I'm hearing rumors that two-time Congressional candidate Tom Reiser will be throwing his hat into the ring to replace Shelley Sekula Gibbs on City Council. Reiser spent big bucks in losing a 2000 primary for what was then CD25 to Phil Sudan and a 2002 general election to Chris Bell, in which there was a lot of nastiness. He also underperformed in 2002, getting 43% of the vote in a district whose statewide Republican index was 49%, according to the Texas Legislative Council. Eyeballing the demographics of CD25 as it was back then, I'd say it's not far from what Houston looks like today - CD25 was about 54% black and Hispanic, 39% Anglo, and 7% other, while Houston is about 62% black and Hispanic, 32% Anglo, and 6% other.
Suffice it to say that I'm not terribly impressed, if this turns out to be true. There are two known candidates in the race now, Melissa Noriega (website forthcoming) and Noel Freeman. There's also still a lot of potential questions about whether or not the city really will call for the special election or not, which is a topic I've explored at Kuff's World here and here. One more item in favor of the no-election theory is that there's no constituency that would claim to be unrepresented if Shelley's seat were left unfilled. It would be different if this were a district seat, but she was at large. That doesn't change any of the legal equations, of course, but I daresay it's still a factor. We'll see.
UPDATE: Two commenters have mentioned Roy Morales, who ran unsuccessfully for At Large #1 last November, losing to Peter Brown. Morales' name has come up before, so I don't think of him as a new contender. If he's made a formal announcement, however, that is new. If it turns out I was confusing him for Reiser, well, that's why it's called a rumor. We'll know soon enough.
Well, the weather permitted but my schedule didn't, so the next chance I had to take a picture of the Robinson Warehouse demolition was yesterday. They've clearly made a lot of progress, and at first glance I thought my initial estimate of completion circa year's end was pessimistic, but as you'll see from the next picture, they still have a lot to do. Click on for more.
You can see that the farther away from Montrose you get, the less they've done. So I still think there's a few weeks to go.
The front view. You can see daylight through there, which may be the first time that's ever been true.
Closeup shot from the driveway, where the gates were open. I didn't enter, just got as near as I could without getting told to beat it.
More later. Am I the only one fascinated by this, or should I keep this up?
The Baytown Sun has an article on Houston's smog problem, with more details from GHASP's Sabrina Strawn about why the TCEQ's response is so lame.
Sabrina Stawn, executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention, bemoaned the SIP revisions."In essence, it's not a plan. At this point, we have a deadline of 2010, and TCEQ is saying we can't meet the deadline for the Houston-Galveston area," she said.
"We feel there are other control measures they could be looking at. We also don't accept the reasoning that transportation is totally off-limits, or controlling emissions from transportation," she said.
Strawn said TCEQ already has legislative authority to implement stricter controls, and there may be growing sentiment around the state for even more authority.
Strawn said the North Texas Clean Air Coalition, a subsidiary of the North Texas Council of Governments, has recently adopted a series of resolutions aimed at helping the Dallas-Fort Worth region reach attainment.
"One of the things they proposed is that Texas should go ahead and adopt California's vehicle emissions standards," the most stringent in the nation, Strawn said.
She said she expected the Texas Legislature to consider bills next session that would "fully fund" the Texas Emissions Reduction Program, which she said wasn't fully funded when the Legislature created it.
Strawn said the Houston-Galveston Area Council is considering similar resolutions.
"I think there's considerable interest in the Legislature to take available cost-effective measures to reduce air pollution," she said.
Strawn said there also should be "considerable more interest" in reducing emissions by industrial facilities.
"We know from previous scientific work that the emissions are undercounted. We think if they're fully accounted for, there are other control measures that can be used," she said.
Strawn said California plants which have been required to implement "flare minimization" plans have shown reduced emissions as well as significant cost savings.
"So we've got some good examples out there of where emissions can be further reduced. I think TCEQ should be looking at those and requiring them," she said.
A public comment period on the proposed SIP revisions begins Dec. 29 and lasts until Feb. 12. A public hearing date is tentatively scheduled in the Houston area on Jan. 29. To read the proposed rules, visit the Web site www.tceq.state.tx.us/rules/pendprop.html.
There's your chance to affect the TCEQ if you choose to do so. I'll post the hearing details when I know them.
Meanwhile, UH law professor Victor Flatt has a blog post about why the EPA should tell TCEQ to take its extension request and stick it. I see he too reaches for the lazy-student-who-expects-an-extension metaphor. Hey, if the shoe fits, and all that. Check it out.
UPDATE: Muse has more.
The CPPP has a nice, concise explanation (PDF) of the constitutional spending cap and why it must be lifted to pay for the property tax reductions that were passed in the special session this year. Among other things, they note that this is highly likely to be a one-time occurrance. Check it out.
Scenic highways. Hike & bike trails. Graffiti abatement. Who needs 'em?
State transportation officials have abruptly ended a program aimed at making roadways prettier, safer and historically relevant, blaming federal budget pressure caused by war and hurricanes.But the Texas Historical Commission's director said Tuesday the state Department of Transportation purposely targeted millions in proposed "transportation enhancement" initiatives because agency officials have never liked the program. An agency spokesman denied the claim.
"People can philosophically have that position, but this money was appropriated by the U.S. Congress, which had a big debate over whether to continue it," said Larry Oaks, executive director of the historical commission, which had projects among the hundreds denied funding by the Texas Transportation Commission's decision to cut back enhancement projects and focus on congestion relief.
"It's not just about driving on the roads. It's about having a great experience as you travel America," Oaks said.
A letter sent last week by Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson told the historical commission and others hoping for enhancement money that it was merely responding to three Federal Highway Administration requests this year to give up more than $305 million promised to Texas, "with the majority of the cuts coming from the Transportation Enhancement program."
"The spending authority withdrawn by the FHWA is due in part to hurricane response and the continuing war on terrorism," Williamson said.
The letter went on to tell applicants that because of "unstable and unreliable" federal transportation funding, state officials won't pursue future enhancement projects unless mandated by law.
That seems awfully petty to me. I could see a temporary suspension of this program, but forever? What's the rush?
I should note that TxDOT has a fair bit of unallocated money lying around, as was discussed earlier this year when State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer proposed using it to fund a temporary rollback of the state gas tax. There's really no reason why they couldn't withstand a temporary cutback in funds if they wanted this program to continue.
One project that's still safe for now, as it has already had its funds allocated, is the Green Ribbon Project, which State Rep. Garnet Coleman discussed in his guest post in August. Coleman released the following statement (Word doc) about TxDOT's decision, which includes a list of all affected Houston-area projects. A full accounting of the state's projects is here (PDF). Note the wide variety of things that have been made possible by this program - it's a lot more than just planting trees. I have a feeling this one isn't going to go away without a fight, so stay tuned.
Maybe this has something to do with his rumored interest in the 2008 Senate race and maybe it doesn't, but I for one am glad to see Rep. Henry Cuellar bury the hatchet and get behind Ciro Rodriguez in his runoff race versus Rep. Henry Bonilla.
Rodriguez and Cuellar had been friends but had a falling out when Cuellar opposed Rodriguez in 2004. Cuellar, who also squashed Rodriguez's attempt to win back his seat in March, now represents the 28th congressional district.Cuellar joined Texas' House Democrats, 11 total, in signing a letter to Rodriguez pledging support.
"The members of the delegation are committed to travel to your district, send you resources and work with our colleagues in the House to get you re-elected," they said in the letter.
Vince is also pleased by this development. Look, I was as big a booster of Ciro over Cuellar in March as anyone. I'd still prefer Ciro over Cuellar if that were the choice before me. But that fight was fought, and the side I picked lost. It's time to get over it and move on, because the prize here is the even bigger one of ousting Bonilla. I applaud Cuellar for doing his part, and I promise to do mine. We're on the same team now, so let's make the most of it.
Greg also notes this story, and has a video of the DCCC's ad that's now playing in the district. Check it out.
Didn't manage to get to this yesterday: We're not officially down to two finalists for the city WiFi contract, but we're close enough to tell who's leading.
San Francisco-based EarthLink Municipal Networks, run by one of the nation's largest high-speed Internet service providers, is already building in several cities. It's going head-to-head with Convergent Broadband, a local group headed by former Reliant Energy CEO Don Jordan that has ties to business leaders in Houston."If everything is equal, there's a preference for dealing with a vendor that has a strong local employment base and a commitment to the community," said Mayor Bill White. "At the same time, when dealing with national firms, you're able to evaluate their performance in other markets."
White was speaking generally since he has not announced the two finalists.
He and other city officials have been mum about the vendor-selection process, which began with five bidders, but he said the announcement of a vendor could come as early as the end of this week.
Several sources involved in the process, who asked not to be identified for fear of damaging their relationship with the city, confirmed the two finalists are EarthLink and Convergent.
They certainly sounds like reasonable enough choices. I note that Earthlink's experience with Philadelphia's WiFi network was brought up, which counts as a plus in my book. Beyond that, I've not got a favorite. I'm just ready to see this project take the next step forward.
And as long as I'm touting sites with information about the bills that the Lege will be considering, let me also give a shoutout to the Legislative Study Group. They've been around since 1995, they do a ton of research on just about every bill that comes through the Lege, and they have a real effect on the debate - among other things, their research was a factor in getting the votes of the Hochberg Fourteen in 2005.
And they could use a little help. As Vince points out, the LSG is a caucus, so there's no governmental funding for their work. They rely on donations, and they've got some fundraisers coming up to generate some:
Houston
At the home of Jim Reeder
Tuesday, December 5
5:30 PM 7:30 PM
1802 Albans
Houston, TexasDallas
At the home of
The Honorable Harryette Ehrhardt
Wednesday, December 6
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
5731 Swiss Avenue
Dallas, TexasAustin
At the home of
Dennis Karbach & Robert Brown
Thursday, December 7
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
811 Congress Ave.
Austin, TexasPlease RSVP to Joe@TexasLSG.org
If you can't make it to any of these, you can also click here to contribute directly. Phillip has more on the LSG. I have a feeling you'll be hearing their name and seeing some examples of their work in the coming months.
Via DallasBlog, I see that Rep. Debbie "Pit of Hell" Riddle wants to expand the death penalty to crimes other than murder.
So far, two bills have been filed in the Texas Legislature that would make aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14 punishable by death if the defendant had been previously convicted of a similar crime. SB 68 by Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville) and HB 8 by Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) would require the death penalty even if the victim lived. This would represent a radical departure from present assumptions on the death penalty. In 1972 the US Supreme Court struck down then existing death penalty laws as too broad and therefore unconstitutional. Most experts believe that the Court would still strike down any application of the death penalty beyond the offense of murder. Critics of the idea also point out that applying the death penalty in non lethal assaults would all but guarantee the victim's murder as the victim is often the only eye witness. Still, the Court is moving right and the Texas law could prove to be a test case.
There are many reasons why this is a bad idea, beyond the one listed above. Both Grits and Corey Yung delve into them. What concerns me is that (as Will Lutz pointed out in the DB comments), the low number attached to Riddle's bill all but guarantees that it will come up for a vote. This is definitely something to watch as the session progresses.
If you want to do some more reading on this and related matters, Grits kindly pointed out the House Research Organization's report on Texas' sex offender laws (PDF). Since that report brings up the subject of "Jessica's Laws", be sure to also check out what their adoption would mean in practical terms.
UPDATE: More here.
Remember State Rep. Jessica Farrar's complaint to the Texas Ethics Commission about pressure by lobbyists on her fellow legislators to support Tom Craddick for Speaker? Well, the TEC has addressed her complaint and found that it has merit.
In a Nov. 9 letter to the Texas Ethics Commission, Democratic state Rep. Jessica Farrar said the lobbyists had promised some House members that a candidate for speaker would give them sought-after assignments during the next session and would see to it that his loyalists have "the right support" in the next election cycle.Farrar, who later identified the candidate as Craddick, asked whether that constituted legislative bribery, which is barred by state law.
The commission adopted an advisory opinion on Monday that said the conduct she described "is intended to influence a member in casting a vote for or against a speaker of the House of Representatives."
But the opinion said it would be up to a "trier of facts" to determine whether the conduct violated laws against legislative bribery.
Farrar, a Democrat from Houston, said she planned to talk to her colleagues and figure out how they want to proceed. She said she has not been contacted by lobbyists but said the actions have been "pretty widespread."
"Hopefully the practice will just stop," she said.
Given that this is the paper tiger known as the TEC, this was probably the best we could hope for. At least it's now on record that this is a no-no, so if all else fails a little public shaming might be an option in the future. We shall see.
I was going to save this one for later, but given the mostly fawning profile that just ran in the Statesman, plus my own recent tweaking of him, I suppose now is as good a time as any to analyze the performance of Dan Patrick in SD07.
To be honest, I wasn't planning to even run the numbers in this one. The district is pretty monolithic, and it's not like Patrick's opponent (and onetime financial backer) Michael Kubosh ran any sort of campaign against him, so I didn't think there'd be anything of interest there. But I reached the end of the State Rep districts and had a little extra time on my hands, so I figured what the heck.
And I'm glad I did, because I didn't get the result I had expected. I thought Patrick, given his celebrity status, universal name recognition, and (let's be honest) high charisma level, would be the pacesetter in his district. I fully anticipated seeing him at the top of the heap.
I was wrong. By any reasonable measure, Patrick's performance was mediocre when compared to his fellow Republicans. Take a look at how he stacks up to the statewide and countywide candidates:
Candidate Votes Pct Opponent Votes
==============================================
Abbott 125,195 74.23 Van Os 43,457
Hutchison 123,420 73.60 Radnofsky 44,270
Combs 123,070 73.37 Head 44,672
Dewhurst 120,539 72.93 Alvarado 44,731
Kaufman 120,491 71.80 Pierre 47,326
State GOP 118,883 71.65 State Dem 47,049
Cong GOP 118,480 71.34 Cong Dem 47,607
Patrick 117,975 69.19 Kubosh 52,531
Keller 117,578 70.32 Molina 49,629
Bacarisse 117,377 70.71 Shike 48,630
Patterson 117,042 71.41 Hathcox 46,848
Staples 116,591 70.72 Gilbert 48,277
Ames Jones 115,698 70.48 Henry 48,456
County GOP 114,251 69.01 County Dem 51,297
Willet 110,812 67.60 Moody 53,100
Recall that every statewide race save for Keller-Molina had a Libertarian in it as well; there was no Lib in SD07. I'd guess that Patterson and possibly Staples would have surpassed Patrick otherwise. Patrick did do slightly better than average at the county level, but then so did Kubosh - he garnered more Dem votes than everyone except for Sharp, Moody, Garcia, and Green.
Note also that the combined GOP Congressional vote exceeded Patrick's total. This provides a nice comparison, since every precinct in SD07 is also in either CD02, 07, or 10. Here's how that broke down:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Poe 24,289 74.72
Binderim 8,217 25.28Patrick 22,514 69.07
Kubosh 10,084 30.93
----------
Culberson 61,433 68.22
Henley 28,614 31.78Patrick 60,749 67.05
Kubosh 29,854 32.95
----------
McCaul 32,758 75.25
Ankrum 10,776 24.75Patrick 33,443 74.61
Kubosh 11,382 25.39
Patrick got a teensy bit more votes than McCaul, but Kubosh got almost as many votes more than Ankrum, so the percentages favor McCaul, who as with the statewides and like Culberson and Poe had to contend with a Lib candidate as well.
Want more? Here's how Patrick compares to the various State Reps who faced a contested election:
StateRepGOP Votes Pct StateRepDem Votes Pct
==================================================
Harless 14,885 74.62 Khan 5,064 25.38
Patrick 14,896 73.54 Kubosh 5,360 26.46Murphy 8,234 66.70 Thibaut 4,111 33.30
Patrick 8,094 65.47 Kubosh 4,269 34.53Wong 1,965 53.76 Cohen 1,690 46.24
Patrick 2,049 57.80 Kubosh 1,496 42.20Woolley 19,806 71.75 Brann 7,799 28.28
Patrick 19,461 69.34 Kubosh 8,605 30.66Spivey 186 31.79 Hochberg 399 68.21
Patrick 193 33.33 Kubosh 386 66.67Bohac 2,336 63.79 McDavid 1,326 36.21
Patrick 2,283 61.60 Kubosh 1,423 38.40Riddle 22,384 70.23 N-Turnier 9,487 29.77
Patrick 22,177 69.54 Kubosh 9,713 30.46Total GOP 69,796 70.03 Total Dem 29,876 29.97
Patrick 69,153 68.87 Kubosh 31,152 31.13
The totals are smaller here because some of the State Rep districts in SD07 were uncontested. Patrick did do better than Sylvia Spivey and Martha Wong. I think that's the definition of not saying much.
The point I'm making here is that despite everything that he had going for him, Dan Patrick performed only slightly better than the average anonymous downballot Republican judicial candidate. He got only a few more votes than the second tier Republican statewides, who had to contend with greater dropoff and third-party candidates. He failed to match any of the three Congressmen (in a year where Congressional approval levels threatened to dip below those of the Ebola virus) and most of the State Reps. In short, the only remarkable thing about his performance was that there was nothing remarkable about it.
And remember, he was running against a fringe candidate who did no visible campaigning and reported zero dollars raised during the race. Really, if anything stands out in all these numbers, it's how much better than the other Dems Michael Kubosh did. Some of this can be explained by the lack of a Libertarian to serve as the not-Republican alternative, but not all of it. At the statewide level, there were generally about 5000 votes cast for the Lib in the SD07 precincts. You'd have to transfer all of those votes and then some (about 1000 more for the lower tier races, 3000-4000 for the top four) to Kubosh to balance things out. Maybe Kubosh did pick up all those votes, I can't say for sure. As there was no reason to vote for Michael Kubosh, the one explanation that makes sense to me is that there was a small but dedicated group of people who just wanted to vote against Dan Patrick. Didn't matter who the alternative was as long as it wasn't Danno. Kubosh was the beneficiary of that. Who knows, maybe if Kubosh had been a real candidate who ran a viable campaign, he might have done even better. I don't expect to find that out in a district like SD07, but maybe we will someplace that isn't so brightly red, say statewide. (Not that such a thought has ever occurred to Danno. Oh, no, not him.)
Anyway. You just never know what the numbers will say. That's what makes this so much fun. Tune in tomorrow for another installment in this series.
From yesterday's Chron: Houston still can't get its air clean enough to satisfy federal requirements.
The greater Houston area will remain too smoggy to comply with federal clean air standards by a 2010 deadline, Texas officials say.This almost certainly will prompt the state to seek an extension of its allotted time for clearing the skies, perhaps even a lengthy one. State environmental officials say they expect the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria region to meet healthy air standards no later than 2018.
"We feel comfortable that it will happen by then," said David Schanbacher, chief engineer of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the agency responsible for developing a plan to ensure the state meets clean air goals.
I'm glad you feel comfortable about that, dude. I just have one question: How long can you hold your breath? Eight years is a bit beyond my capacity. With all due respect, Schanbacher sounds to me like a school kid who's not worried about completing his homework because he's "sure" the teacher will grant him an extension.)
(Actually, I have another question as well: What happens if the EPA says "no can do", and hits us with sanctions like cutting off highway funds? Are we not at least a little bit worried about this possibility?
As you might imagine, the folks (like Sabrina Strawn of GHASP) are not particularly pleased by this development.
"We believe the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria area could meet the standards if there were the political will to do so," Strawn said. "So far, that hasn't been there."To clean its air, Houston must control emissions of two "precursor" chemicals, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic chemicals, that react near the surface of the Earth with sunlight to form ozone. This chemical, helpful in the upper atmosphere for shielding the planet from ultraviolet rays, is harmful lower down, where it can irritate the respiratory system and aggravate asthma.
Strawn said a lack of political will is evident in a document released last week by the TCEQ, which has proposed several revisions its plan to clean Houston's air.
Among the new strategies: limiting chemical emissions from marine and storage tank sources and requiring certain marine fuels to meet Texas Low Emission Diesel standards.
The new strategies, Strawn said, fail to address the biggest contributor of nitric oxides to the atmosphere - cars and trucks. In the Houston area, 55 percent of these chemicals come from such mobile sources.
I've said before that Sabrina is my neighbor, and I chatted with her about this last night. Among other things, she told me that her quote wasn't quite right. Here's her correction:
Yesterday’s article on Houston’s ozone problem needs clarification. Cars and trucks (on-road sources) contribute not 55% of the NOx as stated, but only about 35%. All mobile sources (on and off road such as construction equipment) do contribute just over half of all NOx emissions here. But if, as TCEQ claims, cars and trucks are the major part of the problem, how can Dallas, with a much greater contribution from mobile sources than in Houston, meet the deadline while we cannot? Well, Houston has way more industrial emissions.Meeting clean air goals will require additional industrial controls, which TCEQ avoids; and considering mobile sources, something TCEQ wrongly claims only the federal government can do.
Houston voters recently turned out incumbents holding positions labeled “toxic” (e.g., Wong lost to Cohen). Again it’s time for Houston residents to rise up and say no, Houston deserves clean air, just like our prissy lil’ sis Dallas. We need clean air for ourselves, for our economic well-being, and for continuing the tradition of Houstonians coming together working to solve problems facing all.
In the meanwhile, TCEQ also is ostensibly accountable to the federal EPA. GHASP has sued EPA for accepting TCEQ’s most recent (we say inadequate) clean air plan for Houston. TCEQ’s thumbing its nose at EPA, we think, is the direct result of EPA’s failure to hold TCEQ accountable earlier this year. It’s time to express our will to our elected officials, public servants, and industrial leaders - follow the law and clean our air.
The article goes on to discuss the possibility of legislation to mandate stricter vehicle emission standards, which is certainly a step in the right direction, but as noted above, it isn't enough. Sabrina Strawn's question is exactly right: Why Dallas and not Houston? If they can do it, why can't we? More to the point, don't we deserve the same as they?
Houtopia has more.
I like this deconstruction of "A Christmas Story". I think it gets at the melancholy that underpins the movie without overdoing it.
Think of all the despair that grinds through the movie. The horrible department-store Santa Claus. The Old Man, played with such weariness by Darren McGavin. The furnace. The fire hazard of an overloaded electrical outlet.The lapse in taste that is the leg lamp, the twinge of regret you feel for the Old Man when it is broken - until he begins to argue about it with his wife.
Ralphie's fantasy of academic success, dashed by a real grade. Flick's gauzed-up tongue after the flagpole incident. The pent-up rage in Ralphie when he finally turns on Scut Farkus; as intimidating as Scut has been, Ralphie unleashed is pretty frightening, too.
Getting your dream present, at last - only to, after all those warnings, nearly shoot your eye out.
And finally, as Ed Grant noted in Time magazine, the ache in [Jean] Shepherd's narrated acknowledgment when he refers to the rifle as "the greatest Christmas gift I ever received - or would ever receive."
Don't forget Christmas dinner in the (otherwise empty) Chinese restaurant after the neighbor's dogs eat the turkey.
Many Christmas movies wrongly believe that an ideal ending is the best way to give the message of Christmas. In fact, it's better to find the smidgen of happiness Ralphie feels at the end because life isn't really all that much better.It's a Wonderful Life, the best Christmas movie ever made, understands that notion. At the end, George Bailey has still lost his money, his business is in trouble, his house is shabby and the evil Potter still owns the town.
Although George's friends' support will keep him out of jail, what will become of him in the following year? George's "wonderful life" is one in which he has helped others, not one that is materially great for himself.
The denizens of A Christmas Story are in a similar place. Ralphie's family will never have grandeur. The Old Man's dreams will go unrealized. So when he watches the snow fall on Christmas night, with his wife beside him and her arm on his back, that's a moment to cherish. You may not get anything better.
I suppose that's one way to look at it, though I'd say that what the Old Man is getting is pretty darned good, which is why we feel happy about how things turn out. Same thing with George Bailey, who finally gets that at the end of his movie. That's a pretty consistent theme with Christmas movies, after all, that things like home and family outweigh just about everything else. These movies are better than most at making us believe that without feeling manipulated. That's why they're worth watching, and watching again.
It's that time of year again, when the Hall of Fame ballot is released. This time, it comes with a side order of heartburn.
Mark McGwire, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. headline the first-time candidates on the 2007 baseball writers' Hall of Fame ballot released Monday, sure to spark debate on Big Mac's place in history as the steroid era comes under renewed scrutiny.Jose Canseco, whose book last year led to a congressional hearing on steroid use in baseball, also is on the ballot for the first time. Canseco said he used steroids along with McGwire when they were teammates.
McGwire denied using illegal performance-enhancing substances, but when he appeared before a congressional committee, he evaded questions. "I'm not here to talk about the past," was his repeated response.
McGwire finished his career with 583 home runs, seventh in baseball history while Canseco, a former MVP, is 30th at 462. Dave Kingman, 34th with 442, has the most home runs for a player who has been on the Hall of Fame ballot and was not elected.
Canseco is easy enough to dismiss. At his peak (say, 1988) he was Hall-worthy, but he spent way too much time not playing. I mean, only five seasons with 150+ games played? Please. The homers only count for so much.
As for McGwire, well, lots of voters don't like him very much.
The Associated Press surveyed about 20 percent of eligible voters, and only one in four who gave an opinion plan to vote for McGwire this year. That's far short of the 75 percent necessary to gain induction."There is a clause on the ballot indicating that character should be considered and after his nonperformance at the congressional hearings his character certainly comes into play," said the Dayton Daily News' Hal McCoy.
"He doesn't want to talk about the past?" he said, "Then I don't want to consider his past."
I'm a lot less exercised about steroids than most people - I'm not convinced they have a measurable positive effect, and I think too much attention is focused on 'roids and not enough on stimulants. But to each his own. I think McGwire hit more home runs per plate appearance than any other player ever. He belongs in the Hall, and I think that over time he'll eventually get the support he needs to make it. I've no quarrel with anyone who wants to sit him out for a year or two to make a point, but sooner or later I think his record on the field needs a fair evaluation. Circumstances may yet cause me to change my mind, but if I had a ballot, he'd be on it.
I suppose what really bugs me is the kind of ignorance that folks such as Frank Robinson, who ought to know better, will express and the effect it will have on McGwire's candidacy.
"Let's take Barry Bonds," Robinson said. "You don't get better as you get older."Bonds won his last four - consecutive - of seven Most Valuable Player awards after he turned 37. In order, in those four seasons, Bonds hit 73, 46, 45 and 45 home runs. When Robinson was the same age, he hit 19, 30, 22 and nine homers , respectively, the usual decline as a slugger passes 35 years old.
As suggested by David Pinto, here are Hank Aaron's seasonal homerun totals from ages 35 to 39:
Age 35 - 44
Age 36 - 38
Age 37 - 47
Age 38 - 34
Age 39 - 40
The 47 dingers in 1971 was a career high, as was the .669 slugging percentage that accompanied it. He had a career-second best .643 SLG at age 39. Is there anything untoward about this?
Similarly, here's Babe Ruth from ages 35 to 39:
Age 35 - 49
Age 36 - 46
Age 37 - 40
Age 38 - 34
Age 39 - 22
Ruth actually did decline all five years - his slugging percentage started at .732 and went down each year, ending up at .537 in 1934. He started at such a ridiculously high peak, of course, that he had nowhere else to go but down, and unlike Aaron (and Barry Bonds, for that matter), he wasn't the classically sleek athletic type that ages more gracefully.
We're on a side track here, but as Barry Bonds will inevitably be dragged into these conversations, it's important to remember that merely having a late peak is not of itself evidence of anything other than being in good shape. McGwire, as it happens, was out of baseball by the time he was 38 after a miserable last season. If 'roids gave him a peak, they sure didn't ease his descent.
Anyway. My ballot, if I had one, would include McGwire, Ripken, Gwynn, and the players from last year who were passed over - Bert Blyleven, Rich Gossage, and Tommy John. I guess I still haven't made my mind up about Alan Trammell. Who's on your list?
This has the makings of an interesting conundrum for some legislators.
Paying for promised cuts in local school property tax rates over the next two years would put lawmakers at least $4 billion over a constitutional cap on state spending, and that's before they fund growth in any other programs.So, leaders are thinking about tying a legislative vote to exceed the cap directly to the tax-relief measure. That could make a cap-busting vote more palatable to the GOP-majority Legislature.
"You offer a bill that reduces property taxes and you tell everybody that the amount of money involved exceeds the spending cap, and let's vote," said Sen. Steve Ogden, a Bryan Republican who heads the Senate Finance Committee. "We're exceeding the spending cap so we can cut your property taxes. I think everybody'll vote for that."
Maybe they will, I don't know. I feel confident in predicting that it won't be unanimous. Someone's not gonna like this.
I have one particular someone in mind, but as yet I've not seen any public statement from him. Before I get to that, read this:
A 1978 constitutional amendment limits growth in certain state spending to the rate of Texas' economic growth, now measured by growth in personal income.The cap applies only to state tax revenues not constitutionally dedicated to other purposes. It doesn't apply to dedicated state tax funds, fees or federal funds. A legislative majority can vote to exceed the cap.
Even under the most generous estimate of personal income growth examined by the board, 17 percent, the cap would limit such spending to $65 billion for a two-year budget period, up $9.5 billion from $55.5 billion.
But the board staff said promised property tax relief for the next two years will cost $13.5 billion.
Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Craddick said they've heard no sentiment for cutting discretionary spending to fit tax relief under the cap.
Dewhurst said, "I, for one, am going to ask any of our senators that are talking about arbitrarily cutting $13.5 billion out of a $55 billion budget 'Great, show me where.' "
Note that 17 percent figure. Now consider what a certain freshman Senator from Houston has to say on the subject:
3. Reduce government spending nowWe elected Republican majorities in the Texas House and Senate and expected them to be fiscally conservative. Our legislature has let us down. The most recent state budget includes a 20% increase in spending. We should focus on needs-based-budgeting, rather than revenue-based-budgeting.
I'm not sure how Senator Patrick calculated that 20% figure, but given the 17% figure cited previously, I suspect he's factoring in federal "pass through" monies. If so, he needs to learn a bit more about how the budget actually works.
But never mind that for now. What's more important to Sen. Patrick - funding the full 1/3 property tax cut that I daresay his listeners strongly favor, or holding some imaginary line on government spending? Call me crazy, but I suspect that Dewhurst's "show me where I can cut $13.5 billion" remark was aimed at him. So what's it going to be? I look forward to hearing his answer.
The Texas Ethics Commission does what it does best, which is to say, "nothing".
A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as "currency," without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday.The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who unabashedly accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.
"What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, said the "currency" interpretation would render it "perfectly legal to report the gift of 'a wheelbarrow' without reporting that the wheelbarrow was filled with cash."
The previous action taken was in September. As noted there and BOR, it's now up to the Lege to fix this little loophole. At least there appears to be the will to do that, with even Governor Perry signalling his support.
Why People Hate Lawyers, in a nutshell:
"The question here is whether the description of a gift of cash of over $250 is required to include the value of the gift," the Ethics Commission opinion said in part. "The term 'description' is not defined in Chapter 572 of the Government Code, nor is it defined anywhere else in the Government Code.""In our opinion, the requirement to describe a gift of cash or cash equivalent may be satisfied by including in the description the following: 'currency,' or a description of the gift, such as 'check' or 'money order,' as appropriate," the ruling stated.
Who knew the word "description" could be so confusing? Maybe we should all chip in to buy a dictionary for all of the TEC members as a Christmas gift.
Since my examination of the Richmond Rail effect generated a lot of good feedback, I'm going to start my tour of the Harris County precinct data with a look at CD07 and the race between John Culberson and Jim Henley. First, a couple of preliminary comments.
As I said yesterday, I'm going to try to provide a range of data for each district that I examine, so that a given candidate's performance can be evaluated in the context of how everyone else did among the same group of voters. There are nine statewide races (not counting the Governor's race, which is generally not comparable for obvious reasons) and 18 countywide contests, and at the macro level the spread is roughly nine points for the statewides and seven points for the countywides, so there's a lot of information to be gleaned. In all cases, I'm doing a straight up R-versus-D comparison, so don't be alarmed if some of the percentages look odd. I'll give both vote totals and vote percentages, so it should be apparent when undervotes are a factor as well.
With all that out of the way, let's dive into the data. First, here's how Henley stacked up against his fellow Democrats in the district:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Sharp 66,157 41.52
R. Garcia 65,001 40.09
Henley 64,412 39.36
Moody 64,384 40.85
Green 63,788 40.34
County Avg 60,934 38.50
State Avg 57,580 35.99
Pierre 56,086 34.69
Van Os 54,004 33.16
Henley had the third highest vote total, trailing only Jim Sharp (whose name you're going to see a lot in these discussions) and Richard Garcia. He was ninth best in percentage, as four other countywide candidates (Silverman, Connelly, Voigt, and Burks) scored higher than his 39.36%, but as none of them topped 63,000 votes, this was as much a function of Republican dropoffs as anything else. He exceeded the average statewide performance by 3.37 points, and the average countywides by 0.86. He did significantly better than the lowest performers at the state and county levels.
Now let's look at Culberson:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Abbott 108,877 66.84
Kaufman 105,613 65.31
Bacarisse 101,854 63.88
State Avg 102,408 64.01
Culberson 99,236 60.64
County Avg 97,347 61.50
Willet 93,213 59.15
Alcala 93,164 58.48
Of the nine statewide Republicans, Culberson received fewer votes than all but Don Willet. He topped all of the countywides except for Beverly Kaufman and Charles Bacarisse, placing him eleventh overall. He was ninth from the bottom in percentage, again being affected by the higher rate of undervotes downballot. It seems clear to me that Henley was able to get some traction against him, and thus close the 31-point gap that Culberson enjoyed in 2004 to nineteen points this year (here I'm comparing the actual results, not the two-party totals).
Of course, nineteen points is still a pretty comfortable margin by any reasonable standard, so the question is how much potential is there to narrow this difference further. To attempt to answer that, we have to look at CD07 in two pieces, which I think shows both the strength and the limitations of Henley's campaign. Let's compare Henley's performance inside HD134, which is most of the inner Loop portion of CD07 and where Henley's campaign was easily the most visible, and outside HD134. First, inside HD134:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Cohen 24,763 55.67
Henley 22,795 52.06
R. Garcia 21,725 50.68
Sharp 21,653 51.51
Moody 21,455 51.62
Green 21,066 50.69
Burks 20,702 50.18
County Avg 20,084 48.33
State Avg 19,930 45.81
Van Os 18,450 42.64
Pierre 18,394 43.13
Henley was clearly very strong here, running behind only Ellen Cohen, who was practically superhuman. Anyone who spent any time in HD134 could see with their own eyes the huge number of Henley signs in people's yards. Here's how it looks from the Republican perspective:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Abbott 24,818 57.36
Kaufman 24,250 56.87
State Avg 22,935 54.19
County Avg 21,473 51.67
Culberson 20,993 47.94
Schneider 20,967 50.72
Wolfe 20,552 49.82
Galik 20,490 49.31
Alcala 20,382 48.49
Willet 20,109 48.38
Wong 19,718 44.33
Culberson received the seventh-lowest vote total, and was one of only seven Republicans (the six listed plus Orlando Sanchez) to not get a majority in HD134. It's clear who this part of the district preferred.
Problem is, of course, that HD134 represents only about a quarter of CD07, and if Henley overperformed there he must not have done quite as well elsewhere. Here are the numbers:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Sharp 44,504 37.94
Moody 42,929 37.00
Henley 41,617 34.72
County Avg 40,850 35.00
State Avg 38,190 32.46
Pierre 37,692 31.66
Van Os 35,554 29.72
Here, Henley is much more middle of the pack, at least compared to the countywide candidates, where a total of seven of them surpassed his vote total. I believe this is consistent with the level of visibility his campaign had outside the Loop. For the GOP:
Candidate Votes Pct
==========================
Abbott 84,059 70.28
Kaufman 81,363 68.34
State Avg 79,473 67.54
Culberson 78,243 65.28
County Avg 75,874 65.00
Willet 73,104 63.00
Alcala 72,782 62.06
Now Culberson is above average overall, beating all the countywides except Kaufman and Bacarisse (78,800 votes) and four of the statewides (he finished just behind Sharon Keller's 78,280 votes, but there was no Libertarian candidate in that race, which gave her a boost). This is his turf, and without a serious erosion in his support outside HD134, his re-election prospects will continue to be bright.
