Wage theft ordinance back before Council

It should be up for discussion this week.

“Wage theft is defined as a situation in which someone employs someone to perform a service, not intending to pay them wages. That’s an extreme offense,” [City Attorney David] Feldman said. “The city has an interest in knowing if that type of conduct is taking place under a public contract. That’s one reason why this ordinance affords a process for that kind of complaint to be brought directly to the city.”

Workers who believe they have been improperly denied pay can file civil complaints with the Texas Workforce Commission or in court, or pursue criminal complaints with police and prosecutors. Most workers choose the state agency, but Feldman said that the process is hopelessly slow.

A coalition of builders, contractors, restaurateurs, building owners and hotel operators has argued that existing civil and criminal processes should take priority, particularly since the proposed city ordinance levies sanctions only after existing remedies are exhausted. Coalition member Joshua Sanders, executive director of developer-led Houstonians for Responsible Growth, said city involvement in fielding wage theft filings could result in companies being unfairly snubbed if complaints later prove to be without merit. However, Sanders said, the trade groups are open to further discussions.

“We are not supportive of wage theft. The city should set an example in not doing business with these types of individuals,” Sanders said. “But we don’t want a process set up to where individuals can go shame businesses by filing unmeritorious complaints. There’s a system in place that supersedes the city and our ordinances, and there are processes in place there that are effective and work.”

[…]

The proposal would bar the city from hiring people or firms that had been assessed civil penalties or judgments related to wage theft or that have been criminally convicted of the offense, provided all appeals are exhausted. Those with final criminal wage theft convictions also would be denied 46 types of city permits and licenses for five years. Feldman has said criminal wage theft convictions are rare.

See here for the previous entry – this ordinance was first proposed in July – and here for some background on the issue. There’s not a lot of detail in the story so I’m not sure what the point of contention is. I hope we all agree that people should be paid the wages they were promised without any subsequent conditions, and that the city should not do business with anyone that rips off its workers in this fashion. Assuming we are in fact all on board with that, then we should be able to work out the details of how to enforce it. If anyone is not in agreement with this, then I look forward to hearing what their arguments are, because I’m having a hard time imagining what they could be. Stace has more.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

More riders, fewer routes

Metro keeps moving towards its re-imagined bus service, which is aimed at increasing ridership.

Currently, Metro operates on a philosophy that half its resources should go toward high-performing routes and half to making sure everyone has convenient access to a bus stop.

By re-directing most of those resources, the same number of buses can provide more frequent service on fewer routes, which advocates say could make more people want to ride.

“It is not just about people who are riding today,” Metro board member Christof Spieler said. “It is about people who are not riding today.”

Increasing the number of buses on key routes and running faster service in fewer places could increase ridership as much as 25 percent, consultant Geoff Carleton told a Metro committee Tuesday. Refocusing 90 percent of resources on ridership areas, would leave fewer than 2 percent of current riders without a bus stop within a half-mile of where they live, he said.

The new figures, Carleton said, show Metro will see greater ridership gains for less sacrifice than estimated when discussions started in September. By adjusting some bus lines and, essentially, redrawing all the routes, planners found they could cover more area than initially thought, while keeping bus service close enough to where more riders live.

“People are willing to walk farther for faster, more frequent service,” Carleton said.

Transit officials have been receptive to more focus on ridership, but most prefer a 70-30 or 75-25 division between ridership and coverage. By putting 70 to 75 percent of its resources toward routes where ridership is likely to grow, Metro estimates increased ridership of 12-to-15 percent. That plan would leave fewer than .05 percent of Metro’s tens of thousands of daily riders without access to buses within a half-mile of their homes.

Not clear from the story if Metro is going for the 90% plan or the 70 to 75% plan. It may still be under discussion at this time. I don’t know what the sweet spot is for maximizing ridership and minimizing loss of coverage, but achieving a 25% gain in ridership in return for inconveniencing (or worse) two percent of existing riders seems like a reasonable trade. Assuming one isn’t in that two percent, of course. How Metro handles that – you can already imagine the local news stories about sympathetic people who now have to walk a mile to their bus stop – will be at least as big a determining factor in the success of this project as the ridership numbers themselves.

Spieler warned that many riders will be in for a surprise, even if their bus access stays relatively the same. They may retain bus service, he said, but more frequent buses on fewer routes means adjustments to daily schedules will have to be made.

