the Ed Johnson business. Basically, he denies everything, admits to nothing, and makes counter-accusations, certainly a time-honored technique when under attack. I’ll stipulate that the charges against … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Chron opines on Ed Johnson

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron follows up its story on Ed Johnson, the local GOP’s ace in the hole in the Tax Assessor’s office, with an editorial that recaps the story and gently chides Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez. Given the recent history of … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What about Dwayne?

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Lone Star Project turns its attention to Ed Johnson‘s partner, State Rep. Dwayne Bohac. [Friday], the Lone Star Project formally submitted open records requests of Dwayne Bohac, Tax Assessor Collector Leo Vasquez, Harris County DA Pat Lykos -a CDS … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Chron reports on Ed Johnson

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s their story about Ed Johnson and his questionable side venture as a Republican consultant. It doesn’t add much to what we already know, but it does get some local reaction, including from Johnson’s boss, Harris County Tax Assessor Leo … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

More on Ed Johnson

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As expected, the Lone Star Project adds quite a bit to the Ed Johnson story from yesterday. Boy, do they ever. [Johnson] is a paid Republican campaign consultant. His company, Campaign Data Systems (CDS), has numerous Harris County Republican candidate … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Special session coming

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Ugh. Speaking to reporters this afternoon at a roundtable on national energy legislation, Gov. Rick Perry said there will definitely be a special legislative session. But he declined to say when, or how many issues it will include. “We’re in … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ed Johnson’s conflict of interest

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, there was a lawsuit filed against Paul Bettencourt and the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office over allegations of illegal mishandling of provisional ballots in the past November election. That suit was later expanded to include allegations of … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The lack of leadership

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

State Sen. John Carona gets medieval on his party’s leadership. Tempers flared Saturday on the Legislature’s last weekend with a key GOP senator declaring that the session’s central theme is “lack of leadership” by top members of his own party. … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The lack of leadership

And so the chubbing comes to an end

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

So, as far as I know at this point, SB362 is dead, other bills may or may not be dead, and some semblance of normality will return to the House for the remaining days of the session. After seeing so … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on And so the chubbing comes to an end

The last day of chubbing

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

So tomorrow night at midnight is the deadline for the House to approve Senate bills on second reading, which means that as long as the Democrats can keep the chubfest going, SB362 will die. Modulo any attempt to graft it … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The last day of chubbing

Where things stand in the House

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

So after yesterday’s chubathon, which lasted till one AM, there are still a bunch of local and consent bills to be dealt with. After that, there are still more bills to go before the House could get to today’s calendar, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Chubbing

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the word of the day, as the Democrats use up most of the ten-minute allotment for discussion of bills on the Local and Consent calendar in order to delay, hopefully to death, the voter ID bill SB362. It’s not … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chubbing

Budget yes, UI not yet

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The conference committee on the budget finished its work yesterday. While final details are still emerging, the 10 conferees worked out a last minute plan for spending $700 million of federal stimulus money for state fiscal stabilization. They hope that … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Budget yes, UI not yet

Gearing up for the voter ID showdown

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

SB362 was not on the calendar today, but it is expected to be brought to the House floor before the Tuesday deadline for approving Senate bills, perhaps as early as tomorrow. House Dems had a press conference today, accidentally pre-empting … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Gearing up for the voter ID showdown

Whatever Ricky wants

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

It’s too early to say how much of Rick Perry’s self-proclaimed agenda will get enacted this session, as much of it hinges on the budget reconciliation process as well as on legislation that hasn’t been taken up by one chamber … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Voter ID passes out of House committee

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The session that’s been all about voter ID is finally headed into its final act as SB362 gets approval from the House Elections Committee on a 5-4 vote. It wasn’t actually a straight-party vote – Rep. Joe Heflin, who had … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Voter ID passes out of House committee

Happy Ardmore Day

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Rep. Pena remembers the day six years ago when the House Democrats took a stand against the DeLay/Craddick/Perry re-redistricting scheme. Though they were only able to delay the inevitable, the effort marked the beginning of the resurgence of the Texas … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Happy Ardmore Day

