Texas Tuesdays

This is our last Texas Tuesday of the 2004 election cycle. We wrap things up today with a look at the senior Democrat of the Texas delegation, Charlie Stenholm. He may have the toughest fight of all the redistricted incumbents, but he’s up to it. Check him out, and please consider helping him, helping all the Texas Democrats, and helping the DCCC.

You just never know what can happen in an election. Jim Bunning melts down in Kentucky, Tom Coburn goes crazy for teenage lesbians in Oklahoma, Alan Keyes…well, you know. And now we have an incumbent Republican State Rep in West Texas who’s been busy driving drunk, exposing himself, and arguing with DPS officers. Read all about it at Texas Tuesdays.

For our penultimate Texas Tuesday of this cycle, we bring you an update on the campaign of Rep. Max Sandlin, running a strong race for reelection in CD01. This promises to be a tight race, and though Sandlin continues to lead in cash on hand, his opponent raised more money than he did last quarter. There’s two weeks left, so don’t pass up an opportunity to help make a difference by supporting Max, supporting all Texas Tuesdays candidates, and supporting the DCCC. The wind is at our back nationally. Let’s make sure some of that breeze blows in Texas.

Today’s Texas Tuesday feature is Rep. Nick Lampson, running to keep his seat in the new CD02. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Lampson is the first candidate I ever gave money to, back in 1996 when he ousted the nutjob Steve Stockman. I’ve had a couple of chances to talk to him over the years, and he’s always been very generous with his time. I want to see all of our candidates win, but I really really want to see Lampson win. As with Martin Frost, you can help in the usual ways: give to Lampson, give to all Texas Tuesday candidates, or give to the DCCC’s Million for a Majority campaign. Lampson had the money edge as of the last quarterly reporting period, but the NRCC has been going hard after him. Let’s not let them drown us out.

And here we are again for another exciting Texas Tuesday, with our special guest star Chet Edwards. Get the latest scoop and a Q&A here and here. We’re officially in the home stretch now, with four weeks to go, and every dollar is donated is huge. You kow what comes next – Give to Chet Edwards, give to all the deserving Democrats, and/or give to the DCCC. I thank you, they thank you, and your country thanks you.

Yes, it’s time for another edition of Texas Tuesdays, this time featuring special guest star Martin Frost. Byron has a state of the race overview and a chat with the Frost campaign that you should check out.

We’re about to enter our last month of Texas Tuesdays, so before you know it, I’ll be done nagging you about them. But since we’re not done yet, you can donate to Martin Frost, you can donate to all Texas Tuesdays candidates, and you can donate to the DCCC. This offer expires November 2, so don’t get caught out in the cold.

UPDATE: How could I fail to note BlogPAC and its pro-Frost ad?

Time for another Texas Tuesdays Twofer, this week starring Morris Meyer and Lorenzo Sadun, two creative and hardworking candidates fighting the good fight on tough terrain. Check it all out:

Meyer intro
Meyer interview
Donate to Meyer

Sadun intro
Sadun overview
Sadun interview
Donate to Sadun

Posts for these and all other Texas Tuesday candidates can be found on our ActBlue page, which of course also provides an easy way to donate to them. And don’t forget the DCCC, who’s working hard for every deserving Democrat. We’re six weeks out, people. There’s no time like the present to make a difference.

We got a huge response yesterday to Richard Morrison‘s appearance on Texas Tuesdays. Who knew so many people didn’t like Tom DeLay? There’s a long list of thank-yous here and a personal message from Richard here. As always, it’s never a bad time to donate to Richard Morrison, to donate to any Texas Tuesday candidate, to donate to the DCCC, or to find a worthy candidate and volunteer your time and energy.

We’ll keep bringing you information about Texas’ fine slate of Democratic Congressional incumbents and candidates. There’s no room to let up – those fun-loving folks at the Club for Growth are spending their nickels on two Texas races, setting their sights on Nick Lampson and Chet Edwards. Chron columnist Cragg Hines takes a look at Edwards’ race against Arlene “Memorial Day Massacre” Wohlgemuth. This is what we’re up against, folks. Please do what you can to help.