“People are used to what they have right now,” he said. “Change is hard and we expect to get a roomful of people when we roll out the changes.”

As long as no one promises that if they like their bus route they can keep it, I guess. I carpool into downtown nowadays with my wife, but I wind up taking the bus once or twice a week because she needs to run an errand or because one of us needs to leave or arrive at a different time or whatever. The bus I take is the #40 and it runs pretty frequently – I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait more than ten or fifteen minutes for a bus, and it’s usually much less than that. I’m rooting for it to not change much, but we’ll see.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Voter ID trial set for September

Texas Redistricting:

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

At [Friday] morning’s scheduling conference, Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos set trial in the consolidated Texas voter ID cases for September 2, 2014, adopting the date proposed by Congressman Marc Veasey over a proposed March 2015 trial date preferred by the State of Texas and some of the other plaintiffs.

The court also granted a request by the Texas Association of Hispanic County Judges and County Commissioners to intervene in the case.

Separately, the court also sua sponte consolidated the new voter ID suit filed last week by a group of South Texas plaintiffs with the four other pending cases.

The court did not take action today on a request by poll watching group True the Vote to intervene in the case as a defendant but told the parties that it would take the request under advisement. Lawyers for the Justice Department had argued in papers filed with the court that True the Vote did not meet the legal requirements for intervention.

Here’s a wire story that doesn’t add a whole lot more to what Michael Li wrote. For a primer on who’s claiming what in all these lawsuits, see here. I am hopeful that we can get a resolution, preferably one favorable to the plaintiffs, in time for the November election next year. We’ll see how it goes. The Lone Star Project has more.

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Weekend link dump for November 17

The original Addam’s Family set photographed in color. Not altogether ookie at all.

Can we agree that a sports team shouldn’t be called The Arabs, please?

The Willie Nelson corn maze. How is it we didn’t have one of these before this year?

“What these social conservatives don’t understand is that we just don’t give a crap. We, as a movement, have no more craps to give.”

“The awful state of American evangelical Christianity after Billy Graham”.

“So here’s the scenario: The NFL doesn’t exist. Pro football is starting anew in the United States. We don’t really know which markets like football more than others, so we can only go on playing the percentages with market sizes and hope for the best. The new league has hired me (at a lucrative salary, of course) to come up with a projection of where teams should be placed, what the divisional alignments should be, and what their team names ought to be.”

So I guess the difference between the 60 Minutes story on Benghazi and their story on Dubya and the National Guard is that no one is being held accountable for the Benghazi story. Of course, no one is admitting they did anything wrong with that story, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.

Long commutes are bad for your health.

Remembering the Great War, which never did anything to end all wars.

One important function of licensing that often gets overlooked.

If I gave you a link to a story entitled Advanced Mathematics With Legos In A Washing Machine, you’d surely click on it. Right?

“Imagine enjoying a seasonal drink at a Christmas party without the risk of a hangover the next day, or being able then to take an antidote that would allow you to drive home safely. It sounds like science fiction but these ambitions are well within the grasp of modern neuroscience.”

Dan Amira listens to Sarah Palin’s new audiobook so you don’t have to.

The only known photograph of Albert Einstein deriving his famous E=Mc^2 equation.

Does Richard Cohen still have a job? Seriously, why does Richard Cohen still have a job?

Wendy Davis is in your Parks and Recreation. Symbolically, anyway.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain Andy Kaufman is still dead.

You’ll be happy to know that the dustup between the Children’s Advocacy Center for Denton County and the Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas over the latter’s pinup calendar has been resolved with no hard feelings on either side.

RIP, Ming the Mollusk, 1499-2006.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment

Hoang to challenge Vo

Soon-to-be-former CM Al Hoang is not sitting still in the wake of his unexpected electoral loss.

CM Al Hoang

CM Al Hoang

Houston City Councilman Al Hoang, who narrowly lost his reelection bid in a surprise upset last week, has filed paperwork to challenge state Rep. Hubert Vo for his District 149 seat next fall.

There is much overlap between Hoang’s City Council District F and Vo’s state District 149, both of which center on Alief. Vo, a Democrat, was re-elected to a fifth two-year term in 2012. Hoang, a Republican, will complete his second two-year term on council this year, yielding in January to Richard Nguyen, an employee in the city’s Solid Waste Management Department who beat him by about 200 votes in last week’s election.

