Off the Kuff | Knowledge Is Good

Lawsuit against abortion restrictions goes to trial

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Seeking to block the state of Texas from implementing new abortion regulations, plaintiffs representing abortion providers argued Monday in a federal court that the state’s law violates the constitutional right of women to access the procedure. But the state’s attorneys defended Texas’ right to enact laws that advance protections for the life of a fetus.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, who presided over the hearing, in which arguments are scheduled to wrap up on Tuesday, was clear about what the court’s role was. “This court’s job is not to rule on whether women should be allowed abortions,” said Yeakel, “but to rule on whether or not this statute comes within the existing constitutional confine.”

Given the significance of the law, Yeakel said he’d like to make a decision as soon as possible after arguments conclude.

The plaintiffs, who represent the majority of abortion providers in Texas, including four Planned Parenthood affiliates, Whole Woman’s Health and other independent abortion providers, asked the court for a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of two provisions in House Bill 2 that would take effect Oct. 29: a requirement that doctors who perform abortion have active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility, and that doctors follow the FDA regimen, rather than a commonly used evidenced-based protocol, for drug-induced abortions. The plaintiffs argued that both of these provisions present an undue burden on women attempting to access abortion and are therefore unconstitutional.

The attorney general’s office argued that these provisions were not approved just to protect the safety of the mother. They were also enacted to advance the state’s interest in promoting and protecting fetal life, one state attorney said at the hearing. The burden of proof lies on the plaintiffs, the attorney said, as the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Casey v. Planned Parenthood allows the state to enact laws that advance its interest in protecting fetal life, so long as it does not create an undue burden on the patient. The court could not overturn the provisions in whole, the state’s attorney argued, because a severability clause in the law requires doctors and patients who believe their constitutional rights have been violated by the law to individually seek exclusion from its provisions.

The state’s attorneys also argued it was not possible to prove — as the plaintiffs allege in the case — that one in three abortion facilities would not be able to perform abortions or that 22,000 women would be prevented from accessing the service until the law took effect.

Yeakel recognized the divisiveness of the issue and said he expects whichever side is disappointed with his ruling to appeal the decision, probably all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. “I would be shocked if whoever was displeased by my ruling did not appeal,” he said.

The lawsuit was filed less than a month ago. You can see all the relevant information about the lawsuit here. I don’t really have much to add to this. We know what the stakes are, and we know where this is going. In the end, what will ultimately make a difference is winning more elections. Remind yourself of that every day between now and next November. If you like following this sort of story on Twitter, the hashtags #FightBackTX and HB2 are for you. You might also want to follow the likes of @andreagrimes; @RHRealityCheck; @scATX, the handle for Jessica Luther; and @ReproRights, the Center for Reproductive Rights, who is leading the litigation. Their press release is here, and there’s more from RH Reality Check, BOR, Think Progress, and the Chron.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged abortion, Center for Reproductive Rights, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Greg Abbott, lawsuit, Planned Parenthood, SCOTUS, special session, Texas, The Lege, Travis County | 1 Comment

Chron overview of District I

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron covers the District I race.

CM James Rodriguez

The contrasts in this eastside, heavily-Latino council district are dramatic: from the gleaming George R. Brown Convention Center in the heart of downtown, to older neighborhoods lacking modern street drainage where vacant lots become clandestine dump sites.

Four candidates are campaigning to represent a historic slice of central Houston they all agree has both huge potential and a long list of improvements. The near completion of a multimillion-dollar extension of Metro’s light rail passenger line into the district holds the promise of increased economic development, as well as an anticipated influx of travelers who will use the $156 million international terminal under construction at William Hobby Airport.

Demographics explain some of the challenges facing District I and its 180,000 residents.

The average household income of $36,900 annually is $6,000 lower than the citywide average of $42,960. Educational attainment, while improving, is still low with 45 percent of residents lacking a high school diploma. The district is 77 percent Hispanic, the highest concentration of Latinos in any of the council districts, and, not surprisingly, Spanish is the primary language in 68 percent of the homes.

The incumbent, James Rodriguez, is term-limited. The election is Nov. 5.

The ballot features a longtime community worker/activist turned county jailer, a City Council aide with a decade of experience in the district office, and a private businessman with years of managing large city and school district building projects. Rounding out the race is a grass-roots candidate, who polled a surprising 35 percent of the vote against the well-financed incumbent in the 2011 election.

I interviewed all four candidates in this race – Robert Gallegos, Graci Garces, Ben Mendez, Leticia Ablaza. All but Ablaza also did at least one Q&A with Texpatriate or Texas Leftist; you can find those links on my 2013 Election page. The Chron endorsed Garces in the race.

I found the comment about Ablaza and her “surprising” 35% against CM Rodriguez in 2011 to be interesting. As we know, 2011 was a pretty good year to run against an incumbent Council member, as two of them lost and three others at the citywide level (Mayor Parker, CM Costello, CM Noriega) were re-elected with 55% or less. In all these cases, the incumbent had multiple opponents, so even though the not-incumbent vote was 45% or more, it was split multiple ways, often among candidates with minimal resources. A possibly useful comparison is in District H, where like CM Rodriguez, CM Ed Gonzalez had a lone opponent. Here’s how those races compared:


Dist  Candidate      Votes     Pct
==================================
H     E Gonzalez     4,347  68.24%
H     P Rodriguez    2,023  31.76%

I     J Rodriguez    4,050  64.46%
I     L Ablaza       2,233  35.54%

So Patricia Rodriguez, who as far as I could tell in 2011 ran no campaign and raised $500 on the one finance report she filed, received 31.76% of the vote. Leticia Ablaza, who did run a campaign and who raised over $7,500 on the two reports she filed, received 35.54%. You tell me if that qualifies as a surprise. I will further note that neither CM Rodriguez nor CM Gonzalez had an opponent in November 2009 (CM Gonzalez of course won a special election in a June 2009 runoff to succeed now-Sheriff Adrian Garcia), but the undervote in each case (see page 6) was 36.52% for Gonzalez and 37.56% for Rodriguez. Again, you tell me what it all means.

To put this all another way, suppose there had been a third candidate in District I in 2011, and suppose that candidate had been of the no-name, no-campaign variety. How do you think the final outcome would have differed? Would you expect it to be something like 65-33-2, 63-35-2, 65-25-10, 55-35-10, or something else? I’ll say this much – if Leticia Ablaza matches her 2011 percentage, she’s not just a lock for the runoff, she’s almost surely leading the pack. I think that’s certainly possible, but I have no idea how likely it is. We’ll know soon enough.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Ben Mendez, District H, District I, Ed Gonzalez, Election 2009, Election 2011, Election 2013, Graci Garces, Houston, Houston City Council, James Rodriguez, Leticia Ablaza, Patricia Rodriguez, Robert Gallegos | 5 Comments

Interview with Zeph Capo

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Zeph Capo

Early voting starts today, and so this is my last week of presenting interviews. The last frontier is the HCC Board of Trustees, and I have two interviews, both in District 1 where scandal-marred incumbent Yolanda Navarro Flores faces two opponents. First up is Zeph Capo. Capo is a former classroom teacher who is now vice-president and legislative director for the Houston Federation of Teachers and a national trainer for the American Federation of Teachers. He has also served on the HISD Career and Technology Advisory Committee, HISD Alternative Certification Program Advisory Committee, and Greater Houston Partnership Higher Education Committee, among others. He is also active in the HCDP, serving as SDEC Executive Committee member for Senate District 15. Here’s the interview:

Zeph Capo interview

You can see all of my interviews as well as finance reports and other information on candidates on my 2013 Election page.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Election 2013, HCC, Houston, interviews, Zeph Capo | Comments Off

Early voting starts today

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Today we arrive at the more action-oriented part of the election cycle, in which voting actually happens. Early voting starts today and runs through next Friday, November 1. Here’s the schedule and map of locations for Harris County. Check with your County Clerk or Election Administrator for locations elsewhere. Hours for early voting this Monday through Friday are 8 to 4:30, and next week will be 7 AM to 7 PM.

As you know, I like to track the daily early voting numbers, to get a feel for who might be voting and what final turnout might look like. My last daily EV total post from 2011 is the reference point for the start of early voting this year. For your convenience, here are daily totals from previous years:

2011
2009
2007

I’m sure I will come back to these links frequently. In the meantime, feel free to make your guesses about turnout, results, or whatever else you’d like to prognosticate on in the comments.

Of course the big difference this year is that the voter ID law is currently in effect. Litigation is ongoing – I’ll have a separate post on where that stands later this week – but as there were no motions filed for an injunction or restraining order against it for this November election, you will need to bring the kind of ID the state has mandated with you. Got ID Texas is a great resource for that, and Sen. Leticia Van de Putte wrote a good guide to the law, mirrored on BOR. A press release from the Harris County Clerk is beneath the fold. If there’s one message you need to take from this, it’s that no matter what they tell you, CAST YOUR VOTE! If they tell you that you need to bring ID later on to (in Harris County’s case) a Tax Assessor’s office so your vote will not be considered provisional, do it. But under no circumstances should you walk away without voting, and if anyone tells you otherwise, call the County Clerk, the Secretary of State, and if you’re a Democrat the HCDP to let them know about it.

We don’t know what the effect of the voter ID law will be on turnout and composition of the electorate. One thing I know I’ll be watching for is the amount and location of provisional votes. I believe one reason why there wasn’t an injunction sought against the voter ID law was that the plaintiffs wanted to see what those numbers looked like, too. Maybe this will turn out to be less of a big deal than we fear, and maybe it will be worse. One way or another, we’ll find out.

So go forth and vote. If you do vote today, please leave a comment telling us where you voted, how crowded it was, and what your observations were regarding voter ID enforcement. Happy voting!

Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged early voting, Election 2007, Election 2009, Election 2011, Election 2013, Harris County, Harris County Clerk, Harris County Tax Assessor, Houston, lawsuit, Leticia Van De Putte, Secretary of State, turnout, voter ID | Comments Off

Third public meeting for I-45 widening

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

From the I-45 Coalition, via the inbox:

TxDOT is starting to roll again on the I-45 project!

TxDOT has just scheduled the 3^rd round of public meetings to be held Thursday, Nov 14 at Aldine Ninth Grade School, 10650 North Freeway & Tuesday, Nov 19 at Jeff Davis High School, 1101 Quitman. Both meetings will be open house format from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

As a brief recap to remind you where we are … because it has been a while:

TxDOT wants to ‘improve’ the I-45 Corridor to alleviate current traffic and plan for future traffic.

1)      TxDOT held its 1st Public Scoping meeting in November 2011 to hear from the public on what to do in the I-45 corridor.

After analyzing the input from the public from that meeting:

2)      TxDOT held its 2nd Public Scoping meeting in October 2012. TxDOT broke the project into 3 segments: Segment 1 (Beltway 8 to 610); Segment 2 (610 to I-10); and Segment 3 (Downtown Loop System).

Each segment had 6 Preliminary Alternatives for a total of 18 alternatives for all 3 segments. TxDOT was to determine the 3 most popular alternatives for each segment (for a total of 9) from evaluating the responses from the public.

Supposedly, “Within 2 months following each meeting, a report from TxDOT summarizing public comments and responses will be made available to the public”.

After the 1st Public meeting, it took 10 months for the public comments to be available. After the 2^nd Public Meeting, it took TxDOT a full year to post the comments .. it just went up this week!

TxDOT has also just announced the 3^rd Public Meeting in November 2013 (mentioned above).

3) This 3rd Public Meeting – is where they will announce the 3 alternatives for each segment (for a total of 9) and we, the public, will choose the final “winner” in each segment. So this is a VERY IMPORTANT MEETING! The results from this meeting will determine how & where the I-45 corridor will proceed! Please mark your calendars now & plan to attend in November! I do not know which 3 alternatives in each segment received the most favorable input at this time. However, within the next 30 days, the I-45 Coalition will be evaluating all comments to determine which alternatives appear to be most favored.

You can find all the details of the 1^st Public Meeting & the 2^nd Public Meeting on TxDOT’s website for this project – www.IH45Northandmore.com.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE plan on attending either of the two upcoming meetings (they both should be identical) so you can (1) hear firsthand from TxDOT what they say are the 3 favored alternatives in each segment & (2) make an informed decision as to what you feel should be the final alternative!

If you made a comment & submitted it to TxDOT after the 2^nd Public meeting, I would suggest that you check to make sure your comment is ‘on the record’, by going to TxDOT’s website & checking. All comments are indexed, so it should be easy to find. If it is not recorded, or not accurate, please let me know.

If you are not on the I-45 Coalition email list, please add your name by going to www.I-45Coalition.org and sign up. You can also find us on Facebook. Once on our list, we will notify you of any updates, meetings or changes to the project. Also if you would like to attend our Steering Committee meetings, just let us know!

Please get involved and/or stay involved! This is important. These decisions will affect you, your family, your home or business & your neighborhood. If you ever use I-45 or have any concerns about what will or will not be done on I-45 … you need to be involved!

See here for the most recent update, which was a year ago. As always, if you can make it to these meetings, please do so.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged activism, construction, Houston, I-45, TxDOT | 1 Comment

Endorsement watch: For the joint processing center

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

An easy call.

[V]oters should consider themselves fortunate that they can easily cut $25 million in unnecessary spending from the city’s annual budget by voting for the Joint Processing Center on Election Day.

The overlapping criminal justice duties of Houston and Harris County have been the target of the good governance crowd for several years, but the time is finally right to end this duplication of services. The once-combative relationship between the county and city has turned into a cooperative swoon. Both sides are ready to let the experts at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office deal with prisoners and give the sheriff a facility that fits the needs of a changing culture in criminal justice. It is a deal that benefits everyone, especially taxpayers.

The new processing center would let Houston close its jails and send prisoners directly to the county, freeing up police officers to patrol the streets. Most of those prisoners already could be sent to the county under the law. The remaining folks would either stay in the new processing center’s 72-hour beds for Class C misdemeanors or the city’s new sobering center for public intoxication cases.

[…]

Voters in 2007 and 2009 rejected similar initiatives for a central processing center, scared off by sticker shock and the prospect of adding even more jail cells. The county and city have learned from their past errors, and this year’s bond proposal costs less than half of the 2009 plan, with only additional short-term beds.

The $70 million bond for the Joint Processing Center is a smart investment, eliminating unnecessary overlap between the city and county. It sets city-county relations in the right direction. We hope to soon see our courts get on the right track, as well.

I’ve got an interview with County Judge Ed Emmett set to run on Wednesday in which he says he isn’t aware of any opposition to this proposition. For good reason, I think – it’s a win all around, probably why it polls well. The Chron suggests that maybe the presence of this center will encourage greater use of personal recognizance bonds. I don’t know if the judges will make that connection or not, but this is worth supporting regardless.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged bail, bond referendum, Ed Emmett, Election 2013, Harris County, Harris County Sheriff, Houston, jails | 1 Comment

Weekend link dump for October 20

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I’m old enough to remember when people inserted random words on Usenet posts in a (joking?) attempt to confuse NSA surveillance routines. The past is never dead…

Cheating the lines at Disneyland is now harder to do.

Dodos apparently lasted longer than we once thought.

Kids today, and their online-TV-watching ways.

That probably isn’t a spider bite that’s bothering you.

Celebrity Gymnastics, because sure, why not.

RIP, Joseph Gomer, Tuskegee Airman.

We need better government IT, which means we need to be willing to pay for it.

Don’t blame Washington, DC for all the crazy people that get sent there by the voters.

Nerd overload.

Thanks for breaking the Constitution, teabaggers.

From the How Quickly They Forget files.

And from the Some Things, Sadly, Never Change department.

“[T]here has been a movement under way for some years among right-wing economists and activists not merely to default on the debt, but even to repudiate it.”

I still don’t get the smart watch thing. We all understand that a two-way wrist radio is just a portable speakerphone, right? Imagine how much more annoying those public cellphone conversations will be.

“The plain fact is that those who have paralyzed government over the Affordable Care Act today feed at the trough of government health-care subsidies, while seeking to exclude others from sharing the bounty. This is simple selfishness in action.”

They’re coming for your birth control. Never forget that.

Mazel tov, Abby and Sarah! May you have many happy years together.

Credit where credit is due: Charles Krauthammer makes a simple yet effective point in service of a good cause.

“There is no serious argument for Republican governance right now, even if you prefer conservative policies over liberal ones. These people are just too dangerously incompetent to be trusted with power.”

Why do asthma inhalers cost so much?

What Ta-Nehisi says.

Judge Richard Posner regrets his decision to uphold Indiana’s voter ID law. Better late than never, I guess.

“I don’t know where the next dollars are coming from. It was like they ignored us, like they don’t care, like we don’t exist.”

Really racist political cartoons. Many are from long ago, but some are not. Some of them, wow. If Pat Oliphant is still drawing a paycheck from any newspaper or syndicate in America, we should all be ashamed.

RIP, Tom Foley, former Speaker of the House.

If we must start up with the tedious “grand bargain” stuff again, can we at least talk about this kind of “grand bargain”? Thanks.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | Comments Off

RIP, Bum Phillips

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

A sad day in Houston.

Oail Andrew “Bum” Phillips Jr., who spent half his adult life as a football coach and every waking moment as the personification of all things Texan, died Friday at his ranch in Goliad.

Phillips was three weeks past his 90th birthday and more than three decades removed from his heyday as head coach of the Oilers from 1975 through 1980. But he will be remembered as the personification of a time, a place and a team that remains deep in the hearts of everyone who saw them play.

The end came on a cool autumn football weekend as Houston’s current pro team, the Texans, prepares to play Sunday with his son, Wade, serving as defensive coordinator. Family members said Wade Phillips visited with his father before rejoining the team for its trip to Kansas City.

“Bum is gone to Heaven-loved and will be missed by all -great Dad,Coach, and Christian,” Wade Phillips, whose Twitter handle is @sonofbum, tweeted shortly after 10 p.m.

Bum Phillips was a product of a family that traced its roots to Texas’ frontier past, and he did his job dressed in boots, jeans and a white Stetson – except at the Astrodome, since his mama told him it was impolite to wear a hat indoors.

He was, said one admirer, the “Will Rogers of the NFL,” justly famous for such sayings as, “There’s two kinds of coaches: them that’s been fired, and them that’s gonna be fired.”

But it was his relationship with his players – and theirs to him – and his ability to relate to fans that cemented his place among the legends of Texas football coaches with the likes of Darrell Royal, Tom Landry and Gordon Wood.

“Bum Phillips’ Oilers succeeded in a way that will never be measured by percentages and trophies,” wrote former Chronicle columnist Ed Fowler in a book about the team. “They symbolized a city rather than merely representing it.”

They called it “Luv Ya Blue,” and from 1978 through 1980, it was the biggest thing in Houston sports. In truth, the city has not seen anything to top it.

There’s a ton more out there – here, here, here, and here for starters, but if you only read one other thing about Bum Phillips, make it Dale Robertson’s column, which includes many of Phillips’ famous quotes. Sometimes, sports icons don’t live up to their billing. Sometimes you find out, often years later, that they weren’t at all the person you thought they were from what you’d seen and heard. If anyone had anything bad to say about Bum Phillips, I’ve not seen it. By every account I’ve come across, he was exactly who he seemed to be. He will be missed. Rest in peace, Bum Phillips.

Posted in Other sports | Tagged Astrodome, Bum Phillips, football, Houston, Houston Oilers, NFL, obituaries | Comments Off

Chron overview of Controller’s race

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s an interesting race.