I’ve been flogging the various Tom DeLay scandals and outrages for some time now. I do this for two reasons. One is that I think DeLay is a corrupt, morally bankrupt charlatan who can’t be removed from power quickly enough. The other reason, one which I think is even more important, is that I believe in Richard Morrison. Having met and spoken to him several times, I can say in all earnestness that he’s the kind of person I want to see in Congress. He’ll represent the people who live in his district, and not the prevailing moneyed interests. He’ll stand for the sensible middle that everyone complains gets the short shrift, rather than the extreme fringe. He’ll care about good and efficient governance, rather than government as a means to an ideological end. I can’t say enough about him, and I strongly encourage you to check him out for yourself.

Texas Tuesdays is proud to feature Richard Morrison, the next Congressman from Sugar Land. The intro is here and the latest interview is here. There may be a guest post later, so check back for details. You can help Richard Morrison by making a donation, or if you live in the area, by volunteering to help the campaign. You can see our earlier interviews with Richard on the Texas Tuesdays ActBlue page, where you can also make a donation to him or any of the other Texas Democratic candidates. And finally, you can help the DCCC help Morrison. We’ve got seven weeks left, and every little bit counts.

Admit it – yesterday felt like Monday, right? If so, then today must be Texas Tuesday, with our special guest star Jim Nickerson, running against Ralph “I Was DINO Before DINO Was Cool” Hall in CD04. Learn more about Jim here and here, and show him some love. This starts our return engagement with the Congressional races, which will continue through Election Day. We’ll have the ActBlue page updated for Nickerson later today and will keep it updated for all of the Texas Tuesdays candidates as we go forward.

We wind up our tour through the State House today with a look at Stephen Frost, running to replace the retiring Killer D Barry Telford in HD1. This is a seat that the Democrats should hold, but just as we get excited about possibly picking up open Republican seats, they get excited about maybe picking up some of our open seats, and we all know they have the resources to give it their best shot. HD1 is also one of the areas that Max Sandlin will need to do well in to win, so helping Frost is a twofer. Check out the intro and the interview, and as always, if you like what you see, you know what to do.

Next week, we start again on Congress. You can find links to our earlier coverage of Congress, as well as a convenient way to make donations, here on our ActBlue page.

We’re getting close to the end of our tour through the State House, but that doesn’t mean we’re close to running out of good candidates to highlight. Today’s special guest star is David Leibowitz, who’s running in a very winnable district in San Antonio. Check out the intro to David and the intro to the district, and check back later for a Q&A.

Today’s special guest star is Rep. Scott Hochberg from SD 137. Scott is a Rice grad, a go-to player in the House on all things education, and one of the all around good guys in Austin. Check out the brief intro here and the thorough analysis of the race here, and as always if you like what you see, let him know it.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and that goes for our Tuesdays as well. This week’s Texas Tuesday is so big, it covers all of Wednesday. Meet Hubert Vo, our featured candidate for today, read his intro and his analysis of the race he faces against incumbent Talmadge Heflin, and of course, donate to the cause.

Due to technical difficulties with the TexasTuesdays.com webhost, which kept the site unavailable to us until a few minutes ago, we are postponing this week’s Texas Tuesday until tomorrow. It may look like Wednesday to you, but it’ll still be Texas Tuesday. Look for the usual announcement in the morning. Thanks for your patience.

It’s Twofer Tuesday on Texas Tuesdays today, as we feature Charlotte Coffelt and Wade Weems, two Houston-area candidates who are trying to conquer some challenging territory. Read about Wade here and here, and about Charlotte here and here, and if you like what you see you can help them out here and here.

I know everyone’s eyes are focused on Boston right now, but back here in Austin we’ve got another fine Texas Tuesdays candidate for your approval in Kelly White, former executive director of SafePlace. Though this is her first run at public office, she’s got an extensive resume in public service, and she’s running against yet another TAB/TRM-enhanced incumbent. Meet Kelly White, check out the Q&A with Kelly White, and of course if you like what you see, please make a donation to Kelly White.

