Tag Archives: Georgia

On longshot candidates

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron looks at candidates running in districts they are highly unlikely to win. I have a few thoughts. In the 2022 election, a Houston Chronicle analysis found only about 5% of Texans lived in districts with competitive races for … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Beware the voter registration attacks

Posted on August 18, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. County election departments across Texas are trying to reassure voters amid a flood of formal challenges questioning whether their registrations are valid. The challenges, filed by conservative groups and individual activists, seek … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sidney Powell’s disciplinary lawsuit stays dismissed

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A bummer, and a black eye for the State Bar. A Dallas appeals court on Thursday upheld a decision not to discipline Sidney Powell, former lawyer for Donald Trump, for her role in seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, … Continue reading →

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Paxton harasses another out of state clinic

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Disgusting, but par for the course with our degenerate AG. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking medical records from a Georgia telehealth clinic that offers gender transition care to young people in Texas and other states where the treatment … Continue reading →

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We could get an Amtrak connection from Atlanta to Fort Worth

Posted on November 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Or it could all be killed by the Freedom Caucus nihilists. That’s just how these things go these days. A passenger rail line project touted as a major connectivity and economic boost to the Fort Worth region and beyond could … Continue reading →

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Appellate hearing of the State Bar discipline lawsuit against Ken Paxton

Posted on November 16, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Big day. Whether the Texas State Bar can take away Attorney General Ken Paxton’s law license could hinge on whether appellate justices believe the organization is trying to control what lawsuits he files on the state’s behalf — or whether … Continue reading →

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Another effort to discipline Sidney Powell

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Sure seems worth the effort. Reacting to the guilty pleas entered by former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell in Georgia, a prominent group of Texas lawyers is urging the State Bar of Texas to follow a compulsory-discipline rule against her. … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The lawsuit over the omnibus voter suppression law has begun

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Settle in, this will take awhile. Two years after voting rights groups challenged Texas Republicans’ sweeping overhaul of its voting and election laws, the case comes to trial Monday in a federal court in San Antonio. The lengthy roster of … Continue reading →

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Law banning gender-affirming care for minors temporarily blocked

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

And then unblocked, which is how these things go. A Texas law banning transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy will go into effect next week after the state attorney general’s office filed to block a judge’s temporary … Continue reading →

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Part of the omnibus voter suppression law struck down

Posted on August 20, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news. A federal judge in San Antonio ruled this week that it is illegal for Texas elections officials to reject mail-in ballots and the applications for them over ID mistakes on elections paperwork. The requirement was part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Another look at Texas redistricting litigation after the Alabama SCOTUS ruling

Posted on June 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

An explainer from the Trib. The state faces an assortment of legal challenges to its congressional and statehouse maps, including allegations of intentional discrimination, vote dilution and racial gerrymandering. For example: In the Rio Grande Valley, the plaintiffs allege map-drawers … Continue reading →

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Will the SCOTUS ruling on Alabama redistricting affect Texas?

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s start here. In a surprise win for voting rights activists, the U.S. Supreme Court breathed new life into the Civil Rights Act and may have paved the way to end Texas’s gerrymandered district. The case, Allen v. Milligan, came … Continue reading →

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There’s nothing like ERIC

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Be careful what you seek to destroy, Republicans. With some Texas Republicans pushing the state to abandon one its best tools for preventing voter fraud — a coalition of states that share voting roll data to weed out duplicate and … Continue reading →

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Look to the state legislatures for the next frontiers in forced birtherism

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The state of Texas will of course be on the forefront of this, but it will surely follow examples from other states as well. As statehouses across the country prepare for next year’s legislative sessions — most for the first … Continue reading →

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Our property tax system is soooooooo awesome!