City Controller Ronald Green

On paper, City Controller Ron Green would appear to have been ripe for a bevy of challengers in November.

The city’s elected financial watchdog owes tens of thousands of dollars to the IRS, was criticized for lavish spending while on trips for city business and has publicized ties to a known felon.

Yet, those issues have hardly been discussed by his sole opponent, Bill Frazer, during Green’s campaign for a third and final term.

Instead, the two men have debated qualifications. Frazer, a first-time candidate for any office, argues that despite four years in office, Green does not have the financial background to do the job.

“I don’t think it’s going to do me any good to drag that up now,” Frazer said of Green’s previously publicized troubles. “I think it will take focus off the race. I’m more focused in on what needs to get done.”

Green contends his personal finances and the other issues raised during his first two terms are irrelevant, saying he already has addressed the concerns publicly and is making payments to the IRS.

“I’m proud of the fact that someone else with financial knowledge is even interested in the office, because I do believe it is a very valuable office,” Green said.

My interview with Controller Ronald Green is here, and with Bill Frazer is here. Both also did Texpatriate Q&As, here and here. The Chron endorsed Frazer. As I’ve said, I think this race is Green’s to lose – Frazer has run a creditable race, but I don’t think he’s well known enough to win. What are your thoughts? If you support Frazer, have you voted for Green in the past? Leave a comment and let us know.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Bill Frazer, Election 2013, Houston, Houston City Controller, Ronald Green | 2 Comments

Let’s not get the private high speed rail line bogged down in politics

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I’m always interested in stories about the Texas high speed rail line.

The company, Texas Central High-Speed Railway, drew attention last year when it announced plans to develop a high-speed rail line without public subsidies. Texas transportation officials took the project seriously, noting the pedigree of the investors: Japanese financiers behind a profitable bullet train line in Japan. Interest has only increased in recent months as the company has added former Texas Rangers president Tom Schieffer and Peter Cannito, former president of the New York-based MTA Metro-North Railroad, as senior advisers.

At the recent Texas Tribune Festival, Texas Central High-Speed Railway President Robert Eckels provided new details about the timeline for the company’s plans.

“We expect to go out in the field after the first of the year with our notice of intent and our environmental impact statement,” said Eckels, a former state legislator and Harris County judge.

[…]

While Republicans may favor the company’s free-market focus, that doesn’t mean the project won’t be completely free of public costs. During this year’s legislative sessions, some lawmakers opposed the allocation of any new transportation resources unless they were dedicated to road construction and maintenance.

“We don’t want operations subsidies,” Eckels said. “We do need regulatory help. We may need help with infrastructure relating to our project.”

Democrats may find themselves questioning whether low-income Texans will be priced out of the service if tickets are priced to cover expenses and make a profit without subsidies.

And both Democrats and Republicans may feel a sense of déjà vu as they draw questions about whether Texas Central High-Speed Railway should be permitted to acquire private Texans’ property. Though the firm hopes to develop most of the line along current freight line rights-of-way, Eckels acknowledged that those won’t cover the entire route. The idea of a foreign-backed private company employing eminent domain for a major transportation project could draw comparisons to the Trans-Texas Corridor, a political headache of a project that lawmakers had to repeatedly declare dead in order to appease angry voters.

See here and here for some background. I think it would be a useful debate to have about operations subsidies for inter-city rail transit like this. Given the tens of billions we are told we need to spend to ensure sufficient road capacity for our growing state, it may well be the case that building and partially subsidizing the operation of a bunch of rail lines is no more expensive and more scalable. For better or worse, we’re not going to have that debate, and as a private venture like the Texas Central High-Speed Railway is likely to be the only kind of rail we get built here, I’m happy to see it make progress towards that goal. I hope the Legislature will be open to hearing what Texas Central needs, and finds a sensible way to work with them to overcome obstacles. It is possible, maybe likely, there will be some Trans-Texas Corridor-style backlash against this, but I’m reasonably optimistic there won’t be. Texas Central is an idea that originated in the private sector rather than with Rick Perry, and from what I’ve seen they’ve been engaging with locals, whereas the TTC was basically an edict from above. There is a foreign company involved so there’s always room for paranoia, but this project is much smaller in scope and shouldn’t require that much in the way of right-of-way acquisition. We’ll see if that makes a difference. By the way, speaking of foreign companies, it is my understanding that Central Japan Railway Company, referenced in this linked story is not an investor in Texas Central High-Speed Railway. The two are cooperating in this effort, but one does not have a direct financial stake in the other. Whether that will have an effect on public and/or legislative opinion of this I couldn’t say, but we should at least all be clear on the facts.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Central Japan Railway, high speed rail, Robert Eckels, Texas, Texas Central High-Speed Railway, The Lege, Trans Texas Corridor | Comments Off

Endorsement watch: For Calvert

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron’s second endorsement on Friday, and what should be their last for the regular election, was for Rogene Calvert in At Large #3.

Rogene Gee Calvert

Experience is valuable on Houston City Council. Council members often spend their first two-year term learning the basics of job: Figuring out who the players are, learning how various departments and budgets work and getting a handle on knotty problems such as the pension mess. By the time that council members really understand how things work, they’ve served six years and are term-limited out of office.

Rogene Gee Calvert, running for At-Large Position 3, wouldn’t face that learning curve. She already knows her way around City Hall. She served as a director of volunteers under Mayor Bill White, steering the massive volunteer efforts that surrounded Katrina, and was chief of staff for former council member Gordon Quan.

Right off the bat, she’d be ready to get more bang for taxpayer bucks. Houston, she says, should eliminate redundancy by combining services and sharing buildings with entities such as Harris County, Houston Independent School District and METRO. And the city needs to do a better job of getting state and federal grants.

[…]

Calvert is uniquely ready to get to work, and to tackle a broad range of issues. She’d make a great city council member. Vote for Calvert.

As you know, I’ve been critical of the Chron in years past for being lackadaisical about endorsements. They do seem to do better in odd-numbered years, and this year they got them all done before the start of early voting. Kudos for that. As for this endorsement, Calvert is indeed a strong candidate in a deep field – really, most of the races this year have multiple good choices; nobody should be complaining about picking among nonentities or least-of-evils this year. My interview with Rogene Gee Calvert is here. I encourage you to listen to all the interviews I did with At Large #3 candidates, for which links are on my 2013 Election page. Four of the six candidates also did Q&As with Texpatriate and one with Texas Leftist, and those links are there as well.

One more thing:

In a strong field of competitors, Roland Chavez, a retired City of Houston firefighter, also stands out. Our city desperately needs to renegotiate its unsustainable pension deal with firefighters, and Chavez, who used to represent the firefighters’ union in those negotiations, could bring useful insights.

In my interviews, Chavez was one of a small number of candidates to specifically say they opposed Mayor Parker’s efforts to get legislation passed that would subject the firefighters’ pension fund to meet and confer requirements. Given the Chron’s obsession with pensions and their tireless efforts to bend the local legislative delegation to their will, I find that a most curious thing for them to say. Perhaps, to paraphrase Paul Simon, they hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. Greg has more.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged At Large #3, Election 2013, endorsements, HFD, HFRRF, Houston, Houston City Council, pension fund, Rogene Calvert, Roland Chavez | Comments Off

Saturday video break: Happy anniversary

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Old school anniversary celebration:

And hey, look: A cover version!

Nothing like a rousing anniversary song, is there?

Posted in Music | Tagged television, videos | Comments Off

Sam Houston officially announces for AG

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Good.

Sam Houston

Houston attorney and fortuitously named Democrat Sam Houston announced Thursday his plans to make a statewide run at Attorney General, making him the first Democrat to officially toss his hat in the ring.

Houston, who received the most votes of any Democrat on the ballot in 2008 (3.5 million, 46%) when he ran for state Supreme Court, will be challenging three Republicans vying for the position, including state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, state Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, and Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman of Houston.

“I will make a formal announcement in the coming weeks,” Houston said in a press release. “Until then, I look forward to speaking with the people of Texas about our shared vision for the future of our great state.”

See here for more on Houston. I met Sam Houston back in 2008 and I think he’ll make a fine candidate. I hope one of the things he talks about is the obsession in recent years that AG Greg Abbott has had with “voter fraud”, which his would-be successors on the GOP side are eager to continue pursuing, which has cost taxpayers millions, has nothing to show for it other than some harassed citizens, and has come at the expense of other priorities. If he can raise some money, and I think he will be able to, this should be an interesting campaign. In the meantime, Kinky Friedman made his bid for Ag Commissioner official – we’ll see if anyone challenges him for that – and we’re still waiting on Sen. Leticia Van de Putte. The level of bullshit in the Lite Guv race is already toxic – we desperately need an antidote for it. Please say you’re in, Senator VdP, and please make it soon. PDiddie has more.

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged Ag Commissioner, Attorney General, Election 2008, Election 2014, Greg Abbott, Kinky Friedman, Leticia Van De Putte, Lite Gov, Sam Houston, Texas | 3 Comments

Demagnetized

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Some unhappy changes are about to occur at Houston schools.

Terry Grier

HISD officials unveiled a plan Thursday to cut funding and end bus rides next year for transfer students at 20 struggling magnet schools, tackling a politically tough topic that has confounded the district for years.

The campuses will be the first to feel the consequences of the school board’s policy, passed in May, to end the specialty programs that draw few students from outside the neighborhood or post low test scores. Until now the board has put off eliminating any of its 115 magnet programs – roughly 40 percent of its schools – amid protests from parents.

The campuses on the hit list will lose a combined $2.3 million in extra funding next year.

In addition, the hundreds of students who transfer to the schools and now get district transportation will have to arrange other rides.

Superintendent Terry Grier described the decision bluntly.

“If you don’t meet standard, you should not be a magnet school,” he said.