I’ve set up an ActBlue page for all of the Texas Tuesdays Congressional candidates (ActBlue is for federal candidates only, so no State Rep hopefuls). It’ll serve as a repository for links to the profile/interview posts that we’ve done and will do, and as a convenient entry point for making donations. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Time for another Texas Tuesday, this time featuring Harris County’s own Jim Dougherty. He’s running against the notorious Martha “No Thong” Wong in SD 134, and he should have a decent shot of making a race out of it. Greg Wythe brings you some good analysis of the district and Dougherty’s prospects, and a Q&A with Dougherty. Check it out, and as always, if you like what you see, please give him a hand.

Today’s featured candidate on Texas Tuesdays is Jeanette Popp, a woman who became politically active after the wrong men were convicted of her daughter’s murder. If that makes her sound like an unconventional candidate, she is. Read her story and see for yourself what an extraordinary person she is. We’ll have an interview with her up later today. If you like what you see about Jeanette Popp, please consider helping her out.

UPDATE: And the interview is up.

More Texas Tuesdays goodness from Mark Strama, who gave us a nice interview. Here’s a taste, on the question “what have you learned from your experience working in State Sen. Rodney Ellis’ office?”

Probably the most important lesson I learned from him is that politicians, to preserve their integrity, must be willing to lose their office. I remember one time when Rodney was confronted with a choice between doing what he thought was right, and doing what was politically expedient. He was genuinely concerned – wrongly, as it later turned out – that voting his conscience on this issue could actually get him defeated in a future election. He thought hard about it, and when he made his decision, he called me on the phone (which I remember vividly, because it was 4 in the morning when he called), and said, “The heck with it, I’m doing the right thing. And if I get defeated, I’ll still be a lawyer, I’ll still be an investment banker, I’ll still be Nicole Ellis’ daddy, and I’ll still be an interesting guy to talk to at a cocktail party.”

Check it out, and if he sounds like your kind of guy, you know what to do.

Another Tuesday, another fine candidate to check out on Texas Tuesdays. Today’s feature is Mark Strama, running against first-term incumbent Jack Stick in Austin’s SD 50. This is a race that has been targeted by the state Democratic Party, and it should be a competitive one – Stick won with 55% of the vote in 2002, but both John Sharp and Kirk Watson carried the district, and Ron Kirk garnered 48%. I see this is being kind of a bellwether race – if the Dems win here, they’re probably having a good day around the state, while if they lose here, things are probably going pretty well for the GOP.

Anyway, Strama is an exciting candidate with a background in both politics and the Internet. Check out the intro to Mark and the look at his campaign academy, and check back later for an interview with him. If you like what you see, please consider helping him out.

Thanks as always to everyone who helped spread the word about Jake Gilbreath, a name I’m sure you’ll be hearing many times in the future. Be sure to check out this report on Jake that Byron filed later in the day yesterday. Next stop – Mark Strama, another name you’ll be getting very familiar with real soon.

And we start our look at the State House candidates with Jake Gilbreath, who as a student at George Washington University is the youngest candidate running for state office in Texas this year. We’ve got an intro to Jake, an overview of the district, and an interview with Jake up on the TT site, so check him out and if you like what you see make a donation. Go Jake!

Rep. Max Sandlin‘s campaign site has undergone a redesign, and the index page now features a blog. Check it out, it looks pretty cool.

Now that the state convention is behind us (there’s a slightly updated list of convention reports here), it’s time to regroup and focus even more on the many important races going on in Texas. Towards that end, Texas Tuesdays will start featuring candidates for the State House. Many of these names will be less familiar to you, and many of these races will seem a bit remote, but we saw last summer how important control of the State House is, and these candidates represent hope for retaking that control. Please check out the still-to-grow list of candidates that we plan on featuring in the coming weeks, and follow the links to the candidates’ websites to learn more about them. With your help, we can send Tom Craddick and his cronies back to the sidelines where they belong.

