Tag Archives: Jon Rosenthal

Miles whines about criticism

Oh good Lord. State-appointed Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles responded to recent criticism from several Democratic state lawmakers by sending a letter telling them to “lead, follow, or get out of the way.” The letter calls for lawmakers … Continue reading

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Asking the fox to audit the henhouse

I’m not sure if that’s the best metaphor, but it’s what I came up with when I read this. Houston Democrats asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Monday to investigate a charter school network founded by Houston ISD Superintendent Mike … Continue reading

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Several Dem legislators want to investigate HISD

We’ll see if this goes anywhere. Several Houston-area Democratic legislators are calling for a formal hearing to address “potential violations of state law” in Houston ISD in the aftermath of the Texas Education Agency stripping elected leaders from the school … Continue reading

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HD135 election contest dismissed

From the inbox: This week, Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan dismissed the election contest filed by Mike May, the candidate who lost to Representative Jon Rosenthal in the 2022 election for house district 135. The case was dismissed … Continue reading

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Additional Losing Candidates File Election Contests in Harris County

That’s the subject of the following email I got in my inbox yesterday, and I can’t do any better than that for a post title. Additional Losing Candidates File Election Contests in Harris County Houston, Texas – Today, several losing Republican … Continue reading

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Judge assigned to hear election loser contest

From the inbox, a press release from Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee: Judge David Peeples will preside over the election contest filed by Republican candidate Erin Lunceford to void the results of her race for the 189th District Court in … Continue reading

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And now we have a judicial loser contesting the election

The Republicans did warn us they’d be sore losers. Republican judicial candidate Erin Lunceford filed a petition Wednesday seeking a new election in Harris County’s 189th judicial district court race after losing by 2,743 votes out of more than 1 … Continue reading

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Candidate who lost by 15 points files election contest

Utterly ridiculous, and will hopefully be treated that way. A losing Republican candidate for the Texas House of Representatives is challenging his defeat and asking the Legislature to void the results of the election. Republican Mike May this week filed … Continue reading

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Endorsement watch: A smattering

The Chron endorses Stephanie Morales, the Democratic challenger in HD138. Stephanie Morales began her interview with the editorial board with a story about children who wind up in the care of Child Protective Services, fleeing harsh conditions at home only … Continue reading

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The Lege is now 3/4 done with redistricting

All but the Congressional maps are done. They’re just plowing through it. The Texas Legislature is nearing the end of its work to incorporate a decade’s worth of population growth into new political maps — pressing forward with efforts to … Continue reading

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Still no Dems arrested yet

Finally, a story that points out the same thing I’ve been saying about those arrest warrants. More than a week after Republicans in the Texas House voted to authorize arrests of their quorum-busting Democratic colleagues, no such roundup has come … Continue reading

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Still no quorum, and no Dem legislators rounded up yet

And I’m still not sure what exactly will happen when and if a law enforcement officer stumbles across one of the wayward legislators. The hunt for missing Democratic Texas House members escalated late Thursday and Friday, as the sergeant-at-arms and … Continue reading

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Supreme Court tosses no-arrest order

Things just got more interesting. House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature could soon be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol, after the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday voided a state district … Continue reading

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Meet the new special session

Same as the old special session, at least at first. It appears likely that not enough Democrats will show up for the Texas House to conduct business when a second special legislative session convenes Saturday. Some of the more than … Continue reading

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Day 2 quorum busting omnibus post

Gonna round up a few stories here. Don’t know how often I’ll be this energetic, or how often there will be this many stories that I see that are worth commenting on, but it is Day Two. We’re just getting … Continue reading

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Interview with Odus Evbagharu

As you know, the Harris County Democratic Party will be electing a new Chair following the resignation of Lillie Schecter, who has served (quite ably) as Chair since 2017. I am on the record supporting Odus Evbagharu as the next … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2021 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

We go to the next freeze with the power grid reform we have, not the power grid reform we wanted