The HISD Board of Trustees approved the change to the magnet school policy back in May, and while Board President Anna Eastman disputed Grier’s assertion that no Board vote was needed to affirm these cuts, there was no opposition from any Board member or education-related group noted in the story. With HISD still struggling with the deep budget cuts in public education from 2011 and the property tax rate about to go up to fund pay raises and the Apollo program, I’m sure this savings will offer some relief.

Here’s the list of schools affected by this:

* The 20 campuses that will lose their extra magnet funding and busing next year are Burbank, Elrod, Law, Pleasantville, Wesley and West University elementary schools; Attucks, Deady, Dowling, Henry, Holland, Jackson and Key middle schools; and Jones, Lee, Madison, Sharpstown, Westbury, Wheatley and Worthing High schools.

* Those on probation are Crespo, Garden Villas, Helms, MacGregor, Pugh, Ross and Wainwright elementaries; Hogg and Long middle schools; and Kashmere, Scarborough, Sterling and Washington high schools.

Helms and Hogg are in my neighborhood. Helms has a dual-language program that some friends of mine have their kids in. Hogg has been aggressively pursuing upgrades to its IB and STEM programs in part to make the school more attractive to Heights-area parents. I hope they can close whatever gaps they face. The school on these lists that surprised me was West U Elementary. According to Harvin Moore, who responded to an email query I sent, West U Elementary has only about 40 magnet kids, in a school of 1100 students. I guess they draw plenty from their neighborhood. Which is ideally what it should be – every neighborhood should have a school that resident want their kids to attend. We’ll see how this plays out. Hair Balls, which takes a negative view of this action by HISD, has more.

Posted in School days | Tagged Anna Eastman, budget, HISD, HISD Board of Trustees, Houston, magnet schools, schools, Terry Grier | 2 Comments

Endorsement watch: For Christie

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron endorses freshman CM Jack Christie in At Large #5.

Jack Christie

At-Large council members act as a sort of minister without portfolio. While district council members focus on constituent issues, at-large members can set their own agendas. The previous incumbent for At-Large Position 5, Jolanda Jones, said her goal was to serve as “the voice of the voiceless.” Not everyone liked what they heard. Her calls for scrutiny slowed down business as usual at City Hall – for better or worse. Several of Jones’ fellow council members, not to mention former Mayor Bill White, united behind Jack Christie to defeat Jones in 2011. He won in the runoff.

Despite his low-profile status at City Hall, one would be pressed to find an incumbent on Council who faces such animosity from challengers. Their criticisms have little to do with his overall performance and instead focus on a single point: Christie doesn’t support vaccinations.

Christie has served for three terms as a member of the State Board of Education and three terms on the Spring Branch Independent School District Board of Trustees, but he’s also a chiropractor, and as one he has as deep skepticism of modern medicine. This came to light during a vote to accept a federal grant that would fund flu shots for poor kids and the elderly. “You don’t die from the flu,” Christie remarked at council, casting the only no vote.

People do die from the flu – thousands in U.S. every year. Christie’s conspiracy theories have no place in public policy. These unfounded fears of vaccinations have led to the return of once-scarce illnesses. For example, a measles outbreak struck 25 people in Newark, Texas, this past August, centered around a church whose senior pastor had criticized vaccinations.

To his credit, Christie expressed his dangerous position, cast his protest vote and moved on.

I’ve interviewed CM Christie three times now – here is this year’s interview. I find him to be engaging and likable, and generally speaking I think he’s been a decent Council member. But the vaccination issue just gobsmacks me. I know people who share his views; I’m related to at least one of them. This belief that vaccines are harmful defies all logic and reason, is based on a fraud, and yet is unshakeable in its adherents. It’s also demonstrably dangerous, as the measles outbreak cited by the Chron made clear recently. It would be one thing if this belief were strictly a personal matter, but we’ve already seen that it directly intersects with Council matters. Christie’s opponents are right to hammer on it, and the Chron is wrong to dismiss them for it. It’s true that CM Christie’s irrational opposition to that grant amounted to little more than a meaningless “No” vote, and that unlike some other Texas politicians I could name, he didn’t do any further damage to the system or the process for the sake of defending his indefensible belief. But he doesn’t deserve a pass for it. If the Chron didn’t think that either James Horwitz or Dr. Carolyn Evans-Shabazz were suitable for Council, then perhaps they should have taken a pass on this race. At the very least, they should have taken their own stated concerns more seriously.

Anyway. As noted, my interview with CM Christie is here, and my interview with James Horwitz is here. I did not interview Dr. Evans-Shabazz, but she did a Texpatriate Q&A; Horwitz also did Q&As from Texpatriate and Texas Leftist. The Chron ran two endorsements yesterday, but I decided to treat them as separate posts this time. I’ll blog about the other one tomorrow. Finally, Noah Horwitz, one of the Texpatriate bloggers and the son of James Horwitz, sent a letter to the editor of the Chron in response to their endorsement of CM Christie, which I have reproduced below. These are his words and not mine – I’ve said my piece above – but I agreed to print his letter in case the Chron didn’t.

Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged At Large #5, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Election 2013, endorsements, Houston, Houston City Council, Jack Christie, James Horwitz, vaccinations | 3 Comments

Chron overview of At Large #2

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron looks at one of the most competitive races involving an incumbent on the ballot this year.

CM Andrew Burks

A minister, architect and city accountant are vying to unseat Councilman Andrew C. Burks Jr. from the Position 2 at-large seat on the Houston City Council, but Burks and his challengers differ on what the most important issue in the campaign should be.

Burks, 62, a minister and owner of AM-PM Telephone Service Inc., is seeking his second term, having won two years ago in his seventh attempt at a city council seat; overall, this is his 13th run for office. He is facing three challengers: David Robinson, 47, owner of Robinson Architectural Workshop; Trebor Gordon, 51, an associate pastor at Central Canaan Christian Church; and Modesto “Moe” Rivera, 58, an accounting supervisor for the city airport system.

The issues they see as key to the campaign are strikingly different, ranging from tax exemptions for senior citizens to the size of the city budget.

Worth reading the whole thing, especially if like me you’re one of those weird people that cares about issues and wants to know what priorities candidates have and what they plan to do about them. My interview with CM Burks is here and with David Robinson is here. I did not interview Trebor Gordon or Modesto Rivera-Colon, but you can see Texpatriate Q&As with them here and here, respectively; Rivera-Colon also did a Q&A with Texas Leftist here. The Chron endorsed Robinson. As I suggested earlier, I think CM Burks may be in some trouble, but we’ll see. Even after two sitting Council members were bounced in 2011, it has still been very difficult in the term limits era to oust an incumbent.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Andrew Burks, At Large #2, David Robinson, Election 2013, Houston, Houston City Council, Modesto Rivera-Colon, Trebor Gordon | Comments Off

Friday random ten: Love, exciting and new

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Yesterday was my 15th wedding anniversary. In celebration of that, these are some of the mushiest love songs I have in my collection:

1. Can’t Help Falling In Love – Elvis Presley
2. Just The Way You Are – Billy Joel
3. Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra and Count Basie
4. Chapel Of Love – The Beach Boys
5. Dedicated To The One I Love – The Mamas & The Papas
6. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? – Van Morrison and The Cheiftains
7. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) – James Taylor
8. Love Struck Baby – Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
9. I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm – Les Brown and His Band of Renown
10. No Matter What Goes Right – Trout Fishing In America

Love is a many-splendored thing, even after all these years.

Posted in Music | Tagged Friday random ten, theme lists | 3 Comments

Where things stand going into early voting

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

A few impressions of the state of the races as we head into early voting.

Mayor – The thing that I will be looking for as initial results get posted at 7 PM on November 5 is how the gaggle of non-competitive candidates is doing. The thing about having nine candidates in a race, even if only two of them have any realistic hope of winning, is that it doesn’t take much support for the long tail to make a runoff a near-certainty. Basically, the amount that the seven stragglers get is the amount Mayor Parker must lead Ben Hall by in order to win the election in November. If the group of seven gets 10%, then Parker needs to lead Hall by at least ten points – 50 to 40 to 10 – in order to win outright. If they collect 20%, Parker needs to lead by 20 – 50 to 30 to 20.

There are no good parallels to this year’s race, but for what it’s worth the three bit players in 2009 got 1.01% of the vote; in 2003 six no-names for 0.65%; in 2001 there were four minor candidates collecting 0.45%; and in 1997, the bottom five candidates got 11.94%. That last one, which may be the closest analogue to this year, comes with an asterisk since two of those five candidates were term-limited Council members, Gracie Saenz and Helen Huey, and they combined for 10.46% of that total. One reason why the past doesn’t offer a good guide for this year is that in all of these races there were at least three viable candidates. Everyone else, save for Saenz and Huey in 1997, was truly marginal. None of Eric Dick, Keryl Douglass, or Don Cook can be considered viable, but they all ought to have a slightly larger base than the perennials and no-names in these earlier races. How much larger is the key question, because however large it is, that’s how big Mayor Parker’s lead over Ben Hall will need to be for her to avoid overtime.

Controller – This race has been Ronald Green’s to lose from the get go, and it remains so. I don’t think his position is any stronger than it was nine months ago, but at least he hasn’t had any bad publicity recently, either. He’s largely held onto the endorsements he’s gotten in the past, though losing the Chron had to sting a little. He’s still an underwhelming fundraiser, but while Bill Frazer has done well in this department he hasn’t done enough to make himself a recognizable name, and that’s to Green’s advantage. Green probably needs Ben Hall to make a decent showing, because while Green did reasonably well in Republican areas in 2009, he will probably lose some of that support this time, and as such he may need a boost from African-American turnout. If Green loses he can certainly kiss any Mayoral ambitions he may have goodbye. If he squeaks by, I can already envision the postmortem stories that will talk about his close call and how that might affect his Mayoral plans. If he were to run for Mayor in 2015, I guarantee that narrative will follow him closely all the way through, just as Mayor Parker’s close shave in 2011 has followed her in this cycle.