The best case scenario for the Dems does offer some hope. Combining the best performances in each section of CD07 (Cohen plus Sharp) and pitting it against the corresponding Republicans (Wong and Alcala) gives a 23,233 voe deficit (69,267 to 92,500), or a 57.2-42.8 spread, which is certainly within reason. Even under these assumptions, however, there were more Republican votes in the non-HD134 portion of the district than there were Democratic votes overall. The bottom line is that any Democrat who wants to knock off John Culberson will need to be able to run close to even in the western portion of CD07. I have no idea who such a person might be, nor is there enough evidence to suggest what the Democratic ceiling is out there. All I know for sure is that this is the obstacle.
That's a lot to digest. I'll have more reports (hopefully more concise ones as well) in the coming days.
UPDATE: In rereading this, I don't think I've fully conveyed my appreciation of Jim Henley for accomplishing what he did with relatively little money but a lot of volunteer energy. Henley clearly gained ground for the Dems in this district. He proved that there is a payoff to running an active campaign against Culberson. It's up to whoever runs in 2008 to build on what he did.
It's still technically unofficial until a formal announcement by Conference USA at noon today, but as Moisekapenda Bower reports in the Chron, the Rice Owls will be headed to New Orleans for their bowl game. If you plan to attend and you want to be counted towards the "official" tally of Rice fans travelling to the game, use this link to buy your tickets:
Rice Online Ticket Office - 2006 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
The game is December 22 in New Orleans. I feel confident that a lot of Owl fans will make the trek for what will be the first opportunity ever for many of them to attend a bowl game that features the Owls.
The Owls get a little love from the national media here and here. One correction that needs to be made, however:
With Saturday's 31-27 win over SMU, the Owls finished with a 7-5 record after winning their last six games and are eligible to play in a postseason bowl game for the first time since 1961.
Actually, the Owls have been bowl eligible four times in recent years - 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2001. They also went 6-5 in 1992 and 1993, but had a win over Division I-AA Sam Houston State in those seasons, and you needed six I-A wins to be bowl eligible back then. (Under today's rules, they'd have been eligible.) The 7-4 Rice teams of '96 and '97 very much deserved bowl bids, as did the 8-4 2001 squad, but the WAC did not have enough tie-ins to land them in one, so they were bypassed. The accurate statement is that this is the first Rice team to receive a bowl berth since 1961.
But let's not get bogged down in semantics. Rice is going to a bowl game. That's really all you need to know.
The Robinson Warehouse demolition is proceeding apace. I've decided to try and document its progress, since I drive past it so often. Beware of doing that on a weekend, however - all but one of the southbound lanes of Montrose were closed off this Saturday as they were working on the front of the building, and I'd expect there to be more of that in the coming weeks.
Anyway, the old place is slowly being turned to dust and rebar. At this pace, I figure it'll be gone by the end of the year, give or take a week or so. More pics beneath the fold.
The front view. I wonder if they'll need to use explosives to bring it all down.
Lots more activity in the parking lot/loading dock area. I saw some blowtorch sparks happening, but didn't manage to get a shot of it.
Weather permitting, I'm going to try to get a picture every day till it's gone. We'll see how it goes.
The Wall Street Journal has an article on the CD23 runoff that's worth a read. It's for subscribers only, but Phillip has a copy. One bit of interest:
[I]ndependent handicappers say Mr. Bonilla has the edge. "[Ciro] Rodriguez isn't known for his campaign proficiency," says Nathan Gonzales of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. "He'll need to step it up significantly to pull it out."Democrats say another factor that could aid Mr. Bonilla is the fact that the runoff coincides with Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe, a holy day on the Mexican Catholic calendar. "You have to question the Republicans' decision to not only schedule the election with just a few days notice, but also to schedule it on a day of worship celebrated by thousands of Mexican-Americans throughout the district," Mr. Rodriguez says.
In the primary, Mr. Rodriguez was one of seven Democrats running and managed to raise just $125,000. Now, the 21-member Hispanic Caucus, all of them Democrats, is pressing incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make winning the district a priority, says California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. "If Democrats want that seat, the national money base can turn on a dime," she says.
If so, it had better start turning. Early voting begins a week from today, and we're rapidly approaching the point where diminishing returns applies. The DCCC is in town, so at least organizationally the pieces are coming together. If you want to get on the air to neutralize Bonilla's cash advantage, however, the time is now. And if you want to get involved in a more direct fashion, consider Online Phone Banking. Thanks to Mario for the heads up on that.
Finally, one of the nice things about running against Henry Bonilla at this time is being able to hold some of his recent votes against him. Click on for more.
* Despite the urging and recommendation of President Bush, Bonilla voted against an amendment that would have added $2.1 billion in emergency spending for border security to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill.* Bonilla voted against providing up-to-date, round-the-clock surveillance and additional technology to the border. The motion was an attempt to create a more comprehensive and realistic border security program that included 3,000 additional Border Patrol agents every year through 2010, as well additional infrastructure improvements.
* While exact Intelligence budget amounts are classified, in 2004 Bonilla voted against full funding for counterterrorism programs.
You might have missed the announcements of the MVP awards, as decided by the Baseball Reporters Association of America (BBRAA). No great loss if you did, as they made two poor selections, one defensible and one not. Joe Sheehan has a long and lovely rant about this behind the Baseball Prospectus paywall, and he homes in on the nature of the problem plus a way around it.
Don’t consider the outcome. Consider the process. The process for determining the nominally "official" MVP vote is that it's restricted to a subset of a subset of the people who cover the game for a living. There was a time when the BBRAA was representative of pretty much all of the people who covered baseball. That hasn't been true for a long time, and it gets less true each and every year. There's a strong argument that the BBRAA represents the dying wing of baseball coverage.[...]
One of two things can improve this process. The first would be if the voting pool was expanded to include broadcasters and writers not currently welcome in the BBRAA. I'm not pushing for a vote here; the line of broadcasters who are essentially just as qualified as the writers for this task is extremely long, and the fact that one group gets the job and the other doesn't is simply an artifact of history. It is likely that the broader the group involved in the process, the greater likelihood that the group will reach the correct conclusions. (The Internet Baseball Awards are an excellent example of this.) I also think this has as much chance of happening as I do of showing up on "Dancing With the Stars."
The more likely path is that the BBRAA awards are replaced, in the minds of the people within the game and the fans that follow them, with something else. For my money, the IBAs would be a perfect replacement. If you compare the IBA results with BBRAA results for the history of the former, the IBAs hold up much better. The difference between the two is largely that the BBRAA awards have precedent on their side and the advantage of publicity. With each error-filled vote, though, the credibility of these awards erodes just a little, and eventually, it’ll be whittled down to nothing.
If not the IBAs, then why not some other entity? MLB could empanel a hundred or so people, a cross-section of insiders, reporters, personnel and analysts to vote for the awards, rotating the group each year. The Harris Poll didn't exist 18 months ago; now, it will help determine what team plays for the national championship in college football. Some non-MLB entity could decide to do the same thing, and each year, as each group’s awards were distributed, the public could choose which they thought had more validity. Over time, the better awards would come to be seen as official, and the others would become a footnote.
Right now, the process for selecting these awards is poor, and the outcomes it produces are poor. Why not see if there’s something better out there?
I agree completely. I'm not sure how one goes about campaigning to replace the BBRAA awards with, say, the Internet Baseball Awards, but whatever it is, I'll do my itty-bitty part to make it happen. Who's with me?
Now that they've got the court order regarding property taxes off their backs (temporarily, anyway), the Lege can actually visit the idea of school finance (read: figure out how they're gonna pay for those property tax cuts) and maybe even take up some school reform ideas. On the list of topics to discuss: the TAKS test.
"You never stop discussing education. It's got to be every session, and it's got to be major - every session," Senate Education Chair Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said.Public education directly affects more than 4.5 million Texas students, their parents and about 600,000 teachers and staff.
Shapiro is among those who believe the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test "has worn out its welcome," particularly for high school and middle school grades. She will push for "end-of-course" exams for the upper grades.
She also wants to review the state's assessment process and minimum standards for student performance. Currently, schools earn "acceptable" status with a 25 percent passing rating.
"Nobody believes that 25 percent passing is acceptable," Shapiro said. "We've got to change that and make (school grades) meaningful and not something to snicker at because that's what we're doing right now."
The article doesn't have a quote from one of Governor Perry's spokesbots, but given that ending TAKS as we know it was a major plank in Chris Bell's platform, don't expect him to sit by quietly as this is going on. The danger is that the state will eliminate the weasel words without providing the means for school districts to meet the new and improved levels they set. Expect that vouchers will somehow work their way into the conversation, even after the electoral spanking that voucher king James Leininger suffered. As with appraisal caps and other bad ideas, as long as there's an obsessive and well-financed constituency, stuff like that never goes away.
Elsewhere, Greg has a nice catch regarding the nature of standardized tests and why they're often futile. Check it out.
Meanwhile, as you wait for me to give you more data about Harris County in 2006, here's a couple of things to read about how things went elsewhere:
Via Vince comes this Statesman article about the closer-than-most-people-expected race in HD52 in Williamson County. I guarantee you this will be on everyone's radar next time.
And Dallasite Eric Folkerth gives his thoughts on the Dallas Democratic sweep. He's got a series of posts on the elections up there, with this one being the most numbers-oriented. Here's the point to zero in on:
No Democrat running for state legislature took LESS than 40 percent of the vote in Dallas' northern suburbs and in North Dallas itself.
We've been talking about when Harris County will be like Dallas County and have a big Democratic year. Maybe we ought to also ask when Dallas County will be like Travis County and have a near or total Democratic domination of the State Rep delegation.
I've been slowly making my way through the Harris County precinct data, with a goal of analyzing all of the interesting races that took place here this year. I've got a couple of reports prepped and ready to go, but before I start with those, I want to cover a general point: When the Secretary of State gives the respective Republican and Democratic averages for each Congressional and State Rep/State Senate district, take them with a certain grain of salt. The simple fact of the matter is that the statewide candidates' average will understate the actual Democratic performance in many, if not all, districts.
How do I know this? By comparing the statewide candidates to countywide candidates in various places. Take Harris County, for example. By my calculation, the average Democratic statewide candidate (not counting Chris Bell; the Governor's race is a separate post) got 45.12% of the two-party vote. Of 19 contested races, only one Democratic countywide candidate failed to exceed that mark. The average Democratic countywide candidate got 47.77% of the vote. Only Bill Moody, who came close to carrying Harris County, topped that. (Bell did as well for the straight up comparison against Perry.)
You see similar things in Fort Bend (average Dem statewide candidate, 42.73%; average Dem countywide candidate, 45.65%), Galveston (only Bill Moody carried the county, with 48.19% total, but Dems won 9 of 11 contested county races), and Dallas (average Dem statewide candidate 50.02%, with four of ten Republicans carrying the county, while countywide Dems won each of 42 contested races they were in). Even in a Democratic stronghold like Travis County, the pattern holds: The low score among the countywide candidates was Mina Brees with 59.12%; only Moody and JR Molina topped that among the statewides.
After the 2004 election, I argued that using the Bush/Kerry numbers to evaluate districts' partisan indices was misleading, since Bush was easily the top votegetter in most counties, often outpacing the rest of the Republican ticket by three to five points. I used an average of the other three statewide races as my main factor. This year, I'm going to consider the full statewide averages as a data point, but I think a range of data is going to be needed rather than a single point. I'll strive to use countywide candidates where I can, and I'll likely use the Moody and Molina numbers otherwise as the closest approximation of the default Democratic vote. It's my expectation as I go through the numbers that I'll see a lot of examples of candidates for Congress and State Rep beating the statewides. We'll see how that prediction turns out. Stay tuned for more.
A catch-up item from last week: this NYT article on the show Mythbusters as science-teaching tool. To me, the value of the show is that it shows the thought process that one must go through to set up and then evaluate an experiment that's designed to test a hypothesis. It's all about "How do we know we're testing what we want to test?" and "What do the results we got (or didn't get) tell us about what we wanted to test?", two questions which I think everyone could spend more time thinking about. I like the fact that they address questions from viewers about the validity of previous experiments and try them again with those concerns in mind to see if they really did get it right the first time.
Real scientists will have legitimate quibbles about their methods, as they express in Chad Orzel's comments. It's still television, after all, so the need for an earth-shattering kaboom will win out over more mundane things every time. The clincher for me is that Olivia likes the show, which gives Tiffany and me the chance to say things like "Science is cool!" to her on a regular basis. And hey, I like a good earth-shattering kaboom as much as the next guy. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Local attorney Randall Kallinen, who was a candidate for judge in Harris County this year, has an op-ed in the Sunday Chron about the makeup of the Harris County jail population.
The Harris County jail has reached 102.31 percent of capacity, 9,660 inmates, as of Oct. 1. That is about 1,000 more inmates than mandated by the state (90 percent capacity is the rule).The county wants to spend $267 million for construction of new jails that will take many millions of dollars more to operate each year. While Harris County and the city of Houston struggle to hire qualified peace officers, these proposed jails threaten to divert hundreds of new peace officers to the job of warehousing inmates. Flawed criminal justice policy, not crime, is the cause of our jail overcrowding.
Only 1,297 jail inmates (around 14 percent of the total jail population) are convicted misdemeanor offenders serving their sentence. There are more than three times that many not yet convicted, just waiting for trial - more than 4,000 pretrial detainees.
[...]
The Harris County jail is also holding 1,319 state jail felons as compared to an additional 577 for the entire rest of the state. Why won't the state take them? Maybe it is because Harris County is the state's per capita leader in jailing trace drug cases, such as empty cocaine vials.
[...]
Harris County has a growing population categorized as "others" that fits into no listed category of jail inmates as reported by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Last August, the county held 799 "others" and in September this grew to 940 - the largest per capita amount anywhere in the state. Many of these "others" are people sentenced to drug treatment who are languishing in jail, often for many months, waiting to start their treatment.
All of this is of course familiar to those of you who read Grits for Breakfast. Basically, we can continue to spend millions of dollars to imprison up to seven times as many people as we need to, or we can try to figure out a smarter way of spending our tax dollars. Even people like Judge Mike McSpadden think the "lock 'em up first and ask questions later" approach is broken. When will the folks who spend all this money catch up?
By the way, speaking of Grits, he notes that despite Texas' high incarceration rate, we still have more crime per capita than the national average? One state that does better than average is New York, even though they lock up far fewer people. Coincidence? I don't think so.
I love stories like this.
Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it's like to want something.For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid.") For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie's house - the one in "A Christmas Story," the quirky film that's found a niche alongside holiday classics like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street."
Jones has restored the three-story, wood-frame house to its appearance in the movie and will open it for tours beginning Saturday. His hope is that it will become a tourist stop alongside the city's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other destinations.
He's unsure whether he'll make enough money to cover his $500,000 investment, but as sure as a kid's tongue will stick to a frozen flag pole, he's committed to the project.
"I just want people to come and enjoy it as I have," said Jones, a 30-year-old former Navy lieutenant.
Now that is what I call preservation (as it happens, the house is 111 years old). Best of luck to you, Brian Jones.
The Rice Owls are going to a bowl game. For the first time since 1961.
Holy $#|+!
I'm still getting used to the idea. After all I've seen since 1988, it's a little unreal. But at least it's unreal in a good way.
I don't yet know what game, when it will be, where it will be, or who the opponent will be. Doesn't matter - it's a bowl game. Schedule permitting, I'll be there. Hot dog!
The Houston Press has given its uncoveted Turkey of the Year Award for 2006 to Shelley Sekula Gibbs. I realize there's been plenty already written about her farcical "term" in office so far, but for my money, this is the reason why she truly deserves the dishonor:
Congress may end up being in session only two weeks before DeLay's term ends, but Sekula-Gibbs is a woman with a plan.She's told reporters she is dedicated to playing "a meaningful role" in working against higher taxes and for better health care.
But what about the second week, after she solves those problems? Again, Shelley has Big Thoughts. Like this, when a KHOU reporter asked her about the Iraq war: "If you put it in perspective, we've lost 2,800 brave men and women in Iraq but we lose over 9,000 Americans at the hands of illegal immigrants every year, according to the General Accounting Office."
A spokesman for the GAO couldn't confirm the existence of such a report, but maybe Sekula-Gibbs can find it when she's up there in D.C. (See Hair Balls, page 12).
Here's the Hair Balls entry to which they refer:
Seeing as how only 16,000 Americans are murdered each year, that seemed like those dadgum illegals were being very, very busy. So we called the GAO.They were baffled. "I'm trying to think how she got there," says Rich Stana, the GAO's director for homeland security and justice issues.
The closest report that might fit, he says, was a snapshot count of all people incarcerated in March 2005. That report showed almost 6,000 illegal immigrants behind bars in federal, state or local facilities for murder, homicide or manslaughter.
But that includes people charged but not yet convicted, not to mention people serving time for murders committed five, ten, even 20 years ago. "Murder charges usually bring a more than one-year sentence," Stana says.
So where did Sekula-Gibbs get her 9,000-deaths-a-year figure? Not from the GAO, as it turns out. Her spokeswoman, Lisa Dimond, says "She got the information from Curtis Collier at Border Watch."
Border Watch's website features much talk about border security; it features a picture of a jet slamming into the World Trade Center; it features a quote from Teddy Roosevelt saying "There can be no 50-50 Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 percent Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else."
What it doesn't feature is a report from the GAO saying 9,000 people a year are killed by illegal immigrants.
Rick Casey tried to track down this lie in September, when Rep. Ted Poe made the same false claim. His spokesperson claimed it was an FBI statistic. Either way, it's a shameful lie.
So congratulations, Shelley. You deserve this award, almost as much as you deserve all the bad publicity you've gotten since you got sworn in as Congresswoman For A Day. Enjoy your return to the private sector and an equally well-deserved obscurity. It can't come soon enough.
Former State Sen. Frank Madla and his mother-in-law died this morning in a house fire.
A man who was killed in a fire that struck a South Side home early Friday morning was confirmed to be former state Sen. Frank Madla, according to Harold Oliver, who was a senior aide in Madla's Senate staff from 1994-2004.Madla's mother-in-law Mary Cruz died later at Brooke Army Medical Center, officials at BAMC said.
Two other occupants of the house, Madla's wife, Helen, and the Madlas' granddaughter, Aleena, were in stable condition Friday morning at University Hospital's intensive care unit, hospital officials said.
What a terrible tragedy. My prayers and condolences go out to the Madla family. Rest in peace, Sen. Frank Madla.
In writing about why Dennis Franchione is the right coach for Texas A&M, Richard Justice says the following:
The Aggies aren't going to get anyone better. Franchione is tough, organized, smart and detail-oriented. Unless the Aggies are willing to enter a bidding war for Greg Schiano, unless they're willing to take a chance on, say, Todd Graham, they ought to stay the course for another year.
I don't know if Justice was specifically citing the Rice coach as a candidate, or just suggesting a type, as in a young, hungry, assistant coach from a small but successful program. I presume the Ags' defeat of the surprisingly listless Longhorns today obviates the need to worry about this for at least another year. But for goodness' sake, can we please allow the Owls to finish their season, which may have two more games in it, before we get subjected to the Which ESU Will Swoop In And Throw Millions At Todd Graham stories? Show some respect for the Rice fans here, people. You'll have the entire winter to play Fantasy Coach Search. Let us have our moment, OK?
The Hotline offers up an intriguing new possibility for the 2008 Senate race against John "Box Turtle" Cornyn.
Despite Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R) resounding '06 win, one TX Dem insider says Dems are hopeful that a strong challenger to Sen. John Cornyn (R) will still emerge. The Dem claims Cornyn "has significantly lower approval rating" than Hutchison and that Gov. Rick Perry's (R) plurality win shows the TX GOP base is only 40% of voters. However the Dem concedes that a credible challenger would have to start raising money right now for what could be a $12M campaign.Already mentioned as possibilities are '98/'02 LG nominee/ex-Comp. John Sharp (D) and Houston Mayor Bill White (D), but ex-Rep. Jim Turner (D) still has over $1M CoH left over. There are "rumblings" about Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-28) running, and '02 nominee/ex-Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk's (D) name gets batted around occasionally too (Hotline reporting, 11/21).
I feel like John Sharp's day has come and gone, but we'll leave that discussion for the future. I see Mayor White as a 2010 gubernatorial candidate, not a Senate candidate - like most CEO types, I think he's more comfortable in an executive role. Who knows about Turner and Kirk? I think they get mentioned because someone has to.
But Cuellar, now there's a name I hadn't heard before. I'm not going to claim I'm a big fan, but along the same lines as what I wrote when CD23 was redrawn, the simple fact of the matter is that Cuellar would be a huge step up from Cornyn. Further, the guy has shown he can win elections, and he'll drive turnout in South Texas, where Dems will need a lot of votes to compete. They certainly love him in Webb County, where his total exceeded the next highest Dem's by almost 1000 votes. He's not my first choice, but I think he'd give Cornyn a hell of a race.
For that reason, I reject Kos' assertion that a Cuellar candidacy would be a sign of "real trouble" for the Dems. If nothing else, seeing anotherviable candidate on the usual list of same-old-same-olds is cause for celebration in and of itself. And if, as Greg notes, Cuellar's desire to run stateside prompts him to help his erstwhile friend Ciro Rodriguez in the CD23 runoff, so much the better.
Oh, and the reason that "Democrats claim" Cornyn has significantly lower approval ratings" than Hutchison is because it's true. Compare for yourself.
I think it's pretty obvious...
I am thankful for my family - Tiffany, Olivia, my parents, my siblings, my in-laws, my aunts, uncles, cousins, assorted others, and those who are family by choice rather than by blood. Among all the other things for which I am blessed, that's number one.
And I'm pleased to tell you that those blessings will grow. Sometime in mid-February, Olivia will acquire the status of Big Sister. According to the ultrasound, we'll be getting another girl. All of us are very happy about this.
My future is sure to be a chaotic one now that we'll be playing a fulltime man-to-man defense in the house. (As a friend said to me, the difference between having two kids and having three is the need to switch from a man-to-man to a zone defense. We can still play the man, we'll just have to give up on the double team.) But it's one to which I'm eagerly looking forward. On this day, I want to publicly acknowledge my bounty, and to express my thankfulness for it.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I'll be back tomorrow.
Here's a story from my mom of a legendary Thanksgiving dinner at our old house in New York several years ago. Sadly, I was not there to witness this, but I've laughed at the tale many times.
My Most Memorable ThanksgivingI have to admit my most memorable Thanksgiving was the one the oven died and we almost set the house on fire. Since Charles was in Texas at this time I thought he could save this family story for Olivia.
This particular year, not only were the usual "elders" with us, in all their wheel chair, walker and medication glory, but also Geoff Kuffner, (who had been out partying the night before) and Todd, a college friend of Michael's from Arizona, (who had never been to the Big Apple).
(Note: Geoff is my cousin, and Michael is my brother. The "elders" included Uncle Joe Abbruzza, who had lost a leg to diabetes and got around in a wheelchair, and Uncle Frank Carasanite, who is a disabled WWII vet who gets around - very slowly - with a walker.)
As we were all seated eating Antipasti I went to check on the turkey and immediately noted the oven was no longer working. No sweat, our soon to be daughter-in-law Cathy, who can fix anything, came to the rescue. She checked under the oven and even went down the basement to the switch box, but even she could not fix the problem. Ok, Dad and I thought let's put it on the gas grille. After all we had done this many times before, just with smaller turkeys. What I had not thought about was the fact that this one was basted in cognac (an old Martha Stewart recipe). Well cognac and fire do not mix, we would soon discover.
The next problem was heating up the 2 trays of Red's famous lasagna. Yes, Italians do eat pasta after antipasti and before turkey. So we retrieved an old rotisserie roster from the basement, that first needed serious cleaning, and placed the 2 trays in there. Everyone was given another glass of wine.
(Note: Red was my mother's mother. And man, was her lasagna good.)
So now while everyone was enjoying Red's fabulous lasagna I again checked the turkey on the grille. This time I found flames shooting 6 feet in the air and very close to the house. Thanks, Martha.
I quietly went into the dining room so as not to upset the old folks to get Charlie's attention. I did not have worry, they were all so well carbed and wined no one had a clue anything was wrong.
Geoff just smiled and Todd was wide eyed. Well, we finally got the turkey on the table with no one the wiser.
After dinner everyone said it was the most delicious turkey they ever had. No one realized they just had real barbequed turkey. Todd said it was the most fun he ever had at Thanksgiving and could he come back next year. Geoff just sat and continued to smile. The true test of this well fed crowd was finding the elders sound asleep within an hour of dinner, in their assigned seats in front of the fireplace, while the "young" folks cleaned up.
Charlie and I still giggle at the memory of Cathy in her cute very mini skirt, with a glass of wine in her hand trying to crawl under the wall oven to see what the problem was and she never spilled a drop; a true Kuffner to be.
I think the lesson one learns from this is that the key to overcoming any kitchen mishap is making sure everyone has enough wine. I don't know if it's in any of Martha Stewart's cookbooks, but if not, it should be.
The runoff date for CD23 and HD29 will be December 12.
Two weeks after voters sent U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla and former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez into a runoff, it finally got put on the calendar. Voters go to the polls Dec. 12.Early voting starts Dec. 4.
But soon after word got out late Tuesday, Rodriguez objected to the short period between the announcement and election day, saying in a written statement that Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams had done "a disservice."
"This is yet another coordinated Republican scheme to manipulate the electoral process in order to limit voter participation," the San Antonio Democrat said.
The runoff - and the Nov. 7 special election that preceded it - stemmed from the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling that GOP leaders violated the Voting Rights Act in 2003 when they carved 100,000 Hispanics out of District 23. As a remedy, a three-judge panel redrew its boundaries to include the heavily Hispanic South Bexar County.
One of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the case, Luis Vera Jr., said Tuesday night he was considering going back to court. State officials, he argued, should have sought "pre-clearance" from the U.S. Justice Department before setting the runoff date. He also said the timing of the announcement - late in the day, shortly before a major holiday - was suspicious.
"They're setting this up to disenfranchise the Latino vote," said Vera, a longtime Rodriguez supporter and national general counsel of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
But Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt contended the governor had complied with the court order that set up the 23rd District's special election. Also, "because it is a court order," she said, "we do not have to go through pre-clearance with the Justice Department."
Vera planned to convene a meeting today with other attorneys from the redistricting case to weigh their options - which include seeking a temporary restraining order in federal court to stop the election.
I understand the objection, but I don't know that there's much to be gained by suing again. At least Rodriguez has the support of the DCCC and the TDP, so at least he's not sitting around waiting for a development there. In fact, he's been on the offensive against Bonilla.
Democrat Ciro Rodriguez on Tuesday hammered U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla's voting record on veterans' benefits.In a news conference at a South Side VFW post, Rodriguez highlighted "no" votes the San Antonio Republican took on a 2003 amendment to give a $1,500 bonus to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 2005 motion to expand the military's Tricare health insurance program for reservists and National Guard members.
Bonilla faces the former congressman in a Dec. 12 runoff in Congressional District 23.
"Henry Bonilla has an established record of failing American veterans," Rodriguez said, "and has made it clear that keeping the promise to our veterans is not one of his priorities."
Game on. December 12 is 20 days from now, so if you want to get involved, now is the time.
UPDATE: I had assumed that the two elections would be on the same date. Turns out that this assumption was incorrect.
Governor Rick Perry today set December 19th for a special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of State Representative Glenda Dawson.[...]
Early voting for the special election will begin December eleventh.
I just got off the phone with the SOS office and confirmed this. My apologies for the confusion.
Elsewhere in video camera news, the Texas Observer has won a legal victory that may have some interesting ramifications. From their press release:
A state district judge has decided that the Texas Department of Public Safety has no legal right to keep the public from seeing videotape footage taken by security cameras in a hallway of the state Capitol building.
Acting in an 18-month long dispute prompted by a Texas Observer open records request, 345th District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky sent a letter to interested parties Monday, Nov. 20, saying he will formally rule that state law does not allow DPS to keep the tapes secret.
“This was all about the public’s right to know,” said Observer Executive Editor Jake Bernstein. “DPS has no right to shield the government’s business from public view.”
In May 26, 2005, the Observer asked DPS to release two hours of videotape shot on May 23 by cameras in the second floor hallway behind the House chamber. The hallway is a common spot for lawmakers and others to huddle off the floor while the House is in session. On that day, the House debated a controversial school voucher proposal. The Observer sought the videotape to confirm or dispel rumors that James Leininger, a wealthy San Antonio Republican donor and voucher proponent, was in the hallway arm-twisting representatives.
DPS sought a ruling from state Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office on whether it must release the tapes. When Abbott said yes, DPS sued his office. It argued that the Texas Homeland Security Act, passed in 2003, allowed it to keep the tapes secret because releasing them might give useful information about Capitol security to terrorists or other criminals.
While Abbott’s office was the named defendant in the case, the Observer, represented by Jeremy Wright of Kator, Parks & Weiser, intervened. The Austin American-Statesman also filed a friend of the court brief supporting the Observer’s position.
After a hearing Monday morning on motions for summary judgment filed by both sides, Yelenosky distributed a letter saying he could find nothing in state open records law that allowed DPS to withhold the information.
Yeleonsky noted that state public records laws are meant to be “liberally construed” in favor of releasing information to the public. “If the legislature intends to make otherwise public information secret because it was gathered through a means that reveals security information, it must do so explicitly,” Yelenosky wrote.
The judge gave attorneys two weeks to draft and submit a formal ruling for his signature. While it is still possible that DPS will appeal the case “the legal issue is fully decided,” said Jeremy Wright, who represented the Observer.
Well, I for one would like to know if Leininger was there. Anyone at the Observer know how to upload to YouTube?
Remember Michael Kubosh and his scheme to challenge the legality of red light cameras? Well, he's now had his day in court, and he's one step closer to taking his shot at the red light camera law.
Represented by his brother, lawyer Paul Kubosh, Michael Kubosh asked a city administrative judge to dismiss the citation he received for running the red light at Milam and Elgin. The judge declined.Paul Kubosh said he will appeal the case to another municipal court Dec. 6 to exhaust the city appeals process. He expects that ruling also will go against him, after which he plans to file suit in state district court challenging the red-light camera ordinance.
The basis of the challenge is that red-light violations caught by camera are civil violations. The Kubosh brothers argue that the city can't make red-light running a civil offense when state law makes it a misdemeanor criminal offense.
City Attorney Arturo Michel has said he does not expect the argument to hold up.
Michael Kubosh announced in advance that he would run a red light Sept. 17 to challenge the law. A police officer was waiting and issued a criminal ticket, thwarting Kubosh's effort to get a civil citation he could challenge.
He ran the light again three days later, was caught on camera and received a civil citation.
Well, give him full marks for persistence, I guess. The claim that municipalities can issue civil fines for red light violations that have been caught on camera has not been tested in court, so at least we ought to get an answer to the question. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me the fact that since there's been legislation proposed to ban cities from doing this, one might reasonably conclude that there's nothing currently stopping them otherwise. We'll see what the judge says.
Meanwhile, KTRK raises a question that I've asked before:
[T]he city defends its use of the red light cameras, citing public safety as the number one priority. So, are they reducing the number of accidents caused by red light runners? Police admit answering yes might be a little premature."It's a little too early to be able to determine what the cause and effect results are, with the accident statistics," said HPD Sgt. Michael Muench.
Well, when will you be able to tell us? For the public safety concerns to be deemed valid (by me, anyway), there needs to be evidence that the cameras actually contribute to public safety. Without that evidence, the negatives of the cameras clearly outweigh the positives - frankly, without evidence to show that they reduce accidents and injuries, I'm not sure what the positives are. I can accept for now that we haven't had enough time to evaluate the data, but I want to know when we think we will have had enough time. Let's put the cards on the table and make an informed decision from there. Thanks to Houstonist for the link.
Rep. Aaron Pena's blog is suffering from a comment spam attack, so it has moved temporarily to a new home at http://www.aaronpena.com/acapitolblog/. Please update your bookmarks until further notice.
Via Dwight, here's a thought from Scott Adams that will either get you nodding your head or recoiling in abject horror.
I think that in an election cycle or two you will see an atheist business leader emerge as a legitimate candidate for president. And his name will be Bill Gates.By then, Bill Gates will have done so much good for the world through his charitable works that combined with his business success he’ll appear more qualified than any other candidate. His early bachelor life and some of his business practices will come back to haunt him if he runs, but he can still win with this simple slogan: “Who would you rather have on your side?” He’ll confess to all of his past imperfections and say that presidents are poor choices for role models. He’ll advise you to look to your parents for role models while you let him run the country.
I doubt Bill Gates is considering a run for president right now, largely because it’s so hard to make a difference from that job. His charities will have more impact. But I think he’ll someday realize that the world needs a rational thinker in the top spot and no one else can win.
At least you’d know he wouldn’t be in it for the money or to speed up the Rapture. He has my vote.
I've got to say, I'd give it strong consideration. My only hope would be that he picks a party and runs on a mantle of competence and getting things done rather than disdain for the system and lame quips about how hard the job is. What do you think?
It's been a bad year for iconic old restaurants around here, hasn't it? La Jaliscience, New Orleans Po Boy, and now the venerable Pig Stands all have joined or are in danger of joining the choir invisible.
It's reputed to be the world's first drive-through restaurant chain and the place where the onion ring was invented, the result of a cooking accident. In 82 years at the corner of Washington and Sawyer, the last remaining Houston location has been a hut, a collection of stalls served by carhops and a sit-down restaurant.But now, the Pig Stand's past looks rosier than its present. The city's longest-running restaurant sat empty Monday, a victim of bankruptcy and back taxes that threaten to add it to the ever-growing list of bygone Houston institutions.
[...]
The health-unconscious eatery shut down last Wednesday along with two other locations in San Antonio.
They are the last vestiges of a chain that started in 1921 in Dallas as the first drive-through and grew into a dozens-strong regional empire that welcomed the age of fast food during a time when meals were handcrafted at home.
The stands evolved into drive-ins by the 1960s, when they dueled Prince's in the Houston market. Both eventually became standard table-service restaurants as they ceded the fast food business to the large chains.
Eventually, only Pig Stand No. 7 on Washington survived in Houston. Outside of town, it's best known as a location for the book and movie The Evening Star, author Larry McMurtry's Houston-themed sequel to Terms of Endearment.
[...]
The most recent bankruptcy court filings showed Texas Pig Stands Inc. was more than $3.2 million in debt with less than $1 million in assets.
Unpaid taxes caused the state to lose patience this summer. In August, the Texas Attorney General's Office asked a San Antonio judge to convert the case to a Chapter 7 liquidation from a Chapter 11 reorganization.
"The court has given this debtor more than enough chances," Assistant Attorney General Kay D. Brock wrote. "Enough is enough."
Brock repeated the call for liquidation last week, demanding payment of more than $200,000 in sales tax to the state comptroller's office.
[...]
Bankruptcy trustee Vincent Liuzza said the company was unable to borrow funds in time to avert closure. Now he's trying to reopen the restaurant in Houston along with the two San Antonio locations, all of which sit on leased land.
The company didn't expect forced closures when it defaulted with the state on Nov. 7, Liuzza said.
"The next day, the comptroller's enforcement people showed up at each restaurant ... seized all the cash in the restaurants, stayed there and collected the money from the guests as they paid their bills, took the money out of the safe and the cash register and took the licenses," he said.
Risking fines of $500 a day for continued operations, Liuzza said he believed it was worth keeping the last three stores open. But when the comptroller's office balked at a settlement plan last week, Liuzza said he was left with no choice but to close.