Smith caves in to the Browns

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

No surprise, really. Rep. Todd Smith, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Elections, confirmed today he’s intending to have the committee vote Monday on a voter ID plan. The twist: Smith is backing off his attempts to rewrite … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The voter ID “compromise” bill

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go. The voter identification bill likely to reach the House floor would allow Texans to cast ballots if they can show two forms of non-photo ID, despite pressure from many Republican members to require picture identification for all … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The voter ID “compromise” bill

The Speaker speaks, and a Voter ID update

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

So how is Speaker Joe Straus doing? Three months into his first term leading the 150-member chamber, Republican Speaker Joe Straus is emerging as a bipartisan compromise-seeker, rejecting much of the power that his predecessor so coveted. Straus still faces … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Speaker speaks, and a Voter ID update

It only hurts when it happens to you

Posted on April 26, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This story is about the likely death of the Wentworth nonpartisan redistricting committee bill, which wasn’t unexpected, but the real story is about how it went down. A move to put redistricting into the hands of a bi-partisan public commission … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on It only hurts when it happens to you

Voter ID must be reviewed

Posted on April 19, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This is generally good news, but maybe not quite as good as it sounds. Texas’ proposed Voter ID law would be subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice or federal court for it to become law, federal officials … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Voter ID must be reviewed

Vasquez responds to Coleman and Hernandez

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I received the following statement from the office of Harris County Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez, which was sent to KHOU and Fox 26 in response to the charges made by State Reps. Garnet Coleman and Ana Hernandez about the voter … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dems versus Vasquez

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Looks like we’re not ready to make nice with the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office over their handling of voter registration last year. Any honeymoon between Democrats and the new Harris County voter registrar ended suddenly today. Democratic state Reps. … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Onion takes on Betty Brown

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I suppose this was inevitable, given how low the fruit was hanging. But now that we’ve had all this fun at Rep. Betty Brown’s expense, I’ve got to agree with David Mauro in that this has largely served to reinforce … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Onion takes on Betty Brown

More Ramey Ko

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

KXAN’s Jenny Hoff has a really good interview with Ramey Ko about last week’s Betty Brown incident. She gets into some depth about why Rep. Brown’s dumb remarks are problematic and how it all relates to voter ID, and includes … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on More Ramey Ko

Ramey Ko speaks

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Asian American Action Fund blog talks to Ramey Ko about the Betty Brown incident, and also about her apology, which wasn’t particularly well received by the Asian American community. There’s a lot more coverage of this story, which has … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Ramey Ko speaks

Rep. Brown’s apology

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

In case you missed it, here’s State Rep. Betty Brown’s apology for her dumb remarks about Asian names. Answering a swarm of phone calls during a brief break on the House floor, Rep. Betty Brown , R-Terrell, kept telling reporters … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What’s in a name, Betty Brown style

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

You know, I was just thinking the other day that what this legislative session was lacking was a dose of absurdity. Thank God for people like State Rep. Betty Brown. A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Not dead yet

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Just a little reminder that sometimes voters are removed from the rolls erroneously. Alegria Arce Hibbetts of Austin got a letter in late March saying that she might be dead. Or more specifically, the Texas secretary of state’s Texas Election … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Not dead yet

More on Day One of the House hearings on voter ID

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

House Elections Committee Chair Todd Smith is full of ennui at how things have gone so far. Throughout today’s proceedings, Chairman Todd Smith, R-Bedford, has repeatedly insisted that he is “unimpressed,” and even on one occasion, “fabulously unimpressed,” with both … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on More on Day One of the House hearings on voter ID

Blaming the nuns

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

So as we know, today is expert testimony day for the voter ID hearings in the House. It’s still going on as I type this, and is expected to last till about midnight. Vince is liveblogging, Rep. Pena has a … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Voter ID begins in the House today

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Two days’ worth of hearings on the single most important issue facing Texas today. Here’s the schedule for today – unclear when it will start, probably sometime after lunch. Invited testimony only today, meaning all the usual charlatans and hoaxsters … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Voter ID begins in the House today

Let the shenanigans begin!

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Boy, we only thought voter ID would not be brought up in the House till next week. Apparently, Rep. Betty Brown tried to attach a voter ID bill she has pending in its entirity to HB71, an otherwise fairly innocuous … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Let the shenanigans begin!