At Large Council – I feel confident saying that CMs Costello, Bradford, and Christie will win, though Christie will have the closest call and could conceivably be forced into a runoff. His two opponents have picked up a decent assortment of endorsements between them given their late entries and fairly low profiles. One wonders how things might have gone if someone had jumped into this race early on, as I suggested many moons ago.

I think CM Andrew Burks could be in trouble. He’s done a reasonable job collecting endorsements, but he hasn’t done as well on that score as a typical incumbent does. Like Ronald Green, he needs Ben Hall to have some coattails in the African-American districts, but remember that Burks has not done as well in those boxes as other African-American candidates. But it’s fundraising where you really see the red flags. Combining his three reports for this year, Burks has hauled in about $57K total. His main challenger, David Robinson, reported raising over $66K just on his 30 Day form. Robinson took in another $82K on the July report. He also has over $73K on hand for the late push, while Burks has just $8K. Money isn’t destiny, but these numbers are the exact reverse of what you’d usually see with an incumbent and a challenger.

As for At Large #3, it is as it has been all along, basically wide open with each of the five viable candidates having a plausible case for making the runoff. Bob Stein pegs Michael Kubosh as basically already having a ticket punched for the runoff, but I’ll wait and see. He probably has the best name ID of the group, but that doesn’t mean he’s terribly well known. I just don’t know enough about this one to hazard a guess.

District Council races – A year ago at this time, I’d have marked first term CM Helena Brown as an underdog for re-election. Now I’m not so sure. She’s done well at fundraising, she’s garnered some endorsements – getting the HAR endorsement was both a finger in the eye for Brenda Stardig and a nice bit of establishment sheen for herself – and she hasn’t generated any embarrassing headlines in months. I believe she’s still going to be in a runoff, most likely with Stardig but not necessarily with her, but I think runoff scenarios that don’t include Brown are unlikely at this time. I might bet a token amount on her being un-elected, but I wouldn’t bet any real money on it.

Brown’s freshman colleague Jerry Davis looks to be in better shape. There’s still resentment to him in some quarters, mostly from former CM Carol Mims Galloway and her supporters, but Davis has good support on his side, and he’s gotten the large majority of campaign contributions. Kathy Daniels is a good candidate and she’ll make some noise – a runoff isn’t out of the question – but I see Davis as the clear favorite.

Districts D and I are anyone’s guess. Dwight Boykins has the edge in D, but it’s a strong field, and if Boykins doesn’t clearly separate himself from the rest of the pack he could be vulnerable in December if the bulk of the runnersup back his opponent. Anything could happen in I, where none of the four candidates seems to have a clear advantage over the others. It won’t shock me if it’s a close finish among the four, with a small number of votes separating the runoff contestants from the other two. Some runoff scenarios are preferable to others, but all scenarios are possible.

HISD and HCC – No surprises in HISD. I believe Anna Eastman gets re-elected, Harvin Moore gets re-elected though Anne Sung will have put herself on the map, and Wanda Adams wins in IX. Zeph Capo has run a strong race in HCC1 – this is one of those times where a string of endorsements will mean something – and I believe he wins there. I think Bruce Austin and Neeta Sane get re-elected, but I don’t know about Herlinda Garcia, and I have no clue who will win in the open District 5 seat.

Everything else – I think the two Harris County propositions, for the Astrodome and for the joint processing center, will pass. I think the constitutional amendments will pass, though one or more may fail for some goofy and unforeseeable reason. I do think Prop 6, the water infrastructure fund, passes. The one non-Houston race I’m keenly interested in is the Pasadena redistricting referendum. I have no idea how that is going, but obviously I’m rooting for it to go down.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Andrew Burks, Anna Eastman, Anne Sung, Annise Parker, Astrodome, Ben Hall, Bill Frazer, Brenda Stardig, constitutional amendments, David Robinson, Dwight Boykins, Harris County, Harvin Moore, HCC, Helena Brown, HISD, HISD Board of Trustees, Houston, Houston City Controller, Houston City Council, Jerry Davis, Kathy Blueford Daniels, Mayor, Pasadena, redistricting, Ronald Green, Texas, Wanda Adams, Zeph Capo | 5 Comments

SCOTUS will hear another EPA lawsuit appeal

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Gird your loins.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Texas’ challenge of federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources like power plants and factories, the court announced Tuesday. But it declined to hear the state’s appeals of two other decisions, effectively upholding rules that limit such emissions from vehicles and maintaining the Environmental Protection Agency’s assertion that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

Federal judges had previously knocked down efforts by Texas and several other states, along with powerful industry coalitions, to challenge the EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Should the Supreme Court justices determine otherwise after hearing oral arguments next year, there could be severe implications for rules limiting emissions from big power plants and other facilities. The EPA recently proposed rules to limit carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants, prompting critics to accuse the agency of trying to destroy the coal industry and economy while drawing praise from environmental advocates.

At issue is whether the EPA can use the Clean Air Act, which gives it the authority to regulate emissions of toxic air pollutants and to limit emissions of greenhouse gases as well. In 2007, the court had ruled in the landmark case Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA could do so for motor vehicles, which has led to stringent fuel-efficiency requirements for cars.

But Texas, joined by Mississippi and industry coalitions including the American Petroleum Institute, is arguing that the Clean Air Act was never meant to apply to anything other than air pollutants, because greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane “[do] not deteriorate the quality of the air that people breathe.” Attorneys representing the groups added that “carbon dioxide is virtually everywhere and in everything,” and called the EPA’s proposed regulations of greenhouse gases “absurd.”

Of the nine petitions the group of states and industry leaders had filed to the Supreme Court regarding its challenge of climate change rules, the justices agreed to hear six, but only want to consider one question: “Whether EPA permissibly determined that its regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles triggered permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act for stationary sources that emit greenhouse gases.”

I’ve kind of lost track of which lawsuit is which since there have been so many, but this was the most recent appeals court ruling, which went against Texas. SCOTUS has also agreed to hear an appeal of the CSAPR ruling, which went against the Obama administration. The consensus seems to be that this is a fairly narrow issue for SCOTUS to rule on and that the EPA should be on solid footing, but you never know. See Wonkblog, SCOTUSBlog, TPM, and the NRDC blog for more in depth analysis of this.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged climate change, Environmental Protection Agency, greenhouse gases, lawsuit, SCOTUS, Texas | 1 Comment

Moving the focus back to un-crowding the jails

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

This is a positive development.

Devon Anderson

Newly appointed Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson on Wednesday pledged to curb the increasing number of low-level felons being sentenced to serve misdemeanor time in the county jail rather than going to prison, known as a “12.44a” sentence, saying she will encourage her prosecutors to push rehabilitation.

There has been a more than 30 percent increase this year in the number of state jail felons who receive so-called 12.44a sentences, according to information kept by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, which Harris County created in 2009 to improve the justice system and reduce jail overcrowding.

The increase has been identified by the council as one of several reasons that the population of the Harris County Jail – the state’s largest lock-up – has escalated this year to the point of being close to capacity again.

Those types of convictions include so-called “trace cases,” where people are arrested for possessing less than 1/100th of a gram of crack cocaine.

Anderson’s husband, the late District Attorney Mike Anderson, who took office in January and died of cancer last month, sparked speculation that the jail population would increase when he decided to prosecute trace cases as felonies. His predecessor, Patricia Lykos, treated the cases as misdemeanors, saying it was difficult to accurately test drug residue and took officers off the streets for too long. She also claimed it helped reduce the jail population.

Devon Anderson on Wednesday, attending her first coordinating council meeting since being appointed as her husband’s replacement about two weeks ago, said she was “not alarmed” by the number of state jail felony filings this year, which have not increased substantially.

“What I was alarmed about was the 12.44a disposals,” she said. “Creating a class of felons, first offenders, about 800 people who have never been in trouble… now have felony convictions because of the 12.44a punishment. That is what we’re going to address. “

She continued: “I’m a former drug court judge and I’m very interested in rehabilitation and that is what I’m going to encourage my prosecutors to work on, to identify people whether they’re first offenders or if they have prior drug felonies and no violent priors, to try to get them to enter treatment. As a former defense attorney, I know that there are some people who just (say), ‘I don’t want to be on paper, I don’t want treatment, I want to go right back on the streets.’ Well, the problem is they come right back to the jail. So we need to work with defense lawyers and judges. We all need to get unified on this and try to get treatment and to try to stop the revolving door.”

Anderson had previously told the Chronicle she would continue her husband’s trace case policy, but would look at whether they are “giving a disproportionate number of state jail felons county time.”

See here and here for some background. Anderson’s position seems a bit muddled to me, but maybe that’s just because I don’t know what “12.44a” means. Is there some other class of felony that isn’t a trace case but is a “12.44a” that’s been trending up and causing an increase in the local inmate population? You lawyers out there, please chime in on this. Be that as it may, the fact that Anderson is acknowledging the problem and her office’s role in it, that’s a positive sign. Assuming she’s not putting up a smokescreen, then there’s a path forward from here.

On a tangential note because I didn’t get around to blogging it earlier, there was a story in the Chron about what the new public defender’s office has been pu to.

Harris County’s recently created public defender system is seeing positive results, including an uptick in dismissed cases for Houston’s mentally ill, according to a report released Tuesday by the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

“It says we provide a lot of value to the system,” Alex Bunin, the county’s chief public defender, said of the results.

Those results include dismissal rates that are five times higher for mentally ill misdemeanor suspects than similar defendants with appointed attorneys.

The office, which began in 2011 with a state grant funding the first four years, handles about 6 percent of the county’s indigent trial-level cases. The rest of the indigent cases are handled by private attorneys appointed by one of the county’s 40 criminal court judges.

In general, the report found that the public defender’s office does more investigation, which leads to better results in court, advocates for the defense bar in community issues and offers free training, mentoring and advice that was not available before.