"I'm negotiating with them to get them to change their mind and permit us to reopen - even if it's on a temporary basis - to protect that value for our creditors, which include the state," Liuzza said.
He's hopeful the Houston store will be revived.
"It's been improving very nicely under new management there. And that manager wants to buy the restaurant. She's done a terrific job," said Liuzza, who added he's working on the possibility of arranging financing that could allow Carver to buy the Washington store.
"Sales just go up every week almost. So she's turning it around. She can make money," he said.
The story was first reported last week in the Express News. I confess, for all the times I said to myself "I need to eat there", I never did. Now I need to hope that the Pig Stand can find its way out of bankruptcy so that I can have another chance. Good luck, y'all.
I'll be on the radio tonight, proving once again that I've got a voice for blogging, as a guest on Agonist Radio out of San Antonio. Tonight's lineup is here, which puts me on the air at about 9 PM. Sean-Paul doesn't give a hint of what we'll be discussing, but at a guess I'd say it's not going to be Analytic and Algebraic Topology of Locally Euclidean Metrization of Infinitely Differentiable Riemannian Manifolds. But you never know, so you better tune in. You can hear it online here, or on 550 AM in San Antonio. And feel free to call in and stump me with a question - the numbers are (512) 599-5555 and (toll free) 800-299-KTSA.
As you might imagine, a number of the bills that have been pre-filed for the 80th Lege have to do with crime and punishment. Grits takes a look at some of the good ones, and some of the not so good ones. Check it out.
BOR has updates on the state of the special elections in CD23 and HD29. First, for CD23:
The DCCC is on the ground in TX-23. They have made amazing progress in getting Democrat Ciro Rodriguez to actually abide by their rules for this short election period seeing as he's low on cash and institutional support. In other terms, Ciro has actually been on the phone doing call time which in itself is short of a miracle, just to put it in perspective.Meghan Gaffney as some will remember from Paul Hackett's race in OH-02 is there now as well as Adrian Saenz, the DCCC's National Field Director (who if I'm not mistaken is from San Antonio as it is).
There is a poll in the field right now to determine where things stand on that front.
And HD29, via the Quorum Report:
The Democratic challenger who lost to Rep. Glenda Dawson in the HD 29 race plans to run in the non-partisan special election that will be called to replace the deceased lawmaker. Physician Anthony DiNovo will formally announce his run tomorrow.
That was printed yesterday, so the announcement will be today. As we know, two Republicans are already in, and there may be more candidates to come. As noted in the QR piece, the election is expected to be announced for December 19. Stay tuned.
They sure are keeping busy over at the Mint.
Can George Washington and Thomas Jefferson succeed where Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea failed? The U.S. Mint is hoping U.S. presidents will win acceptance, finally, for the maligned dollar coin.The public will get the chance to decide starting in February when the first of the new coins, bearing the image of the first president, is introduced.
Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are scheduled to grace the coin in 2007, with a different president appearing every three months.
The series will honor four different presidents per year, in the order they served in office. Each president will appear on only one coin, except for Grover Cleveland, who will be on two because he was the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms. To be depicted on a coin, a president must have been dead for at least two years.
The idea of rotating designs borrows from the highly successful 50-state quarter program. Since its launch in 1999, this program has featured five state designs each year in the order the state joined the union.
The quarter program introduced millions of people to coin collecting for the first time. The Mint hopes the presidential program will enjoy similar success, in part because of the bold designs on the new coins.
I'm sure the Millard Fillmore model will become an instant collector's item. Lord knows I'll want one.
I'm all in favor of new and interesting coin designs. I remain skeptical of the idea that the dollar coin could, or should, eventually replace the dollar bill. I don't know how other people feel about it, but I'd rather have bills in my wallet than coins in my pocket. Simple as that.
Edmund C. Moy, director of the Mint, is optimistic about the success of the new coins. Rising prices mean it takes more quarters to feed meters and vending machines. People might be willing to carry the dollar coin to replace four quarters.
Though this sounds practical, I've heard it before as well. Unless those meters and vending machines take dollar coins - and at least where I work, the vending machines take dollar bills but not dollar coins - then you've got the same problem as before. People won't carry the coins because they can't use them, and the machines won't be updated to accept them because no one carries them. I wish the Mint luck with their efforts, but I wouldn't bet on it. Kevin Drum sees it more or less as I do.
The march of municipal WiFi comes to El Paso.
Downtown El Paso soon will be home to a free wireless Internet network. City and county officials say the WiFi network, which will also be available in parts of South El Paso, should be up and running in about 6 months. When it is complete, the network is expected to provide free Internet access to one of the poorest areas in the country, an El Paso neighborhood known as El Segundo Barrio. The project is being paid for by the city and county of El Paso, along with the city's housing authority and the El Paso Independent School District.
More on the project is here.
"This is going to be a great public service project," said Peter Cooper, chief technology officer for El Paso County. "We are making sure the signal will be strong enough to work inside every home and building in the area. We've tested it, and the connection is faster than dial-up and about as fast as cable."The Digital El Paso Project will give WiFi Internet access throughout the area by using 36 transmitters in the area that is bordered by the Border Highway and San Antonio Street. The project is being coordinated by the county in partnership with the city, El Paso Independent School District and the Housing Authority.
[...]
The El Paso project, which was initiated by a $10,000 feasibility study by Intel, was approved by the Commissioners Court. The other governmental agencies that will help fund the setup must still approve their portion of the funding.
The city of El Paso is contributing $50,000, and the county, housing authority and school district are pitching in $25,000 each.
Anyone who wants to access the wireless network will have to register with the county. The county will maintain and administer the system.
The best part of the program, Cooper said, is that every building in the area will have a signal. The 36 wireless transmitters are being installed on light posts, and on top of City Hall, the County Courthouse, Aoy Elementary and the San Jacinto high-rise residential building.
"The biggest problem we had was making sure the signal would travel into the houses that are stucco and have wire in the walls," Cooper said.
[...]
John Pompay, public sector programmer for Intel, said from his office in Arizona that Intel's reasoning for wanting to start the network in the Segundo Barrio and Downtown area was to help those who might need it.
"There are certain pockets of the population that are traditionally under-served," Pompay said. "Those are the markets that we are trying to get into, while at the same time helping improve their education."
Sounds like a worthwhile project. I wish them luck.
Rep. Pena reprints a article about voting problems in Hidalgo County, which have generated bipartisan complaints.
Hidalgo County Republican Party Chairman Hollis Rutledge has contacted Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams personally over the general election vote totals fiasco in Hidalgo County.Rutledge told the Guardian he contacted Williams after speaking with Hidalgo County Democratic Party Juan Maldonado. Rutledge said both major political parties were in agreement that something needed to be done to avoid similar screw-ups in the future.
"We know that no matter which version of the three or four different voting totals we were given is correct, the actual election results will not change," Rutledge said.
"We simply want answers because we are concerned about the integrity of the process in the future. We all realize that if we do not get to the bottom of this, the average Joe Blow in Hidalgo County will lose confidence that his vote is being counted correctly."
That's exactly it. People need to feel confident that the equipment they're using is reliable, and right now a whole lot of people, especially but by no means exclusively people in Williamson County, have good reason not to feel confident. And it's not just the machinery, but how those machines are operated that raises all kinds of questions. It's just a matter of time before Texas has an election where problems with voting machines will affect the outcome of a race. It would be better to try and deal with the underlying issues now, before that happens.
And just like that, the janitors' strike is over. Here's an email from the SEIU that explains where they are:
Hello everyone,What a difference a day makes! We have reached a tentative agreement for a 3 year contract for janitors.
Wages: $1.15 increase the first year, $1.00 the second year, and $.50 the third year.
Health Care: The third year is when single payer health insurance will kick in and janitors will pay $20 per month into that plan. It is a plan designed and managed by SEIU and we are hoping to get all of our members
nationwide on this plan.Vacation: Two weeks paid vacation per year
Holidays: 6 paid Holidays
Hours: 1st year everyone must work a minimum of 4 hours a day, 2nd year everyone must work a minimum of 5 hours per day, 3rd year everyone must work a minimum of 6 hours per day.
Protection: We have a grievance procedure in place. We have protection for all of the striking workers to get their jobs back with no discipline, We have a disciplinary proceedure in place so that no one can be illegally fired for no reason any more.
We are going to have a press conference today around 4. More details to come.
Thank you all so much for your help, prayers, support, sacrifice, time, and energy. There are no words to describe how happy we are that we have built a very solid foundation for a janitors union in Houston. These workers leadership and courage has been tested for the past few years but especially over the past month when they were confronted with threats by their supervisors, fear on the streets with a heavy police presence, and the fear and uncertainty that comes with taking a stand in their workplace and walking off the job.
And you all have been tested. I know that many of you have heard a lot from your members, your parishoners, your friends, co-workers and neighbors, not all of it has been positive because what we have done here - especially with utilizing the tactic of non-violent civil disobedience - doesn't happen very often if ever in Houston. I know that many have criticized us for being from out of town. I know that we've blocked traffic which is a big deal here. We've pushed the boundaries very far and all the while we hoped that you would stick with us as we challenged the way Houston thinks about workers like the janitors. As tough as it was, it was all worth it. Thank you so much.
The next time someone says that people from out of town can't come to Houston and tell them what to do, say that we are all Americans and if big companies operating out of Houston can go all over the world to expand their businesses and maximize their profits, then why can't workers from those cities unite and organize? They work for the same companies and clean buildings owned by the same companies. The next time that someone tells you that we deserved the backlash we received from the police last Friday when 44 people were corralled like cattle by the Houston police on horseback and horribly mistreated by the jailers, tell them that workers in other cities make $12-$20 per hour because workers have been utilizing strikes, protests, and civil disobedience to win rights there for over a hundred years and there's no reason why workers in Houston deserve any less.
This has been one of the most emotional, physically draining, risky, and chaotic month and it was worth it 110%. We made history and couldn't have done it without the help from the community. We are looking forward to growing together with you to make Houston a city that rewards and respects hard working people. We are looking forward to continuing to strengthening the power of the people and holding the businesses and elected officials in this city accountable to the community. Most of all, we are looking forward to celebrating!!!! I'll keep you posted with details on that!
According to Miya, Mayor White "made many phone calls over the past several weeks behind the scenes". If so, then kudos to him for helping to get this resolved. I'll post an update after the press conference.
I'm behind on blogging about the janitors' strike in Houston - there hasn't been all that much in the Chronicle, but this WaPo story captures the main point of interest.
Ercilia Sandoval, 42, and her impoverished co-workers have become international celebrities of the Service Employees International Union's debut campaign in the right-to-work South. The union's Justice for Janitors campaign organized local janitors last year and this week is staging noisy protests and civil disobedience here, nationally and even internationally as it demands higher wages. Janitors have walked off the job at buildings that house more than half of Houston's office space.One of the union's prime tactics is shaming this oil-rich city's business leaders with international publicity about the poverty-level wages of their cleaning people. As part of the campaign, Sandoval, a Salvadoran immigrant who works a four-hour shift cleaning the Aon building in Houston's posh Galleria district, has been telling her story on Web sites, in speeches and in interviews.
She has no health insurance, and she says it took her four months to qualify for the public assistance she needed to begin chemotherapy treatments. She lost her hair from the procedure and is scheduled for a mastectomy next month.
"I am supporting the union," Sandoval said, "for all the other Ercilias who are out there or who might have already died because of no health insurance."
[...]
Besides the low wages, the union is also drawing attention to the unusually high rate of medically uninsured in Harris County, which includes Houston: 31 percent, compared with the national rate of 15.9 percent.
In other words, right now you and I are paying for these folks' health care, because their only option is going to be the emergency room. Keep that in mind.
Democratic congressional leaders have said one of their first priorities as a majority will be raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour, which would go a long way toward meeting the union's goals.The Houston janitors are demanding more -- $8.50 an hour plus health insurance. They also are demanding full-time work instead of four-hour shifts. Their proposed package, equivalent to a 60 percent pay increase, would still fall short of what SEIU janitors make in other cities, including the District. In many other cities, union janitors work full time and get health benefits.
[...]
Flora Aguilar, 51, another striking janitor, was making $5.15 an hour after more than two years on the night crew for the cleaning contractor OneSource at the 55-floor Enterprise Plaza downtown. She was taking home $209 every two weeks, of which $20 went to bus fares. She said she had seen two managers fire women for refusing to stay past the end of their shift -- even though the women would have missed their last bus home.
Raise your hand if you think you could live on less than $105 per week. I made more than that as a graduate student in the 1980s, and I had access to a free clinic. Bear in mind that $8.50 an hour, forty hours a week, translates to $340 per week, or $17,680 per year. We are not talking king's ransom here. How much is it worth to you to have clean toilets and regularly removed trash where you work?
Easter Lemming and PDiddie have been on this. See also this video footage that EL shot as the police broke up the protest, plus the many pictures at the Justice for Janitors blog. The Houston Justice for Janitors page has the latest news, and a personal statement from one of the arrestees that you need to read.
These folks need to be paid a wage they can live on. There's no excuse not to do that.
UPDATE: Stace has more.
UPDATE: And more from Miya Shay, who wonders if the strike is actually working.
So the Chron has projected who's going to which bowl game this postseason. Has anyone informed Tulsa that they're doing double duty?
GMAC (Jan. 7): Tulsa vs. OhioNew Orleans (Dec. 22): Middle Tennessee State vs. Tulsa
Pretty neat trick, I must say. But never mind that. All that matters right now is this:
Armed Forces (Dec. 23): TCU vs. Rice
That's contingent on Rice taking care of business against SMU this Saturday - if they don't, you can pencil in the Mustangs for that slot. I've been down this road before as an Owls fan. Rice would have gone to a bowl in 1990 had they beaten Baylor in the last game of the season. They'd have gone to a bowl in 1992 had they beaten UH in the last game of the season. I like to think they'd have gone to a bowl in 2001 had they beaten SMU in the last game of the season. Under any other circumstances, I'd be pretty damn fatalistic. But after seeing this team repeatedly work miracles to get itself into this position, I've gotta believe. I'll be there on Saturday to watch it happen. If you have any connection to Rice, or if you just like good football, you should be there, too. Go Rice!
The old Robinson Warehouse, at the corner of Montrose and Allen Parkway, is facing the wrecking ball.
The Aga Khan Foundation purchased just over 11 acres at the corner of Montrose and Allen Parkway to build a Muslim Ismaili center. The group plans to demolish the brick art deco warehouse that's been there since the 1920s.Zahir Janmohamed, CEO of the Aga Khan Council for the USA, said the site is an ideal location for the Ismaili Centre.
"Allen Parkway has undergone a fair bit of metamorphosis from a development perspective and continues to," he said.
Indeed, several key parcels along the parkway have been redeveloped in recent years. But some of those involved demolishing historic buildings.
The Jefferson Davis Hospital was razed for construction of the Federal Reserve building, and the Gulf Publishing building was torn down for a 33-story residential tower.
The new project will be similar to other Ismaili centers in Vancouver, London and Lisbon.
It will include facilities for lectures and conferences relating to the Aga Khan Development Network as well as for recitals and exhibitions to educate the public about Islam's heritage. The building will also contain a prayer hall, classrooms and offices.
The new property is also expected to have gardens and other green spaces. Still, the design concept and timeline for development have not been determined.
David Bush, director of programs and information for the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, said the group has seen some of the Aga Khan's other projects and "the designs have been outstanding."
"Even though we regret losing a historic building, at least this time it may be replaced by some truly exceptional architecture," Bush said.
[...]
The building at 2323 Allen Parkway opened in 1929 as Houston's first Sears store.
The architect, Nimmons, Carr & Wright, also designed the Sears store on South Main at Wheeler, which replaced the Allen Parkway store.
In 1935, floodwaters from Buffalo Bayou swamped the first floor of the store, resulting in a huge flood sale, according to the Greater Houston Preservation Society. The store moved to South Main a few years later.
In the 1940s, the building was the temporary home of Baylor College of Medicine until its Texas Medical Center building was completed.
Arthur Robinson purchased the building in the 1950s for a storage business, the first of its kind in the Houston area and a prelude to today's mini storage facilities, said real estate broker Stan Creech, who sold the property to Ameriton in 2005.
The city's preservation group has had the property on its "endangered" list for many years and has tried to find someone to buy it and renovate it. One suggestion was that a farmer's market occupy the first floor and residential units be built above it, but nothing ever came of that plan.
Bush said the flooding issue made financing a redevelopment of the property extremely difficult.
"This is one of those frustrating cases where the original owner wanted to preserve the building, other interested parties wanted to preserve the building, but no one could find a way to make it happen," he said.
I saw the beginning of the demolition process as I drove to the Rice football game on Saturday. I went back yesterday and took some pictures of it while I still could. They're beneath the fold.
What this means is that the overhaul of Montrose/Studemont from West Dallas to Washington is in its final stages. With the demolition of the Ed Sacks Waste Paper building, and the new retail center being built at Dallas and Montrose where La Jaliscience (now gone and replaced by Sabor) once had its auxiliary parking, that stretch of road will soon look nothing at all like it did when I first laid eyes on it in the late 80s. In many cases for Houston, that's not a good thing, but here it most definitely is. I can't wait to see the final product, for however long it will last.
I certainly enjoyed this Chron cover story on the travails of CD22's Congressperson-for-a-day, but I was struck by something as I read these passages:
"She has mortally damaged herself for '08," said Bill Miller, an Austin media consultant who works for clients in both parties. "She has embarrassed herself. She has embarrassed Republicans. She's done a first-class job of ruining any prospective chance she had of winning that race."Said Fort Bend County GOP Chairman Gary Gillen: "When it comes time for 2008, the negative publicity won't be beneficial for her."
Sekula-Gibbs denies her political career will suffer lasting damage from what she describes as "personnel issues."
[...]
The congresswoman's turbulent week in Washington has been watched with more than passing interest by operatives allied with Republicans eager for the party's nomination to take on Lampson in 2008 in the normally Republican district.
"She in fact has weakened her chances," said Allen Blakemore, a political consultant close to Harris County Tax Assessor-Collecter Paul Bettencourt, who is considering entering the GOP primary.
But Blakemore contends Sekula-Gibbs already stood little chance of winning a primary dominated by conservative voters, considering her record on the Houston City Council, where she was not seen as a conservative.
Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, a possible Republican contender in 2008, said the turmoil in Sekula-Gibbs' office could turn off voters.
"Any time you have a situation such as a mass resignation, any time you have a situation of investigations ... it creates so much noise in the system that it takes away from the ability to govern," he said.
It's interesting to me that three of the people quoted here have a direct interest in Shelley being labelled a failure who has "mortally wounded" her chances in 2008. Wallace is a sure challenger in '08, Gillen was Wallace's biggest booster throughout the entire Chosen One/One True Write-In selection process, and Blakemore is on Bettencourt's team. With all due respect, what would you have expected these fellows to have said about Shelley's term in office?
All throughout the process to replace DeLay, I figured that Republican infighting would be a problem for them. My thinking was that there were too many people who were too ambitious to sit by and let somebody else have a free shot at a Congressional seat they thought they deserved. There were plenty of examples of this early on, but once Shelley was ordained as the One True Write-In, it all stopped. To my surprise, everyone got on the same page, and the people who lost out - the people who I figured would make trouble because they were looking ahead to 2008 - fell in line, and stayed out of the news. I believe this contributed to Shelley's stronger-than-I-expected showing in the vote total. There were no distractions, and she was able to run a good campaign.
But now? All bets are off. I think we're seeing a little pent-up animosity coming out. Sure, these stories look bad for Shelley, and what's worse is they look self-inflicted. It's no surprise to anyone who's familiar with Shelley's term in City Council. But the piling on by some of her known rivals, that's a bit gratuitous.
The person who I think gets this right without having a dog in the fight is Gary Polland:
Gary Polland, a former Harris County Republican chairman, said the congresswoman's staff woes have "trampled" what had been the feel-good political story of a candidate who performed better than expected against the difficulties of a write-in candidacy.All she had to do, Polland said, was serve out her two-month term without fanfare and she would begin the race in 2008 as a former congresswoman.
"Now she's going to be tainted with this story for her entire time in Congress," Polland said. "And if she decides to run in two years, the story will be, 'That's right, Shelley was in Congress for six weeks and ran off all of DeLay's staff."
I believe Shelley could have survived this story had she won the regular election. She'd be a genuine hero for saving this seat from falling into Democratic hands, and besides, she'd have two full years to actually accomplish stuff, which would help push this incident out of people's memories. As it is, she's stuck with it. Sorry, Shelley.
As a consolation prize, she will at least get the investigation she wanted.
The House chief administrative officer opened an investigation Friday into the possible destruction of computer files in the office of newly elected Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.[...]
An investigation was opened Friday morning, said Salley Collins, a spokeswoman for the House Administration Committee, which oversees the chief administrative office. She said she did not know how long the investigation would take.
David James, who was DeLay's chief of staff and who ran the office DeLay resigned in June, has denied that records were destroyed improperly.
He said he and his colleagues provided Sekula-Gibbs with an electronic or hard copy, or both, of all of their work.
Sekula-Gibbs said that wasn't true.
"Their computers were blank. Blank," she said. "I'm talking about the material that I asked them to work on from the time they were hired."
Sekula-Gibbs said she had asked the aides to work on illegal immigration legislation and the 700 miles of fence to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border. They also were asked to research material on Ellington Field, NASA and Medicare, the congresswoman said.
I think Muse is correct to suggest that the staffers weren't particularly interested in doing what was likely to be busy work, given Shelley's short-timer status and the imminent switch to Democratic control. Not the most professional course of action I've ever observed if that's true, but one can see it from their perspective.
Greg in TX22 has an alternate theory of events (see here as well). After seeing all those quotes in yesterday's story, I'm thinking there may be something to what he suggests.
Via Houstonist, I see that high-end takeout joint Eatzi's has served its last meal in Houston.
EatZi's Market & Bakery was expected to close its doors at 6 p.m. on Nov. 16.The shelves at the bakery were nearly empty by Thursday afternoon and several employees at the store confirmed they were notified that the store was to be shuttered at the end of the business day.
Store employees have informed customers that all future orders, including Thanksgiving orders, will not be filled.
[...]
EatZi's may have made a decision to close its doors based on the fact that Austin-based health foods supermarket chain Whole Foods is planning to develop a 78,000-square-foot store at the southwest corner of Post Oak and San Felipe as part of developer Ed Wulfe's Boulevard Place.
[...]
Mary Rustay, a Realtor with Heritage Texas Properties, said she went to eatZi's at least once a week for lunch or to purchase gifts for clients.
"I'm devastated," said Rustay. "There's no other place like it in Houston."
I'm a little surprised by this. The place always seemed to be doing a brisk business - my sister-in-law certainly did her part to keep them afloat. I can't imagine a location like that will stay fallow for long, so it'll be interesting to see what replaces it.
How much would you pay for a really big, really grand important symbolic gesture?
The Bush administration's proposal to secure the nation's borders with a high-tech "virtual fence" is likely to cost far more than the $2 billion that industry analysts initially estimated, possibly up to $30 billion, a government watchdog agency warned yesterday.According to the Homeland Security Department inspector general, the ambitious plan to deploy sensors, cameras and other surveillance technology along 6,000 miles of the borders with Canada and Mexico runs the risk of runaway costs because of poorly defined objectives and a vastly overstretched contracting staff at the department.
Well, hey, I'm glad to see that at last someone is taking the Canadian Menace seriously. I call that progress.
Immigration-policy experts said the red flags raised over the border-security initiative could increase pressure on Congress to act on other measures they say are needed, such as stepping up enforcement against U.S. employers who hire illegal workers, cracking down on immigrants who overstay their visas, and overhauling legal immigration channels."If it's going to cost 8 to 30 billion dollars," asked Deborah W. Meyers, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, ". . . is that really the most effective way of achieving the policy goal?"
You know, given that there's an estimated seven million illegal aliens in the US, we could simply offer them each a thousand bucks to go home. That'd max out at $7 billion, and we wouldn't have to hire any of them to build the fence that's supposed to keep them out. Go on, tell me that's a stupider idea than what was actually authorized.
Link via Tapped, which draws a rather apt analogy to the whole thing.
Another day, another screwup in the privatization of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Glitches in the state's new computer system have left investigators unable to check for fraud and overpayments in food-stamp and other benefit programs in the two counties where it is being used, according to an audit released Thursday.The Office of Inspector General at the Health and Human Services Commission has been unable to investigate benefits cases processed through the privately run integrated eligibility call centers that screen needy Texans for a variety of public assistance programs.
The program is known as Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System. It is billed on the commission's Web site as "cutting-edge technology" that would better match consumer needs with state programs and reduce fraud.
[...]
The State Auditor's Office said that inspectors have been unable to pursue criminal cases for the past two years because of insufficient data coming from the call centers. It stopped looking for fraud last April because information was not "readily accessible," the report said.
"Furthermore, TIERS lacks interfaces to the automated systems at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Social Security Administration, and the Texas Workforce Commission" that are necessary to identify potential fraud, the audit added.
[...]
[HHSC spokeswoman Stephanie] Goodman said the problem identified by the audit relates to data interfaces between TIERS and the systems used by the inspector general's office.
The interfaces are expected to be resolved by September 2007.
In the interim, the commission's computer staff is extracting data that should enable investigators to pursue cases in which overpayments may have been made, Goodman said.
The Republican leadership of Texas have, through their actions, demonstrated their indifference to the question of whether or not the people who depend on public assistance are able to get it. If anything will spur them to action on the failings of Accenture and TIERS, it'll be this - the nagging doubt that somehow, somewhere, someone is receiving a benefit he or she is not entitled to. I predict this gets more fully addressed well before September of 2007.
Jeff Balke has a detailed and thoughtful response to this post about John Nova Lomax's proposed pro-music PAC. Check it out.
Former University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler died yesterday at the age of 77.
In the end, Michigan vs. Ohio State might have been too much for Bo Schembechler's failing heart.The man with half-century-old roots to The Game died at age 77 on Friday on the eve of perhaps the biggest matchup in the storied rivalry's history, No. 1 vs. No. 2, and his doctor said it might have been because of all the excitement.
Schembechler, who became one of college football's great coaches in two decades at Michigan, collapsed at the studios of WXYZ-TV in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, where he taped a weekly show. He was pronounced dead a little more than two hours later at nearby Providence Hospital.
"It's fair to say Bo wanted to live his life with vigor," said Dr. Kim Eagle, Schembechler's physician. "Ironically, he and I were going to see each other yesterday, but he wanted to address the team."
Could the stress of today's game have caused his death?
"I believe that's entirely possible," Eagle said.
I don't think I can really add anything to that. Rest in peace, Bo Schembechler.
Missed this earlier - a Travis County grand jury has reindicted the Texas Association of Business on charges that it illegally spent corporate money on campaign advertising.
The re-indictments are an attempt to fix objections by State District Judge Mike Lynch, who in June dismissed a similar indictment and threw into question Earle's four-year prosecution of the business association.Lynch concluded that the business association's mailers did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates under the Texas election code, which he called "an archaic, cumbersome, confusing, poorly written document in need of serious legislative overhaul."
Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick refused last year to back attempts in the Legislature to clean up the election code. The one effort to change the law died in a rowdy floor fight that became a referendum on Craddick as House leader. (Craddick was investigated, but never indicted, on similar campaign finance allegations.)
In his ruling, Lynch further wrote that the prosecution's legal theory that the business group coordinated its efforts with other political groups is a "convoluted maze" that did not give defendants adequate notice of what they were charged with.
"You simply cannot make a silk purse out of this sow's ear," Lynch concluded about the original indictment.
Earle, however, seems intent on trying.
With two new indictments, Earle seems to be trying to draw that line more brightly for the judge's reconsideration.
The new indictment notes that the mailers targeted specific voters in certain legislative districts immediately before the election. By coordinating the mailers with the campaign efforts of other political committees, the indictment alleges, the business association made an illegal corporate contribution to those political groups.
"The written order gave us a road map on how the judge sees the law," said Gregg Cox, who heads the public integrity unit. "We wanted to re-indict the case to address the judge's concerns before there's any more litigation."
Roy Minton, the business association's lawyer, said there are no new issues in the re-indictments.
"I respect their right to re-indict," Minton said. "I believe it's treading the same ground we've been over."
Here's what I blogged when the indictment was dismissed. We'll see what happens now.
Well, I thought that the explanation given for the Williamson County vote count discrepancies was a little lacking. Turns out I'm not alone in that.
Amid questions about the counting of early votes in the Williamson County elections, Elections Administrator Debra Stacy resigned Friday. County officials are now recounting all early votes in the Nov. 7 elections to clear up discrepancies in precinct-by-precinct totals.Over the course of the election season under Stacy, there were kinks ranging from slow ballot counting on election night to more major problems with vote count discrepancies. The latest recount could end with a change in election results.
The most recent problem arose Thursday when several election judges reported that the county's final vote counts from their precincts did not match the number of signatures on the voting rolls.
The county surmised that the problem was with early voting totals when election workers found that some paper ballots were filed in the wrong precinct, said county spokeswoman Connie Watson. Residents don't have to vote in their precincts during early voting, so there is more of a chance of ballots getting mixed up during that time. Watson said these filing mixups were caused by precinct elections workers.
Before resigning, Stacy signed a court order to recount all early votes.
The electronic votes from Election Day have been recounted once because of other discrepancies found in vote totals. The day after the election, the county discovered that the final count of 91,000 votes was more than the approximately 84,500 signatures on sign-in sheets. Watson said at the time that it was an error in electronic voting machine software operated by Election Systems & Software Inc.
New results from the company's review of the audit trail of what happened election night show that the overcount was caused by human error, according to the company and Watson.
The votes are counted by cartridges taken from the 82 voting machines. Watson said Stacy was in charge of counting the electronic votes, and in the course of inserting the cartridges, the results from previous cartridges were added together instead of zeroing out before each new cartridge was read.
Watson said she did not know why the software was initially blamed, and Stacy did not return calls for comment.
Watson said the recount of all early votes should be completed Saturday, and the canvassing of votes is scheduled for Monday. Although county officials believe that only early voting was miscounted, they haven't ruled out a recount of all Election Day ballots.
Watson said it's possible that election results might be affected.
Okay, that qualifies as bad. And it demonstrates again that the problems with electronic voting machines are not just concerns about hacking, but problems with procedures. With a screwup of this magnitude, even if no race actually winds up with a different outcome, it's a good thing Stacy resigned, because she clearly was not up to the task. Eye on Williamson has more.
We knew it was coming, and now here it is: State Sen. Rodney Ellis has proposed a statewide smoking ban for bars and restaurants similar to the ones that Houston and Austin now have in place.
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, announced Thursday that he will file the proposed "Texas Smoke-Free Workplace Law." His bill would ban smoking in all public places and work sites. Ellis timed his announcement to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. "Even though cities all over the state - including Houston, Austin, El Paso, and Laredo - have passed strong ordinances, we still have a large population of Texans who remain unprotected from secondhand smoke," Ellis said. Forty-seven Texas cities have passed ordinances that contain smoke-free provisions, and 14 have comprehensive ordinances protecting employees and the public, according to Ellis's office.
I've called Sen. Ellis' office to find out more about this. The bill is not yet available online, as it is still in the drafting process. When it is available, I'll post an update. If you're too impatient for that, try subscribing to the TLO RSS feed for Today's Bill Text.
John Nova Lomax has an interesting call to arms.
The way I see it, the artists and musicians who made Montrose the creative hotbed it was from about 1965 to 1995 have two choices -- fight or flee. In either case, they need to organize.If they choose the latter, and they can't or don't want to leave Houston, they need to move en masse to a new neighborhood. What's been happening the past ten years is that ex-Montrosians are scattering all over town -- to the East End, Westbury and Garden Oaks and Oak Forest. They need to pick one neighborhood and colonize as a group. Perhaps the reopening of No Tsu Oh could be a bellwether event in this trend -- the area just to the east and north of downtown is as good a place for a Montrosian colony as any, even though the march of condos is already apace around there.
The other option is to fight tooth and nail. That's the path local writer and activist (and former Press correspondent) Jim Sherman has chosen.
[...]
Sherman says the time has come for knock-down-drag-out civic combat. He doesn't want to fight City Hall -- he wants to join it, to pack it with candidates friendlier to the old Montrosian/Washington Avenue way of life -- specifically, that aspect of it that loved loud music and long nights in the bars. The Puritan Roundheads have had their day here; now it's time for the fun-loving Cavaliers to ride again.
Sherman says the club owners need to band together -- to that end, he proposes a political action committee to be helmed by Pam Robinson of Walter's and Lelia Rodgers of Rudyard's. Between them, and with the cooperation of the city's bands and other venues like the Proletariat, Fitzgerald's, the Continental Club and Super Happy Fun Land, this group could raise mad cash through a series of benefit concerts. That money could be steered to the PAC, which could then fund one or more pro-music candidates for city council.
"With enough money, a ham sandwich could get elected to Council in Houston and probably serve the full three terms," Sherman notes. "And if the club owners and bands would unite in raising a record amount of money for electable, well-rounded pro-music candidates, it would bitch-slap the pols who are whores for the nNnNs and open the eyes of fence-sitters."
A little advice for your fledgling group, if I may.
1. There's 14 people on City Council, and the agenda is set by Mayor White. There will be only so much that one member can do.
2. It's very seductive to cast an election in terms of Us and Them, up until the point where you learn the hard way that there's more of Them than you thought. It's best to define your terms in such a way as to allow as many people as resonably possible to think of themselves as an Us instead of a Them.
3. Money most definitely talks. If you're going to form a PAC anyway, consider talking, and donating, to existing Council members who you think might be receptive to your ideas. Hell, talk to any Council member regardless of how friendly you think they'll be. You never know - they might surprise you. It's likely to be more cost effective than financing a fullblown campaign.
4. Remember that any campaign designed to bring habitual nonvoters to the polling place is an uphill task at best. Kinky Friedman was going to ride to the Governor's mansion on a wave of new voter turnout. Didn't work out too well for him. Voting is a habit. It's often easier to change minds than to change habits.
5. If you're going to recruit and run a candidate no matter what, consider the upcoming special election to replace Shelley Sekula Gibbs, if she ever formally resigns and a date is set for that ballot. It's sure to be a low-turnout affair, which will make your task easier, since you will need a smaller number of people to actually show up and vote to have the desired effect. I've got a preferred candidate in this race already, so it's not necessarily in my best interests to tell you this, but I'm assuming you'd have figured it out on your own anyway, so no harm done.
That about covers it. Last person I can think of who ran for Council on a single issue cause like this was Ray Hill, who made an unsuccessful attempt for (I believe) an at large seat after the sexually oriented business law was passed in (I think) 1997. I don't remember much about his campaign, and I can't find any election results online for it, but I voted for him. Good luck.
Been a rather busy week in Enronland. Let's catch up a bit:
- Jeff Skilling has reached a settlement on all remaining litigation against him by former employees who lost their pensions in the crash.
The ex-CEO, who is scheduled to begin serving more than 24 years in prison next month, has withdrawn his opposition to an $85 million settlement that plaintiffs reached with former company directors and other executives two years ago.In exchange, plaintiffs resolved claims against Skilling - the last named defendant who hadn't settled - effectively bringing the litigation to a close.
"Yes, it's over. Our clients are thrilled," attorney Lynn Sarko, who represents ex-Enron employees, said. "While they are grateful that some of their retirement money was recovered, it will never make up for the destruction of their retirement nest egg."
The lawsuit, which recovered about $265 million in settlements - including the $85 million held up by a Skilling appeal - was filed on behalf of more than 20,000 employees after Enron went bankrupt in December 2001. The Labor Department later filed similar litigation, which was folded into the main lawsuit.
If Jeff Skilling has to work for a living and worry about his retirement like the rest of us once he's out of jail, then I'll feel like justice has been done.
