Tag Archives: Lone Star Project

Eighteen million registered voters

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Number go up. Texas has been one of the nation’s fastest-growing states since the 1970s, but its voter rolls have at times been stagnant. From 2000 to 2012, the number of registered voters grew by 1.2 million. In only the … Continue reading →

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There’s a coordinated statewide campaign? We can do that?

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Who knew? U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a coordinated campaign to consolidate resources for races up and down the ticket, the party and Allred campaign announced Wednesday morning. The initiative, dubbed “Texas Offense,” will … Continue reading →

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Motion filed to block current Congressional map

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

From the Lone Star Project. Moments ago the Plaintiffs in the ongoing Texas congressional redistricting case filed a joint motion asking the San Antonio Federal District Court for an injunction to block the use of the current congressional map during … Continue reading →

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Court rules several Congressional districts were illegally drawn

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Bam! Some of Texas’ 36 congressional districts violate either the U.S. Constitution or the federal Voting Rights Act, a panel of federal judges ruled Friday. In a long-delayed ruling, the judges ruled 2-1 that the Texas Legislature must redraw the … Continue reading →

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Effort to expedite redistricting ruling denied

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

From the Lone Star Project: Earlier today, Federal District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez denied the motion filed by the Texas congressional and State House redistricting plaintiffs calling on the three-judge federal district court in San Antonio to rule on the … Continue reading →

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When is Texas going to file that voter ID appeal?

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The Lone Star Project would like to know. Last week, Texas AG Ken Paxton made a big show in the press by announcing that he would file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the ruling of the 5th … Continue reading →

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Can we PLEASE get some action on redistricting?

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the Lone Star Project: Earlier today, plaintiffs in the pending Texas congressional and state house redistricting case filed a motion with the presiding three-judge federal panel in San Antonio requesting a conference to discuss further action on the case. … Continue reading →

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Lone Star Project requests investigation of severance packages

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Today, Lone Star Project Director Matt Angle sent letters to the Texas Rangers, the State Auditor and the Travis County District Attorney requesting formal investigations into a series of questionable payments made by Attorney General Ken Paxton, … Continue reading →

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The Trib on the AG race

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

What do you do when you have an ethically compromised candidate on your ticket? Thank your lucky stars that you’re the majority party and hope like hell the challenger can’t get any traction. A political candidate’s troubles are supposed to … Continue reading →

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Alameel wants a refund

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck with that. Just like his first run for office in 2012, David Alameel’s second bid for public office is drawing questions about his past campaign donations. Alameel, the owner of a multimillion-dollar chain of dental clinics that caters … Continue reading →

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You know you’re not supposed to do fundraising activities while in your official capacity, right?

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Oops. [On Wednesday], the Texas Democratic Party called on Rockwall County Clerk, Republican Shelli Miller, to close down the illegal campaign fundraising operation she is running within her official office to benefit a February 1st event featuring keynote speaker, Attorney General Greg … Continue reading →

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How Greg Abbott enabled the payday lenders

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Lone Star Project kicks it off: Abbott’s Green Light to Predatory Lenders Key AG document provided payday lenders a loophole to bilk Texans Greg Abbott’s office issued the key document that has allowed payday lenders to operate outside of Texas usury … Continue reading →

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The people want Wendy to run for Governor

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Democratic people certainly do. Though speculation is still rampant on state Sen. Wendy Davis’ possible run for governor, some Democratic groups aren’t waiting for her call before pledging their support. Annie’s List, a political group that supports Democratic female … Continue reading →

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Abbott and CPRIT

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

From the Things Greg Abbott Should Have Been Doing Instead Of Filing All Those Lawsuits Against The Obama Administration, But Didn’t Do department. In the more than four years he served on the state cancer agency’s governing board, Texas Attorney … Continue reading →

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Two other views of Texas redistricting

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a fascinating paper from the Harvard Election Data Archive that attempts to project how many Congressional seats each party will win based on statewide performance. Based on the 2008 presidential election results, twenty-two of the twenty-three current Republican members … Continue reading →

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More on the Seliger-Solomons plan

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Rick Dunham has a nice analysis of the proposed Congressional map that’s worth your time to read. I disagree with him on two related points. Republicans successfully shored up three districts they captured from Democrats in the past two election … Continue reading →

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TDP to get KSP’s financial records

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Houston tea party spinoff King Street Patriots will grant the Texas Democratic Party access to its financial records, forestalling an injunction hearing that had been set for Monday afternoon in Austin, according to TDP. According to a TDP news … Continue reading →

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The redistricting battle is fought one State House seat at a time

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) is the State House version of the DCCC. With 2011 being a redistricting year, the DLCC takes a more prominent role in the November elections than it would in other years, and with the … Continue reading →

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“McCaul Drops The Ball”

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Following up on the reports about BAE Systems and the curious claims by Rep. Mike McCaul that his office had been “in regular contact with BAE Systems” during the bidding process, yet none of that communication was written, the Lone … Continue reading →

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Both sides may claim victory, but that doesn’t mean they both achieved it

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, last week there was a settlement reached in the lawsuit against the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office over allegations that they improperly rejected thousands of voter registration applications last year. Shortly after that agreement was signed, the … Continue reading →

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Harris County voter registration issues get national coverage

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Lou Dubose, onetime editor of the Texas Observer and Tom DeLay biographer has written a story for the Washington Spectator about the shenanigans in the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office with voter registration. You can read it here (PDF), thanks … Continue reading →

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The CW on KBH

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison gets set to launch her listening announcement tour of Texas, Gardner Selby brings us a conventional wisdom roundup of the state of her campaign. To win, Hutchison faces a daunting task — making a case … Continue reading →

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Lone Star Project on Bohac

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Last week, the Lone Star Project took a look at how now-reassigned Associate Voter Registrar Ed Johnson got his hands on drivers license data, which he and his business partner State Rep. Dwayne Bohac then used to sell campaign data … Continue reading →

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Hammerlein, too

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron confirms the Lone Star Project report about Ed Johnson being reassigned in the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office, and adds on to it. Two Harris County officials at the center of an ongoing dispute over what the Texas … Continue reading →

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LSP says Johnson reassigned from voter registration duties

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s their report. The Lone Star Project has learned that Republican Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez has reassigned Associate Voter Registrar Ed Johnson from voter registration duties to a communications role. Johnson was exposed by the Lone Star Project as “the … Continue reading →

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Where’d that driver’s license data come from?

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Lone Star Project revisits the matter of Ed Johnson and Dwayne Bohac and their cozy relationship as business partners with a real in at the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office. Last month, the Lone Star Project revealed that Harris … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS upholds Voting Rights Act

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

For now, anyway. The Supreme Court ruled narrowly today in a challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act, siding with a small Texas governing authority but sidestepping the larger constitutional issue. The court, with only one justice in dissent, avoided … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Schieffer jumps in

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We have a candidate, one not named Kinky. Former U.S. Ambassador Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth has just announced he is taking his first formal step toward seeking the Democratic nomination for governor during a Texas Independence Day press conference … Continue reading →

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