Those courtroom results include a greater proportion of dismissals, deferred sentences and acquittals. The report also pointed out that the office sees a smaller proportion of “guilty” verdicts than appointed lawyers. Overall, the public defender office secured acquittals at three times the rate of appointed or hired attorneys, according to the report.

Pretty good so far. There are some complaints in the story from Jared Woodfill about the cost of the PDO, but Woodfill benefited greatly from the old system of judicial appointments of defense counsel for indigent defendants, so take his comments with a grain of salt. Grits has more.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged Alex Bunin, bail, Devon Anderson, District Attorney, drugs, Harris County, jail overcrowding, jails, Jared Woodfill, John Whitmire, public defender | Comments Off

Endorsement watch: Brad and Graci

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Another endorsement twofer from the Chron, this time an incumbent and an open seat. First up, the Chron endorses CM Brad Bradford for a third term.

CM C.O. “Brad” Bradford

The duties of an at-large council member are not as specific as those of a district council member and At-large Council Member C.O. “Brad” Bradford has some ideas about changing that, which we’ll return to a minute.

But first things first. Bradford, the former chief of the Houston Police Department, has continued to serve this city well in two terms in At-large Position 4. He deserves to be returned to City Hall for a third and final two years at the council table.

[…]

[T]he council member has presented an ambitious proposal to change the Houston City Charter.

Among the ideas? Giving the five at-large council members specific portfolios such as public safety, budget and finance, parks and recreation, etc.

Bradford has drawn a worthy opponent in Issa Dadoush, a former director of the city of Houston General Services Department who is a licensed professional engineer and an MBA.

We encourage Dadoush, now in the private sector, to remain interested in elective service at City Hall. But for the next two years, our clear recommendation for voters is C.O. “Brad” Bradford for City Council At-large Position 4.

I was beginning to wonder when the Chron would get around to the last four races. For this race at least I didn’t expect anything unusual. I don’t have much to add to the Chron’s endorsement. CM Bradford is a sharp guy, and while I don’t always agree with him, he does bring a lot to the table. My interview with CM Bradford is here.

The Chron also endorsed Graci Garces in District I.

Graci Garces

Whoever represents District I should have no learning curve at City Hall, and be ready to serve families in the district’s Hispanic communities and also booming downtown businesses. An inexperienced city council member risks killing the goose that laid the golden egg. We believe that Graci Garces, with her years of service within local government, is the best candidate for District I.

Once represented by Hispanic political kingpin Ben Reyes, before he was busted in a federal bribery sting, District I has been held by a clean line of succession for the past 12 years. State Rep. Carol Alvarado was elected to that seat for three terms, followed by her chief of staff, James G. Rodriguez, who is completing his third and final term on council. Garces, Rodriguez’s chief of staff, would continue the Alvarado dynasty at City Hall.

That isn’t necessarily a good thing. Lifelong staffers like Garces, 33, lack important private sector experience, and may have a greater sense of loyalty to their mentors than their constituents.

But Garces hasn’t been some behind-the-scenes insider. For the past 10 years, she’s been the eyes and ears for City Hall in District I. Her specific, localized ideas go beyond the usual infrastructure and jobs agenda, with goals of reducing animal overpopulation in neighborhoods and tearing down blight. She’s walked the streets for a decade and knows the area well. After working in D.C. and Austin for a host of Hispanic representatives, Garces will be able to serve as a bridge between government and the community.

Here’s my interview with Graci Garces. The Chron also gave a shoutout to Ben Mendez in their endorsement. Garces is a strong candidate, but as I’ll mention in a subsequent post, I don’t see any of the four having a clearcut edge over the others. Perhaps this will give her a boost towards the runoff. If you live in District I, who is your preferred choice?

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged At Large #4, Clarence Bradford, District I, Election 2013, endorsements, Graci Garces, Houston, Houston City Council | 8 Comments

Medina keeps mulling

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

And I keep marveling at the very idea.

Tea party Republican Debra Medina said Thursday that she is weighing a run for governor as an independent, potentially setting off a new dynamic with a three-way race.

Such a decision is weeks away. Medina said the switch would depend on what she hears from voters, whether donors are willing to invest, and if she can surmount the high hurdles to get on the ballot as an independent candidate.

But mostly, it depends on whether she can raise enough money to run competitively for the race she’s currently invested in, state comptroller.

She’s taken in about $100,000 so far for the GOP primary, but she is lagging far behind Rep. Harvey Hilderbran of Kerrville and Sen. Glenn Hegar of Katy.

“If I get to November and still don’t have that funding, then I will have a very serious conversation and we will evaluate” getting into the governor’s race, Medina said.

[…]

Recent rumors have suggested that Democrats may offer funding to pull her into the governor contest to help Davis. But Medina said the idea was presented in March by an elected official she declined to name. In a meeting, several officials told her they could raise the cash she would need to run as an independent.

“This was before anyone was thinking about, talking about Wendy Davis as a gubernatorial candidate,” Medina said.

At that time, Perry hadn’t announced whether he would seek another term, Abbott hadn’t joined the race, and it was unclear whether the Democrats would field anyone with gravitas.

She said she responded that she didn’t want to run as a long shot, but the offers continued.

Medina said she hasn’t asked who the financial backers might be because contributors don’t influence her decisions. But she dismissed the idea that it was trial lawyers or Democratic backers because they would have little interest in Medina’s politics, especially at the time the offer was raised.

She said she is weighing the option because the Republican 2014 slate of candidates will likely be long-serving Austin insiders.

“It seems the ticket we’re putting up in 2014 is by-and-large filled by those who fall into that ‘fake Republican’ category,” who don’t limit government reach, Medina said.

Running as an independent in Texas would necessitate collecting about 250,000 signatures of registered voters who had not cast ballots in either the Democratic or Republican primary.

“Look, that is a real steep mountain,” Medina said. “I’m pretty reluctant to pursue that.”

See here and here for the background. Some fascinating tidbits in that story – I for one would love to know who that “elected official” was that she talked with. The fact that Medina is aware of how daunting it can be to file as an indy just to get on the ballot is encouraging to me, in the sense that if she knows what obstacles she’d have to overcome and is still publicly thinking about it, that makes it more real. She’s still deluded if she thinks she can win, but she’s not so deluded as to think any part of this will be easy. I’m still not ready to take this seriously, but I won’t dismiss it, either.

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged Debra Medina, Election 2014, Governor, Greg Abbott, petitions, Rick Perry, Texas, Wendy Davis | 2 Comments

On missing KBH

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I have four things to say about this.

Not Ted Cruz

Does anyone else miss Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison?

>We’re not sure how much difference one person could make in the toxic, chaotic, hyperpartisan atmosphere in Washington, but if we could choose just one it would be Hutchison, whose years of service in the Senate were marked by two things sorely lacking in her successor, Ted Cruz.

For one thing, Hutchison had an unswerving commitment to the highest and best interests of Texas at all times. This revealed itself in a thousand different ways. Hereabouts, we miss her advocacy for NASA, the Port of Houston and the energy industry. And we know she worked just as hard for Dallas, San Antonio and a hundred smaller Texas cities and towns.

And dare we say it? We miss her extraordinary understanding of the importance of reaching across the aisle when necessary. Neither sitting Texas senator has displayed that useful skill, and both the state and the Congress are the poorer for it.

One reason we particularly believe that Hutchison would make a difference in these hectic days is that if she had kept her seat, Cruz would not be in the Senate.

When we endorsed Ted Cruz in last November’s general election, we did so with many reservations and at least one specific recommendation – that he follow Hutchison’s example in his conduct as a senator.

Obviously, he has not done so. Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part of the solution.

1. It’s nice to think that the Chron recognizes that its idiotic endorsement of Cruz was wrong. They sure are loathe to admit it, however much evidence there is that they blew it . I won’t be happy till they apologize for it. The problem wasn’t so much the endorsement itself as the reason for it. Their “recommendation” that Cruz be like KBH in the Senate was so laughably stupid you have to wonder if they’d been paying any attention at all to the Republican Senate primary. Whatever else you may say about Ted Cruz – and Lord knows, there’s plenty to say – he has been exactly who he has said he would be. I continue to be astonished that the Chron’s editorial board managed to delude itself into thinking otherwise, and that they continue to hold fast to their original opinion. Maybe it’s not an apology I want so much as for them to say exactly why they were so disastrously uninformed, and what they plan to do about it going forward.

2. While I certainly agree that KBH would not have led a push to shut down the government or breach the debt ceiling in a psychopathic and anti-Constitutional effort to nullify a perfectly legal law, I also don’t think she’d be anything but a loyal soldier for the opposition. She did serve in the Senate for four years under President Obama, and I challenge the Chron or anyone else to name a piece of legislation on which she broke ranks with her colleagues. It’s almost always the case when Republicans in DC have fought among themselves, the dispute isn’t about goals but about tactics. That would be the main difference between Senator KBH in 2013 and Senator Cruz.

3. The thing to watch for going forward is any sign that Texas’s Republican-backing business interests have recognized that Ted Cruz is part of the problem for them, too. So far, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

While we’re on the topic, we’d like to think our first choice to succeed Hutchison in the Senate, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, would have been more amenable to following Hutchison’s example than Cruz has been. But these days, we’re not so sure.

4. On Sunday, Peggy Fikac wrote that if David Dewhurst were Senator today, the government shutdown would not have happened. On Monday, David Dewhurst called for President Obama’s impeachment. Coincidence? I think not. Dewhurst will do anything to avoid getting Cruz’ed again. The mere suggestion that he might be slightly less insane than the voters he’s desperately trying to court is toxic to him. John Coby, Texpatriate, and Juanita have more.

UPDATE: What Alex Pareene says.