- In response to the convictions against Kenny Boy Lay being vacated upon his death, two Senators have proposed legislation to make it easier for victims of crime to seek restitution in similar situations.
On Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation designed to clarify the legal procedures when a defendant dies in this way."We need to ensure that, in these types of cases, hard-won convictions are preserved and restitution remains available for the victims of crime," Feinstein said in a statement Thursday.
When convicted, a criminal defendant can be ordered to pay restitution to his victims, to try to make them whole. But since Lay's conviction was vacated, his estate cannot be ordered to pay restitution.
Instead, the Justice Department was forced to file a civil suit seeking to wrest control of $12.7 million worth of assets. If the government is successful, it could then turn over some or all of those proceeds to victims of the Enron debacle.
The Justice Department proposed legislation last summer that sought to preserve such convictions after a defendant dies pending sentencing and appeal - and wanted it to be retroactive to July 1, four days before Lay died. That proposal never garnered a sponsor.
The Justice Department helped Feinstein and Sessions craft the legislation introduced Thursday.
"We share Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Sessions' commitment to do away with the harmful and unwarranted effects of the abatement doctrine on crime victims," Justice Department spokeswoman Jaclyn Lesch said.
Feinstein and Sessions' bill would stipulate that a defendant's conviction cannot be vacated just because the person has died.
That would allow for the defendant's estate to be ordered to pay direct restitution to victims. However, the proposal would allow a representative for the estate to appeal the conviction.
The bill also would give the federal government an additional two years to file a civil complaint to try to force an estate to forfeit assets.
I didn't care for the prosecution's attempt to push through a bill like this with retroactivity earlier. I'm a little hesitant to endorse this scheme, even though I think it should be easier for the civil litigants to pursue their cases, on the basis of the Task Force's earlier actions in this matter. I'll reserve judgment for now; as I expect this bill to die before the Senate session ends, we'll see what happens next year.
- Former Enron chief accountant Rick Causey was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. As both Tom and Loren Steffy note, he caught a bit of a break when Andy Fastow wound up getting his sentence shaved down, but he might wind up serving more time than Fastow anyway. Which is a little weird.
- Finally, the last two top Enron executives to face the music, Michael Kopper (who was once Fastow's top assistant) and Mark Koenig (who was Enron's head of investor relations), received sentences of 37 months and 18 months, respectively. Tom has more on this, including some thoughts on who deserved it more.
Kristin Mack brings the news that Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt, who was once considered for the write-in slot before demurring, is contemplating a real run for CD22 in 2008.
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collecter Paul Bettencourt said he is seriously considering taking Lampson on in 2008.Problem is, he would have to resign his county seat as soon as he announced for Congress. He has two years left in his term.
He says he's willing to do that because of the "magnitude of the (Republican) turnover" in Congress.
"Our public policy was a failure in Washington," he said. "It could take about six years to rebuild the national party. It's important to decide the best place you can make a difference in the conservative movement. We need to put our best foot forward in every contested race."
Bettencourt wasn't willing to take the risk this time because he would have faced an uphill battle as a Republican write-in candidate. Courts ruled the GOP could not replace DeLay on the ballot when he resigned the seat after winning the March Republican primary.
But two years from now, the race is wide open.
"He definitely goes in as a front-runner, given the high-profile position he has taken for the taxpayer," said Harris County Republican Party Chair and Bettencourt disciple Jared Woodfill. "We've done lots of polling, and his positive name ID is through the roof."
Bettencourt would certainly be a strong candidate. He'll excite the Republican base, he'll have good name ID and fundraising capabilities and he'll carry with him a certain gravitas that (shall we say) the current short-term occupant of the office lacks. I fully expect he'll still have to win a competitive primary, unless the powers that be can figure out how to stuff David Wallace, Shelley Sekula Gibbs, and possibly Andy Meyers into someone's basement for the duration. That matchup would make for a race worth watching.
But let me float an alternate reason why Bettencourt is considering this race, which would mean stepping down from his current post: Having read the tea leaves from the 2006 result, in which it can fairly be said that Harris County Republicans performed underwhelmingly and were likely only saved from electoral disaster by the utter lack of a coordinated and funded campaign on the part of the Democrats and the poor turnout in traditionally Democratic areas that resulted from it, he's less sure he can win re-election in 2008 than he is about his odds of knocking off Lampson. After all, if Harris County pulls a Dallas in 2008, it won't just be the judges that'll have to polish their resumes. It'll be folks like Bettencourt, Chuck Rosenthal, Tommy Thomas, and Michael Fleming as well.
I'm sure Bettencourt thinks he can win CD22 in 2008. I'm also sure he thinks there's a nontrivial chance he could lose his current job if he takes another go at that instead. The question is which one he thinks is more likely. We'll see.
Last month, I asked the question whether or not John Culberson's vehement anti-Richmond rail stance would help him in the precincts that immediately surround the affected stretch of Richmond Ave. The question came up again in the cover story that the Houston Press wrote about Culberson's opponent, Jim Henley:
One problem for Henley -- well, one problem beyond the fact the district is gerrymandered for a Republican -- is the inner-loop neighborhoods along Richmond. Usually they could be relied on for some Democratic support, but they are mightily pissed at Metro for trying to build a light-rail line through their neighborhoods. Culberson has made clear he agrees with them, and if reelected he'd be a formidable ally for the residents. (Although perhaps not as formidable as in the past, if Democrats take control of the House.)
Well, at long last the precinct data is in, and the answer is clear. First, let's review what we observed in 2004, when Culberson easily defeated John Martinez, who ran a low profile campaign.
Pcnct Ballots Culb Pct Mrtnez Pct C/M Pct M/C Pct
===============================================================
39 1809 473 26.15% 1187 65.62% 28.49% 71.51%
60 1625 422 25.97% 1027 63.20% 29.12% 70.88%
123 866 236 27.25% 544 62.82% 30.26% 69.74%
139 1688 773 45.79% 767 45.44% 50.19% 49.81%
177 1024 635 62.01% 310 30.27% 67.20% 32.80%
178 1346 905 67.24% 328 24.37% 73.40% 26.60%
233 1597 837 52.41% 610 38.20% 57.84% 42.16%
569 1791 1065 59.46% 685 38.25% 60.86% 39.14%
802 237 46 19.41% 162 68.35% 22.12% 77.88%Total 11983 5392 45.00% 5620 46.90% 48.96% 51.04%
"Pct" refers to the percent of the total ballot, which includes undervotes and votes for the Libertarian candidate. "C/M Pct" and "M/C Pct" are the straight-up Culberson versus Martinez percentages. As noted before, Culberson was weak in Montrose (precincts 39, 60, 123, and 802), strong in Afton Oaks (precincts 177, 178, and 569, which is just outside the Loop and wasn't examined last time), and modestly successful in Greenway Plaza (precincts 139 and 233). Overall, Martinez won the vote here, but not by a lot.
Now let's look at 2006 and see how Culberson fared against Henley and with the rail issue at the forefront in these areas:
Pcnct Ballots Culb Pct Henley Pct C/H Pct H/C Pct
===============================================================
39 1273 246 19.32% 958 75.26% 20.43% 79.57%
60 1050 202 19.24% 790 75.24% 20.36% 79.64%
123 513 117 22.81% 364 70.96% 24.32% 75.68%
139 1061 423 39.87% 564 53.16% 42.86% 57.14%
177 658 403 61.25% 237 36.02% 62.97% 37.03%
178 968 697 72.00% 231 23.86% 75.11% 24.89%
233 1583 791 49.97% 696 43.97% 53.19% 46.81%
569 1076 556 51.67% 454 42.19% 55.05% 44.95%
802 205 42 20.49% 149 72.68% 21.99% 78.01%Total 8387 3477 41.46% 4443 52.97% 43.90% 56.10%
As you can see, with the exception of one of the Afton Oaks precincts, Culberson lost ground everywhere along Richmond Avenue. Henley won a majority of the total vote, and had a twelve point lead in the head to head matchup. Where Culberson had carried Greenway Plaza by 233 votes and won both of its precincts, he now lost precinct 139 and trailed overall by 46 votes. Precinct 233, which had almost identical turnout to 2004, saw a 132 vote swing away from Culberson. Any way you look at it, the answer is loud and clear: Being anti-Richmond rail did not help John Culberson in the neighborhoods that would be affected by Richmond Rail.
Christof provides a nice graphic of the area and the relative vote totals, and reminds us that Culberson based his opposition to Richmond rail on "public opinion", which he said was against Richmond rail. One can only conclude from looking at the data that Culberson is wrong about this. The people spoke (again!), and John Culberson did not speak for them.
There was another race in this area for which Richmond rail was an issue: the HD134 race between Martha Wong and Ellen Cohen. Wong was also a public opponent of rail on Richmond. How'd that work out for her? Here's the 2004 matchup against Democrat Jim Daugherty:
Pcnct Ballots Wong Pct Dghrty Pct W/D Pct D/W Pct
===============================================================
39 1809 475 26.26% 1208 66.78% 28.22% 71.78%
60 1625 425 26.15% 1058 65.11% 28.66% 71.34%
139 1688 755 44.73% 800 47.39% 48.55% 51.45%
177 1024 621 60.64% 336 32.81% 64.89% 35.11%
178 1346 859 63.82% 411 30.53% 67.64% 32.36%
233 1597 830 51.97% 663 41.52% 55.59% 44.41%
802 237 46 19.41% 164 69.20% 21.90% 78.10%Total 9326 4011 43.01% 4640 49.75% 46.36% 53.64%
Precincts 123 (Montrose) and 569 (Afton Oaks outside Loop 610) are not in HD134. As with Culberson, Wong lost Montrose big, won Afton Oaks easily, and ran slightly ahead in Greenway Plaza, though she only won one of its two precincts. And for 2006, against Ellen Cohen?
Pcnct Ballots Wong Pct Cohen Pct W/C Pct C/W Pct
===============================================================
39 1273 235 18.46% 986 77.45% 19.25% 80.75%
60 1050 203 19.33% 798 76.00% 20.28% 79.72%
139 1061 359 33.84% 655 61.73% 35.40% 64.60%
177 658 381 57.90% 264 40.12% 59.07% 40.93%
178 968 611 63.12% 311 32.13% 66.27% 33.73%
233 1583 721 45.55% 794 50.16% 47.59% 52.41%
802 205 45 21.95% 145 70.73% 23.68% 76.32%Total 6798 2555 37.58% 3953 58.15% 39.26% 60.74%
A total rout, even bigger than Henley/Culberson. Wong got creamed in Montrose, thanks in part to the HGLBTPC blockwalking effort, lost both Greenway Plaza precincts, and even slipped in Afton Oaks. Whatever the effect was in the Henley/Culberson race, it was magnified here.
Bottom line, plain and simple: Opposing rail on Richmond is not a winning issue in the neighborhoods that will be affected by rail on Richmond. The people who live there do not vote for anti-Richmond rail candidates. Say it loud, and say it often.
UPDATE: Since I posted this, Christof pointed out to me that strictly speaking, only Precinct 178 is Afton Oaks. Precincts 177 and 569 cover the similar but not the same areas of Lynn Park, Highland Village, St. George's Place, and others. Unlike Afton Oaks, the Lynn Park and Highland Village civic clubs are neutral on Richmond rail, while the president of the St. George's Place club is actively campaigning for it. If nothing else, this explains why only precinct 178 showed any improvement for Culberson. My apologies for any confusion.
UPDATE: Here's a similar graphic for Martha Wong and HD134, from Christof.
As you know, the Houston GLBT community, in particular the Houston GLBT Political Caucus, strongly supported Ellen Cohen in her race against Martha Wong in HD134. They did a ton of blockwalking in four key precincts in Montrose - precincts 37, 38, 39, and 60, to be precise. How did their efforts go? The numbers speak for themselves. Here's a comparison of Wong/Danburg 2002 to Wong/Cohen 2006:
Candidate Year Pcnct Votes Pct Turnout
==============================================
Wong 2002 37 161 21.2 758
Danburg 2002 37 580 76.5 758Wong 2006 37 178 20.3 875
Cohen 2006 37 671 76.7 875
Wong 2002 38 371 32.2 1151
Danburg 2002 38 756 65.7 1151Wong 2006 38 313 25.0 1251
Cohen 2006 38 904 72.3 1251
Wong 2002 39 302 25.7 1174
Danburg 2002 39 859 73.2 1174Wong 2006 39 235 18.8 1247
Cohen 2006 39 986 79.1 1247
Wong 2002 60 278 28.0 994
Danburg 2002 60 696 70.0 994Wong 2006 60 203 19.7 1032
Cohen 2006 60 798 77.3 1032
That's 328 more voters overall, which is an eight percent increase, in a year where Harris County's turnout was down almost eight percent, and it's a swing of 651 votes in Cohen's favor, which is 12.5% of Cohen's margin of victory. It's also almost a quarter of Wong's 2785 vote margin of victory in 2002. That's pretty darned impressive.
As it happens, there was one more precinct that the HGLBTPC wanted to canvass but didn't have the time and personpower to do:
Candidate Year Pcnct Votes Pct Turnout
==============================================
Wong 2002 200 621 42.5 1461
Danburg 2002 200 821 56.2 1461Wong 2006 200 516 34.7 1485
Cohen 2006 200 940 63.3 1485
Another 200 vote swing to Cohen, but without the boost in turnout. However you slice it, Cohen cleaned up here.
The cumulative and canvass reports are now available on the Harris County Clerk website, meaning I can finally get started on some precinct analysis. I've got numerous tasks in the queue as you know, but for now, here's an observation that I could have made before but didn't think about till now: There were 601,186 votes cast in Harris County. Of those, 283,528 were straight-ticket votes for a Republican or Democrat (there were 3,052 straight-ticket Libertarian votes). That's 47.2% of the total, which is a little down from 2002, but basically in line with historic norms for non-Presidential year elections. Had Chris Bell received nothing but straight-ticket votes in Harris County, he'd have gotten 24.8% of the total (he actually got 34.5%). Remember all those polls that had him in the 15% range? This is why I never believed them.
Oh, and Dems had more straight ticket votes than Republicans did - 145,865 to 137,663. For what it's worth.
It's like Christmas every day with Shelley Sekula Gibbs in Congress.
Just three days after being sworn in, U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs wants Congress to investigate the destruction of files in her office by former staff members of her predecessor, Tom DeLay.
Seven staffers walked out of her office Tuesday, resigning en masse, reportedly because they didn't like the way she was treating them. They had served Sekula-Gibbs for about 24 hours.
Sekula-Gibbs said in a prepared statement today that seven employees in her Washington office and the district office in Stafford, "deleted records and files without my knowledge or permission" before quitting.
Spokeswoman Lisa Dimond told The Associated Press that the congresswoman had not yet gotten a response to her request for an investigation by the House's chief administrative officer.
Anybody else think the response will be "Due to a backlog of requests, there is currently a four-week waiting period to file for an investigation"?
Kevin Madden, a former DeLay spokesman who works for outgoing GOP Majority Leader John Boehner and was not among the seven, said the holdover staffers "felt like they were treated terribly." He would not elaborate.Sekula-Gibbs, who is serving out the last seven weeks of DeLay's term, said the walkouts were "suspicious" in that the seven took the time to delete files before leaving without notice.
Dimond said other staffers discovered the work-related files were missing when they tried to access them.
The only way this story could be any funnier would be if there were a complaint that all the hyphen keys had been removed from the computers by the departing staff.
I can't top any of this, but I can pile on. Here's Muse, here's Juanita, here's Hal and Hal again, here's Lone Star Times, here's Elam, and last but not least, here's the Chron. Enjoy.
You may recall the strange discrepancies in the vote totals from Williamson County as reported by the Secretary of State and the Williamson County Clerk. Via Eye on Williamson, we now have an explanation for what happened.
After finalizing all the results from election day, the Williamson County Elections Department found an error in the total votes calculated by computer software.According to Williamson County Elections Administrator Debra Stacy, the error did not affect the results of the Nov. 7 election.
"Voter sign-in sheets at each voting precinct showed that approximately 84,500 people voted in Williamson County out of 208,521 registered voters for a 40 percent voter turn-out," she said in a written statement. "However, the elections computer software program that tallies all votes, both scanned ballots and electronic votes, recorded more than 91,000 votes."
Stacy said the problem occurred within the Election Systems & Software (ES&S) software program.
"While tallying the final results, the software took the number of electronic votes and multiplied that number by three," she said. "Although there were more votes recorded, it was at the same percentage for both Republican and Democratic candidates. This means that the software problem did not affect the outcome of any election."
Amanda Brown, a spokeswoman for ES&S, said the company is working closely with the county elections division to understand the origin of the problem.
"It hasn't been determined it was a software problem," she said. "It could've been, but it also could've been machine or human error as well. We're working diligently to address what exactly caused the problem."
Dunno how satisfying an explanation that is, but there you have it.
Though I disagree with his conclusion, I kind of like the way Marc Campos phrased this: "Quien es mas macho, Jordy Tollett or Houston Mayor Bill White?"
Longtime local booster and political insider Jordy Tollett intends to fight for his job running the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau over clear opposition from Mayor Bill White.Tollett has lined up letters of support from prominent civic and business leaders, including Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen and sports-franchise owners Drayton McClane and Bob McNair, in the face of White's insistence that the bureau conduct a search for a replacement when Tollett's contract expires next year.
The mayor wields more than his considerable political heft: The city provides most of the bureau's funding. The mayor is prepared to play that card if the bureau doesn't search beyond Tollett, but White said he doesn't expect it to come to that.
"I do not think the board will want to stake the future or reputation of the bureau on a particular issue of avoiding competition for a job," White said, adding that the search could include consideration of renewing Tollett's contract.
The bureau's 28-member executive committee will consider the issue when it meets Friday morning.
"He wants to see if there is anyone else in the country better than me," Tollett said of the mayor. "And there's not."
Fellas, it might save us all some time and expense if you'd both agree to meet in the men's room with a ruler and a referee. I'm just saying.
I like a colorful character as much as the next guy, but far as I'm concerned Tollett has long since gone past his sell-by date. Honestly, I don't understand the appeal at this point.
You can't say that Tollett's troubles started when he was caught getting schnockered while on the clock - Mayor White has never cared for him, and besides, it's plausible to argue that tossing back a few cold ones is part of the job description. Be that as it may, there's a lot of unlove for Tollett all around. Do a search on housonpress.com for "jordy tollett" some day if you really want to feel the hate. Here's a prime example, courtesy of Tim Fleck.
Personally, I think the best Jordy Tollett tale is the Rick's Cabaret billboard story. From the August 1995 issue of Texas Monthly, as reprinted here:
When Houston Civic Center Director Jordy Tollett explained why he spent several thousand dollars in taxpayers' money escorting visitors to Rick's, [his answer that] "They wanted to go there" became the quote on another billboard. Tollett's public reprimand from the mayor led to what may have been the apogee of Rick's public acceptance, a Houston Chronicle editorial that declared, "As a city trying to attract convention business, we must spend money to make money, and if Tollett was bowing to the demands of clients to go to topless bars, we probably shouldn't fault him too much."
Those were the days, huh? Can't wait to hear how this fight ends. Pass the popcorn.
Looks like yesterday's hearing on appraisal caps contained the usual amount of rhetoric and posturing. This is an issue that has been around for awhile, and won't go away any time soon, especially now that chief pitchfork wielder Dan Patrick is in the Senate. I'm going to be lazy and just refer you to Rick Casey's column on why this is a bad idea (not that it matters to its adherents), since he pretty much nails it.
By the way, if you click on the link to my 2003 blog post, in which there was much huffing and puffing about State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg voting against an appraisal cap bill in committee, you'll see that Patrick and his buddy Paul Bettencourt made several unsubtle threats about someone challenging Laubenberg in a primary. In case you're curious, in the two primaries since then, she's been unopposed each time. So much for that.
Stace has a preview of the precinct data from HD127, where Diane Trautman gained over ten points on the base Democratic vote from 2004. The full numbers are still not available online, and my expectation is that they won't be until next week. I'll be ready when they are, because 127 is one of the districts whose performance this year interests me the most. Until then, enjoy the taste that Stace provides.
Grits brings the news that the Texas Capitol website now has numerous RSS feeds for tracking committee meetings, calendars, bill information, and more. They've even got a PDA/cellphone lookup feature. Outstanding! I join him in saluting the folks in Austin who made this happen. It's a model that others should emulate. See his post for a list of the feeds, and subscribe today.
Vince keeps up with the pre-filing, this time giving us a look at State Sen. Rodney Ellis' SJR8, which would do the following:
First and foremost, the bureaucratic part. SJR 8 will abolish the Texas Racing Commission and the Texas Lottery Commission and merge all of that into a new agency, the Texas Gaming Commission.The new TGC will consist of one member appointed each by the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house, the AG and the Comptroller.
Then, we get down to the meat of the bill. The law the bill creates will authorize 12 “casino-anchored destination attraction development projects.”
Seven of those may be in urban areas allocated by population. Two will be on the islands in the Gulf of Mexico “that are tourist destinations with at least 1,000 guest rooms available for visitors in hotels, motels, or condominiums existing on January 1, 2007.”
The three remaining projects will be at locations the commission determines, in areas where they can “achieve targeted economic development or permanent new job creation” or which are, “selected for other considerations determined appropriate by the commission.”
That last priovision sounds a lot like it may be targeted to Indian casinos.
Casino gambling is another one of those issues that comes back every session. I don't know that it will have any more luck this time than before, but it will get a lot of attention.
CD23 won't be the only electoral action in Texas next month. The death of Republican State Rep. Glenda Dawson has left a vacancy in HD29 that needs to be filled. According to the Bay City Tribune, candidate jockeying has already begun.
Former Pearland City Councilman Randy Webber made an announcement late Tuesday while Mike O'Day made preliminary personal visits with Bay City officials.Both intend to file as Republicans.
On O'Day's campaign Web site, odayfortexas.com, the candidate says he is a fiscal conservative who supports limited government, a successful small businessman and community volunteer.
Webber says he is running on his record as a "real Republican."
"I currently have both Republican and Democrat opponents who are running away from their records, and I firmly believe that District 29 voters will be able to make the distinction," Webber said.
Webber cites O'Day's support of Shane Sklar in his bid to unseat Rep. Ron Paul and a favorable comment from longtime Rep. Tom Uher recently printed in the Tribune as negatives in announcing his bid for the Texas House seat.
O'Day supporters say the bipartisan support shows willingness to put his constituents ahead of party politics, an important factor given the results of the November election.
Alvin physician Anthony DiNovo, Dawson's Democratic challenger in the General Election, will decide this weekend whether to run in the special election, a campaign staffer said Tuesday.
The Shane Sklar factor - who'da thunk it? Ideally, there would be one strong Democrat in this race and more than one Republican, so as to force a runoff. Dawson's name on the ballot was good enough to win last week with about 60% of the vote, so a Democratic win in a low-turnout election is certainly possible. Stay tuned, and keep an eye on this one. If 81-69 is a close margin for House Speaker Tom Craddick, 80-70 is probably too close for comfort.
Barbara Radnofsky is putting together a fundraiser in Houston on Monday, November 20, to help Ciro Rodriguez in the runoff election for CD23. PDiddie has the details. Other folks such as David Van Os and John Courage are also pitching in.
Karl-T makes the case for helping Ciro here. The Express News has a good overview of the race, with additional comments at BOR. I know that the runoff in LA-02 is getting the bulk of the national attention, but this is a race that could pick up another seat for the Dems. It can't be overlooked.
Finally, though they didn't do it right away, onetime CD23 candidate Albert Uresti and his brother, State Sen.-elect Carlos Uresti have now formally endorsed Ciro's candidacy in the runoff. Click the More link to see the press release.
State Senator Carlos Uresti and his brother Albert Uresti, former congressional candidate for District 23, are holding a press conference to urge voters to join them in supporting Ciro Rodriguez in the U.S. Congressional runoff election in December. The press conference is being held Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 9:30 a.m. at the headquarters of the Ciro Rodriguez campaign at 246 W. Harding Blvd."Henry Bonilla simply hasn't done his job to provide fresh ideas on how to protect our troops and bring an honorable peace to the war in Iraq. This runoff represents the people's chance to make changes in our Iraq policy and bring our troops home. Bonilla continues claiming to support our troops and yet he continues to send them into harm's way," said Albert Uresti.
"The Republican leadership has failed, as signaled by the November elections. Uniting the Democrats behind one democrat in this Congressional election is important so that we may continue the change of direction in our country," said Uresti.
The Urestis' endorsement is an important lynchpin in Rodriguez's plan to unite Democrats to defeat Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla. Senator Carlos Uresti represents a district that mirrors the boundaries of the 23rd Congressional District and Albert Uresti garnered the second most votes among Democrats in the special election contest that ended November 7, 2006. Both brothers declare that Bonilla has not represented the concerns of the people of the 23rd Congressional District and believe Rodriguez provides an opportunity toward a new direction that puts people above the powerful special interests that have created a failed Republican government in Washington.
Albert Uresti concluded his critique of the catastrophic situation in Iraq noting, "Our family has served in uniform and continues to serve-this issue affects us deeply as it does so many working families in the district. All of the fancy commercials in the world cannot hide the reality that our troops are in the middle of a firestorm because Congressman Bonilla and his Republican colleagues rubberstamped the failed course of Donald Rumsfield and the Washington leadership. Now the voters should return in December to hold Bonilla accountable for his failed leadership"
Senator Carlos Uresti called on people to seize the opportunity to return the district to someone that represents their interests and not the interests of indicted Republican Majority Leader Tom Delay, who orchestrated a redistricting plan that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. "People are having a tough time with the high costs of healthcare, taking care of their children's education, gasoline, and wages falling. Bonilla's record doesn't pass the test with people in the district. Now we must unite around Ciro Rodriguez to turn out the vote and send the message that we want leadership that works for us and not the lobbyists in Washington."
Allow me to endorse the conclusion reached here by Matthew Yglesias regarding who the Democrats should appoint to be the chair of the House Intelligence Committee:
[P]ass over both [Rep. Alcee] Hastings and [Rep. Jane] Harman and reach down to the number three Democrat on the panel in terms of seniority, Silvestre Reyes.
Yes. Not only is Rep. Reyes better on the merits than either of the other two choices, but putting him in that chair helps to undo a little of the damage that Tom DeLay has wrought to Texas' Congressional clout. That's a win-win in my book.
I presume you've heard of the fun and games up in the Dallas suburb of Farmer's Branch, where apartment managers have been forcibly deputized into an arm of la Migra. Not too surprisingly, they're not happy about this development, which took place without any input from them.
''The last thing I want to be doing is asking, 'Where's your papers?' " said Angie Iraheta, manager of the 142-unit Villa Marquis Apartments. ''And how am I supposed to know if what they're giving me is real?"
Making local cops be responsible for enforcing federal law is bad enough, but at least they have actual law enforcement training and experience. Ms. Iraheta hits the nail on the head here: How is an apartment manager supposed to cope with this new requirement? What training will they need, and who will provide (and pay for) it? How will we know if they're actually doing the job they've been unwillingly tasked with doing, and why will policing their enforcement of the law be any more efficient than simply enforcing the law?
Of course, as with the nonexistant border fence, this wasn't about policy. It was about making a Grand Symbolic Gesture. On that count, they've succeeded.
''Landlords can't really serve as law enforcement or be held accountable for carrying out a function that belongs with the government," said Gerry Henigsman, executive vice president of the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, which represents 1,600 apartment owners in the region, including the dozen or so complexes in Farmers Branch that will be affected by the new ordinance."Farmers Branch conveniently moves the responsibility for immigration enforcement to the landlord and says, 'If you don't do it we're going to fine you,' " he said.
Henigsman said the Farmers Branch City Council passed its ordinance without giving his group an opportunity to comment. Council members allowed people to voice their opposition or support of the measure only after the vote was taken Monday.
"I was shocked they passed it and after the fact said they were going to allow public input," said Henigsman, who had prepared to address the council. "It kind of defeats the whole idea of public input."
He noted that Farmers Branch dropped a proposal to penalize businesses for hiring illegal immigrants and instead singled out apartment housing.
"I think it's telling illegal immigrants, 'We don't mind you working in our city in minimum-wage jobs, cutting our grass. We don't mind you spending money in our stores. We just don't want you living here and sending your children to our schools," he said.
Yep, that's pretty much the extent of the gesture. I guess that's somehow more elegant than simply raising one's middle finger, but not by much.
One more thing, from an earlier story:
"We passed this expecting to be sued," council member Tim O'Hare said after the vote.
So, Council Member O'Hare, how much money has the city of Farmer's Branch budgeted for its legal defense in this matter? Does that total include the possibility of damages? What taxes will you be raising, and/or what services will you be cutting, in order to pay for this? I'm beginning to see why this was done without any public input. Too many messy questions get asked that way.
In the Pink has more.
Well, that's progress.
With Democrats poised to take control of Capitol Hill, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is ordering an evaluation of the state's contracts with two lobbying firms with close ties to congressional Republicans, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.The contracts have long been an irritant to Texas Democrats in Congress, who renewed their complaint Tuesday that it's a waste of taxpayer money - and a reward to well-connected Republican lobbyists - to do what legislators were sent to Washington to do.
"Texas House Democrats do not need - nor want - any assistance from private lobbyists to represent the state of Texas," the delegation's 11 Democrats wrote Perry, a Republican.
The letter, circulated by Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, also was signed by Nick Lampson, a Stafford Democrat who will fill a Houston-area seat come January.
Asked about the letter, Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said the governor would ask the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations to review the contracts with The Federalist Group and Cassidy & Associates, which receive monthly payments from the state of $10,000 and $15,000 respectively.
The lobbyists will be asked to "explain how they could and would work with the new Congress and what strategies they'd employ," she said.
Walt declined to predict the outcome of the review, saying it could conclude that no outside lobbyists are needed, that the contracts should continue, or that new lobbying firms should be hired.
Background here. As always with Rick Perry, it's not the initial action that is noteworthy, but the final action. As such, while this review is a step in the right direction, nothing matters until the review has been completed and a decision has been made. Stay tuned.
"What I Did On My Christmas Vacation", by Congressperson Shelley Sekula Gibbs.
"I'm working hard to accomplish the things I'm working for," she said yesterday. "For tax cuts. For immigration reform. To make sure we have a good solution for the war in Iraq."All that? In a few weeks?
"If there's a way to do it, I'll do it," she said, smiling beneath her bright blond hair. "I'll deal with the leadership to get as much done as possible."
I have to agree with The Muse here: The WaPo writer tried to take this assignment seriously, but didn't quite manage it. Not his fault, either.
I mean what can you say about this (link and excerpt via BOR)?
The woman who was sworn in this week as the interim Republican successor to ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was, shall we say, not a hit with holdover DeLay aides.In fact, they showed their feelings about their new boss Tuesday by walking out of the office en masse and resigning, effective immediately. The DeLay refugees, who included DeLay's personal chief of staff, David James, walked out of the office, Von Trapp family-style (though without the singing) and huddled at Starbucks to get their wits about them.
She showed up to take over DeLay's old office on Thursday and, according to sources familiar the office dynamics, was "mean" to the staff. On Tuesday, at her new Member's open-house reception in the office, sources charged that she was less than pleased that neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney showed up with the rest of the welcome wagon.
Raw Story has more (via Muse).
It just keeps getting better:
It was [Rep. Nick] Lampson who got the perk of being invited to a White House reception for newly elected lawmakers.It turns out Lampson came too late for freshman orientation when he first joined Congress after a runoff victory in 1996. So he's going through it now, drawing no small amount of attention for being the Democrat who wrested DeLay's vacated seat from the Republicans.
Because Lampson was drummed out of his Beaumont-area seat in 2004 as a result of the election boundary changes engineered by DeLay, perhaps he could be excused if he were to revel in his newfound political celebrity status.
But Lampson, who defeated Sekula-Gibbs for the two-year term that begins in January, says he's operating in a gloat-free zone.
"It's nice to be welcomed back by my colleagues who are appreciative of what I did. But all of this presents, in my opinion, an opportunity for us to sort of turn the other cheek," Lampson said Tuesday. "We have an opportunity to cut the 'nutso' partisanship and do good policy."
But if Sekula-Gibbs felt slighted, she didn't let on.
"This is the fulfillment of the American dream," she said Monday night, shortly before she walked onto the House floor for the first time.
Sekula-Gibbs was introduced to the House by a fellow Texas Republican, Rep. Joe Barton of Ennis, and pledged in a short speech to give her 22nd Congressional District constituents "the first-rate representation that they deserve."
She can surely provide better representation than CD22 has had over the past, oh, six months or so. Actually, probably much farther back than that, too.
Sekula-Gibbs got her House voting card and instructions from Barton on how to use it. She then cast her first three votes Monday, including one on a bill to normalize trade relations with Vietnam. She voted yes. The bill failed.
Every story about a scrappy underdog has to start out with a demoralizing defeat. Now that's been taken care of.
Between votes, Sekula-Gibbs got hugs and handshakes from fellow lawmakers. She even got a peck on the cheek from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat and fellow Houstonian. Both were on the Houston City Council before being elected to Congress.
I'm with Lair on this one: I hope someone got a picture of that.
This has all been fun, but here's a serious question (which Hal is also asking): When, exactly is Congressperson Sekula Gibbs going to resign her seat on Houston City Council? The aforelinked Chron story doesn't raise the point. Well, I'm not sure when the special election will be officially certified (Hal thinks it's today), but Shelley has been sworn in, has cast votes, and is busy dealing with staff issues, all the while seeking to restore America's fiscal sanity. So when will she officially become a former City Council member? Anybody know the answer to this?
UPDATE: HouStoned has more.
I'm hearing that the status of the Universities rail line and its eventual location are about to be back in the news. To get an idea of where we are, and what the options are for putting this thing somewhere other than Richmond, read Christof's series of posts on the subject:
Hard facts about Richmond rail
Westpark: Where the politics are
Westpark: How would it work?
The Universities line, Shepherd to Main
How do we serve Greenway?
I support rail on Richmond because I believe it will provide the best ridership for the lowest cost. I believe it's the only alignment that has an active constituency in favor of it, while all alignments will have an active opposition to them. It's the best solution as well as the one that's most likely to actually happen; as I've said before, I believe this is a fight between rail and no rail, not a fight between rail on Richmond and rail somewhere else. I want this line to be built, and I believe this is the best way to get it.
The key phrase in that last sentence is "I want this line to be built". Other alignments can be made to work, and I'll gladly settle for the next-best solution if it's the only one that can be agreed upon. I want Richmond for pragmatic reasons, not ideological ones. Show me a plan for Westpark that will be actively supported by the current opponents of a Richmond line - and that most definitely includes Rep. John Culberson, whom I firmly believe will not support any actual, feasible plan - and I'll get behind it. Show me a real commitment to getting this built, and I'll stop pushing for Richmond. I want a Universities line. I want it on Richmond because I believe that's the best place for it, but I'll take it someplace else if that's the best we can do. If you don't want it on Richmond, tell me where you do want it, and what you will do to help make it happen, and we can go from there. Otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, we're fighting the 2003 referendum all over again, and the anti-Richmond forces need to accept that they lost that battle. It's time we moved forward from there.
UPDATE: Not quite the news, but Miya Shay notes that a group of anti-rail folks showed up at Tuesday's City Council meeting. No one is sure why, since according to a member's chief of staff "Metro's not expected to come up with a plan until next Spring". Maybe it was a flash mob kind of thing. Who knows?
Cell phones on airplanes: Threat or menace?
Larry Kellner, chairman and chief executive of Houston-based Continental, said he would back only the limited use of cell phones on planes. He likened widespread cell phone use to smoking, which was allowed on airplanes for years before being banned.Currently in the United States, personal cell phones only can be used on aircraft before takeoff or after landing, and their use is regulated by two government agencies.
While cell phone use during flight is restricted, federal agencies have been considering whether to relax the rule.