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

How awesome is it? So awesome you don’t even have to live here to get a tax break. Herschel Walker, the former Dallas Cowboys running back and Republican candidate running for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, is slated to … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The professional vote-deniers are out there

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They’re probing the systems for weaknesses, a line that reminds me of the velociraptors in the original Jurassic Park. Except that the ‘raptors were sleek and efficient predators, while these guys are basically Pennywise with canned scripts and a huge … Continue reading →

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Houston vies for 2024 DNC

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It would be nice, but I feel like I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it ends. Houston is vying to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention held the summer before the next presidential election, in which Texas … Continue reading →

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The national trend is for less voting by mail

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. The great vote-by-mail wave appears to be receding just as quickly as it arrived. After tens of millions of people in the United States opted for mail ballots during the pandemic election of 2020, voters in early primary … Continue reading →

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State Bar complaint filed against Ted Cruz

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good. A group of lawyers want the State Bar of Texas to investigate Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his “leading” role in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Lawyers with the 65 Project, an organization aiming to … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Two Georgia election workers sue over post-election harassment

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I am so rooting for them. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, the Gateway Pundit—one of the country’s leading sources of pro-Trump misinformation—helped instigate a vicious harassment campaign against two Black Georgia election workers, according to a new lawsuit. As Republicans desperately … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Justice Department sues Texas over the voter suppression law

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Specifically, they are challenging a couple of specific provisions of the law. The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday sued Texas over its new voting law, expanding its effort to challenge Republican-backed measures passed in state legislatures. The lawsuit, brought by … Continue reading →

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The Hollywood (mostly non-) response to SB8

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. In May 2021, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed into law SB8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. It’s the latest, and most contested, challenge to the 1973 Supreme Court decision made in Roe v. Wade, which legalized … Continue reading →

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Day 17 quorum busting post: Testify

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Ladies and gentlemen, Ms T. State Rep. Senfronia Thompson described to a U.S. House committee on Thursday occasions in 2010 and 2012 when white Republican poll watchers showed up at a Houston polling place where she and many other Black … Continue reading →

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Where the outbreaks are the worst

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

We talk a lot about the vaccination rate in Texas, but that number by itself is misleading. Some parts of the state are very well vaccinated. Others, very much not so. That matters, because the Delta variant is just ripping … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Justice Department sues Georgia over its voter suppression law

Posted on June 27, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good to see. In its first major action to combat GOP voter suppression laws, the Biden Justice Department announced on Friday that it is suing the state of Georgia over its new voting restrictions. The lawsuit was first reported by … Continue reading →

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The Big Lie

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I was glad to see the Chron run a week-long series of editorials on The Big Lie of “voter fraud”, and how the Republican Party has been pushing it for a lot longer than 2020, and how it has been … Continue reading →

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The Texas/Georgia comparison

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

The main thrust of this story is that the Texas voter suppression bills are not as bad as the law Georgia passed. But as you can see, these laws are still Very Bad. After major corporations criticized Georgia for adopting … Continue reading →

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More on the corporate response to voter suppression

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s an encouraging start, but there’s an obvious next step that has so far not been mentioned. With Republicans in Texas and other states continuing to advance restrictive election legislation, corporate chieftains around the country have stepped up their efforts … Continue reading →

Posted in National news, That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The economic effects of voter suppression

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From Forbes magazine last week: The Texas economy could take a massive hit if the state enacts new voting restrictions—potentially costing the state’s economy tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs—according to a study from the … Continue reading →

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More local pushback against SB7 and HB6

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Mayor Sylvester Turner invited a diverse group of elected officials, community leaders, and business executives to stand in solidarity against voter suppression bills in the Texas Legislature. More than 50 individuals and organizations have vowed to fight … Continue reading →

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Leave me out of the ballgame

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

What a snowflake. Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced he would not throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opening game and would boycott any other Major League Baseball events, citing the league’s decision to pull … Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball, The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

MLB pulls 2021 All Star Game out of Georgia

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Well, well, well. Major League Baseball on Friday pulled this year’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s new restrictive voting law. The “Midsummer Classic” was set for July 13 at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, in addition to other … Continue reading →

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A bit of business pushback against voter suppression

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a start, but much more is needed. A group of 72 Black business leaders are calling on companies to publicly oppose a series of bills being advanced by Republicans in at least 43 states that could dramatically curb access … Continue reading →

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How fast was too fast?

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

When it came to COVID vaccine eligibility, states that took their time expanding the pool of people who could get the shots have done a better job actually getting shots into arms than the states who rushed to broaden their … Continue reading →

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