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged David Dewhurst, Election 2012, endorsements, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Senate, Ted Cruz, Texas | Comments Off

Endorsement watch: For the amendments

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron stumps for the constitutional amendments on the ballot this year.

It’s an off-year election, but Texas voters still have good reasons to go to the polls Nov. 5. In addition to local races, they’ll be deciding nine proposed constitutional amendments, including an important proposal to pay for water infrastructure by making a withdrawal from the state’s rainy day fund.

Below are summaries of the ballot propositions. The Chronicle endorses all nine.

[…]

Proposition 6

This is the most important proposal on the ballot. With the state’s population expected to double in the next 40 years and with groundwater supplies in decline, it establishes two funds to finance water plan projects identified by the Texas Water Development Board as part of a statewide water plan.

The proposal authorizes the transfer of $2 billion from the state’s rainy day fund to seed a revolving cash flow for making loans for water projects.

Although passage of this amendment is important for every region of the state, including the Houston area, its fate rests in the hands of Houston voters, who are likely to make up at least 30 percent of the electorate.

See here for some detail on the nine proposed amendments. Prop 6 is the big one, and as we saw it seems to be in good shape. I expect them all to pass, though I won’t be terribly surprised if one or two randomly go down. These things just happen sometimes.

UPDATE: BOR recommends a vote against Prop 3.

UPDATE: And Prop 7, too.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Constitution, constitutional amendments, Election 2013, endorsements, Texas | Comments Off

Texas blog roundup for the week of October 14

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance thanks Sen. Ted Cruz for his hard work making the Republican Party more unpopular than ever as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged blog roundup, TPA | Comments Off

Interview with Lana Edwards

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Lana Edwards

As we know, District D is a very big field with twelve candidates running to succeed CM Wanda Adams. I published interviews with five of the candidates a few weeks ago. I don’t always reach out to all candidates in a race for various reasons, and sometimes when that happens I subsequently hear from one of the candidates that I had not contacted. That’s what happened here, and so I somewhat belatedly bring you an interview with Lana Edwards. Edwards is a longtime educator, having spent 37 years as a teacher, Magnet Coordinator, Assistant. Principal, and Principal. This Style Magazine article has some good biographical information about her. She was married to former State Rep. Al Edwards. Here’s what we talked about:

Lana Edwards interview

You can see all of my interviews as well as finance reports and other information on candidates on my 2013 Election page.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged District D, Election 2013, Houston, Houston City Council, interviews, Lana Edwards | Comments Off

No repeal petition for San Antonio non-discrimination ordinance

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Good.

Opponents of San Antonio’s nondiscrimination ordinance spread the word at churches and parks about their petition drive to place the policy on a citywide ballot.

A few hours before Tuesday’s deadline, they informed city officials that effort had fallen short.

Pastor Gerald Ripley, a petition leader, estimated the group collected about 20,000 signatures, well below the required 61,046, or 10 percent of eligible voters.

[…]

The group had 40 days from the Sept 5 Council vote to adopt the NDO.

Apart from Cornerstone Church, few large religious groups joined the effort. Several of the city’s biggest evangelical megachurches and the Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio sat it out.

The archdiocese raised its concerns in a respectful dialogue before the Council vote, archdiocesan officials said. They added that petition leaders did not distinguish well at first that the repeal effort was separate from recall drives against council members who voted for the NDO.

The archdiocese would have legal reservations about mixing the two, said Pat Rodgers, archdiocesan spokesman, citing nonprofit law banning churches from partisan candidate campaigns.

See here and here for the background. I’m glad to see this, of course, and just a little relieved because the Tuesday morning story said that the repeal backers were “preparing to submit” a petition, which sure made it sound like a closer deal than it was. Our super-litigious Attorney General will not be filing suit against the ordinance, so modulo the efforts of the recall petitioners, this matter is settled for now. Recall or not, there will be future elections, and as noted in my second link above, one reason why the NDO passed is because of favorable outcomes in two SA City Council elections this past May. So let’s not rest too easy. And let’s get cracking on a more comprehensive NDO for Houston.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged charter, City Council, Diego Bernal, Election 2013, gay rights, Julian Castro, petitions, recall, repeal, San Antonio, Texas | 1 Comment

Mostly looking good for Prop 6

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

A good poll result for the water infrastructure Constitutional amendment.

Texans support $2 billion in water infrastructure financing by a better than 2-to-1 margin, but nearly a quarter haven’t decided how they will vote on the issue this November, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

The respondents favored the measure, known as Proposition 6, 52 percent to 19 percent. A quarter said they had not decided how they would vote.

Political leaders including Gov. Rick Perry have been urging voters across the state to pass the proposition, saying the state’s future depends on it. They have some work to do: Asked how much they have heard about the constitutional amendments on the November ballot, nearly one-half of the respondents said they had heard either “not very much” or “nothing at all.” Only 9 percent said they had heard “a lot” about the amendments.

“To me, there was not a big surprise here,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Policy Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “People reflexively support water funding. People are aware of the drought, we just got out of a hot summer. … There was a decent amount of public discourse.”

The poll found Texans put a high priority on public education, water, and roads and highways. Asked to rank those things, 73 percent said they consider addressing public education needs to be very important, 65 percent said the same about water, and 55 percent gave that highest importance to roads and highways.

And the respondents agree with the Legislature about who ought to be deciding the water issue: 75 percent said “it’s best to let the voters decide” big issues, while 16 percent said “we vote legislators into office to make big decisions.”

The crosstabs are here and the poll summary is here. As pollster Henson explained in a subsequent post, the trick to these low-turnout affairs is to guess who really is a “likely” voter. (See also: Polling in Houston Mayoral races.) The good news for the pro-Prop 6 forces is that they span the political spectrum and have a lot more money than the opponents. They also have better organization and frankly, a better argument than the naysayers.

Until now, there has been little opposition to the measure, and even those leading the fight describe the coalition as “informal.” It includes libertarians, property rights activists, tea party supporters and rural residents worried about losing access to water.

[…]

In Houston, Kathie Glass, a Libertarian candidate for governor, said she is opposed to the proposition because it would encourage more borrowing by local entities already buried in debt. “All this would add to our debt in an unknown and open-ended amount,” she said.

Policy experts said building reservoirs and other big-ticket projects to meet future demand that does not materialize will put the credit ratings of public water systems at risk and significantly increase tax and water bills for customers. At the same time, the fund, as designed, would allow municipalities seeking to build projects to raise money faster and less expensively than through usual channels.

“The state isn’t going into debt on this,” said Ronald Kaiser, a professor of water law and policy at Texas A&M University. “It’s using its savings so that local communities can invest in themselves.”

Color me shocked that it’s these folks making factually dubious claims. I understand why some environmental groups aren’t thrilled by Prop 6, but this strikes me as one of those times to be careful about the alliances of convenience one forms. All in all, I’d much rather be in the Prop 6 supporters’ position, and since I do support Prop 6, that’s fine by me.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged conservation, Constitution, constitutional amendments, drought, Election 2013, Joe Straus, Kathie Glass, polls, SWIFT, Texas, The Lege, water | 1 Comment

Chron profiles the Mayor

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Sunday Chron has an expansive profile of Mayor Parker.

Mayor Annise Parker

In a system where term limits cap elected officials at six years, City Hall veterans joke that new council members spend their first year finding the bathrooms and their sixth getting ignored by bureaucrats happy to wait them out.

Parker, however, spent six years on the City Council, then six as city controller, Houston’s elected financial watchdog. After nearly four years as mayor, she is Houston’s longest-tenured elected official since voters approved term limits in 1991. She is seeking a final two-year term on Nov. 5.

Institutional knowledge is particularly useful for someone with Parker’s technocratic leanings. The introverted former bookstore owner acknowledges she is excited by tweaks to internal city operations no citizen will ever see.

“I just love the minutiae of running the city. There are hundreds of things that we could do better, and I’m just popping them off one after another as soon as we can find them,” she said. “For the first time, in this year’s budget, we created a line item for maintenance, renewal and replacement of our facilities. You can’t say that’s a legacy item, but 10 years from now, 20 years from now, it’s going to be impossible, I think, for a future mayor to say, ‘We’re not going to line-item this again.’ And, hopefully, we won’t be in the condition that I was when I came in and we had all these facilities that you had years of deferred maintenance, falling apart. Those are the kind of things – that’s why I came to government.”

Her top challenger, former City Attorney Ben Hall, criticizes that approach, calling Parker a manager, not a leader. Parker spends too much time tinkering with pet projects, he said, while failing to plan for looming financial problems or to craft visionary policies to ensure the city’s continued growth.

Even if Hall’s criticism is true, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said, Parker’s results at the ballot box speak for themselves. “It’s a credit to her that she has been able to have such success while clearly positioning herself much more as a technocrat than as a charismatic leader,” Jones said.