The issue of cell phones on airplanes can be a contentious one, as many people say they don't want to be forced to listen to other people's phone conversations.
Kellner's remarks about limiting calls during flight were met with applause by many attending his speech at the International Trade Summit & Expo 2006. He made the comment in response to a question from the audience.
Kellner didn't see a need to ban brief calls in flight, but he favors Internet access as well as text-messaging on cell phones or BlackBerries, the best known brand among the personal digital assistants that are standard equipment for those who want to be constantly in touch with their e-mail.
"Sometime in 2008 we hope to see broadband" Internet access, Kellner said.
Officials of Continental want to ban calls using voice over IP or Internet protocol, or VoIP, "because we think it is distracting," Kellner added.
I read this story to Tiffany, and her reaction was "I'd pay $10 more for my ticket to get on a cellphone-free flight." Actually, I think at least some airlines will eventually try stuff like that, and also a resurrection of the seat seaction concept that was the rule in the days of smoking flights - call them the "blathering" and "no blathering" sections. Alas, much like the "no smoking" sections back then, it'll be more illusion than reality. Maybe advances in sound-dampening technologies will do for us what the planes' air circulation systems couldn't do in the 70s. In the meantime, let me second Kellner's endorsement of text messaging and email. I'm sure Miss Manners will back me up on this one.
Nice to know that downtown Houston continues to be a success story as far as housing goes.
Apartment occupancy in downtown is 89 percent, according to data gathered in the spring by Central Houston, a group that promotes downtown revitalization. That's up from 83 percent the year before.By contrast, the overall trend for apartments citywide is down slightly by 1.7 percent over the past 12 months, because of new supply and Katrina evacuees moving out of apartments, according to Apartment Data Services, a research firm.
"We have so many more employees in downtown than we did a year ago," said Laura Van Ness, director of business development for Central Houston, after listing more than a dozen big companies moving to the central business district or leasing more space there.
With the top-class office vacancy rate now at less than 10 percent, developers are moving forward with residential projects to capture some of the anticipated demand.
The Finger Cos. is building a 37-story tower near Discovery Green, a new downtown park being developed near the convention center. The building, to be named One Park Place, will have 346 apartments.
[...]
Another developer is proposing to buy and renovate the long vacant Texaco Building with more than 400 residential units.
Michael Hassler, a real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis, who's marketing the property, won't name the developer because of a confidentiality agreement but says it's a well-known group that's "very committed."
Not everyone has been so determined.
A prime block on Main Street and Texas Avenue sat vacant for years while a developer pondered plans for a condo project called the Shamrock Tower. The plans were ultimately scrapped and the block is still abandoned.
The developers of Houston Pavilions, a three-block, mixed-use project proposed along Main Street, said they're not going forward with two residential towers that once were part of the plan, focusing instead on the retail and office components.
But it wasn't for lack of demand. Pavilions developer Geoffrey Jones said parts of the project became too costly after last year's hurricanes caused prices for construction materials to spike.
"What we've generally found was demand for all real estate product types in downtown is as strong as we've seen it in years," he said.
That's great. As the article notes, the Enron collapse really did a number on downtown, but it's bounced back bigtime. Now if only we could get some of that construction and demand to spread out to Midtown, we'd really have something. Gotta be patient, I suppose.
You've probably heard about HISD's software problems. How should the fix this? Well, they could try calling Technology Bytes for help. Fighting Jay Lee (none more surly than he) has an imagined conversation between the Geek Radio folks and Dr. Abelard Saavedra. It's funny stuff, so check it out.
We've already established that Olivia likes to know the names of all of the characters in her books, including those whom the author does not identify. The subject came up again on Monday night as we read Down on the Farm with Grover.
At the end of the book, a large group of Sesame Streeters come with Grover to his uncle's farm to help with the harvest. Olivia knows who most of these characters are, but on Monday night she pointed to one of them and said "Who's that?"
This time, I knew the answer. "That's Roosevelt Franklin," I said, pleased to be one step ahead of my daughter.
"No!" she said, which totally took me aback. What do you mean, "no"? I know who my Muppets are, dammit!
We argued about this for a minute or two, at which point I used the master debate tactic of "Daddy says it's time to get into bed and go night-night", which worked better than my answer to her identity question went. After lights out, I went downstairs and told the story to Tiffany.
"Oh," Tiffany said. "She asked me that question last night. I didn't know what his name was, so we picked a name for him. We decided his name was Sammy."
Well, at least that explains why she didn't like my name for the character. I think the lesson here is that the answer is always "Go ask Mommy". I feel confident that this will serve me well in other situations, too. For as long as I can get away with it, anyway.
The coda to the story is that Tiffany read this book to Olivia last night. The name question came up again, but this time Tiffany informed Olivia that Daddy had done some research and now we knew that the character's name really was Roosevelt Franklin. Not in Olivia's world, he's not - she insisted on Sammy. Eventually, a compromise was reached. The character's name is now officially Sammy Roosevelt Franklin. I'll be informing the Children's Television Workshop later today.
Remember the Office of State and Federal Relations and the partisan DeLay-connected lobbyists that were hired by Governor Perry to supplant them? (Sure you do - see here and here for background.) Well, the Statesman remembers them, and they call on the governor they endorsed to fire them now that we're living with a Democratically-controlled Congress.
Now that the Democrats will control the agenda in the Capitol, the Republican lobbyists the state's leaders hired can only hurt Texans, not help them. It was a mistake when Gov. Rick Perry chose to hire lobbyists connected to DeLay, now languishing in disgrace and facing criminal charges, and the Washington lobby he cultivated. It's a bigger mistake to continue to pay them $15,000 a month.Texas is already represented in Congress by the state's Office of State-Federal Relations, an office with a full-time staff to look out for state interests. But pushing the partisan line espoused by DeLay, Perry cut that staff and awarded contracts to the Federalist Group and Cassidy & Associates.
A chief lobbyist with the Federalist Group is Drew Maloney, a former chief of staff under DeLay who donated thousands of dollars to defeat Texas Democrats. Among those Democratic Party targets was U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco, now this state's most powerful member of Congress.
Another state-paid lobbyist is Todd Boulanger, a former associate of the infamous Jack Abramoff, convicted of conspiring to bribe public officials. Both Maloney and Boulanger are Republican Party stalwarts who actively worked to defeat Democrats. It cannot help Texans to have them representing the state before a Democratically controlled Congress.
Using taxpayer money to pay private, partisan lobbyists was a dubious strategy to begin with. Now that the worm has turned in Washington, Perry's decision could be disastrous for Texas. These lobby firms ignored Democrats all year - and worse, worked to defeat them - and the Democrats won't forget it.
Democratic leaders have asked Perry to dump these wasteful contracts with tainted lobbyists and let the Office of State-Federal Relations handle the state's lobby work in the new Congress. Perry should heed that advice.
What will it be, Governor? Fiscal responsibility and political sanity, or a continued handout to an undeserving firm that won't do anyone who isn't on the gravy train any good? The choice is yours.
Don't know if it's 1400 bills or not, but there has been a lot of pre-filing activity for the 80th Lege.
Legislators proposed measures that would crack down on child sex predators, restore health benefits to children in low-income families and lower the age for starting school.Texas children born to undocumented immigrants, however, would be denied public education, welfare, food stamps, public housing, disability benefits and more under one sweeping proposal.
Monday marked the first day lawmakers could file bills for the 80th legislative session, which starts Jan. 9.
Ideas ranged from the serious - raising the minimum wage and allowing Texans to use deadly force to protect their vehicles - to the frivolous - making the bolo the official state tie.
House members filed 212 bills and resolutions, and senators filed 86 pieces of legislation. Thousands more will be filed before the session ends in late spring.
Alas, the story does not say who filed the Bolo Bill. I'll have to keep an eye open for that one.
Vince has been indefatigable in tracking the bills so far. Here's some links:
Minimum wage, filed by Houston's State Sen. Rodney Ellis.
Paper trail for electronic voting, about which its sponsor State Rep. Aaron Pena has more.
There's sure to be more. I'm still looking to see if an anti-municipal WiFi bill will get introduced, and to see who will carry the bogus voter-ID water now that Mary Denny is a private citizen. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: As noted by Grits, there's also another bill to ban municipalities from issuing tickets based on red light cameras.
I confess, I've been enjoying a few moments of schadenfreude over the recent electoral results. Not very grownup of me, I know, but let's just say there was a little pent-up emotion that needed someplace to go. And what's the point of having a blog if you can't use it for things like that?
Thanks to South Texas Chisme, I see I have another opportunity to gloat.
James Leininger spent nearly $5 million this year trying to elect voucher-friendly lawmakers to the Legislature, but now the retired San Antonio businessman and physician is farther from his goal than ever.
Sweeeeeeeeeeet.
The success of the Texas Parent PAC leaves Leininger with roughly eight fewer House supporters than he had before last week's elections.[...]
While Leininger invested heavily in Republican candidates to advance that cause, San Antonio business leader Charles Butt gave the Texas Parent PAC nearly $300,000 to support anti-voucher candidates, according to campaign finance reports.
Butt, chairman and CEO of the H-E-B grocery chain his family founded 101 years ago, contributed another $375,000 directly to Republican and Democratic candidates endorsed by the Parent PAC.
"It tells me that a small group of people can make a difference," Carolyn Boyle of Austin said of the Texas Parent PAC, which she helped form last year after growing frustrated at repeated legislative efforts to approve a voucher program.
ParentPAC, baby. Feel the power. Here's a full accounting:
Winning candidates endorsed by Texas Parent PACDistrict 32: Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi (defeated Republican Rep. Gene Seaman)
District 47: Valinda Bolton, D-Austin (open seat) (note: Republican open seat)
District 48: Donna Howard, D-Austin (won a special election earlier this year for an open seat) (note: another Republican open seat)
District 54: Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen (open seat)
District 71: Susan King, R-Abilene (open seat)
District 72: Drew Darby, R-San Angelo (defeated Rep. Scott Campbell in the GOP primary)
District 85: Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton (open seat) (note: Democratic open seat that had been expected to flip)
District 94: Diane Patrick, R-Arlington (defeated House Public Education Chairman Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, in the GOP primary)
District 101: Thomas Latham, R-Sunnyvale (defeated Rep. Elvira Reyna in the GOP primary)
District 107: Allen Vaught, D-Dallas (defeated House Public Education Committee member Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas)
District 118: Joe Farias, D-San Antonio (open seat)
District 134: Ellen Cohen, D-Houston (defeated Republican Rep. Martha Wong)
That's three Republican incumbents defeated by Democrats, three Republican incumbents defeated in primaries, and two Republican open seats won by Democrats. Go ahead and find me a better example of political muscle than that.
Message still not received:
Impressive as their win Tuesday might be, it's not likely to discourage voucher supporters."He is more determined than ever," Leininger spokesman Ken Hoagland said.
With elections over, the debate can focus on the benefits of a school voucher program that would allow some low-income children to transfer from inner city schools to private schools, he said.
"And the merits of school choice are so compelling that we will win the support of both Republican and Democrat legislators," Hoagland said.
Too bad those so-called merits can't win the support of Republican and Democratic voters. Thanks for playing, have a nice day.
And just for good measure, Clay Robison noted another big loser this season.
Houston-based Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which has had much success in recent years helping to elect pro-tort reform (and mostly Republican) legislators, backed losing candidates in several high-profile races this year.[...]
TLR's biggest loss was the $700,000 it spent on former San Antonio Sen. Frank Madla's losing race in the Democratic primary.
It spent $434,000 trying to help Republican Bill Welch win an open, but formerly Republican House seat in Austin. The Democrat won. It gave $146,000 to Rep. Joe Nixon's unsuccessful Senate race in the Republican primary in Houston.
And it contributed $72,000 to Republican Rep. Martha Wong's losing re-election bid and $83,000 to Republican Talmadge Heflin's unsuccessful comeback try, both in Houston.
TLR gave $200,000 to George Antuna, a Republican who lost a hard-fought House race in San Antonio.
No refunds, fellas. And thanks for the memories, Clay.
One often hears that newspaper endorsements are not worth much in elections these days. But how much is "not much"? I think we can at least get a data point from this year's campaign.
There's a clear bifurcation in the nine statewide races other than the Governor's race, which is sui generis. Let's look at them by each group. The first group is the Republican high performers:
U. S. Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison REP 2,658,657 61.68%
Barbara Ann Radnofsky DEM 1,554,324 36.06%
Scott Lanier Jameson LIB 97,582 2.26%Total Votes Cast 4,310,563
Lieutenant Governor
David Dewhurst REP 2,512,197 58.18%
Maria Luisa Alvarado DEM 1,616,945 37.45%
Judy Baker LIB 188,956 4.38%Total Votes Cast 4,318,098
Attorney General
Greg Abbott REP 2,553,610 59.50%
David Van Os DEM 1,598,378 37.25%
Jon Roland LIB 139,525 3.25%Total Votes Cast 4,291,513
Comptroller of Public Accounts
Susan Combs REP 2,542,917 59.44%
Fred Head DEM 1,584,325 37.03%
Mike Burris LIB 150,996 3.53%Total Votes Cast 4,278,238
Every GOP candidate here got at least 2.5 million votes, turnout was at least 4,278,000 votes, and every Democrat got less than 38%. These were the highest-profile GOP candidates, all of whom spent money on TV advertising (though I for one never saw a KBH ad; she probably needed to advertise the least, however).
Now let's look at the other half:
Commissioner of the General Land Office
Jerry Patterson REP 2,314,965 55.08%
vaLinda Hathcox DEM 1,720,985 40.95%
Michael A. French LIB 166,935 3.97%Total Votes Cast 4,202,885
Commissioner of Agriculture
Todd Staples REP 2,304,494 54.75%
Hank Gilbert DEM 1,759,507 41.80%
Clay Woolam LIB 144,970 3.44%Total Votes Cast 4,208,971
Railroad CommissionerElizabeth Ames Jones REP 2,267,047 54.03%
Dale Henry DEM 1,751,844 41.75%
Tabitha Serrano LIB 177,315 4.23%Total Votes Cast 4,196,206
Justice, Supreme Court, Place 2
Don Willett REP 2,124,205 50.93%
William E. Moody DEM 1,876,845 45.00%
Wade Wilson LIB 169,777 4.07%Total Votes Cast 4,170,827
Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals
Sharon Keller REP 2,343,845 56.64%
J.R. Molina DEM 1,794,432 43.36%Total Votes Cast 4,138,277
Here, every Democrat exceeds 40%, partly due to getting at least 100,000 more votes than the top performer in the other group, and partly because every Republican gets between 200,000 and 400,000 fewer votes than their counterparts. I'd mostly credit that effect to the lack of TV exposure in these races - nobody was able to get on TV and really persuade some low-information folks to push the button for them. This I think is a better reflection of the base vote for each party. It's largely on par with the 2004 results, when the downballot statewide races were as obscure.
The two that stand out are JR Molina and Bill Moody. Both were on the ballot in 2002 (and again in '04 in Molina's case), so they might have had a bit of name ID advantage over their peers. Molina also benefitted from not having a Libertarian on the ballot to potentially suck up anti-Republican votes.
Then there's Bill Moody. What's the one thing he had in this race that nobody else did? A long list of newspaper endorsements from all parts of the state. He wound up with an average of 133,000 more votes than his peers in this group who were also in a three-person race, while Don Willet got 171,000 fewer votes. That's a 7.5 point swing towards Moody, which you can see in the percentages - he got a bit more than three points more than his peers, and Willet got about four points less than his. Perhaps there were other factors in play here - maybe Moody's walk across Texas generated more positive press for him than I'm crediting him with - but based on this, given that advertising was not a major factor in this race, I'd say the answer is that all those endorsements were worth about seven points. And that's not too shabby.
I realize that there are still votes being counted and whatnot, but I find this to be strange. Compare the Secretary of State numbers for Williamson County to the Williamson County Clerk numbers. There's about a 6000 vote difference in the two totals, with the SOS having higher numbers. Given that there were about 84,000 votes cast (or 90,000, if you believe the SOS), that's a pretty big chunk. For comparison purposes, the Harris County Clerk and the SOS differ by about 1000 votes, out of over 500K cast. That I can understand. The WillCo difference is harder to comprehend. Any suggestions?
Eye on Williamson pointed this out to me. Note that if the WillCo Clerk numbers are accurate, then incumbent State Rep. Mike Krusee in HD52 got less than 50% of the vote total. (He barely exceeds it if the SOS is right.) Paul Burka noted this as well, saying that "A well financed campaign that hammered [Krusee] for his support of toll roads might have taken him out. And yet, Democrats completely ignored Karen Felthauser. She raised barely $15,000 for the entire campaign." True, though it should be noted that Burka didn't exactly have this one on his radar, either. I called that race a sleeper before it was cool.
I also think there will still be an opportunity in HD52 in 2008. The district wasn't that strongly Republican in 2004, and Williamson County overall is slowly turning purple. In 2002, John Sharp had the high score for Democrats at 39.74%, with Kirk Watson at 38.44%. Ron Kirk and Margaret Mirabal were between 35 and 36%, and all other Dems scored less than 32%, including seven who were below 30%. In 2006, there were six scores in the 36-39 range, with nothing outside the four-way Governor's race below 30. There's even two direct comparisons:
Bill Moody, 2002 - 32.13% (in a two-way race)
Bill Moody, 2006 - 39.30% (in a three-way race)
JR Molina, 2002 - 27.65% (in a three-way race)
JR Molina, 2006 - 38.70% (in a two-way race)
I'd call that a positive trend. Still a ways to go, of course, but at least it's in the right direction.
And for the HD52 race, Mike Krusee won 64.55% of the vote in 2002. It's possible that toll roads were a one-time-only issue, but I doubt it. Even if they were, that's a lot of support to lose in four years. He needs to be a top target in 2008.
Via Houstonist, here's ten more intersections to watch out for.
So far, the department's first 10 cameras have captured more than 3,000 traffic violators since their installation Sept. 1. Officials are planning to install a total of 50 cameras by early next year. The fine for being caught running a red light on camera is $75."They've proven what we suspected, the seriousness of the problem of people running red lights - just disregarding them, potentially putting others in harm's way, and not obeying traffic laws," HPD Sgt. Michael Muench said in a statement today.
Like the first batch, the 10 cameras are located at high-accident sites throughout the city. A warning sign before each location will notify drivers that they are approaching an intersection that is being photo enforced.
Anybody else get the insert in their water bill last month warning about the red light cameras and admonishing you to not run red lights? Boy, I'd have never thought of that. Good thing there's a campaign to alert people that running red lights is against the law. It was such an obscure point of law before that.
(Yes, I'm being sarcastic. There are many valid complaints about the red light camera program. In my opinion, ignorance of the law is not one of them.)
Violators have 45 days after the ticket is issued to pay the $75 fine or request a hearing. Those who ignore the ticket will receive a final warning before a collection agency attempts to collect the debt.If the vehicle's registered owner was not driving the car at the time the violation was recorded, they can submit a declaration of non-liability to the court for its review.
I'd heard from a friend who got a ticket a few weeks ago after his mechanic drove his car through a camera-observed light that challenging the ticket via sworn affidavit was not an option. I'm not sure if that was poor communication on the city's part, or if this really is a new thing. Either way, be aware of it.
The 10 newest ntersections are:
- East Freeway westbound service road and Uvalde
- Sam Houston Parkway southbound service road and Beechnut
- Bissonnet westbound and West Sam Houston Parkway South service road
- Hillcroft southeast bound and Southwest Freeway service road
- FM 1960 West westbound and Tomball Parkway service road
- Chimney Rock southbound and Southwest Freeway service road
- S. Gessner southbound and Beechnut
- Southwest Freeway northbound service road and Fountain View
- Westheimer eastbound and West Loop South service road
- Westpark eastbound and Southwest Freeway service road
The full list of 20 camera-enabled intersections is here. Consider yourself notified.
The folks at the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) have just released a paper on Updating and Outsourcing Enrollment Public Benefits: The Texas Experience. It's a 60-page PDF file, just the thing for a little light reading before bedtime. Here's the capsule review:
Outsourcing was supposed to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars and improve services to clients, but so far, the state has not saved a penny in administrative costs. The children, elderly, and persons with disabilities who rely on these services have suffered through a frustrating enrollment process, been caught in long backlogs, and often been wrongly denied benefits. In May 2006, the state delayed further rollout of the system indefinitely and asked state staff to take over. This report shares the Texas experience.
And here's a brief excerpt from the section entitled "Does Outsourcing Hinder or Help?", which starts on page 10:
The most commonly cited reason for outsourcing is that it will increase competition, thereby improving quality and lowering cost. However, competition for the right to administer a program differs from competition to provide the service itself in several ways. These differences may undermine government’s ability to reap the benefits of competition.First, there is no competitive market for eligibility determination for public benefits. States that decide to outsource this function are essentially buying a service that no company currently sells. States would have to recruit companies into the business. These companies would have to make a huge investment to enter the market, including hiring, training, and supervising staff and numerous other steps necessary to establish an eligibility determination system. The start-up costs would be significant. The few companies able to respond to a contract offer would in essence assume monopoly power.
The lack of a competitive market also increases the risk that the contractor will be unable to perform as promised. Because bidders lack the present capacity to offer those services, selecting a contractor will involve a great deal of speculation by the state. If the contract is awarded based on the lowest bid, then bidders may grossly underestimate the cost of providing the services in order to win the contract. At this point, the state faces a difficult decision: pay the contractor more or let services to clients suffer. The disruption, cost, and risk of finding a new contractor or rebuilding its public system may leave the state with little practical choice but to stay with the contractor even if the company has performed poorly or is demanding a higher price.
Moreover, any competition would effectively end upon the signing of a contract. Because of the cost and disruption of awarding a contract and the significant start-up costs involved in transferring responsibilities to the contractor, contracts are likely to run for many years, eliminating any competition for long periods of time.
In effect, the state assumes most of the risk in the inherent uncertainty over the costs of outsourcing eligibility
determination: if the contract price proves to be more than is needed to run the eligibility system, the contractor keeps the profits, but if it proves inadequate, the contractor has leverage to ask for more money.Another significant risk in outsourcing eligibility determination is that it is hard to measure performance, which makes crafting an effective contract a challenge. Research suggests that the key factor in predicting success in outsourcing is whether there is “clear accountability for results, clear criteria for performance, and clear public objectives.” In this regard, private companies may be well suited for certain functions related to public benefits administration, including straightforward services such as processing payments, data processing, or computer systems design. By contrast, government functions that require the “exercise of judgment to weigh competing priorities” have proven difficult to outsource successfully.
The steps required to determine eligibility for public benefits range from simple, objective functions to complex, subjective determinations. More objective acts, such as scanning documents or helping a person to fill out an application, are easy to measure and therefore more conducive to outsourcing. More subjective determinations, such as identifying a disability that may prevent an applicant from meeting program requirements, are much harder to measure and therefore less conducive to outsourcing.
Eligibility determination also requires accommodating or balancing many different policies that at least partially conflict - for example, controlling for fraud while encouraging maximum participation by eligible families. Designing a contract that strikes an appropriate balance between the competing priorities of program integrity and program access is extremely difficult.
When deciding whether to outsource, states should consider which steps in the eligibility determination process lend themselves to outsourcing, and how hard it will be to measure performance.
Those of you who (like me) have been through a major IT outsourcing project should recognize the truth of these words. Look for Texas' contract with Accenture to outsource HHSC services, which has been a dismal failure so far, to be a big issue during the 80th Legislative session.
I just want to add my voice to the chorus here. I actually think all of the statewide candidates, who ran their races in the face of incredible adversity and indifference, deserve thanks, though I'd thank some of them more than others. You all know how I feel about those who chose to support someone besides Bell for Governor, so I won't rehash that here. I agree wholeheartedly with what the BOR folks say, and I hope it's a lesson for those who need it for next time. And on we go from here.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Rice Owls football team - winner of four straight (three on the road) and five of six - are tied for thirty-third in the Harris Interactive College Football poll. This is the same Rice Owls about which a writer for Football.com said before the season "The Owls could get into the win column, but it may be tough." The Owls have had a tough season all right - since September 9 they've played exactly one game at Rice Stadium - but they have five wins to show for it, which is at least four more than most experts thought they'd get. With two more, they will almost certainly be headed for a bowl game.
Those next two games are at home, this Saturday and next Saturday. If you've got a connection to Rice, or if you just want to see the best wide receiver in the country (now with a nation's best 16 touchdown catches), come on out to Rice Stadium and show the team a little love. As an extra special bonus, you get to see me in my MOB uniform cavorting on the field at halftime. Need I say more? Go Rice!
Congratulations to the Houston Dynamo for winning the MLS championship in their inaugural year. I confess, I went back to my normal level of interest in soccer about five minutes after the whole team name flap ended, so I wasn't exactly paying attention to this. Will their achievement help them to get a new soccer-specific stadium? I don't know, but I guess this means I have to start paying attention again.
Anyway. Congrats to the Dynamo on your championship. Now you have only three more to go to match the Comets...
Now hear this: If you are not a fan of A Perfectly Cromulent Blog, then you surely will not like Blog 9 From Outer Space, in which Pete proves beyond any remaining doubt that he really does know more about crappy movies than you do. That's twice the snarkery for the same low price. What more could you want? That is all.
I think the only complaint I have about this Chron story that postmortems the decline and fall of Tom DeLay is that it didn't quote anyone who is truly enjoying it. I mean, c'mon, if there was ever a time for schadenfreude, this would have been it.
So I'll fill in the void. Everything DeLay did is now in shambles. Democrats now have a bigger majority in Congress than the GOP ever did. Just about everyone connected to Jack Abramoff has been unelected or convicted. DeLay himself, his wife and his daughter are all still in the crosshairs of the feds in this matter. His Congressional seat is now held by one of the Dems he aimed to wipe out in 2004, and the local GOP couldn't even contest it on a level playing field because of DeLay's actions in stepping down. And he still has criminal charges pending against him in Austin. To quote Weird Al: "You don't get to come back tomorrow. You don't even get a lousy copy of our home game. You're a complete loser!"
I'm sure I'll continue to follow DeLay's journey through the justice system, but beyond that I don't expect to waste a whole lot more energy on him. He's got nothing useful or particularly interesting to say - it's all bombast and self-serving rationalizations at this point. He's just another private citizen now, so who cares what he thinks? Enjoy your slide back into obscurity, Tom. I know I will.
This story tells you all you need to know about why "historic preservation" is basically an oxymoron in Houston.
After years of disappointments, Houston preservationists were elated four years ago when the City Council adopted laws that gave homeowners new tools to preserve the character of their neighborhoods.On Friday, as they absorbed the news that the city Planning Commission had approved a condominium development that circumvents one of those laws, the activists said they felt betrayed.
"The prevailing lot-size ordinance has failed," said Jane Cahill, an Old Sixth Ward preservation leader who serves on the Planning Commission's neighborhood preservation committee.
The lot-size measure allows residents to petition for a minimum lot size on a block or group of blocks, preventing the town home development that was proliferating in many older neighborhoods as the market heated up for housing close to downtown.
Assistant City Attorney Deborah McAbee, however, advised the commission that the measure didn't apply to condominiums, and that the panel was legally obliged to approve an application expected to result in the construction of four condos alongside 80-year-old bungalows in Sunset Heights northwest of downtown.
Condominiums are treated differently from town homes because the land beneath them is owned collectively by the purchasers and thus need not be subdivided into smaller lots, McAbee said.
This earlier story has more.
Commissioner Jim Jard, one of eight who voted for the application, said it was one of the most distasteful actions he's taken in his years on the panel."Usually when I leave here, I feel good about what we've done even if it is unpopular," Jard said. "But this is not a good result. It's wrong."
Two commissioners voted against the project and six abstained.
Doesn't exactly sound like overwhelming support from the Planning Commission, does it? I realize that they have to follow the advice of the City Attorney, and that they have a strong incentive to take actions that won't get them sued (which might happen in this case anyway), but maybe they needed to study this one a little more.
City Council members Adrian Garcia, who represents the neighborhood, and Sue Lovell pleaded with the commission to find a way to derail the project."This effectively circumvents the spirit of the prevailing lot-size ordinance," Garcia said. "This project is essentially what they are trying to prevent."
Commission Chairwoman Carol Lewis said the panel is reviewing reports from subcommittees aimed at strengthening neighborhood-protection rules.
Lewis suggested that Houston voters created the potential for such problems when they rejected zoning in a 1993 referendum.
City Controller Annise Parker, who was an author of the prevailing lot-size ordinance when she served on the City Council, said the condominium project violates the intent of the measure.
"With the city's guidance, the residents of Sunset Heights have worked hard to preserve the neighborhood qualities that attracted them to purchase homes there," Parker said in a memorandum to City Attorney Arturo Michel and Marlene Gafrick, the city planning and development director.
"I can certainly understand their frustration and anger at being told the work was in vain," Parker wrote.
Marty Hajovsky has been on this as well. He thinks the Planning Commission should have stuck to the intent of the law and rejected the application. Whatever the case, if this law can't stop condos, then neighborhoods like the Heights have no means to maintain their uniqueness, and that's a situation that cannot stand. Either the law needs to be reinterpreted, which means defending it against the inevitable lawsuit, or it needs to be fixed. Anything else is an admission that there's no value in neighborhood identity.
Houstonist also chimes in.
Remember the story about the noise complaint at the bar Walter's on Washington that turned into a national YouTube cause celebre when the police got a little overenthusiastic? Sure you do - the background is here and here if you need a little refresher. Well, someone had to have called the cops in the first place, and as you might imagine there was no love lost between the homeowner and the bar owner prior to that. The Chron has the story, about which I want to make a couple of points.
"It's not really the noise level," Scott Peveto said. "It's actually the bass that becomes so obnoxious and obscene that our windows shake and the glasses in our cabinets are clanking together."One month after a loud-music complaint ended in a controversial scuffle between Walter's patrons and a Houston police officer, the noise hasn't decreased, the Pevetos said. Both parties blame Houston's lack of zoning for their conflict. Police, however, say that just because the bar was there before the Pevetos, Walter's doesn't have a right to violate the city's noise ordinance.
Walter's owner Pam Robinson said it's hard to sympathize with the Pevetos because her bar has been a live-music venue at 4215 Washington for six years, long before the Pevetos bought their home.
"I do have sympathy, but these people never talk to me personally. They just call police," said Robinson. "I don't think that's neighborly. It seems they have the intention of running me out of business."
As I've said before, I generally don't have a whole lot of sympathy for the homeowners in this situation. They should have been better informed. Obviously, Walter's should obey the law, and if they don't, then the law should be enforced. But what I take away from this, once again, is that one really needs to know what moving into an area like that, where one is close to commercial establishments, means before buying.
Our neighborhood has had to deal with noise issues recently, with the bars being the newcomers in this case. There was a sometimes-contentious civic association meeting with the bar owners a couple of months ago to talk about the complaints. I haven't heard anything since I attended that meeting, so perhaps things are better now. I do think some talk between the Pevetos and Ms. Robinson would have been wise (and still would be), but I think it's safe to say that each side has some knowledge of the other's position by now. Is it just one household that's complaining? (One of their neighbors doesn't seem to exercised about the noise, it seems.) If so, and if Walter's is obeying the city noise ordinances, then maybe the Pevetos need to invest in their own soundproofing. If not, then Walter's needs to be held accountable.
Other local venues have had similar battles with residents in gentrifying neighborhoods. The Montrose club Helios recently stopped live-music performances after townhome residents complained. Police say clubs must comply with noise ordinances regardless of whether they have operated before residents moved into the area."I don't think the ordinance made exceptions for who was there first," said Houston Police Capt. Dwayne Ready. "That's one of the hazards of living in a no-zoning environment. Everyone has to live by ordinances."
And the lack of zoning, which means you can have a "quiet neighborhood" right next to a busy entertainment area, adds to the housebuyer's burden in Houston. In the end, though, either Walter's is obeying the law or it isn't. Do the Pevetos need to be told to live with it, or does Walter's need to be told to turn it down? I note that Captain Ready doesn't really answer that question. You can read this story as "cranky neighbors overreact to law-abiding establishment", or as "outlaw bar takes advantage of lax noise-ordinance enforcement". It'd be nice to know which interpretation is closer to the truth.
By the way, in that earlier post on bar noise and homeowner complaints, the two Houston Press links have gone bad; apparently, they've redone their archives. The stories are now here and here. Meanwhile, Blue Bayou gives his take on the situation.
Good news! You just won the lottery. Well, not the big prize, but the little one, $3 worth for correctly picking three out of the six numbers. You go to your local Kwik-E-Mart to claim your winnings, and...Well, check out this Local 2 investigation and find out. It's not a pretty picture. Link via Houstonist.
Via Jeb comes the good news that many public transportation projects that were up for a vote in 2006 succeeded. Not everything passed, but more did than didn't, including some ambitious ones. Check it out.
And just as a hangover follows a beer binge, so does the convening of the Texas Legislature follow a fall election. According to Grits, the members have already been busy pre-filing bills. Most of them will never see the light of day, but you can be sure that the big battles to come will be over legislation that's been written up and ready to go for awhile. We still have a special election and a Speaker's race to get through, but before you know it there'll be committee hearings and floor votes. Get ready, because here it comes.
The Chron picks up on the story that Vince broke on Thursday about State Rep. Jessica Farrar's letter to the Texas Ethics Commission regarding lobbyists and the Speaker's race. To recap:
Farrar, a Craddick opponent, said members and members-elect, whom she refused to name, also are being threatened if they don't vote for Craddick. She said she has voice mail and e-mail messages to support her allegations, but would not allow a Houston Chronicle reporter to view or hear them.Farrar, who voted against Craddick in 2005, said she has not personally received the calls but has heard from several members who have. She declined to identify them or the lobbyists who have made the contact.
"My purpose is not to expose any (House) members or members of the lobby. I want the practice to stop," she said.
Farrar is asking the Texas Ethics Commission to issue an advisory opinion on whether the conduct would constitute "legislative bribery" and if she has a duty to report the activity to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. She said the calls are coming from the speaker's office, former legislators and registered lobbyists.
Chris Cutrone, a spokesman for Craddick, said he doesn't know what lobbyists are doing but that it's "completely false that anybody in the speaker's office is making threatening phone calls." He said Craddick is looking forward to the Ethics Commission's ruling.
The Ethics Commission's legal staff plans to draft an advisory opinion in time for the commission's Nov. 27 meeting, said Natalia Luna Ashley, commission general counsel.
We'll see what they say. The TEC is toothless, but it's all we've got. At least we can have some definition here, and at least some attention is being paid to what's going on.
There's another aspect to the story, as we know:
Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston and a member of Craddick's leadership team, said he's been threatened by fellow Democrats."I'm not too pleased with their tactics right now," said Bailey, chairman of the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee. "(Farrar) told a friend of mine that I better be a loyal Democrat or they'll run someone against me."
During a Wednesday meeting of Harris County Tejano Democrats, Bailey's name did come up because it appears on the pledge list for Craddick, Farrar said.
She denied telling anyone the Democrats will run a candidate against Bailey in the next primary election, she said.
It is, of course, too early to talk about who might or might not run for a given office in 2008. Everything is speculation at this point. But let's be clear here: Supporting and enabling Tom Craddick is a huge deal, and any Democrat who does so has good reason to watch his back. Bailey has a choice to make. It's a very clear choice, with obvious benefits and costs. He can complain about what Jessica Farrar or anyone else might be saying, but in the end the choice is his. What happens after that should be no surprise to anyone.
Ryan Goodland gives a behind the scenes look at how the Houston GLBT Political Caucus (HGLBTPC) mobilized voters in Montrose to help propel Ellen Cohen to her victory over Martha Wong this week. I can't wait to see the precinct data so I can compare turnout in the Montrose boxes to that of 2002 (yes, that's another to-do list item). Anyway, check out Ryan's account.