It is what it is, and what it is isn’t much. Texas lawmakers on Sunday passed a final proposal to shore up the state’s power grid in response to this year’s deadly outage crisis, agreeing on a raft of reforms … Continue reading

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State Reps to P Bush: Reconsider

Nearly all of the Harris County State Reps have written a letter to Land Commissioner George P Bush asking him to reconsider the ridiculous process that completely shut Houston and Harris County out of federal flooding funds. A bipartisan group … Continue reading

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Republicans are determined to learn the wrong lessons from the blackouts

It’s kind of amazing, and yet completely on brand. With millions of Texans having lost power during the winter storms, key players in the Legislature say one of the most immediate reforms they will push for is recalibrating the state’s … Continue reading

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Precinct analysis: The judicial averages

Introduction Congressional districts State Rep districts Commissioners Court/JP precincts Comparing 2012 and 2016 Statewide judicial Other jurisdictions Appellate courts, Part 1 Appellate courts, Part 2 As you know, I use the average totals and percentages from local judicial races as … Continue reading

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Harris County posts updated election results

From Twitter: . That won’t affect most races, and it probably does not affect any Harris-County specific races. But if provisional ballots are like that statewide, it could affect larger, close elections. I’m particularly watching Chief Justice for the 14th … Continue reading

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A few observations from the final unofficial countywide data

This is still unofficial, and there will still be some overseas/military ballots to be counted as well as some provisional ballots to be cured, but the count of the votes cast by Election Day is over, and we have the … Continue reading

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Omnibus Election Day post

I was up really late last night, and there’s still a lot of votes to be counted. The SOS website was mostly trash, but a lot of county election sites took their sweet, sweet time even reporting any Election Day … Continue reading

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30 Day 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 2

Continuing to look at the 30-day campaign finance reports. A lot of candidates have been reporting big hauls, especially in the hot State Rep races. As before, I will split these into four parts. Part one, with statewide, SBOE, and … Continue reading

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There’s so much more money in Texas races

Item one: It’s the question that many, many people have raised — often as a joke — for years. But the combination of changing demographics, chaos among the state Republican ranks, and the ongoing struggles of President Donald Trump’s campaign … Continue reading

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Endorsement watch: Three more for the Lege

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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July 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 2

Let’s move on to finance reports from the State House, which I will break up into two parts. Today’s look is on the various races in the greater Houston area, and after that I’ll look at the other races of … Continue reading

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Steps towards more transparency

Step One: Mayor Sylvester Turner said Friday he is reviewing an internal audit of the Houston Police Department’s embattled narcotics division and will send the results of the probe to state lawmakers who have called for its public release. Turner … Continue reading

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Release the audit

That’s my three-word response to this. A growing chorus of elected officials is calling on Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo to release the findings of an internal audit on his department’s narcotics division, arguing that the chief’s refusal to do … Continue reading

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School could be out for awhile

We got the news on Thursday that HISD schools were going to be closed until March 31 due to coronavirus. (This week is spring break, so the kids got an extra day off before the start of break, then a … Continue reading

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January 2020 campaign finance reports: State House, part 1

I’m going to take a two-part look at the finance reports in State House districts. Part One will be from Harris County, looking at both contested primaries and contested November races. Part Two will focus on races in the counties … Continue reading

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Texas GOP accidentally releases its 2020 strategy

Oops. In a bizarre political blunder, a document laying out the Republican Party of Texas’s election strategy for the 2020 elections has ended up in the hands of Texas Democrats. Attacking Democratic candidates through websites and mitigating “the polarizing nature” … Continue reading

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The Bonnen tape is out

It’s a doozy. During a June conversation at the Texas Capitol, Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen urged hardline conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan to target members of their own party in the 2020 primaries and suggested he could get Sullivan’s … Continue reading

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A reminder about the local legislative races

Let’s review the facts together. State Rep. Jon Rosenthal wasn’t supposed to win his Texas House seat last year. He was too much of a Democrat for the swath of northwest Harris County that had long elected Republicans. But in … Continue reading

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