They will have a similar story about Ben Hall this Sunday, which ought to be interesting given the drama of the endorsement screening. Overall, I thought this was a fair article about Mayor Parker. She is a technocrat, she has gotten a lot done in an environment that hasn’t always been friendly or in her control, she has pushed for things that needed to be done even if they weren’t popular, and she has the city and county working together in ways we haven’t seen in many years. She also appointed a Metro board that rescued it from catastrophe with the FTA and has gotten it back on sound footing and in better graces with the public, which wasn’t mentioned in the story. Frankly, I think that’s one of her best accomplishments, and it’s largely gone unremarked on. On the flip side, she is not awash in charisma, she does sometimes come across as someone who thinks she’s smarter than everyone around her – speaking as someone who also attended Rice, as a grad student in my case, this is a not-terribly-uncommon affliction among its alumni – and she has been very loyal to some longtime staffers that haven’t always been up to challenges of the office. Rebuild Houston is a great idea and a needed program that continues to be a work in progress. As for the vision thing, like I’ve said before I care more about results, and the results look pretty good overall. In any event, if you were new to the city or the state and didn’t know much about Mayor Parker, I thought this story would give you a reasonable first look. I look forward to the upcoming profile of Ben Hall.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Annise Parker, Ben Hall, Election 2013, Harris County, Houston, Houston City Controller, Houston City Council, Mayor, Metro, Rice University | 5 Comments

Interview with Ben Hall

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Ben Hall

In the era of term limits, we usually only get contested Mayoral races in the open years. Lee Brown faced a strong challenge from Orlando Sanchez and Chris Bell in 2001, prevailing in a runoff. Many people expected Mayor Parker to face a similar challenge this year after her bare-majority win over a field of low-profile opponents in 2011. Ben Hall, who had considered running in the open year 2009, stepped up this year to make that challenge. Hall served as City Attorney under Mayor Bob Lanier, and has been in private practice since then. He represented Chad Holley after that representing victims of accused rapist/HPD officer Abraham Joseph. He has run an aggressive campaign against Mayor Parker, accusing her among other things of lacking a vision for the city. As you might imagine, that was one of the first things I asked him about in the interview. In the interview, by the way, Hall mentions that he’s showing me a chart from the Kinder Institute website. You can see the chart he showed me here. Now here’s the interview:

Ben Hall interview

You can see all of my interviews as well as finance reports and other information on candidates on my 2013 Election page.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Ben Hall, Election 2013, Houston, interviews, Mayor | 4 Comments

Chron overview of At Large #3

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the Chron’s look at the At Large #3 race.

Michael Kubosh

Citywide races demand more money and name recognition for candidates to be successful, unlike district seats where neighborhood familiarity can matter more.

Perhaps the candidate with the best mix of both is bail bondsman Michael Kubosh.

Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said “the slayer of red-light cameras” can bank on his name and race-leading finances, mostly from his own pocket, to secure a spot in a likely December runoff.

“You know me because of my standing up for citizens of the city on the red-light camera issue,” he said. “I believe in standing up and petitioning your government if you see things wrong.”

While he sees many potential problems at the city, including budget difficulties that he says must be solved without deferring pension payments and a lack of public information about how the new drainage fee is being used, Kubosh said he needs more details before deciding how to act.

Rice Political science professor Mark Jones said Kubosh’s reputation as “a bull in a china shop” and an ongoing civil suit in Jefferson County Court alleging barratry – the practice of illegally soliciting clients – are weak points opponents could exploit in a runoff.

Kubosh denied the barratry allegation, calling the close ties between his brother’s law office and his bail bonding operation a family business.

The ballot also includes two candidates with experience working in the back rooms of city government who say they are ready to lead.

One of those is former City Hall staffer Rogene Calvert, who came the closest to matching Kubosh’s fundraising, and leads him in money on hand as the race heads into its final weeks. According to campaign reports covering the period that ended Sept. 29, Calvert has more than $94,000 in the bank, while Kubosh has about $40,000 left to spend before the Nov. 5 election.

Not to nitpick, but as Greg pointed out for the 30 Day reports and I noted for the July reports, a large portion of Kubosh’s fundraising comes from his own funds. Nothing wrong with writing your own check, but to me it’s fundamentally different than raising funds from the donations of others. One could argue that someone with the name recognition and past citywide electoral activism of Michael Kubosh should have a broader fundraising base than his reports indicate. To be fair, it may be that since he can finance his own campaign, Kubosh would prefer to spend his time engaging voters rather than dialing for dollars he doesn’t genuinely need. My point is simply that there’s a quantitative difference between being a strong fundraiser and being a self-funder, and I think the story should have noted the distinction. There is more to the story than just this. I’d have had to quote way too much of it to give a representative sample of what they said about each of the viable candidates, so go read it for yourself. I’m less certain than Prof. Stein that Kubosh is a lock for the runoff, mostly because I think any of the five viable candidates has a realistic path to Round 2, but we’ll see. Who are you supporting in this race?

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged At Large #3, Election 2013, Houston, Houston City Council, Jenifer Pool, Michael Kubosh, Rogene Calvert, Roland Chavez, Roy Morales | 3 Comments

In case Greg Abbott just isn’t right-wing enough for you

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Meet his latest challenger.

I just felt like including a Bloom County strip

A tea party activist and frequent guest on Fox News has entered the race for governor in Texas, offering an alternative on the right of frontrunner Greg Abbott.

Lisa Fritsch, an author and conservative radio host from Austin, announced Tuesday at a hamburger restaurant in Austin that she is seeking the GOP nomination in next year’s gubernatorial primary.

Abbott, the state attorney general, and former state Republican chairman Tom Pauken are already in the race. Both men have appealed to conservative tea party voters in the GOP.Abbott has made a particularly strong pitch to the party’s right wing, touting his opposition to the Obama administration and support for gun rights and the 10 Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds

Fritsch took aim at the state’s Republican establishment, saying her priorities would be school choice, economic growth and curbing the influence of special interests that have benefited under the long-standing GOP political rule in Texas.

“It is time for us to be energized by a leader who inspires true change from the old guard and who calls us towards a united Texas, a Texas where we lead because we are called to serve and not simply because it is the natural tide of our own political ambition,” she said.

Whatever. It’s just a matter of time before someone else jumps in because this person isn’t right-wing enough for them. As a math major, I recognize that what this means is that “conservatism”, as defined by folks like Lisa Fritsch, is an open set. This means that while you can get as close as you want to the endpoint, which in this case is ideal, unspoiled “conservatism”, but you can never get there, and there will always be an infinite amount of space between where you are and where the endpoint is. Whoever said that higher math had no application to real life?

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged Election 2014, Governor, Greg Abbott, Lisa Fritsch, Republican Party, Texas | 1 Comment

Bag ban update

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Having survived legislative meddling, bag bans are back on the agenda in Texas cities.

Six months after Austin’s ban on most disposable plastic and paper bags took effect at checkout counters across the city, political fights are raging in Laredo and Dallas to follow suit.

In Dallas, the debate over a single-use bag ban (for both paper and plastic bags that don’t have a certain amount of recyclable material) has led to allegations of false information within the City Council and is likely to drag on for months in that body’s Quality of Life committee. Still, many consider the fact that it’s being debated at all to be progress; in 2008, an ordinance on bags was proposed and quickly tabled.

The political environment may have changed further, now that the Texas Retailers Association has decided to drop its lawsuit against the city of Austin’s bag ban. The association had alleged the ordinance violated Texas’ Health and Safety Code.

“It could have had a chilling effect,” Jeremy Brown, and environmental law research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, said of the lawsuit. “You’re a city and you want to avoid litigation generally. Now that the lawsuit has been dropped, he said, “maybe there’s an impression of reduced political risk.”

[…]

In Laredo, an outright bag ban appears to be off the table. Instead, a “reduction ordinance” is more likely, and now the argument is over what form such a law might take. Should the city adopt a fee-per-bag structure, as was recently done in Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Md., where shoppers pay 5 cents per single-use bag? Or should it go the Brownsville route, where shoppers pay $1 for an unlimited number of bags? (In each of those cases, retailers keep a small portion of the fee, and the rest of the money goes to a public environmental cleanup fund.)

H-E-B is lobbying hard for the dollar/unlimited option. That’s because “if it’s a per-bag fee, each bag needs to be scanned,” said Linda Tovar, spokeswoman for the company’s border region corporate office. “So the time that it takes for a cashier to process and order will be longer than what a usual process may be.”

Environmental advocates say there’s no logic behind that mechanism. In Brownsville, the first Texas city to pass a single-use bag ordinance, officials hoped the $1 charge would be temporary, since it would provide an incentive for customers to bring their own reusable bags. But revenue from the fee has actually tripled from 2011 to 2012, suggesting habits weren’t changing and leading to allegations of a “slush fund” for the city, which has raised more than $2 million from the law.

Companies say they’d rather see voluntary programs and education campaigns, pointing out that a patchwork of different city ordinances are difficult to follow and encourage shoppers to cross city lines for cheaper bags. So far, though, such efforts have not had much success. Austin spent nearly $1 million on an education campaign for reusable bags before abandoning it, after failing to reach a declared goal of reducing plastic bag use by 50 percent.

I look forward to seeing how these fights play out. As you may have noticed, Houston is not currently among the cities contemplating this action. I feel pretty confident that it will eventually come up, so I’m hoping that the other cities that are dealing with it will have figured out the best way to do so. Got to be some benefit to trailing the pack, right? We’ll see.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Austin, Dallas, HEB, Houston, Laredo, lawsuit, plastic bags, Texas, The Lege | 1 Comment

Interview with Mayor Annise Parker

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Mayor Annise Parker

Early voting for the 2013 elections begins next week, and so my interviews for this election season are coming to an end. I will have two interviews with HCC Trustee candidates next week, plus a little bit more, and that will be that until 2014, barring anything unexpected. This is Mayoral week, with the two candidates of interest in that race, plus a late Council interview. I doubt Mayor Annise Parker needs any introduction here. She’s running for her third and final term as Mayor, having served as City Controller and At Large Council member for three terms each before that. I think we can all agree that Mayor Parker has faced numerous challenges and taken on a number of big issues in her two terms so far, from a massive budget shortfall caused by the 2008 economic implosion and a transit authority in crisis to a Chapter 42 revamp and large expansions of the city’s bicycle network and curbside recycling program, and more. As you know, I am a supporter of Mayor Parker’s, and I think she’s accomplished quite a lot in her tenure. We certainly had plenty to talk about in the interview:

Annise Parker interview

You can see all of my interviews as well as finance reports and other information on candidates on my 2013 Election page.

UPDATE: Argh. Apparently, the MP3 file didn’t fully upload, and I won’t be able to try uploading it again until this evening. Sorry about that. I will post an update when it is all there.

UPDATE The file has been re-uploaded and is hopefully complete now. Please try it again. My apologies for the screwup.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged Annise Parker, Election 2013, Houston, interviews, Mayor | 2 Comments

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