There is a second runoff for a Congressional seat, over in Louisiana where their open-primary-in-November style requires a majority and often means overtime for a race or two. This one is of special note because it involves the notorious Rep. William "How'd all that money get in my freezer?" Jefferson. I just want to take a moment and add my endorsement to those of the Netroots for Jefferson's opponent, Karen Carter. If you're not completely tapped out from the November 7 election, consider making a donation to help Carter's cause. Better yet, if you're from that district, volunteer to help her out. This race, unlike CD23, won't make Congress any bluer, as both Carter and Jefferson are Democrats. It can, however, make it cleaner, and after seeing one corrupt Republican incumbent after another go down, it'd be nice to finish the job by sending Rep. Jefferson back to the private sector (and, eventually, the tender mercies of the criminal justice system) with them.
Hard to believe, but there's still an election of consequence for 2006 going on in Texas (*). I'm speaking of the runoff in CD23, where Rep. Henry Bonilla failed to crack 50% of the vote against a big slate of challengers. Here's how that race broke down:
Candidate Party Votes Pct
==============================================
August G. "Augie" Beltran DEM 2,650 2.14%
Rick Bolanos DEM 2,563 2.07%
Henry Bonilla - Incumbent REP 60,147 48.60%
Adrian DeLeon DEM 2,198 1.78%
Lukin Gilliland DEM 13,725 11.09%
Ciro D. Rodriguez DEM 24,593 19.87%
Craig T. Stephens IND 3,344 2.70%
Albert Uresti DEM 14,529 11.74%
Basically, that's Bonilla 48.6, Not Bonilla 51.4, with the Democratic Not Bonillas totalling 48.7. Let's just say this one might come down to who gets their voters out.
According to Stace, who's going to be out there doing some work for runoff candidate Ciro Rodriguez, four of the five other Dems in this race plus the Independent have endorsed Ciro for the runoff.
Earlier Thursday, in the backroom of a South Side restaurant, three of the six onetime Democratic contenders and a stand-in for independent candidate Craig T. Stephens pledged their support to Rodriguez, who won 20 percent of the vote to Bonilla's 49 percent.Among them was Alamo Heights businessman Lukin Gilliland Jr. He loaned himself $700,000 for the campaign and spent more than $1 million on the effort, but came away with only 11 percent of the votes.
"I have always, with the exception of this special election, supported Ciro," Gilliland said. Then he deadpanned: "I thought I was a better fit in this special election - apparently I was wrong."
He's donating his North Side campaign headquarters to Rodriguez, but the longtime Democratic fundraiser said they hadn't discussed whether he'd call potential contributors for Rodriguez.
Democrats Adrian DeLeon of Carrizo Springs and Rick Bolaños of El Paso also endorsed Rodriguez. Bolaños dropped out of the race last month, then threw his support behind Gilliland, calling him the candidate with the financial wherewithal to unseat Bonilla.
Rodriguez said Democrat August "Augie" Beltran also endorsed him but couldn't attend the news conference, emceed by Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio. Beltran couldn't be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Democrat Albert Uresti, a retired San Antonio district fire chief and brother of state senator-elect Carlos Uresti, was the only challenger of Bonilla's not to back Rodriguez.
"We're going to talk to our supporters and see what they want to do," said Uresti, who won nearly 12 percent, garnering about 800 more votes than Gilliland.
I can understand Uresti's reluctance. Ciro has not had a very good track record in recent elections, and he starts out considerably in the hole in terms of finances. There's also the unspoken implication that if Ciro fails to knock of Bonilla this year, someone else might be able to do it in 2008, with a full calendar and a proven blue district to work with. Various local Republicans faced that same dilemma in CD22 this year, but they managed to put up a pretty united front behind Shelley Sekula Gibbs when all was said and done. I don't expect it to last much longer now, but they held it together through Election Day, and that's what matters. They had more time to do that, which I suppose could be a blessing or a curse. The CD23 folks don't have that luxury.
I believe this race is winnable, and I hope that Rahm Emanuel and the DCCC have a little spare change left over to invest in it. It's basically a free shot, so why not make the effort? We'll see what happens.
(*) - Actually, there's two, as a special election for HD29 to replace the late Rep. Glenda Dawson is also on the agenda. Governor Perry hasn't set a date for either of these elections yet, so we don't know who will be in this race. But I do expect it to be reasonably high profile as well, especially given House Speaker Tom Craddick's more perilous situation.
One of these days, I really do plan to blog on topics beyond this year's election. In the meantime, Christof is doing some heavy lifting for me by analyzing the State of Metro Address, in particular the data about light rail ridership. It's a fascinating read, so do check it out. One point, from the first paragraph:
According to METRO surveys, 40% of the people riding the Main Street light rail line weren’t riding buses before.
Count me among that 40%. I've almost never ridden the buses, with the exception of the few times I've been called to jury duty, since I can ride for free and avoid paying to park. As the rail line is convenient to where I work, I've taken it frequently for trips to the Medical Center and downtown, both for business and personal reasons. It's comparable timewise, it lets me get a little exercise, and it's cheaper than paying for gas and parking. What's not to love?
Oh, and the MOB took rail from Rice to Reliant Stadium for the game against UT in September. You haven't truly experienced METRO Rail until you've taken it while wearing a band uniform and hauling a saxophone. And to add to the fun, I ran into a co-worker on the ride home (hi, Sonia!). Hey, from the MOB's perspective, it was way cheaper than chartering a couple of buses, and again wasn't that much more time consuming, given the level of traffic and the lack of ingress and egress points. Again, what more could you want?
Via PDiddie, who feels a little more cheerful after reading it, comes this story of how 2008 may finally be the breakthrough comeback year for Harris County Democrats.
Harris County Democratic and Republican officials have looked at Tuesday's local election results and they agree: The GOP-dominated county government could be recaptured by Democrats as soon as 2008."Believe me, it's being discussed," said Republican Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, a conservative leader.
"It's an amazing wake-up call," said Republican County Commissioner Steve Radack.
In an election when many ethnic minority voters didn't vote, Republican judicial candidates on the bottom half of the Harris County ballot won by an average of fewer than four percentage points - 52 percent to 48 percent.
The average margin four years ago was more than nine points.
If minority voters had been energized, as they might be in the 2008 presidential year, it could have been a Democratic sweep, some analysts said.
They point to Dallas County, long a GOP stronghold, where Democrats claimed every countywide seat elected Tuesday.
That's not quite true about Dallas County. I'll get to that in a second, so bear with me.
Countywide judicial races are considered a good indicator of party feelings. There are so many of them that voters tend to choose based on party affiliation rather than knowledge of individual candidates or issues.The Houston Chronicle calculated the combined GOP margin of victory for all contested races for state district courts, which are elected countywide.
It was 3.9 percentage points, the smallest since at least 1998.
Some Republicans evaluating Tuesday's results said conservatives didn't get out to vote. Others said the problem might be that fewer Republicans voted straight-party tickets because the governor's race included two independent candidates.
Those lost straight-ticket votes might have benefited down-ballot judicial races that voters otherwise didn't bother with, Radack theorized.
Democrats noted that the margin in the judicial races was close even though ethnic minorities who generally vote Democratic skipped the election, which featured few Hispanic or non-Hispanic black candidates in showcase races.
In the 11 state House districts within Harris County that have Anglo majorities, voter turnout Tuesday was 36 percent. In the 12 with non-Hispanic black and Hispanic majorities, the turnout was 26 percent.
Straight ticket voting and relative turnout levels are both checkable facts. They're on my to-do list. On a side note, either we have two Lege districts that are 50-50 Anglo/not Anglo, or someone at the Chron can't count to 25. Just FYI.
Also on my to-do list: Compare the baseline Democratic performance in HDs127 and 129, where Diane Trautman and Sherrie Matula overperformed relative to 2004 by 10 and 8 points, respectively. One of the tenets of the Run Everywhere philosophy is that putting strong candidates in less friendly districts like these is that they can help boost the overall performance of those districts, which in turn can create a nice little rising tide when applied to every GOP-held area. I need to see how well that holds up in those districts. It's certainly possible that there were just a bunch of R-plus-Trautman or R-plus-Matula voters out there. It's also possible that the presence of actual competition might have goosed GOP turnout as well. I don't think that's the case here, given that neither Joe Crabb nor John Davis did much in the way of campaigning. But it needs to be verified one way or the other.
My nominee for Understatement of the Century:
Former Harris County Democratic Chairwoman Sue Schechter said she regrets the party didn't put more money into the judicial races this time. It might have made a difference, she said.
With all due respect to Sue Schechter, let me just say "NO $#|+, SHERLOCK!" Believe me when I say there is no small amount of bitterness about this among the faithful. There'd damn well better be a real, concerted, funded effort in 2008. Won't do much for folks like Mary Kay Green, Richard Garcia, Chuck Silverman, and all the others who gave it their best effort this year and deserved a better fate, but if the lesson is learned then at least there'll be something to show for the lost opportunity.
Now then, regarding Dallas:
A national wave of Democratic voting and changing demographics swept Republicans out of power in the county as the GOP surrendered 42 judgeships, the district's attorney office and the county judge's seat.Twenty-six years after a Ronald Reagan landslide put Republicans in control, Democrats retook the courthouse in a similar, surprising sweep.
"We didn't expect it, but it's fun," Democratic Party Chair Darlene Ewing said Wednesday. As late as 10 p.m. Election Night, she had been predicting Democrats would win, at best, 10 or 15 judicial contests.
"This is what happened in 1980, except this time they did it to us," said Michael Walz, executive director of the Dallas County Republican Party.
The Dems won every contested countywide race, but there were a number of uncontested Republicans on the ballot. If there was some kind of unofficial consensus to challenge the lesser judges but leave the better ones alone, that'd be fine by me. A good judge is a good judge, and while I've no real objection to partisan elections of judges, what colors they wear shouldn't be the be-all and end-all. Besides, a little diversity is good, as some of our judicials argued (sadly unsuccessfully) here. I daresay this was more likely to have been the result of not enough people being willing to run, but I wanted to say this anyway.
Like many of the judicial contests, the race to head the commissioners court was close, with only about 5,500 votes separating [Democrat Jim] Foster and [Republican Margaret] Keliher out of 378,000 votes cast.
And only about 6,500 votes out of over 500,000 cast separated Mary Kay Green and Annette Galik. For want of a nail...
"The Democrats came out in mass, and we were not out as strong," said Walz, the GOP executive director.Walz said some Republicans took Perry's and Hutchison's elections for granted and stayed home not knowing a local landslide was in the making. Four U.S. House incumbents with safely drawn districts that include all or part of Dallas County won re-election.
"This election is a wake-up call to conservatives," Kenn George, the Dallas County Repubican chairman, said in a statement. "Republican candidates cannot continue to win if Republican voters do not show up to vote."
That logic is the flipside of what you hear from the losing team in similar situations: "We expected our guy to lose, so our voters stayed home." I find it a bit self-serving regardless of the perspective, but as with all things relating to numbers, it can be checked. Put it on my ever-lengthening to-do list. I hope to finish some of these items before the 2008 elections gear up.
Via Vince, State Rep. Jessica Farrar (my Rep) has a question for the Texas Ethics Commission regarding the House Speaker's race.
Farrar asked about lobbyists making promises of "good committee assignments," and making threats like, "We can make sure that you remember that you made a mistake," according to the letter, a copy of which which Capitol Annex has obtained (.doc).[...]
Farrar alleges that registered lobbyists who must register as such under Chapter 305 of the Texas Government Code (.pdf) are contacting “Members and Members-elect of the Texas House of Representatives on behalf of a named Speaker candidate and asking Members to agree to vote for the candidate because the candidate will "put [the Member] on good committees," "take care of [the Member,]" and "see to it that [the Member] has the right support in two years."
[...]
Farrar asks for the Commission’s opinion on three key questions:
1. Does this conduct constitute legislative bribery under Subchapter C, Chapter 302, Government Code, because the comments imply (a) either the favorable or unfavorable treatment of the Member in committee assignments, and (b) either the giving or withholding of campaign contributions?
2. Do I have any duty to report this conduct to the appropriate authorities, including the district attorney with jurisdiction over these matters?
3. Does physical evidence, such as voice mail messages and electronic mail messages, need to be turned over to the Commission or the appropriate authorities?
Farrar has been on the receiving end of Craddick's retribution before, so this is of more than just theoretical interest. The stakes are nontrivial here, so let's hope the normally toothless TEC is up to the task.
U.S. Rep. John Culberson easily won re-election, but his party lost the House, which means the Houston Republican could lose some of the committee influence that has made him a force to be reckoned with in Metro's transit plans.But local House Democrats said it is virtually certain Culberson will keep his seat on a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that authorizes transit funds and will continue to have a strong say on projects in his district.
His influence could be diluted if Democrats succeed in placing newly elected Democrat Nick Lampson on the same subcommittee, where Culberson is now the sole Texan among 15 members.
Would that be in addition to Approps (if possible) and Science (I presume)? Note to self: follow up on this.
"I think generally the new majority is much more sensitive to mass transit and light rail," said U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston. "But we still have to work to get our money, and Culberson is going to be on that committee, and we still need to have his help."Green and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said they want Lampson on the subcommittee but also want Culberson to stay.
"He (Culberson) is there from Texas, and although he and I have some philosophical differences, he's helped me get money for some of my transportation projects," Green said.
"I want any Texan I can get to be well-received on any committee they might be on because that is an asset for Texas," Jackson Lee agreed. "What we want is to make sure that we are fighting for Texas and that the resources that Texas sends to Washington come back in full force to the state of Texas."
Despite the new majority, Green said he does not intend to press the issue of whether the University line segment west of Main should go on Richmond or Westpark.
"That's John's concern. It's his area, and we're pretty territorial," Green said. "I'm not going to get involved in the Richmond controversy as long as he stays out of my district."
Putting all that nicey-nicey stuff aside, what Culberson fights against is as important as what he fights for. I sincerely hope that Reps. Green and Jackson Lee remind him of that sometime during the next session.
Robin Holzer of the Citizens Transportation Coalition - a grass-roots group that has supported rail on Richmond and said Culberson should not interfere in the federally prescribed route-selection process - said Lampson's election will probably have little effect on the University line debate.However, Holzer and Jackson Lee said the defeat of another Richmond rail opponent, state Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, could give Metro a freer hand in choosing a route.
As if I needed another reason to celebrate Wong's defeat by State Rep. (how sweet that is!) Ellen Cohen. At Robin and Christof's request, I'll be adding in Wong's numbers to the Richmond rail precinct analysis once the data is available. Given the extra strong push in Montrose to defeat Wong, it'll be interesting to see how much (if at all) her relative totals differ from Culberson's. Stay tuned.
(Too much stuff from yesterday to do it all at once, so here's a couple of catchup posts.)
Now that we know it's inevitable, let's once again review the bidding regarding the upcoming special election to replace Congresswoman-for-a-day Shelley Sekula Gibbs.
Nandy Berry, wife of Councilman Michael Berry, and Melissa Noriega, wife of state Rep. Rick Noriega, are on a long list of prospective candidates for the at-large council seat.Others include lawyers Jay Aiyer and Al Bennett; former district and appeals court Judge Eric Andell; former state Rep. Diana Davila Martinez; former Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO Richard Torres; and Councilman M.J. Khan, who holds a district seat now.
As discussed before, I believe two of those folks are not in fact running. We shall see.
In such an election, with a relatively short campaign period, the key factors are name identification and money. Candidates can start raising money when the City Council calls the election."I had next November in sight originally, and I still do. Whether that is moved up to May depends on how events unfold," said Melissa Noriega, who plans to run at some point.
Family issues will figure into her deliberations about running in May, she said. Her husband will be in Austin for the legislative session from January through June, and they have a 9-year-old son.
Melissa Noriega, a special projects manager for the Houston Independent School District, served as acting representative during the 2005 legislative session while her husband was on military duty in Afghanistan.
Though council members previously have been succeeded by their spouses, Nandy and Michael Berry would be the first couple to serve simultaneously if she won the special election.
Michael Berry is term-limited at the end of 2007, but the Berrys would serve together for several months. That will weigh into her decision, Nandy Berry said.
"I can't get away from the fact or want to get away from the fact that Michael is my husband," she said. "I want people to focus on my thoughts and accomplishments."
Berry is senior counsel at the law firm Locke, Liddell & Sapp, and she previously worked as a securities attorney for El Paso Corp.
Not much to add to this other than my heartiest endorsement for Melissa Noriega, who will make an excellent Council member. If she wins, that will be by far the best thing to come out of Shelley Sekula Gibbs' campaign for Congress.
Oh, and I may as well use this opportunity to give a plug to ABC13's Miya Shay, whose new blog is a welcome addition to the scene. You don't have to read it too long to see she's got the knack for the style, which is something I can't say about all blogging journos. She adds her take on the Shelley Special Election here.
This piece about Nick Lampson's efforts to get on the Appropriations Committee also talks about his political future, based on this year's vote.
Lampson earned 52 percent of the vote in complete but unofficial returns in the 22nd Congressional District, which includes Houston suburbs in Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston and Brazoria counties.The 22nd was a fierce battle, as the GOP tried to hold the seat in the Republican-leaning district when former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned after winning the party's nomination for a 12th term. Courts ruled that the GOP could not replace DeLay on the general election ballot.
Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, backed by the GOP, mounted a strong but unsuccessful write-in bid for the seat. She won a separate special election to serve the final few weeks of DeLay's term.
DeLay had kept the seat firmly in Republican hands for more than 20 years, and the district remains solidly conservative. But with no Republican candidate on the general election ballot, the race became an uphill battle for the GOP.
Now Republicans say it will be equally hard for Lampson to hold the seat in 2008.
Lampson points to the majority he won in each county in the district and says he plans to be an independent voice.
"If I'm able to accomplish what I said I was going to accomplish, the people would be pleased to send me back to Congress. I will earn it," he said.
Shelley Sekula Gibbs did a lot better in the voting than I thought she'd do, about ten points higher than what I thought her ceiling was. She ran a strong campaign, and clearly benefitted from the NRCC voter education effort. I don't think a couple extra million bucks would have made much more difference, because I think in the end time was her main enemy - you can only convince so many people to change their longstanding habits in a couple of months. I'll have to take a hard look at the straight-ticket vote in the CD22 precincts, and I'll have to see if I can determine whether a straight-ticket-plus-one-race vote is recorded as a straight ticket vote or not.
I really thought Bob Smither would do better by virtue of being on the ballot, being as high profile as a Libertarian candidate ever is, and being reasonably compatible from an ideology perspective, while also promising to caucus with the GOP. But the breakdown of the vote was not far from what you'd expect in a standard R/D/L race, and that's a tribute to Sekula Gibbs' efforts. It still wasn't enough, but it wasn't bad at all.
It'll be interesting to see who lines up against Shelley in the '08 GOP primary. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Mayor Dave, and I'm sure several of the other Chosen One wannabes will at least sniff around this one. All I'll say for now is that this will be fun to watch.
As for Lampson's odds in 2008, I've already said that I think he can hold it, though of course it won't be easy and he'll be GOP Target #1. Lampson did win all four counties in CD22, though again I'll want to check straight ticket voting (where possible) before putting too much faith into that. His last go round in the Harris County portion of CD22, where it overlapped with his old district, showed that he can outperform the Dem baseline. I certainly expect he'll do as well in the Clear Lake/NASA area as anyone could. Hal has already crunched some numbers in Fort Bend and showed that the trend there from 2002 is positive. Lampson had an excellent reputation for constituent services, and I expect he'll continue that. His work is cut out for him, but I daresay he knows that, and will hit the ground running
I'm looking out my office window and I could swear I don't see any flying pigs, but they must be out there somewhere if Rick Perry is talking about bipartisanship with a straight face.
Bridge-building and bipartisanship were GOP Gov. Rick Perry's watchwords Wednesday as he looked to his agenda after being re-elected with substantially less than half the vote.Democrats, meanwhile, made gains in the state House.
"Over the next four years, I intend to set a positive tone, to govern with a very inclusive agenda, because Texas is better off when we work together. ... We need less partisanship, we need less cynicism, we need more bridge-building in this state," the governor said.
Uh huh. It might help if you cleaned up the blood from the 2003 redistricting sessions as a first step. Perry has governed with an iron fist from the time that the Republicans took over the State House, and I'll believe he means this when I see it. He can talk all he wants about things like higher education, but unless his idea of reforms comes from the same planet as Democrats', it's as meaningless as phrases like "school finance reform".
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who has sharply criticized Perry over education and health care, said Democrats are willing to work with the governor if he is willing to work with them."We want to benefit all Texans and not just a select few. I hope he's ready to sit down and have that discussion," Coleman said.
Very simply, if what Perry is saying is anything more than the standard rhetoric of someone who doesn't have quite the mandate he wanted, then all he needs to do is actually do the things he's talking about. Like talking to the Garnet Colemans and seeing what they want, then offering specifics to help do it. Talk is cheap, actions matter. That's all there is to it.
The first thing to understand about Juan Garcia's win in HD32 (once you're done doing the Happy Dance) is that Tom Craddick has lost a lot of support since he became House Speaker in 2002. In addition to the seven Democratic pickups since 2002, several loyal Craddick Dems such as Ron Wilson, Al Edwards, and now Vilma Luna are no longer serving. There are a lot more members who have no reason to be loyal to Tom Craddick any more, and Craddick has a much smaller margin of error than he once did.
So with that in mind, let's look at today's story in which Craddick is claiming that enough people still love him to keep him as Speaker.
Craddick, R-Midland, won the speaker's position in 2003 after the GOP dominated the 2002 elections, winning 88 of the 150 state House seats. But his party has lost seats ever since, and will have 81 in January."This is a very shifting landscape, and it's really too early to make any predictions" of a speaker's race, said [Rep. Pete] Gallego, chairman of the House Mexican-American Caucus. "There's certainly a lot of energy and enthusiasm on the Democratic side, but we have to wait and see what percolates on the Republican side.
"There's some conversations going on right now," he said.
[...]
It takes 76 votes to win the top State House position; some Democrats said they might be better off politically with Craddick staying on as speaker.
"I'm torn, frankly. Tom Craddick has been single-handedly responsible for rebuilding the Democratic Party," Gallego said. "His leadership style is not ever going to change. As long as he's the leader, the Democrats will continue to pick up seats."
Republican lawmaker Pat Haggerty of El Paso said he's heard "mutterings" of a GOP challenge to Craddick.
"Is there dissatisfaction? Yeah," Haggerty said. "Most of the unrest comes from not letting the process work and being told how to vote, being told when to vote and being told that if you don't like this, then we'll just get somebody to replace you. Based on the outcome last night, that's a rather empty threat now."
Haggerty was targeted in the GOP primary this past March, but he survived. He's almost certainly not in Craddick's corner, and I would expect the same is true for folks like Tommy Merritt, Delwin Jones, and Charlie Geren, all of whom were attacked by Leininger candidates but lived to tell about it. They took the machine's best shot, and they have no reason to fear it right now.
Several potential Republican speaker alternatives to Craddick did not return phone calls.Republicans can either elect a new speaker, [Rep. Jim] Dunnam said, "or they're going to continue to be strong-armed by Craddick, and Democrats will pick up more seats in the next election."
"He does not allow any members of his own party or the other party to vote their district," Dunnam said. "He coerces them and strong-arms them into doing what he wants done."
Craddick spokeswoman Alexis DeLee said perceptions of a strong-armed Craddick ruling the House are wrong.
"Members vote in the best interests of themselves and their constituents 99 percent of the time," she said. "One percent, they probably vote for other reasons, but I don't think that has anything to do with the speaker."
Craddick has 109 pledges of support for his re-election, she said. "We don't have any reason to believe that those people are going to change their pledge."
To put this as politely as I can, that's pure baloney. I've seen the list of alleged pledges (the Quorum Report has it), and I don't believe it for a minute. Do we know when he got these pledges, for example? Anything collected months ago, before Senfronia Thompson threw her hat in the ring, and before Tuesday's results, is meaningless. Maybe some of these folks made pledges months ago, during the special session. Doesn't mean they still mean it, and it sure doesn't mean they can't or won't take a better offer if one comes along.
What's more, the word I've heard from two different sources is that Craddick's original claim, back in 2002, that he had 100 pledges in hand was phony. It was a straight up bluff, and it worked - Pete Laney chose not to challenge him, and everybody fell in line after that. I see no reason why it wouldn't be the case this time as well. What's Craddick going to do, wring his hands in public and worry that he might not be as all powerful as he once was? Please.
It's simple. Either the Anybody But Craddick forces can get enough people in the here and now to support someone else, or Craddick wins again. Thompson's candidacy gives Dems who might otherwise vote for Craddick a reason not to, at which point it becomes up to the dissatisfied Republicans to take action. Along those lines, it's time to take a look at some of those Dems who are enabling Craddick's Speakership. There's three such members in Houston, and the one I'm looking at is Kevin Bailey, because frankly he'd be vulnerable in a primary if it came down to it. He had a primary challenger this year in his mostly Latino district, but turnout was pathetic - something like 1000 votes cast total (the SOS site is down, so I can't check this). In 2008, when there might actually be a meaningful Presidential primary to vote in, I'd think there'd be a higher level of participation, and it would do Bailey some good to contemplate what else might be motivating voters in two Marches' time.
I'll have more on this later. For now, take what Craddick is saying about his non-binding pledge cards as little more than bluster, because that's all it is.
UPDATE: Paul Burka calls for Craddick to resign as Speaker.
I wanted to put this bit in its own post, because I'm going to visit this theme with a number of candidates over the next few weeks. At the end of that Caller story, we see this:
While the late votes from Odem and Mathis were deal sealers, Garcia said the real story of his victory was about the people who voted for him. In particular, the ones who were willing to cross the political aisle when they went to the polls, including voters in predominantly Republican Aransas County where Garcia fought Seaman almost to a draw, losing by only 176 votes.By comparison, in 2002 popular Democratic San Patricio County Judge Josephine Miller lost to Seaman by about 1,800 votes in Aransas County.
Garcia said he tried to reach all of the voters, both Democrats and Republicans, speaking to better educational opportunities, tougher environmental policies and reformed insurance and tax structures that would lower insurance rates along the coast and reduce property taxes.
In the most conservative reaches of District 32, Garcia defended himself against Seaman's televised ads calling him a "liberal" and a "trial lawyer," explaining repeatedly that he is a civil defense lawyer.
"In a state and country divided by red and blue, we spoke purple," Garcia said. "I cannot tell you how many folks called, e-mailed, pulled over to say, 'Juan, I have never voted for a Democrat before. You are my first one. Don't let us down.'"
You hear that sort of thing a lot. How does it match up to reality? The story gives some of it. In Aransas County, for example, the top votegetter among the Statewide Dems was Bill Moody, who got 2364 votes, for 36.88% of the total. Garcia got 3026 votes and 44.94%. Let's do a table:
County Seaman Pct Garcia Pct Willet Pct Moody Pct
==========================================================
Aransas 3202 47.6 3026 44.9 3702 57.8 2364 36.9
Calhoun 2012 46.1 2164 49.6 1813 43.5 2168 52.0
SPatricio 5346 40.9 7140 54.6 5555 44.0 6601 52.3
Garcia did clearly better in Aransas and San Patricio, and ran even with Moody in Calhoun while Seaman did better than Willet. I won't be able to judge Nueces, where most of the votes are, until I see precinct data, but it's clear that Garcia outperformed the high scoring statewide Democrat overall in the smaller counties. Another point in favor of Run Everywhere, since (with all due respect to Bill Moody), I daresay Juan Garcia was the only Democratic candidate from outside those counties who spent any significant time campaigning in them.
I'll be looking at some other candidates in this fashion as well, which will give me something to do until the precinct data becomes available. Based on my eyeball survey so far, I suspect we'll see a few more examples like this.
It's official, Juan Garcia is Texas' newest State Representative.
When complete, unofficial returns in the District 32 state representative race were released late Wednesday, Garcia received 17,611 of the votes, or 48 percent, to Republican incumbent Gene Seaman's 16,847, or 46 percent. Libertarian Lenard Nelson received 2,038, or 6 percent."Last night about 9 p.m. I put together a concession speech," Garcia told about 150 cheering supporters at his Yorktown Boulevard headquarters Wednesday. "As it happens, we are not going to need it."
The race hinged on three San Patricio County voting precincts, for which election officials hand-counted ballots until almost 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Seaman, who had maintained a 24-vote lead with the three precincts out, could not be reached Wednesday but released a written statement.
"While we are disappointed we did not enjoy the same success we had in past elections, I am very grateful for the 10 years the people of this district allowed me to serve," the statement said.
Garcia said he was thinking about writing his concession speech as the returns continued to favor Seaman as of 9 p.m. Tuesday. While he stayed at his Corpus Christi campaign headquarters to prepare the speech, his campaign manager Christian Archer and supporter Mikal Watts headed to the San Patricio County Courthouse in Sinton, where votes were still being tallied.
Watts, a lawyer and Democratic campaign financier, had tracked results from his laptop all night. When he saw Seaman's lead had diminished and that San Patricio County - which leans Democrat - was missing precinct results, he jumped into the car.
Once in Sinton, he learned the results would be delayed, as election officials repeatedly emerged with promises of "15 more minutes."
Garcia said he started to have hope that he might have a chance after numerous calls from Watts and Archer reporting the results were turning around and that one of the voting precincts still out was in Odem, which is heavily Democratic.
By 2:30 a.m., Archer was pacing the courthouse hallway chanting, "We love Odem. We love Odem."
Garcia had politicked hard in outlying rural regions, including the areas in question.
"We knocked on 85,000 doors," he said. "Ultimately, I think that voters want to see a candidate face-to-face. Even when our polls showed that we were up, we treated this race like we were 30 points down."
San Patricio County Judge Terry Simpson said there were problems counting returns from the three precincts in question because of liquor elections there, and said the electronic machines did not register the returns properly.
Election officials reached an unofficial vote tally by 3 a.m., with all 35 precincts reporting. Election workers were telling Watts and Archer that Garcia was the victor, but the Secretary of State's Office advised them against releasing results until another count could be completed.
"The machines weren't able to scan both the liquor election and candidate ballots," said Stephanie DeLeon, deputy election clerk. "And some of the precinct workers organized their results by party affiliation, which isn't sufficient."
Congratulations, State Representative Juan Garcia! That now gives the House a ratio of 81 Republicans to 69 Democrats, meaning the Dems have gained seven seats since the 2001 redistricting and are halfway back to regaining the majority. Woo hoo!
Here's more on what happened in San Patricio, and a sidebar on how Republicans had pretty good turnout in Nueces, which helped them win some local races.
One thing I missed from before the election but Marc caught is that the Supreme Court followed suit with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in rejecting the injunction against Attorney General Greg Abbott that prevented him from pursuing enforcement of a new provision that criminalized possessing the absentee ballot of a non-relative. As Marc notes, however, Abbott had also asked for an order expediting the case, which was denied. Judge James Dennis of the Fifth Circuit, in removing the injunction, wrote that the "scope of disenfranchisement and interference with protected political activities" under the voter fraud law and "fraudulent practices that allegedly justify" it remain speculative, but the only way to know for sure if the application of this new law is as overly broad as it appeared to him is to let the election play out and review things afterwards. Which is where we now are. I'll be keeping my eyes out for further updates on this case.
From the Juan Garcia campaign:
(Corpus Christi) - State Representative candidate Juan Garcia's campaign for the Texas House will be holding a press conference at their campaign headquarters today announcing their victory in the hotly-contested District 32 race.
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Wednesday, November 8th
Juan Garcia Campaign Headquarters
5333 Yorktown, Suite A
Corpus Christi
"Ten months ago I vowed to reach across the partisan divide to bring new leadership to the Coastal Bend. With the support of thousands of supporters across four counties, we will deliver on that promise: New leadership begins today," said Garcia.
It's not in the papers or on the Secretary of State page yet, but if this holds up that's five Democratic pickups in the State House. Hot dog! Thanks to Kimberly for the tip.
UPDATE: Still nothing in the papers, but the SOS now has it as Garcia 17,379 (48.03%), Seaman 16,777 (46.37%). Woo hoo!
Despite rumors to the contrary, Shelley Sekula Gibbs will indeed go off to Washington to spend Christmas break as a Congresswoman thanks to her special election victory.
"I made a commitment to the voters of District 22," she said at the start of today's regular council meeting. "It would be really wrong of me to say I don't want that vote and that responsibility."Sekula-Gibbs, a Republican, beat out four other candidates in the special election to serve the remaining two months in U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's term.
She lost the general election to Democrat Nick Lampson, however, for a full two-year term as the District 22 representative. He will replace her in January.
She called Lampson this morning to congratulate him.
"It is a short job and people know that," Sekula-Gibbs said of her upcoming job.
She added that she still believes she can accomplish some improvements such as lowering taxes during that time.
As for another bid for the District 22 post, Sekula-Gibbs said she is focused on the current job.
"Certainly, 2008 is around the corner," she said. "I am not going to be campaigning at this juncture."
The write-in candidate, who received almost 61,000 votes in final, unofficial totals, thanked voters for learning how to spell her name.
Sekula-Gibbs said she will fly to Washington, D.C., tonight. She said she doesn't know when the special election results will be certified or when she'll step down from her council seat, but added, "I hope soon."
Since Sekula-Gibbs, an at-large council member, has another year left in her council term, the city could hold a special election to replace her.
First of all, congratulations on the win. I doubt there'll be anything to accomplish beyond picking an office decor, since Congress doesn't normally do all that much at this time of year, and this Congress has even less incentive to try than others might, but knock yourself out.
There's already plenty of speculation about who will run to replace Shelley on City Council. I've heard that MJ Khan is not a candidate, and my educated guess is that Jay Aiyer is also not a candidate. Everybody else in that earlier piece and probably a few more are (as far as I know) still in the hunt. Once Shelley officially steps down and a special election is called for May, at which time the hopefuls can start raising money, we'll know who's a player and who's a pretender.
Shelley got 76,940 votes in the special, compared to 61,949 in the general. Her total barely exceeded Nick Lampson's 76,782 in the general. How many people deliberately voted only once for Shelley, and how many simply forgot to write her in afterwards is a question I can't answer. I'll say this: I at least would have voted for her in the special were I a CD22 resident, for the express purpose of getting her to resign from Council. I'll leave it up to you to decide how many others like me there are.
Will being able to call herself Congresswoman Sekula Gibbs give her an edge in 2008? I can only presume she thinks so, given the choices she's made. The next question is who is already planning to run against her in the GOP primary.
Finally, I'm sure some people believe Nick Lampson will be a one-term Congressman in CD22. Maybe that's true, but I'll tell you what: I thought for a long time after 2004 that Chet Edwards would not be able to duplicate his feat of winning in his DeLay-drawn district. He got 58% this time around. 2008 is a long time off, that's all I'm saying.
I had the pleasure of attending a Greater Houston Partnership lunch today at which a panel (which featured Ted Delisi, Paul Burka, Sonny Messiah-Jiles, and Mustafa Tameez) discussed last night's election results. I'll have something to day about this later, but now, before the sleep deprivation catches up with me, let's catch up on some news.
White's props win by wide margin
Houston voters approved all eight of Mayor Bill White's propositions on Tuesday's ballot, allowing the city to finance future capital projects and granting flexibility around a revenue cap.The first six ballot measures, collectively a $625 million bond issue that would pay for streets and drainage, public safety projects and other city improvements, were approved by comfortable margins.
The two more hotly contested ballot measures - propositions G and H - also earned broad support. The measures would allow changes to a voter-imposed 2004 revenue cap in the City Charter and an additional $90 million this year for police, fire and emergency services.
At a City Hall news conference Tuesday night, White said Houstonians were overwhelmingly supportive of his ballot initiatives.
He said that would let the city meet public safety and quality-of-life needs of the community.
"Tonight was good for the people of Houston," he said. "We've kept the city moving."
Local businessman Bruce Hotze, a key Proposition G critic who fought two years ago to win voter approval of the revenue cap known then as Proposition 2, said his side couldn't match the 8-to-1 spending advantage enjoyed by White and Continental Airlines, which joined the mayor in supporting the measure.