Richard Morrison meets the bloggers at Kaveh Kanes and answers a few questions. Check it out.

Just when I thought we’d have a quiet week at the Texas Tuesdays site, we received a guest post from Max Sandlin‘s campaign manager. Check it out.

Texas Tuesdays is taking the week off due to the Democratic convention, which starts this Thursday. I’ve mentioned the Friday Blogger Caucus before, so consider this a reminder to come by and meet up with some of your favorite Texas progressive political bloggers from 1 to 3 at Kaveh Kanes downtown. Directions and details can be found here, and as an extra added bonus, Congressional candidate Richard Morrison has promised to make an appearance as well. Hope to see you there!

For obvious reasons, I’ll be pretty much a no-show at the Democratic convention, but I will be able to make it to the first ever Texas political bloggers caucus next Friday the 17th from 1-3 PM at Kaveh Kanes downtown. Come join us if you can. Leave a comment at the Texas Tuesdays post if you have any questions. See you there!

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor sleep deprivation caused by new babies can stop us from bringing you another Texas Tuesday, with this week’s feature being Rep. Martin Frost. We’ve also got a reposting of the interviews that Byron and I did awhile back. Check it out and lend a hand if you can.

My Texas Tuesdays colleage Gary Beason has a nice interview with Rep. Max Sandlin up on the TT site. Check it out. If nothing else, this ought to impress you about Sandlin:

Chili Pepper Magazine called you the “Zestiest Legislator.” Can you still eat eight peppers and chug a bottle of Tabasco sauce?

Two years ago I ate eight peppers and chugged a bottle of Tabasco sauce in five minutes as part of a competition between chili pepper providing states. Last year, I ate 42 peppers in five minutes along with the Tabasco closer.

[whoa!]

I wish they would think of a new competition—enough is enough!

Yowza.

There’s a second post about some lies Sandlin’s opponent is spreading in his early campaign advertising. Now, I certainly wish that Sandlin had voted against the so-called (and currently deemed to be unconstitutional) “Partial Birth Abortion” ban, but I cannot understand the utility of claiming that he did when a little websurfing proves it to be untrue. If Louie Gohmert is going to lie about easily-checked facts, what will he do about stuff that’s harder to check, or stuff that requires taking his word for it?

Morat says:

For the record, I think Texas Tuesdays is a great resource to those of us living in Texas, and hope similar sites spring up for the other 49 states. Nothing beats an informed electorate.

Nothing would please me more than to see progressive bloggers in other states steal this idea. I’d love to see some Pennsylvania bloggers do this, and some Ohio bloggers, and some Colorado bloggers, and…you get the idea. Any of you folks, or anyone else, want to know more about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, please drop me a line.

I continue to see straws in the wind that make me think this could be a year for sweeping changes. It’s been ten years since the Republican takeover in 1994. Dick Armey thinks the time may be right to make a case for throwing the current set of bums out. The Bonassus reminds us that a big chunk of the “Contract With America” was more about reforms within Congress than about sweeping visionary legislation. With all of the DeLay scandals, the Medicare vote including the Nick Smith bribery allegations, and so on and so forth, turning those tables should be easily doable.

But even if you put all that aside, what this has been about as much as anything has been banding together for a common goal. It’s about doing something rather than hoping someone else will. It’s about taking part in this allegedly participatory democracy that we have. It’s about trying to make a difference. I could keep reaching into the bag of pompous, high-minded syllogisms here, but you get the point.

So yeah, steal this idea. Do us one better. I don’t mind at all.

UPDATE: Nick Confessore pours a little cold water on the “Contract with America” logic.

Props to Byron for doing such a great job with yesterday’s Texas Tuesday posts on Rep. Chet Edwards, and thanks to all the bloggers who participated. Special thanks to Richard Morrison for giving back to the effort with a blog link. If you need one last reason why you should make that donation to the Edwards campaign, may I suggest reading this article about the huge drop in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment, and note that the principle architect behind it was Edwards’ opponent in November.