"This was a David and Goliath race," Hotze said. "It was the taxpayers versus the corporations. They've raised a huge amount of money. It's pretty hard to compete with that."
My heart bleeds for you, dude. You want to push for comprehensive campaign finance reform so as to limit the ability of corporations and sugar daddies like Bob Perry and James Leininger to dump money into races like this, you give me a call and we'll talk. Till then, feel free to cry me a river.
Only Prop D was even close, going by the election returns (start on page 33). It passed by a 53-47 margin. Prop G, which modifies the city charter and thus takes any other ballot initiative off the table until 2008, cleared the bar with 61% of the vote. Game, set, match.
Wow. Let me just say Wow to begin with.
Not a single Democratic seat was lost in the State House. Four Republican seats were picked up, with a fifth still possible. Say Hello to State Reps Valinda Bolton, Paula Hightowner Pierson, Alan Vaught, and (woo hoo! hot damn! yahoo!) Ellen Cohen. Let's also give a special shoutout to the the Dems who held the three at-risk open seats: Joe Farias, Solomon Ortiz, Jr, and the man of the night, who did the nobody-thought-he-could-do-it, Joe Heflin.
With one precinct still not counted, Juan Garcia trails by 24 stinking votes. If he wins, the State House becomes 81-69 GOP; if not, it's 82-68. Either way, we may have seen the last of Tom Craddick as Speaker.
Nick Lampson won a majority of the votes cast in CD22, and was the lead votegetter in all four of the counties that comprise that district. There will be a runoff in CD23, and though I fully expect Henry Bonilla to win, the proof of concept has been achieved. Given the right opponent, Bonilla is a dead man walking.
Dems did not win any countywide races in Harris, but the gap was narrowed significantly - Mary Kay Green got 49.40% while winning a majority of Tuesday's votes, and no Democratic judicial candidate did worse than 46.92%. Bill Connelly also won a majority of the votes that were cast on Tuesday.
And did I mention that Jim Sharp carried Harris County? If Dems don't put together a full slate of well-funded judicial candidates in 2008, they're crazy. In Dallas County, the Dems won all 47 races in which they competed, despite predictions of a GOP revival. Harris County is next.
In Galveston, Dems held the line at the county level, while Fort Bend Dems fell short. Not for lack of trying on their part, that's for sure, but they still have a way to go.
Though Dems did not win any new Congressional seats beyond CD22, there was progress made. Consider:
- Joe Barton in 2004 - 66.02% (Morris Meyer, 32.70%). In 2006, Barton wins 60.46 to 37.07
- John Culberson in 2004 - 64.11% (John Martinez, 33.30%). In 2006, Culberson wins 59.19 to 38.46.
- Mike McCaul ran unopposed in 2004, and was named on about 67% of the ballots in a district that was about 62% GOP. In 2006, McCaul wins 55.42 to 40.37. That leaves 4.31% for Libertarian Mike Badnarik, by the way, and is not far off from the poll result.
- Ron Paul ran unopposed in 2004, and like McCaul was named on about 67% of the ballots in a district that was about 64% GOP. In 2006, Paul wins 60.95 to 39.05, with some boxes in Galveston not reflected in that total. Yes, I was hoping for a better result in this race. It's still progress.
- Kenny Marchant in 2004 - 63.98% (Gary Page, 34.22). In 2006, Marchant wins 59.87 to 37.11 against the same opponent.
- Michael Burgess in 2004 - 65.75% (Lico Reyes, 32.71). In 2006, Burgess wins 60.10 to 37.35.
- John Carter in 2004 - 64.76% (Jon Porter, 32.45). In 2006, Carter wins 58.40 to 38.89.
I call all of that progress. May we see more of it in 2008.
I haven't mentioned the Governor's race yet. Obviously, I'm disappointed. Will Rick "39%" Perry learn to play well with others, or does he believe he still has a mandate? We'll see. In the meantime, consider this: If you voted for Valinda Hathcox but not Chris Bell, congratulations. You helped give Rick Perry four more years.
Finally, on a national note, we aren't yet sure how big the Dems' margin in the House is yet, and there's still some doubt in the Senate where the Dems have leads in Montana and Virginia but will face recounts, but no matter how you slice it, they won big. No Democratic seat in either chamber flipped - that's a historic result for the House, where even in 1994, the Dems flipped five seats. And I leave you on the following note:
South Dakota abortion ban: Rejected.
Arizona gay marriage ban: Rejected.
Missouri stem cell initiative: Passed. Thank you, Michael J. Fox.
I haven't felt this good about an Election Day since 1992, when I cheered on Bill Clinton in my living room with some friends. I've finished my Chron blogging for the evening, and despite the statewide shutout again, there's more good news than I can shake a stick at:
- Dems win the US House easily, and are in a position to take the Senate.
- Not a single incumbent Dem in the State House, State Senate, or US House is losing or has lost. Four Dems are leading or have beaten incumbent Republicans in the State House, plus of course Lampson in the US House.
- As I type this, there's still hopes of one or more Dem wins in Harris County.
- Races where we were thought to be endangered weren't close. Consider:
Mark Homer
Chuck Hopson, considered our most vulnerable incumbent.
Jim McReynolds
Robby Cook, who turned out to be our most endangered incumbent, but who still hung on.
Solomon Ortiz, holding onto Vilma Luna's seat
Yvonne Gonzales Toureilles
Mark Strama
David Farabee, who won in the most hostile district in the state in 2004.
Joe Heflin, on the verge of holding onto a seat (Pete Laney's) that everyone, myself included, thought was a goner. All hail the mighty Parent PAC!
David Leibowitz
Joe Farias, holding back one of KBH's former staffers.
Joaquin Castro, who only appeared on the "May be in trouble" radar a week or two ago.
Scott Hochberg, who knows how to win in low-turnout areas.
Hubert Vo, who has once and for all driven a stake through Talmadge Helfin's cold, soulless heart.
- Races where we weren't supposed to be competitive were. Consider:
HD52, unopposed in 2004
HD59 lost by a 64-36 margin in 2004.
HD96, lost by a 60-40 margin in 2004.
HD108, lost by a 62.5-37.5 margin in 2004.
HD114, unopposed in 2004.
HD127, lost by a 70-30 margin in 2004.
HD129, unopposed but a 67-33 GOP district in 2004.
You get the idea. I'll have more to say tomorrow when I'm coherent again, but for now, savor it. Despite plenty of adversity, Texas Dems did a hell of a job tonight. I'm very, very happy.
Finally, a candidate we can all support.
All the kids at Olivia's school were wearing ribbons like this when I went to pick her up today. Just too cute for words.
From the Quorum Report:
Hays County Sheriff's Department confirms an altercation broke out between Rep. Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs) and Rick Green at Sunset Canyon Baptist Church, an election day polling site. Early unconfirmed reports are that Green punched Rose and the two had to be separated. We have a call into Rose's campaign for details. The Sheriff's Department will be issuing a statement shortly.
Ouch. Rose was the subject of a 2002 PBS documentary called Last Man Standing. He was the only Democratic challenger to knock off a Republican incumbent in the State or US House, in a year where Republicans picked up 16 seats in the Lege (after the 2001 redistricting) to take control of that chamber. The incumbent he defeated was none other than Rick Green. Green is not Rose's opponent this year (nor was he in 2004), so I'm not sure what's up with this. Maybe he's just carrying a grudge, I don't know. When I see the statement from the Sheriff's department, I'll post an update. Thanks to reader Scott for the pointer.
UPDATE: More from QR:
Reached this afternoon, Rose said Green approached him at the polling place around noon, pushed him and did punch him. Rose suffered no serious injury, and he would not speculate on Green's motives. Beyond that, Rose downplayed the event.[...]
Rose said he was uncertain whether charges would be pressed against Green, saying that was something that the Sheriff's Department would be handling.
I have since heard from a source that Green was in fact arrested. Stay tuned.
Via Grits, a rather provocative Statesman editorial that calls for the elimination (via de-funding, if necessary) of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Texas is operating under an antiquated system that establishes two courts to handle appeals. The State Supreme Court deals with civil matters and the Court of Criminal Appeals handles criminal appeals. It would take a state constitutional amendment to replace the two courts with one supreme court for civil and criminal appeals. The Legislature, however, does have the power to yank the criminal court's budget. It should use that authority to force the court to do its job or put it out of business.Generally, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court is widely respected. But the Court of Criminal Appeals - also composed of nine elected GOP judges - has embarrassed the state with a series of bad rulings, many of them regarding the death penalty. Recently, the conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court signaled its frustration with Texas' criminal appeals court when it agreed to hear three Texas death penalty cases in its next term.
By now, many Texans know about some of the rulings that made national news, including the infamous sleeping lawyer case. In that case, the criminal appeals court judges saw nothing wrong with a defense lawyer who slept through key portions of his client's capital murder trial.
The same court said OK to prosecutors who hid evidence from defense lawyers in several capital murder cases involving indigent defendants.
And it gave thumbs up to racial gerrymandering of a jury by Dallas prosecutors years ago in another capital murder case.
This week, we learned about more disturbing practices that probably are costing people their lives. For years, the court has permitted lawyers to submit sloppy, erroneous and inferior work in death penalty appeals. In a system in which almost anything passes as a writ of habeas corpus to appeal a death sentence, it is very possible that innocent people have been - and will be - put to death.
No question, the CCA is awful. As a Grits commenter puts it, though, why is it so much worse than the Supreme Court? Would the Supremes necessarily be better if they heard these cases? It's hard to imagine how they could be worse, but it's not like the Supremes are a bunch of advocates for the underdog. So while I agree with the sentiment, I'm not sure I'm ready to buy the prescription.
Grits has argued before that the right answer is to elect better judges. I won't dispute that, but the way I see it, we're not going to have competitive elections for a bottom-rung state race like this until the top tier is truly competitive. It's nice to believe that a real judge could have beaten Sharon Keller this go round, but I just don't see how that could have happened in an environment where the Democratic candidates for Governor and Senator had to beg for table scraps. I'll change my mind if Bill Moody knocks off - or even comes close to knocking off - Don Willet, but beyond that it's (sadly) a little too wishful for me. I'll say this, though - I think Burka has a point when he says that holding the primaries in August instead of March would generally make for a more competitive landscape overall. Maybe with a little more time to see what the national and statewide picture looked like we'd have gotten more than one non-perennial, non-Libertarian challenger to these jokers. Alas, we'll never know.
Via Kos, I find myself feeling a twinge of sympathy for the New York Republican Party.
Anticipating historic political losses in New York tomorrow, state Republican leaders are lashing out at the national party in Washington, saying it has exploited New York donors and blown opportunities against a prime target, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.The depth of frustration is hard to overstate. The national Republican Party and its candidates from outside New York have raised tens of millions of dollars here this year, party officials say. But they have spent little money helping the nominees for governor and Senate, John Faso and John Spencer, respectively, and there have been no morale-and-money-boosting visits on their behalf by leaders like President Bush or Senator John McCain.
Despite pleas for help, New York Republicans say they have been consistently rebuffed or ignored in Washington. Mr. Spencer, the challenger to Mrs. Clinton, said he was bewildered that the national party did not help him pressure her this fall, and instead left Mrs. Clinton free to campaign extensively for Democrats in other states
[...]
Mr. Faso, the candidate for governor, said that Republicans in Washington treated New York like a political A.T.M. for campaign donations and offered little in return.
"The national party comes into New York, does significant fund-raising here, and then there's very little in the way of national support for statewide races," Mr. Faso said. "It's disappointing, and a serious mistake in terms of party building."
Been there, done that. I'm a fan of Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, and I'm pleased to see it start to bear fruit in places like Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska, but I can't say that I've seen much of a difference here. I know the DNC is paying for four field operatives, but I at least have no idea what they're doing. Maybe that's by design, or maybe I'm just not paying sufficient attention, I don't know. All I can say is that I'm not seeing the effects, and I can sure think of a number of races that could have benefitted from some extra money and/or manpower.
Of course, it's not just the national party that has seen fit to ignore Texas Dems. The powers that be here decided it wasn't worth it to fund Democrats at the statewide level. (I don't include the TDP in that assessment, but the TDP isn't about funding, even if it wanted to be.) We all know how that has gone. I suppose one can look at the Chris Bell campaign and see failure. What I see is a campaign that despite all kinds of adversity is at the very least still on track to finish ahead of the multimillion-dollar candidate who got more votes than anybody else did in 2002 and the media whore celebrity who got vast quantities of fawning coverage before the press decided at long last to start treating him like a candidate instead of a novelty. That's assuming he doesn't win outright, of course. Bell accomplished that despite a nontrivial number of movers and shakers in the Democratic Party who decided that only a non-Democrat could beat Rick Perry. At least Mr. Faso only has to contend with apathy.
Well, today's the day. If it feels like this has been a really really long election season, it has. That's good in a lot of ways, but it's also good to see it come to an end.
If you're in Harris County and you want to know where to vote, go here and enter your address. For other locations in Texas, try Local Voter or your County Clerk webpage. It looks like we're in for nice weather today, so get there early, as you may encounter lines. Polls are open from 7 AM to 7 PM. Vote now or forever hold your peace.
Via Marty Hajovsky and Sharon Greiff of the Woodland Heights Civic Association comes the following:
The third annual Dogtoberfest Rescue Rally will be held this Saturday, Nov. 11, from 1-5 p.m. at the Ginger Man Pub, 5607 Morningside in the Rice Village. The event will feature animal rescue groups from throughout Houston and will focus on breed awareness and education. Basically we are talking about dogs, beer, wine, games and a silent auction - what a way to spend a Saturday afternoon!!!
According to Marty:
Rescue groups who will be in attendance include Houston Area Doberman Rescue (the event's main organizer), Friends of Rescued Mastiffs, the Sunmart Animal Rescue Team, Country Hearts Hounds and Basenji Rescue, Southeast Labrador Rescue, Recycled Canines Dalmation Rescue and Corgi and Critters Rescue.The event will feature an Artisan Gallery with original works from area artists and a silent auction.
Sounds like a good place to find a pet. Technically, of course, this is taking place in November, but I suppose "Dogvemberfest" sounded dumb, so Dogtoberfest it is. Check it out.
Well, this is interesting.
A marine from Iraq war veteran Van Taylor’s platoon is questioning the way the Republican nominee has described their missions on the campaign trail for the 17th Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.Marine Staff Sgt. Richard Smith of Austin said he believed Taylor, a captain and the platoon’s commander during their tour in 2003, has exaggerated stories for political impact - particularly the separate rescues of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch and 31 wounded Marines.
Taylor responded by slamming what he calls is a staged attack designed to impugn his credibility and sway the election Tuesday without any proof. His campaign released statements from five platoon members who support how Taylor has described its missions.
“The timing and placement is for maximum damage to me, my credibility and my campaign,” Taylor said, blaming his opponent, Edwards, for the criticism from members of his platoon.
Edwards has vehemently denied any role in Smith’s decision to come forward, and Smith said he had not talked to Edwards or anyone from his campaign.
“This is the first time that I’ve been around someone that I know exactly what they’ve done and what they haven’t done,” said Smith, 33, of Austin, noting he thought it was important to come forward.
There's too much to excerpt, so read the whole thing. I'm not in any position to judge the veracity of these charges, and while I'm not inclined to have any sympathy for Taylor (two words: "Swift Boat"), I don't approve of lying. I don't know what the story is here, so read it and decide for yourself.
From a crassly political perspective, I'm not sure if this helps Chet Edwards or hurts him. It depends on how much people believe Sgt. Smith, and how offended they may be at the timing of this story. If there's a sharp difference between the early vote and today's vote, we'll know. Thanks to Kent for the tip.
The two dollar bill is growing in popularity.
In 2005, depository institutions ordered $122 million in $2 notes, according to Federal Reserve statistics. That is more than double the average amount ordered from 1991 to 2000."We noticed the increase in demand beginning in 2001," said Michael Lambert, assistant director for cash at the Federal Reserve. That year, banks ordered $92 million in $2 notes and ever since, the orders have grown.
Much to the puzzlement of foreign coin fanatics and domestic experts, the U.S. $1 bill remains far more popular, even though it's more likely to clog a wallet.
At year-end 2005, there were $8.6 billion $1 notes in circulation, and $3.26 billion in $1 coins, federal statistics show.
Still, $2 bill usage is increasing, with banking and currency experts not exactly sure about what is fueling the surge. A few possibilities are inflation, the introduction of Sacagawea $1 coin in 2000, and even, according to some, immigration.
[...]
One group that has embraced the note is the exotic dancing industry. Strip clubs hand out $2 bills when they give customers their change and the bills end up in dancers' garters and bartenders' tip jars.
"The entertainers love it because it doubles their tip money," said Angelina Spencer, a former stripper and the current executive director of the Association of Club Executives, an adult nightclub trade group representing some 1,000 members.
Wine store owner Bruce Gibson is also a big fan of the $2 note. The rarity of getting the bills helps new customers remember his place, he said, and helps market the shop when customers spend them later.
"The government actually pays for my advertising. Where else can I find that?" Gibson asked, speaking at the Harwich Spirits Shoppe, in Harwich, Massachusetts. When customers ask him where he gets the bills, Gibson jokes that he prints them in the back of the shop.
[...]
In addition to the inflation factor, Robert Hoge, curator of North American coins and currency at the American Numismatics Society, thinks $2 bill demand may be getting help from immigration flows, particularly from Canada and Europe where currency denominated in twos are common.
Peter Morici, professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, believes that with the introduction of the Sacagawea, named for a famous Indian woman, people are beginning to realize that inconvenience of $1 bills.
"In order to have a successful $2 bill you have to have a successful $1 coin," he said.
I can't comment on the strip club aspect, but there are a couple of businesses here that I'm aware of that are known for using $2 bills - the Mucky Duck and C&D Scrap Metal. How much of a marketing benefit that is I couldn't say, but it must be something, since it's penetrated my consciousness.
I don't understand the disdain for the $1 bill. I'd rather have those "clogging" my wallet than a bunch of $1 coins weighing down my pocket. I understand the theoretical allure of $1 coins - they last much longer - but I'm of the belief that they ain't broken and don't need fixing. We're on what, the third $1 coin design in my lifetime and they still haven't caught on? Maybe that should tell us something.
I do enjoy getting $2 bills, just for the coolness factor. I suspect some people are reluctant to spend them, which also may contribute to their recent uptick in demand. I've never had any trouble spending them, though I admit I've never tried it at a Taco Bell.
What would you rather have? Two dollar bills and dollar coins, or one dollar bills?
As Dwight announces, I'll be doing too much blogging here and here tomorrow evening as the results come rolling in. Among other things, I'll be live-blogging from one or more election return parties, in which we may finally get to see what it looks like when I blog while intoxicated. Not pretty, I'm sure, but these are the risks. Stay tuned.
Via Houstonist, Rick Perry gives us a little of that old time religion.
Gov. Rick Perry, after a God and country sermon attended by dozens of political candidates Sunday, said that he agreed with the minister that non-Christians will be condemned to hell."In my faith, that's what it says, and I'm a believer of that," the governor said.
Gov. Rick Perry covered his face in prayer as Cornerstone Church pastor John Hagee and son Matthew, right, prayed for the good of the political candidates in attendance at the service in San Antonio on Sunday.
Throughout much of the 90-minute service at Cornerstone Church, Mr. Perry sat on the red-carpeted stage next to the Rev. John Hagee. Mr. Perry was among about 60 mostly Republican candidates who accepted the invitation to be introduced to the megachurch's congregation of about 1,500, plus a radio and TV audience.
"If you live your life and don't confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I'm going to say this very plainly, you're going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket," Mr. Hagee said during a service interspersed with religious and patriotic videos.
Asked afterward at a political rally whether he agreed with Mr. Hagee, the governor said he didn't hear anything that he would take exception to.
He said that he believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and that those who don't accept Jesus as their savior will go to hell.
See, this is why we've got that whole separation of church and state thing. If we'd wanted a divine monarchy, we could have set one up. But we didn't, so the status of our immortal souls (or lack thereof) is really none of Rick Perry's business. He's been around politics long enough to know how to give a non-newsworthy answer to questions about stuff like this. He chose not to. What more do you need to know?
"He doesn't think very differently from the Taliban, does he?" independent Kinky Friedman said.Mr. Friedman, a Jew, said Mr. Perry's comment "hits pretty close to home."
"Being obsessed with who's going to heaven and who's going to hell is kind of a pathetic waste of time," he said.
Now this is the Kinky Friedman that I was once intrigued by a million years ago. Too bad for him that the campaign had to include other issues as well.
I'm pretty certain it would violate my terms of service as a blogger if I didn't mention a certain Austin Lounge Lizards song, so in the interest of maintaining my street cred:
I know you smoke, I know you drink that brew
I just can't abide a sinner like you
God can't either, that's why I know it to be true that
Jesus loves me--but he can't stand youI'm going to heaven, boys, when I die
'Cause I've crossed every "t" and I've dotted every "i"
My preacher tell me that I'm God's kind of guy; that's why
Jesus loves me--but you're gonna fry
An MP3 sample is here. McBlogger is also on this.
I've been remiss in noting Rep. Aaron Pena's march with America's Last Patrol, a South Texas Veterans support group, from one end of the Rio Grande Valley to the other. That's 125 miles, which is a lot shorter than the march to San Antonio he took part in last year, but still a long way to walk. Here are his reports from the road:
Day Two: Entering Hidalgo County
Day Three: Dedicating the Valley Veterans' Center
Day Four: Entering Starr County
Well done!
I've got a roundup of links regarding the phony robocalls that the NRCC is running to make voters annoyed about various Democratic candidates over at Kuff's World. A longer list of districts that have been on the receiving end of NRCC-funded robocalls (though not necessarily the ones that pretend to be from a Democratic candidate) can be found here. Anyone out there experienced any of these? Leave a comment and let me know. Sometimes it's nice to live in an uncontested district.
Just read Juanita. And here, too. And consider making a donation if you've had enough.
Note that in Juanita's first entry, one of Meyers' signs is next to a sign for Republican District Clerk candidate Annie Elliott, who apparently became the first Republican in recent memory to not get endorsed by the Fort Bend Herald Coaster. I wonder what she thinks of Meyers' slime-by-sign campaign. Meyers, of course, was one of the contenders to be the Chosen One before all of the write-in foolishness. I'm thinking if he makes another attempt at CD22 in 2008, there'll be some extra diligent oppo research performed on him. Something to look forward to, perhaps.
What happens when one state stands to lose clout? Another state stands to gain it.
The dean of the state's congressional delegation, Rep. Norm Dicks has been in Congress since Jimmy Carter was president.Throughout his 30 years in the House, one thing has remained constant: Dicks has served on a subcommittee that oversees funding for the Interior Department and other environmental agencies.
If Democrats win control of the House on Tuesday, Dicks could finally become the panel's chair.
"I would very much like to be chairman. I joke that I've had a long enough apprenticeship - 30 years," Dicks said. "I think I'm ready to serve."
Dicks would not be the only Washington state congressman to move up in stature if Democrats retake control of the House, as many analysts expect.
Rep. Jim McDermott would likely get a subcommittee chairmanship on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, while Rep. Adam Smith would move to a senior position on the House Armed Services Committee.
In general, the state's congressional clout would increase under Democratic rule, because of the number and seniority of Democrats from Washington. Democrats now outnumber Republicans in the House delegation, 6-3, and hold both Senate seats.
Washington Dems are in a position to win one, possibly two other seats, which would of course enhance their clout further. Good for them, not so good for Texas' delegation. As always, you know who to thank for that.
As you will recall, Republican State Rep. Glenda Dawson passed away in September. By law, she could not be replaced on the ballot for her HD29 race, so she will remain there against Democratic candidate Anthony DiNovo. Since a win by Dawson would mean a special election afterwards, the Republicans are playing the hand they've been dealt.
A slick new campaign mailer shows a smiling state Rep. Glenda Dawson meeting with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. It reminds voters of Dawson's many notable achievements in education, economics and politics.What the ad doesn't say is that Dawson has been dead since September.
The recorded message for the Dawson campaign headquarters also notes that "your message and vote are very important to us."
[...]
State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, who is overseeing the Dawson campaign, said that Dawson's daughter had mailed out a letter two weeks earlier noting her mother's death and asking voters to continue to support the campaign.
Bonnen said the new flier was prepared as a "tribute" to Dawson and did not attempt to conceal her death, although there's no mention of it on the mail piece.
"We don't suggest that there's a great thing she's going to accomplish for the voters in the future," he said. "We had already made it clear to voters in one piece that she had passed away. We didn't think it was necessarily necessary to repeat it."
Story also noted by HouStoned. Hey, as long as that recorded message isn't someone impersonating Dawson, then I've got no problem with any of this. It's not like a dead candidate can't win - just ask John Ashcroft about that.
Assuming Dawson's name and party carries her to a win in her 60%+ Republican district, the ensuing special election could be pretty high profile. Given that a three seat gain by Dems might be enough to topple House Speaker Tom Craddick, it's easy to imagine that special election being cast as a battle for the Speakership. It would also very likely take place quickly, probably in mid-December, so that the new member can be in place when the 80th Lege is sworn in. I've heard some interesting early reports about potential candidates on the Dem side, though it's too early to say if they might pan out. A single Dem versus multiple Rs could make for a favorable dynamic, and it rather goes without saying that a runoff would be an extreme example of a low-volume base turnout race. This will be one to keep an eye on Tuesday and beyond.
I had totally lost track of the Round Rock student protester prosecutions, mostly I think because their trials were supposed to have started in July - see here, here, and here for background. Via Eye on Williamson, I see that the first such trial went to the jury on Friday, and they returned a not guilty verdict.
The jury of three men and three women found 15-year-old Irvin DeLuna not guilty of the Class C misdemeanor violation after deliberating about an hour and 20 minutes.[...]
Throughout the two-day trial, city prosecutor Susan Camp-Lee had argued that DeLuna, in joining other students in the march, disrupted the regular classroom routines at both Round Rock and Stony Point High schools, which were in "lockdown" during the protests.
"There's a lot of places to go and protest in Round Rock and they chose Stony Point High School," she said in her closing argument. "Of all the places they could go, they went to a school, so I think you can infer what their intent was: to disrupt."
But defense attorney Travis Williamson, who voluntarily represented DeLuna at the request of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told jurors that any lockdowns or classroom disruptions were unintended. The students were exercising their right to peacefully voice their concerns about an issue they were passionate about, he said.
"That's the only way a student can be heard" he said in his closing argument. "It's a protected activity. They can't vote. The only thing they can do is protest."
DeLuna said after the trial that he knew the school might punish the students for missing class, but did not realize he would face criminal charges. In light of what happened, he said he probably wouldn't protest again during the school day.
"I was trying to make it peaceful, but it was too much of a problem," DeLuna said.
Juror Jon Silver, 41, of Round Rock said after the trial that the jury thought prosecutors did not prove that DeLuna intended to disrupt classes. The Texas Education Code says that someone can be charged with disruption of classes for intentionally disturbing classes or other school activities while on school property or public property within 500 feet of a school.
"All the testimony said was that all the kids said they were going to Stony Point," he said. "Nobody said why."
Forty-eight cases are still pending against students who participated in the protests.
Anyone want to bet that those cases wind up getting dismissed, much as was the case with the Sugar Land Kiddie Roundup and Sgt. Ken Wenzel of K-Mart Kiddie Roundup fame? I figure that if the DA had gotten a conviction, they'd be deluged with requests to cop a plea. Now that they failed to do so, unless they want to risk 48 more such verdicts, they'll probably want to cut their losses. We'll see.
I'm not sure what I think about HD Radio yet. Tiffany has expressed interest in it for the ability to get regular NPR programming all the time on one of the KUHF channels. I'm moderately more interested in it than I am in satellite radio because I'm just not in my car enough to justify the monthly fee that XM and Sirius charge. I'm not sure the available programming is worth the $300+ for the HD receiver and installation yet, though. There's nothing in the sidebar piece on what's out there now that says "gotta have it" to me (and just what the heck is "Adult Album Alternative", anyway?). If KACC added an HD channel so that its signal was always available anywhere in Houston (something that is most unfortunately not the case now), that might close the deal for me. Until then, I think I'll wait till the price comes down, and ask Santa to finally bring me that iPod that I've been meaning to get for a long time.
Great news from Mary Beth Harrell:
Central Texas College Chancellor Dr. Jim Anderson called Congressional Democratic Nominee Mary Beth Harrell today, to inform her that local PBS affiliated KNCT - TV will air the National News Program, NOW "Sway the Course" featuring Mary Beth Harrell and Congressman John Carter (R-Round Rock). Anderson did not indicate what prompted the decision to finally air this program on election eve, but Harrell said, "I'm delighted that the Fort Hood soldiers, family members and the supportive civilian community will finally have the opportunity to watch this important news program."The PBS program focuses on the Iraq War's impact on the Ft. Hood community and the midterm election. Anderson said he will announce the new schedule and notify local media outlets of the new airtime and date. He also stated that they were going to air promotional spots on KNCT - TV to advise viewers that they could now watch the program on Monday, Nov. 6th at 8pm.
Anderson did not comment on the controversy surrounding their initial decision to black out the program. Local TV stations (KXXV and KWTX) featured the "black out" as the lead story on their 6 and 10 pm newscasts on Saturday, Nov. 5th, and two local newspapers (Killeen Daily Herald and Temple Daily Telegram) featured front page stories in today's editions. The story was also covered in the Austin American Statesman.
Excellent. This is what KNCT should have done all along, and avoided the controversy. Given how utterly bogus the official explanations had been up till now about why the show didn't air as scheduled, this at least allows KNCT and Dr. Anderson to maintain a little dignity. Kudos all around.
Oh, and be sure to see this picture from the protest, which is currently on the Killeen Daily Herald homepage. Way to go, Mary Beth!
From the National Conference of State Legislatures blog, some data about who's running for state legislatures and who's not.
There are at least 6,129 legislative seats up for election this year. There are 10,728 candidates running for those seats under the banner of 38 different party designations. The Republican party is fielding 4,795 candidates and the Democratic party has 5,135 entrants. There are 798 people running who are affiliated with 3rd parties--mostly independents, greens and libertarians but one guy in Vermont who represents the "Wingnut" party.According to [Professor John McGlennon and research assistant Cory Kaufman at the Thomas Jefferson public policy school at the College of William and Mary], there are 2,175 candidates running without opposition from the other major party (NCSL's numbers are slightly higher but close). That number is roughly in line with the trend since the 1998 election but higher than the early 90s.
What is interesting is that the Democrats are running without GOP opposition in 58% of the unopposed races, but Republicans are unopposed in only 42% of all contests. It could be a sign that the Democrats are energized this cycle and fielding a large number of candidates hoping for a wave to sweep them into office. Or it could mean that Republicans are more strategic by only devoting resources to races where they have a legitimate chance to win.
The full study is here. I'll be interested to see what the results look like. While I'm certainly a believer in leaving no district unchallenged, having someone on the ballot is only part of the battle. Candidate quality and level of funding are vital components as well. I hope there are enough Democratic gains, especially in unexpected places, to give a decent proof of concept for Run Everywhere, but whatever happens a thorough study will be needed to really understand what the effects were of challenging for more seats.
Feels a lot like 2002 out there, at least in terms of total turnout.
[Texas Secretary of State Roger] Williams predicted 36 percent of the registered voters will cast ballots.That's the same percentage as in the 2002 gubernatorial election, but there are more voters now. So that would represent an increase of about 136,000 voters.
Total turnout would be just under 4.7 million. Turnout in 2002 was about 4.5 million.
"Early voting remains at a pace equal to the last gubernatorial election, but I think Texans can do better," Williams said. "I hope that Texans prove my prediction wrong and turn out in record numbers on Tuesday."
Here's the index of early voting returns for the 15 biggest counties statewide. Through Thursday, 10.82% of all voters in the top 15 had cast their ballots. In 2002, the early vote total, which included two weekends instead of just one as it was this year, was 13.05%.
I should note that then-SOS Gwyn Smith predicted 40% turnout in 2002 based on early vote returns, which was 10% too high. If Williams has overestimated by that much, we'll see about 32.5% total. Most years, the conventional wisdom is that high turnout is better for Dems. That wasn't the case in 2004, and I'm not sure any general statement about what level of turnout benefits whom can be made this year. I can make a case for high or low being good or bad for either party. I think it's just a guess this year. We'll see.
The injunction that prevented Attorney General Greg Abbott from pursuing enforcement of a new provision that criminalized possessing the absentee ballot of a non-relative has been overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A three-member panel unanimously struck down a federal injunction issued Tuesday that halted Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott from prosecuting individuals who possess another person's ballot or who mail it without identifying themselves. Democrats had complained that minorities, the elderly and the disabled were unfairly being targeted by the prosecutions.Abbott's office hailed the decision, coming just days before Tuesday's general election, but Democrats immediately filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The "scope of disenfranchisement and interference with protected political activities" under the voter fraud law and "fraudulent practices that allegedly justify" it remain speculative, wrote Judge James Dennis, appointed by former President Clinton and is the only Democrat on the panel.
Dennis, however, said that while the voter fraud law appears to be an "overly broad criminalization of conduct intended to assist disabled voters," unfair application of the law only can be proved by allowing the election to proceed.
You can find the ruling here and the appeal here. We'll see what happens next.
Looks like Don Willet, the Perry crony appointed to the State Supreme Court last year, had taken a page out of Martha Wong's playbook by listing endorsements he didn't have among his supporters on his campaign page.
The campaign Internet site of Supreme Court Justice Don Willett claims support from seven Texas newspapers that have actually endorsed his Democratic opponent, Bill Moody.Willett, a Republican appointed to the court by Gov. Rick Perry, said the Internet site was a mistake. He said the endorsements were left over from the GOP primary.
"Since my appointment 436 days ago, I've been zipping around the state at warp speed, and apparently my campaign hasn't updated the supporters page of my Web site since before the March primary," he said.
The newspapers' names were removed from the site within two hours after reporters first began calling Willett.
Democratic consultant Glenn Smith, director of the Texas Progress Council, filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Willett's Web site lists support from the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, along with the Austin American-Statesman, The El Paso Times, The Dallas Morning News, the Victoria Advocate and the Waco Tribune-Herald.
This BOR diary shows what those newspapers actually said about the general election and Willet's far superior opponent, Bill Moody. Though the Willet page does now reflect reality, I should note that the Morning News made its endorsement on September 13, so it's not like his campaign didn't have any time to do the necessary updates. It shouldn't have taken this long, but better late than never, I suppose.
This is crazy. Last night, PBS NOW aired a show about the Iraq War and how people in CD31, where Fort Hood is, are affected by it. The show was largely about the starkly different positions on the war held by incumbent Congressman John Carter and Democratic challenger Mary Beth Harrell. I watched it last night - you can see streaming video at that PBS link above. And if you live in Central Texas, where this story takes place, that's the only way you'll be able to see it.
As documented by Al Stanley and Eye on Williamson, PBS affiliate KNCT in Central Texas refused to run NOW last night, claiming that since the Libertarian candidate was not featured, it could not present it. From Al Stanley's diary:
When Harrell's campaign called the station to ask why, a spokeswoman said that since the program did not give equal time to the Libertarian candidate, the station had been advised by attorneys that it could be sued if it aired the program.A picture of the Libertarian candidate, Matt McAdoo, was shown briefly during the broadcast, but the focus of the program was the contrast between Carter's staunch support of the war and the fact that Harrell has enjoyed much acceptance in the Ft. Hood community despite questioning the war's premise and execution. The program posed the question, if this is happening in one of the country's reddest districts, what impact is the issue of the Iraq War going to have more broadly throughout the country.
Previously, a candidate forum that would have run on KNCT was cancelled because Carter refused to show up for it. This was not a candidate forum, however, but a news broadcast. EoW has an alternate explanation.
Despite the fact that almost all the PBS affiliates around the country found no problems with the broadcast, KNCT attorneys were concerned that the report failed to give equal time to the Libertarian candidate for Congress in Texas' 31st district.A more believable explanation is developing that Carter, while at the Metroplex Health System's Gold Star Gala, told Central Texas College chancellor James R. Anderson to stop the broadcast. Both men attended the event on Thursday, one day before the PBS national broadcast. Central Texas College owns and operates KNCT, so the chancellor has the ability to make management decisions at the station.
Later, he got more information about KNCT's actions.
KNCT attorney Max Rudolph today told the Harrell campaign that no one from the station asked him for a legal opinion on the broadcast before deciding to cancel it. PBS attorney Josh Schwartzberg today said that the segment in last night's episode of NOW is a bona fide news interview program and, as such, is exempt from the equal opportunities requirement under Section 315(a)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934.The excuse provided by KNCT is an outright lie. KNCT did not consult attorneys with their concerns about last night’s episode of NOW before deciding to cancel the broadcast. This was a simple act of censorship by Dr. Anderson for Rep. John Carter. Carter's position on the House Appropriations committee puts him in a position to steer federal dollars toward Central Texas College. This is a craven act unbecoming of a member of Congress.
The Harrell campaign will hold a press conference outside the KNCT studio today at one PM to call for the show to be aired as it was supposed to have been. If you missed out, don't wait for the powers that be at KNCT to make up their minds. Watch the streaming video here and make up your own mind.
UPDATE: Just got the Harrell press release about the 1 PM conference. Click the More link to see it.
Democratic Congressional Nominee and Soldiers' Mom, Mary Beth Harrell, is calling a press conference today at 1:00 p.m. (CST), outside the KNCT-TV studio located on the Central Texas College Campus in Killeen, Texas to announce the action she will take against KNCT-TV for refusing to air the national news program NOW on November 3rd. Harrell will be joined by attorney Jerry Hebert, Executive Director of the Washington D.C. based organization Campaign Legal Center, and Libertarian Nominee Matt McAdoo.The NOW program, "Sway the Course", focused on the Iraq Wars' impact on Ft. Hood, its surrounding communities and the local Congressional elections that are just days away. NOW Senior Correspondent, Maria Hinojosa, interviewed Congressman John Carter (R-Round Rock) and Democratic Congressional Challenger Mary Beth Harrell and featured a photo and quote from Libertarian Nominee Matt McAdoo. The program also included numerous interviews with local Ft. Hood community residents. Yet the Local PBS affiliate deliberately deprived the local community it serves the right to view the program.
PBS affiliates KWBU-TV, located on the Baylor University Campus in Waco, and KLRU-TV, located on the University of Texas Campus in Austin, did air the NOW program as did as all the PBS stations across the country.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Date: November 4, 2006
Time: 1:00 p.m. CST
Location: KNCT-TV Studio
Central Texas College Campus
6200 W. Central Texas Expressway
Building 109
Killeen, Texas 76541
Via Greg in TX22, I see that NRO's Rich Lowry is reporting a rumor from CD22.
TX- 22: Shelley Sekula-Gibbs v. Nick Lampson: Republicans still haven't totally given up on this one. The internal polls have her within the margin of error and rumors have apparently been swirling around the district that Lampson will consider switching parties after the election. So this one is still bubbling a bit.
I forwarded this to Mike Malaise, Lampson's campaign manager, last night, and got the following response:
Absurd. If Nick was going to switch parties, he should've done it much earlier and saved me a lot of hard work. Nick is more conservative than some dems. But he's no Ralph Hall. First, he is fiercly loyal. Second he is pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, and pro-workers rights. None of which jibes with the RNC. I can say unequivically that Nick is not now, nor will he ever, consider switching parties. Never, never, never.
If that's not emphatic enough, Malaise followed that a few minutes later with this:
He also believes tax cuts should be geared toward middle class folks trying to get ahead. Not the Ken Lays and Skillings of the world. Nick will never ever be a Republican. Just in case my first email didn't say it strongly enough. A rumor like that is very upsetting.In fact, I would respond to the Republicans that they are going to lose this seat because they became too negligent, too arrogant, and too corrupt. And any suggestion that they win win it back with a turncoat is just wishful thinking. Sorry, but growing up in Texas during the transformation, turncoats really raise my ire and I know Nick feels the same way.
And this morning he sent another email stating that he had forwarded my initial mail to Nick and got Nick's confirmation that it was bunk. I don't know how these things get started, but if you see or hear it elsewhere, don't believe it.
Who's ahead in the early vote tallies? Depends who you ask.
In the race to replace U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay in the 22nd Congressional District, for example, Democrat Nick Lampson's campaign manager says the early voting trend shows his get-out-the-vote efforts are beating those of write-in Republican candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.Sekula-Gibbs' campaign manager, Lisa Dimond, reads the leaves differently.
"We believe we have more than enough support," she said. "All we have to do is get the voters out and have them know how to write Shelley in."
[...]
To Gerald Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, an analysis of early voting in Texas House District 134 shows that Democratic challenger Ellen Cohen is in command.
"He's dead wrong," said Birnberg's GOP counterpart, Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill: Early voting clearly shows that incumbent Republican Martha Wong is beating Cohen.
Birnberg and Woodfill use similar processes to reach their differing interpretations.
Each day they get a list of those who signed in at early voting locations and check each record to see if the voter has a history of voting in Democratic or Republican primaries - the only way to document party affiliation in a state without registration by party.
Voters identified that way as Democrats are put in Cohen's column, Republicans in Wong's.
The art is in determining how strongly partisan a voter's history is. That, combined with each party's tendency to accentuate the positive, may explain the differing conclusions.
One side or the other in each of these cases is deluded or spinning. It's possible that someone is comparing returns to some easily-hurdled baseline goal, which would be a special case of spinning, and it's possible that both sides in a race share a set of people they've identified as persuadables who have already voted, which would be a special case of delusion for one of them. We'll know on Tuesday night.
Today of course is the last day of early voting, so unless you want to visit your precinct polling place, get out and do your duty today. And click here if you want to help with a GOTV effort at UT.
The Press has a great cover story on Jim Henley and his campaign for Congress. If only the Chronicle expended this kind of energy covering non-top tier local races! There's a lot of good stuff about Henley's teaching career and how it helped him recruit a huge number of volunteers, about John Culberson's continued descent into madness (Does his call to "carpet bomb" Iraq mean we can quit pretending this war was ever about spreading freedom and democracy? And where (and how) does he propose to relocate the women and children to before we start?), and about an issue I've touched on, that of Richmond rail.
One problem for Henley -- well, one problem beyond the fact the district is gerrymandered for a Republican -- is the inner-loop neighborhoods along Richmond. Usually they could be relied on for some Democratic support, but they are mightily pissed at Metro for trying to build a light-rail line through their neighborhoods. Culberson has made clear he agrees with them, and if reelected he'd be a formidable ally for the residents. (Although perhaps not as formidable as in the past, if Democrats take control of the House.)Henley says it's not the job of a congressman to say where the line should go; that should be left to local residents and officials. That stance will cost him some votes he'd normally get, and he's not really in a position where he can be writing off too many of those.
I'm still not sure what kind of effect the rail issue will have, but I'm trying to get a better handle on it. I did a little driving around the area at lunchtime, and afterwards sent an email to story author Rich Connelly, excerpted here:
As far as how pissed the residents are, I'm not so sure I buy it. I grant you, the folks on Richmond itself are pro-Culberson and anti-rail. But I drove around the area today, and outside of Richmond itself, there's no other evidence of this. Go down Portsmouth or Colquit, both of which are one block away from Richmond, and you'll see almost nothing but Henley (and Ellen Cohen) signs, with a nontrivial number of RichmondRail.org signs for good measure. I checked several blocks between Alabama and Bissonet, and it was the same everywhere. I didn't see a single pro-Culberson or anti-rail sign anywhere but on Richmond itself.Now maybe there are folks who agree with Culberson on these streets but choose to remain silent about it. Maybe just having the Culberson signage on Richmond is enough to sway the folks who live and drive there. All I'm saying is that the visible pro-Culberson forces are (as far as I can tell; I haven't driven the whole area yet, just some of it) confined to Richmond itself.
We'll see. Meantime, read the article. Kudos to Connelly and the Press for taking the time to write it.
When Fish Frys Go Bad: Read all about it at Muse (and again here). You just can't make this stuff up.
I didn't get to this story about Fort Bend County Commissioner Andy Meyers' financing of some charming campaign signs yesterday, but it's been in the news for a couple of days now, and a bunch of my colleagues have been all over it: Juanita (start there and work your way up), Muse, View from 22, and Hal. All I can say is that it's too bad nobody ponied up a couple thousand bucks to erect a billboard with the slogan "Protect Pedophiles! Vote Republican" as a response, preferably in line of sight from Meyers' office. What could Meyers do about that - complain about other people's free speech rights?
Actually, I'm glad no one thought of this. Poetic justice it may have been, but someone has to draw a line somewhere, and since that someone is never the Andy Meyerses of the world, it may as well be the grownups.
It should be noted that in making his lovely attacks on a significant portion of the people of Fort Bend and elsewhere, Meyers also helped vandalize Bob Smither's campaign signs. Click the More link to read a press release from the Smither campaign about this. As it notes, Meyers is a prominent supporter of Shelley Sekula Gibbs. It would be nice if she could bring herself to look at Meyers' handiwork so that her campaign might have an opinion on the matter.
The campaign of Bob Smither, Libertarian candidate for CD-22, has received information connecting a Republican official in Fort Bend County to the destruction of “Smither for Congress” and “Republicans for Smither” campaign signs. The official is a prominent supporter of Republican write-in Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, and has close connections to her campaign.On Monday the vandals struck a Smither 4x8 sign on Highway 90 near Ellis Creek Boulevard in Fort Bend County. They removed a Smither sign from its posts, replaced it with a 4x8 reading “Want More Illegals? Vote Democrat,” and discarded the Smither sign on the ground nearby. FortBendNow.com is currently reporting that the sign was placed by a two-person Political Action Committee headed by Republican County Commissioner Andy Meyers and James Pressler. Meyers personally financed the signs and organized their distribution, thereby connecting him directly to the vandalism incident.
Over the last week, dozens of Smither’s campaign signs and 4x8 billboards have been stolen, torn down, and shredded by vandals during the early hours of the morning. This vandalism has been systematic, intentionally targeting Smither’s signs along Texas 6 and US 90 corridors in Fort Bend County.
The Smither campaign has picked up the support of several prominent Republicans who organized the Republicans for Smither committee. It appears that this support may be worrying some in the Republican party who see Smither picking up Republican votes.
Bob Smither states that “I strongly believe that campaigns should be run fairly and honestly, allowing all candidates a chance to offer their messages to the voters. It is for this reason, as well as my respect for the property rights of all Americans, that I do not condone sign theft. I hope that all of my opponents and their volunteers will join me in speaking out against this vandalism and work to bring it an end.”
Here's an idea: Why not tax those huge punitive damage awards that juries hand out like candy to greedy trial lawyers? Doesn't that sound like a great way to add to the state's coffers without really adding to anyone's overall tax burden? Well, California gave it a shot in 2004 at the behest of Governor Schwarzeneggar. They hoped to raise as much as $450 million for the budget. How did it turn out? Not quite as expected. Dwight explains it all to you.
Now this sounds cool.
A dinosaur mega-attraction - Animal Kingdom meets science museum - will open its doors in the summer of 2008 in Montgomery County, north of Houston, officials announced today.Creator "Dino" Don Lessem, author of 47 books, builder of traveling dinosaur exhibits and columnist for a children's magazine, expects the planned $50 million Dinosaur City to bring at least 100,000 visitors its first year. Having advised people in both the entertainment industry and museums, Lessem said he wanted to create a hybrid of both.
"Neither one captures what I'm looking for: recreating the magic of the real world of dinosaurs," Lessem said. "We want people to get lost in time."
Lessem said the attraction will house the world's largest dinosaur collection, a sand pit where children can "excavate" dinosaur bones and forest trails dotted with dinosaur replicas. Indoors, visitors will be able to walk through exhibits showing what the world would have looked like millions of years ago. An animal park will display creatures that roamed during the dinosaurs' era and remain on Earth today, like emus and tuataras.
Lessem envisions school field trips, collaboration with universities and televising dinosaur digs as some of the educational benefits that can come out of this project.
If this can live up to what he says, I'm so there. Olivia is a huge dinosaur fan, so she'd love this. I look forward to seeing the finished project.
TiVo alert, courtesy of the Mary Beth Harrell campaign:
Democratic Congressional Nominee Mary Beth Harrell will be featured on the national PBS program NOW with Maria Hinojosa, hosted by David Brancaccio on Friday, November 3rd at 7:30 p.m. CST. The broadcast will focus on the role that the unsuccessful war in Iraq has played in her campaign, and will highlight her unique perspectives stemming from having two sons on active military duty - the oldest of which is in Iraq - and a husband who retired after serving 23 years in the army."I am dedicated to winning the war in Iraq," said Harrell. "Having such close ties to the military has given me an opportunity to see close up the failures of our current administration."
Harrell's opponent, John Carter (R-Round Rock), will also appear on the NOW program. Ironically, Carter refused to appear in a locally produced and broadcast PBS candidates forum - so it was cancelled. Carter said that Mary Beth had not "earned the right" to debate him. Now, thousands of voters will finally have the opportunity to evaluate Harrell and Carter in a televised setting on Friday night.
Harrell also received the endorsement this week of General Wes Clark. This momentum has helped her fundraising immensely and has allowed the Harrell campaign to remain on TV and radio.
General Clark said he is endorsing Mary Beth because she "has taken a strong stand on the Iraq War and will never support any exit strategy that squanders her son's service in Iraq nor dishonors her husband's long service to our country. She will stand for crafting and implementing an exit strategy that protects our national interests and brings our soldiers home as soon as possible by setting achievable benchmarks for the Iraqi government." These developments and other national coverage of this race have raised the profile of the campaign to unseat John Carter in District 31.
For more information on the airing of the PBS program please call the campaign at 254-616-0058.
Tune in and see why John Carter had been the king of debate duckers up till now.
Well, this question got answered tonight as I watched a bit of "Ugly Betty" - Chris Bell had an ad on, in which he criticized Rick Perry's environmental record. It was this ad, actually. So much for what the Perry and Strayhorn camps were peddling to the press a few days ago.
As I've received several emails about my high school being the featured article in Wikipedia today, I figure I better post something about it. Reading the full entry was a nice trip down memory lane. Among other things, I realized that the original drummer for the Beastie Boys, Kate Schellenbach, might have been in my graduating class. Alas, a quick check of my yearbook failed to confirm this. Lucy Liu was two years after me, but as far as I know our paths never crossed. Though I suppose she might have been in a SING! production, of which I took part all four of my years there. And if you've read this site for any length of time, you know that I had Frank McCourt as my English teacher for junior year.
So there you have it. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out to me.
I got an email yesterday from a professor at my alma mater who told me that Dia de los Muertos is today, not yesterday. November 1 is All Saints Day, November 2 is All Souls Day. This is true, and as a good Catholic boy I did know these things, but I've always understood Dia de los Muertos to be a two-day celebration - I've even heard it referred to as Dias de los Muertos. I certainly would not claim to be an expert in these matters, however, so I'll note the correction.
Whatever is the case, this gives me an excuse to post one more item for Dia de los Muertos. In my previous entry, I mentioned the passing of my great uncle, Frank McLaren. When Uncle Frank died in August, my dad sent an email eulogy to the family. I wanted to include that yesterday, but it had gotten lost in my archives. Dad was kind enough to resend it to me, so here it is:
Capt. Frank J. McLaren, August 8th, 2006 RIPI can't write an eulogy for this man, he was too much to too many people. For me it was simple, he was my God Father; taught me to field ground balls; go back to catch a pop fly and took me to Yankee Stadium in 1948 to see my first Yankee game.
Most important, he was "Capt. Mac" to many, many men who joined the National Guard, either the 42nd Recon Co or the 101st Tank Co. He was their company commander, basketball coach, baseball coach, leader, mentor and role model. What greater testament to the devotion he inspired in his men than that of Nick Giordano. Nick was always there when Uncle Frank wanted him or needed him. I will be always grateful for Nick's friendship with him.
Does any one know how many Exceptional Children he taught to square dance? Can anyone tell me the number of residents at the Vanderbilt Nursing Home he entertained with his music?
Angie, his wife of 23 years gave him the love and support that he deserved and for that we will love her without limit.He was my pen pal for years after we left Staten Island and that connection to our former home made the separation meaningful. He would mine the Advance for mentions of people that were familiar to me and clip out the articles. He was especially proud of his baseball trivia and loved to stump the experts. He knows for sure who the starting shortstop for the 1945 Yankees was because he is probably sitting next to him at Braybrooks Stadium watching the Staten Island Yankees play some 1st class semi-pro team.
Unc, you touched so many people, too many for me to mention. But one thing is for sure, you were a man's man and you were loved.
May God have mercy on you and may Angie, Terry, Noreen and Vincent have strength,
God luv ya,
Charlie Boy
Amen.
RG Ratcliffe gets an answer to the question I raised here, namely "How can two polls by the same pollster - John Zogby - give such wildly different results?"
"It's two different methodologies, and it is comparing apples and oranges," Zogby said. "The interactive polling tends to get a much more partisan. The Democrats are real Democrats, and the Republicans are real Republicans."Zogby said, "You saw Chris Bell doing better in the interactive poll among hyper-partisan Democrats than he did in the telephone survey."
[...]
Zogby said the two polls simply have to be viewed separately and cannot be compared. But Zogby said he believes the interactive polling may come closer to reflecting the outcome of an election because it is a survey of the most motivated voters.
"We stand by both polls," Zogby said.
Make of that what you will. All I know is that we'll get the evidence to judge his methodologies on November 7.
The post includes a podcast interview with Zogby in which he goes into more detail. Kudos to Ratcliffe for pursuing this.
So the Astros have said goodbye to Jeff Bagwell as a player by not picking up his 2007 option. No surprise, and though Bags says he's not necessarily finished as a player, I think we've seen him take the field for the last time. It's rather a shame that he didn't get to finish out a season before choosing to retire (assuming he does make such an announcement, which I expect). He deserved a chance to say goodbye in places other than Houston. I just hope that when the time comes to have Jeff Bagwell Day at the Juice Box, the game is televised nationally. And I hope it comes with an announcement that the Stros are retiring uniform number five.
While I agree that it makes all kinds of sense for the Stros to find another role for Bagwell within the organization, I say if he decides he wants to manage, let him seek a position wherever he can find it so that he can get the experience he'll need. It's not the end of the world if he wears another team's colors. Joe DiMaggio was a Board of Directors member for both the Oakland As and Baltimore Orioles after his retirement, and life as we knew it went on apace. Think of it as training to eventually skipper the home team, if you must.
As for the Hall of Fame, I don't think the Stros need to mount a PR campaign on his behalf. His career statistics speak for themselves, and there will be plenty of online activism plugging him as well. His reputation as a good guy who played clean won't hurt, either.
Anyway. Jeff Bagwell, I salute you. Good luck in whatever you choose to do next. If that means communing with the couch and burning out a few TiVo remotes for a year or two, so be it. You've earned the right to take it easy if you want to.
Mayor White spoke to some business leaders regarding the citywide WiFi effort, telling them of the need to roof access for transmitters. That was all interesting, but this is what I noticed:
Some business leaders who heard White speak at the Greater Houston Partnership's annual technology conference left disappointed that he hadn't announced which company the city had chosen for the project.Months ago, the announcement had been planned for Tuesday, but complications in negotiations forced the city to draw a new timeline about six weeks ago, said Richard Lewis, the city's director of information technology.
I wish we'd gotten some quotes about this, as well as some more details as to why that new timeline was drawn. I've checked my archives and didn't find anything that mentioned yesterday as a deadline date for the project, but it might have been a part of a story that I didn't excerpt. I'm never surprised when ship dates slip, but if there was a story about this happening, I don't recall seeing it, and the box with Search Results of earlier stories has nothing relevant, either. Houstonist picked up on this as well, but didn't have that detail either.
From yesterday's Chron we have a third entry in the continuing series "Where, Oh Where, Has Our Congressional Clout Gone?"
Texas, a powerhouse on Capitol Hill because it has had the largest Republican delegation to the House, will lose influence if Democrats seize the majority in Congress in next week's elections.The state's 32-member House delegation has 20 Republicans, a vacancy caused by the resignation of GOP Rep. Tom DeLay and 11 Democratic lawmakers.
If they suddenly become part of a new majority, Texas Democrats will be forced to compete with larger and more powerful state contingents. California has 33 Democratic members, New York has 20, and both states may pick up more Democratic seats in the elections.
"This shows the extent (Texas) has hitched its star to the Republican Party," said Bruce Buchanan, political science professor at the University of Texas-Austin.
[...]
No Texans are in the top ranks of the current House Democratic leadership either, and none is vying for a leadership position in the next Congress.
In the GOP-controlled House, the top-ranked Texan is Rep. Joe Barton of Ennis, who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee. If the Republicans retain their majority, Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio would likely move up as chairman of the Judiciary Committee while Rep. Ralph Hall of Rockwall would seek the chairmanship of the Science Committee.Even under GOP control, the Texas delegation suffered a setback this year with the resignation of DeLay, who as majority leader won passage of key Republican bills and led the "K Street project" that forged close ties between the party and lobbyists, a major source of political funding.
[...]
Texas Democrats blame their weakened condition on the 2003 redistricting engineered by DeLay that resulted in the state's 17-member Democratic delegation losing six members, including three senior lawmakers who would now be in position to be committee chairmen in a Democratic House.
Former Rep. Charlie Stenholm of Abilene was next in line to chair the Agriculture Committee, former Rep. Jim Turner of Crockett was ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee and former Rep. Martin Frost of Dallas was poised to chair the Rules Committee, which sets the terms for consideration of legislation on the House floor.
"They took out over a hundred years of seniority, and we're paying the price for that right now," said Ken Bentsen, a former Democratic congressman from Houston.
To be fair, by my count it was 86 years of seniority, though had they succeeded in offing Rep. Chet Edwards, it would have gone over the century mark. I suppose you count count DeLay's years in the tally as well, but I think he'd have imploded regardless of the redistricting scheme, thanks to his BFF Jack Abramoff.
Although they may not hold top positions, Texas Democrats note they would still chair key subcommittees that help craft legislation.Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, for instance, is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee's Immigration and Border Security subcommittee and Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, is expected to head the Appropriation Committee's subcommittee that oversees military construction funding.
Houston-area Democrats also sit on panels that deal with Texas issues: Democratic Rep. Gene Green is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. Al Green is on the Science Committee, which oversees NASA.
Some Texans hope that Pelosi will turn to Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, to chair the House Intelligence Committee. Pelosi reportedly does not get along with the committee's senior Democrat, Rep. Jane Harmon, D-Calif.
It's my understanding that Nick Lampson would get his seniority back, and would be able to get back onto the Science Committee as well.
UPDATE: In response to a question in the comments, I got the following email from Mike Malaise, Nick Lampson's campaign manager:
Steny Hoyer came down for a meeting with BAHEP and told them he was working to get Nick a spot on Appropriations. Leadership has assured him he gets his seniority back just as Jane Harman did when she returned to Congress. The chances to secure Nick on Approps gets even better if another Dem in Texas wins--so everyone get out and help Shane Sklar as well.
FYI, BAHEP is the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. I think it's safe to say that a Democratic Congress that features Nick Lampson as a member will still have its share of clout.
I mentioned before how busy our house gets on Halloween. Here's a picture to show you what it's like:
That was at about 7:30. We had over 500 sets of Mardi Gras beads to give away, and we were wiped clean by just after 8 PM. At least this year, nobody knocked after we went inside and turned out the porch lights.
Also for your viewing pleasure:
Olivia scoring her first treat of the evening.
Our neighbors take Halloween seriously.
This one's a little dark, but another way of measuring how busy our neighborhood gets during Halloween is by the opportunist capitalists who show up for the evening.
How was your Halloween?
Silas Simmons, the oldest living baseball player, has passed away at the age of one hundred and eleven.
He died Sunday in a retirement nursing home, Zion Hill Mortuary said Wednesday.Simmons, a left-hander, played for several teams from 1912-29, including the New York Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League, the Cuban Stars and the Blue Ribbons of Germantown, who later became the Homestead Grays.
He was born in Middleton, Del., in 1895, the same year as Babe Ruth, and honored by the Center for Negro League Baseball Research on his birthday Oct. 14. A Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, Simmons was presented with a No. 111 jersey. Researchers this year identified him as the oldest living man to have played professionally.
More here. Simmons had just recently been feted on the occasion of his 111th birthday.
The discovery of Simmons made him a minor baseball celebrity. To celebrate his 111th birthday on Oct. 14, the Center for Negro League Baseball Research organized a party at Simmons’s nursing home that attracted 300 people, including 39 former Negro leagues players.Carl Boles, who later played the outfield on the 1962 San Francisco Giants, presented Simmons with a plaque from the Society of American Baseball Research that recognized him as the oldest living professional ballplayer ever. And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, - whose games Simmons still occasionally attended with his church group, gave him an official jersey with No. 111 on the back.
Simmons spent the afternoon regaling attendees with stories of the old Negro leagues, of his having played against legends like [Pop] Lloyd, [Judy] Johnson and [Biz] Mackey. He often described Lloyd as "the second Honus Wagner."
Rest in peace, Silas Simmons.
Today is Dia de los Muertos. As I have done in the past, I'm going to spend a few minutes remembering some of the people from my life who are no longer with us. Please bear with me during this indulgence.
Our family suffered a big loss this year when my Uncle Ken, who was one of my dad's four brothers (Dad also has a sister) passed away in January. If I have any regrets about not becoming a father until the age of 38, it's in the realization that Olivia will never truly know some of the family members that I grew up with. My ofrenda for today is to say a few words about these people, in the hope that all of my children will be able to have some memory of them.
I've said before that if I could have one wish, it would be for Olivia to know my grandmothers, Jessie Mary McLaren Kuffner (a/k/a Nana) and Ann Carasaniti Abbruzza Visco (a/k/a Grammy or Red) as I did. If I had a second wish, it would be for me to know my grandfathers, Charles Kuffner, Senior, and Russell Abbruzza, as well as I did my grandmothers. Olivia knows and loves all four of her grandparents, and her two living great-grandmothers. I am grateful every day for that.
The last of my father's uncles, Frank McLaren, died a few months ago. He was Jessie's younger brother, one of many men from my family who served in World War II. I remember him as a baseball fan (you'd be hard pressed to find a member of my family who isn't a baseball fan) and a fan of Big Band jazz music. I have a memory of taking a drive with my dad and Uncle Frank up to Duchess County to visit Father Al, a retired priest who was related to us by choice rather than by blood, and listening to a CD of Glenn Miller music called "In the Digital Mood". It was a beautiful day for the drive, and the music only enhanced that.
I remember Antoinette "Auntie" DiMarzio and her house on Bement Avenue. She loved to cook for everyone, but you could never get her to sit at the table - "I ate in the kitchen before you all got here" was her standard response. If you've ever known an Italian woman from that generation, you know what I'm talking about. She was a fixture at the family Christmas Eve celebrations at Red's house, and was always the first to pinch someone's cheek. At Christmas Eve, there was Uncle Joe, who usually fell asleep after the big meal, and Aunt Angie, who never could quite remember my sisters' names. And Father Al, who spent years in China as a missionary, built TV sets and model ships for fun, and ate everything you put in front of him, who'd say Christmas Day mass at our house. Nick Visco, Red's second husband and a former mess hall sergeant from WWII, would be in the kitchen fussing over his famous clam chowder (Manhattan style, of course) and preparing to wash the mountain of dishes. Frank Carasaniti, Red's brother, who came back from WWII with disabilities that affect him to this day (he's still with us, in the same VA hospital in New Jersey that we'd collect him from back then for the holidays), would give us kids brand new $50 bills for Christmas, which my dad would immediately seize and deposit into our savings accounts. Uncle Mike Abbruzzese, my godfather, who kept the old spelling of his surname and who was the best-dressed member of the family, and Aunt Judy, who now lives in California with their daughter Judith, always gave us kids clothes for Christmas. We loved him anyway. And Nana, who like my dad was a convert to the church of Italian cuisine. When I'm on my deathbed and somebody asks me what the best memories of my childhood are, Christmas Eve at Red's house will come first by a mile.
On Dad's side, I remember Uncle Hap Kuffner, who was a founding member of the Staten Island Baseball Oldtimers and who was one of the better storytellers I've known, and Aunt Bea, who worked as a prison guard and once broke up a fight involving Joann Chesimard and was one of the toughest women I've ever known. There was Uncle George and Aunt Ann Kuffner, who had a pool table in their basement that I loved to play on when we visited. Aunt Gertrude Cotter, who finished up my school papers on an old-fashioned manual typewriter before I went off to college. Uncle Fred McLaren, who lived downstairs from Nana in the last years of his life. Aunt Loretta and Uncle Paul Crifasi, who are still with us out in Albuquerque. In 1985, when the Trinity University Wind Symphony and Jazz Band came to town on a spring break tour, she attended the concert, bought a bright pink Trinity Jazz T-shirt that she later wore to her aerobics classes, and had a big pot of spaghetti sauce cooked in case I wanted to invite the whole crew over for dinner. We'd all already been farmed out to various houses for our overnight stay, but the thought of her being ready to cook for 80 college students on a moment's notice tickles me to this day.
There are many more, most of whom I sadly never got to know very well. To all of you, I say I remember you, I miss you, and I hope some day Olivia will know you enough to miss you as well. Vaya con Dios.
I've blogged before about Attorney General Greg Abbott's partisan-driven "crackdown" on vote fraud, which mainly consists of arresting people for possessing someone else's mail-in ballot, a crime that was created by recent legislation. A federal lawsuit was filed a few weeks ago to halt enforcement of that provision on the grounds that it violates the Constitution. (See background here, here, and here.) According to the Lone Star Project, which is a guiding force behind this litigation, the plaintiffs have won a preliminary injunction.
US District Court Judge T. John Ward granted a preliminary injunction stopping Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams from enforcing a Texas Law that makes it a crime to simply mail or posses a sealed ballot. This year, Abbott has aggressively prosecuted at least 13 individuals, most of whom had done nothing more then help senior citizens vote by mail. Virtually all of those prosecuted are minority senior citizens and all are Democrats. Judge Ward's order says:
For the reasons set forth in the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, the court orders Defendants, Greg Abbott, in his official capacity as the Attorney General for the State of Texas and Roger Williams, in his official capacity as Secretary of State for the State of Texas, their employees, agents, representatives, attorneys, and servants, and all other persons acting in concert, privity, or participation with the defendants, immediately to:
1. cease enforcing, pending a trial on the merits, Tex. Elec. Code § 86.006(f) under circumstances in which a person, other than the voter, has merely possessed the official ballot or official carrier envelope and such possession is with the actual consent of the voter"
(Source: Preliminary Injunction, Willie Ray v Texas)
The full injunction is here and the findings of fact is here (both PDF). I find it interesting that while Abbott's crusade made the news, this order telling him to cease (for now, at least) hasn't made a peep, at least as far as my Google News search could determine. Make of that what you will.
UPDATE: The Chron now has this story posted.
The Lone Star Times goes off the reservation not once but twice in its endorsements. First, they give thumbs up to Richard Garcia for County Treasurer. Well, it may be more accurate to say they gave a big thumbs down to Orlando Sanchez, but I'll take it anyway.
Let us be clear - we don't doubt that on a personal level Sanchez is a nice guy. And he's almost certainly no more an idiot than many, perhaps most politicians. A LOT of people holding public office are chuckle-heads who prefer politics to working in the real world.And we'll give him this - he would have been a better mayor than Lee P. Brown. If you want to consider that an endorsement, fine.
But people, please.
Limited government conservatives - your bluff is being called. You bitch and moan on the radio every day of the year about eliminating the waste, inefficiency and expense of government. Now is the time to put up or shut-up.
Richard Garcia for Harris County Treasurer - it is a job nobody needs, and one Orlando Sanchez doesn't deserve.
Even more interesting is their endorsement of Kinky Friedman for Governor. It's a fairly nuanced approach that takes into account the downside and counterargument to voting against their default preference of a Republican incumbent. I certainly don't agree with their starting axioms, nor do I concur with their belief that inflicting a little electoral pain is the best way to get a recalcitrant party to see things your way (tell me again how salutary the effects of voting for Ralph Nader were for the Democrats in 2000), but kudos to them for laying out their thought processes as they did. It's one of the better endorsement editorials I've read, whatever I may think of their reasons behind it.
Finally, I don't have an explicit story link yet, but Fort Bend Now and View from 22 both report that the outgoing Republican District Clerk in Fort Bend, Glory Hopkins, is featured in a mailer endorsing Democrat Veronica Torres to replace her. Hopkins may have had problems getting her ballot application in properly, but as far as I know she was well respected for the job she did. There's also apparently some bad blood between Hopkins and Republican candidate Annie Elliott, who had challenged Hopkins in the primary and won by default when Hopkins was disqualified from the ballot. Still, this is a nice coup for Torres, about whom you can read more here.
I mentioned this in the previous post, but do take a moment to read this John Young column about the Texas Parent PAC and Diane Trautman. A little taste:
Diane Trautman is running for the statehouse. By appearances, Joe Crabb couldn’t care less.No, Crabb isn’t some voter who can’t get his head off of “Dancing with the Stars.” He’s the incumbent.
I say “by appearances,” because observers in his district say Crabb, R-Atascocita, hasn’t made many.
By contrast, Trautman, a career educator, has an army knocking on doors in the Houston-area district.
Why is she campaigning hard and he hardly campaigning? It’s probably because the seven-term Republican has one of those districts that is as gift-wrapped for his purposes like candied fruit. He won last time with nearly 70 percent of the vote. Yet now many observers consider Crabb’s district in play.
Why? Because of a strong challenger, enthusiastic volunteers and a new creature called the Texas Parent PAC.
I wish Young had expanded on the "now many observers consider Crabb’s district in play" comment - I'd like to know which observers he has in mind. I've said it before, this is a tough, tough district for a Democrat. If this district is considered to be in play, even "likely Republican" play, that's huge.
Trautman is a great candidate. In a just world, she'd win this race in a walk. She's clearly gotten some traction, if the (highly unscientific survey of) comments in this Chron politics blog post are any indicator. Can she move enough people to her corner in this 70-30 district to win? I'm rooting for her, but to say the least, if she does do it, this will have been one hell of an Election Day for Texas Democrats.
The Statesman covers the races in CD31 with Mary Beth Harrell and Ted Ankrum. The Star Telegram picks up an AP story on the CD14 race between Shane Sklar and Ron Paul. Waco Tribune columnist John Young writes about the Texas Parent PAC and one of its many fine candidates, HD 127's Diane Trautman.
Note that none of these stories came from the Chronicle. The Chron did some decent profiles on the statewide candidates and races, and they've done stories on the high profile local races, most prominently CD22 and HD134, with an HD149 profile thrown in for good measure. And they've seen fit to give a profile of CD23, and admittedly important race but one that doesn't come within 100 miles of Houston and wouldn't exist without the combined Chron/Express News Texas bureau, and a story on the Alabama Governor's race, which features the famous Libertarian cleavage candidate. But Ankrum and Sklar and Trautman and all the other not-as-high-profile local candidates? Forget it. Oh, there's a blog post about Trautman calling for her opponent to debate, and they did name Henley the Optimist of the Year in their Ultimate Houston contest. Not a word about the hot open seat HD133 race between Kristi Thibaut and Jim Murphy. Not a peep about Sherrie Matula and HD129, where multiple ethics charges have been filed against incumbent Rep. John Davis. Nothing about Mark McDavid or Chad Khan or Dot Nelson-Turnier, all of whom the Chron endorsed. Will someone please explain to me why that is?