Vo said he has heard talk for years that Hoang may challenge him, but said he does not consider the councilman a rival. He also denied whispers that he had propped up council candidates against Hoang.

“It’s not my type. Every single election, if I don’t have this opponent, I would have other opponents,” Vo said. “Ten years ago when I decided to run, I wanted to serve the community. I hope anybody else who’s running for that district will have the same goal that I have.”

Vo acknowledged speaking with Nguyen earlier this year, but he said he merely advised him to have a platform, not simply oppose Hoang. “I gave him some advice, but I never publicly endorsed him, I never helped his campaign,” he said.

Hoang said Vo voiced support for Nguyen on Vietnamese radio, but added, “That’s democracy.” Hoang stressed he is pursuing no personal vendetta against Vo

“I just want to continue the good work I believe I’ve done for that area: Job growth, I want to continue that. I want to get the dollars from the state back so that we can continue work on the infrastructure, and also education,” Hoang said. “I’m a pro-life person because I’m a Christian. Those issues also prompt me to run for District 149. That is the most important distinction, the pro-life and pro-choice.”

I have no idea whether there’s anything personal to this or if Hoang always had HD149 in his sights for his post-Council career. HD149 is a fairly purple district, though Rep. Vo has not had any close calls since his razor-thin initial victory in 2004. He’s also never faced an Asian opponent, which may add a different dimension to the race. Numbers-wise, the district leaned red in the Republican wave year of 2010, though Bill White defeated Rick Perry there by a 53.7 to 44.8 margin. Compare that to 2008, in which President Obama carried the district by a 57.1 to 41.8 margin, and you can see that turnout is definitely a factor. Interestingly, 2010 was a less red year in HD149 than 2006 was, which suggests that demographic change in the district is also a factor. Be all that as it may, this is now the most interesting State Rep race in Harris County.

One more thing: While it is true that there is overlap between Council District F and HD149, it’s not quite true that there’s a significant overlap in the voters between those two districts. What I mean by that can be illustrated by the number of votes in the respective elections. Rep. Vo has run in and won five elections in HD149. Here are the vote totals for each of those five years:

2012 – 42,568
2010 – 29,945
2008 – 45,371
2006 – 23,253
2004 – 41,356

CM Hoang has run for District F three times. Here are the vote totals for those three years:

2013 – 6,126
2011 – 2,641
2009 – 9,565

Both districts are comparable in size – actually, Council districts are a bit larger – but the universe of voters in each is different, because turnout in the odd years is so much lower. While CM Hoang has a leg up on some of the opponents Rep. Vo has faced – and bear in mind, Rep. Vo twice defeated former Rep. Talmadge Heflin, and also beat HISD Trustee Greg Meyers, so he has won against people who have been successful running for office before – it’s fair to say there are a lot of voters in HD149 who have never cast a ballot that included him on it. He will still need to introduce himself to much of the district.

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tactics are nice, but turnout is key

The main thing I learned in this story about Wendy Davis’ national connections is that at least one person in the state gets what she will really need to win.

Marc Veasey

Marc Veasey

“I’m going back home to Texas and walking door to door,” said Brian Stansbury, a lawyer from Texas who has lived in Washington for more than a decade. “I will wear out a couple of shoes in Texas.”

Stansbury and other Democrats helped Bill White against Rick Perry in the 2010 race for governor. He says Davis has a better shot.

“Wendy will have a lot more money from D.C. and nationwide than Bill White,” he said.

Davis has a fundraising goal of $40 million. She said most of that total should come from inside Texas.

Stansbury is part of a statewide network called New Leaders Texas. Many of its members dream of returning to a blue Texas, perhaps with Davis as governor.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, has known Davis since her days on the Fort Worth City Council.

In 2012, when his election to Congress was sealed with a Democratic runoff victory against former state Rep. Domingo Garcia, Veasey ran an aggressive general election campaign against a long-shot GOP candidate in order to help turn out voters to boost Davis’ Senate re-election bid.

He says Texas Democrats, inside and outside the state, must work as a team.

“I’m going to do everything I can to help Wendy become the next governor of Texas,” Veasey said.

Rep. Veasey gets it. The thing about an off-year race is that turnout levels are much more variable. Just compare the Republican vote totals in 2006 and 2010 to see what I mean. Democrats have a lot of room to bring up their base level of turnout for the off-year races, and it starts by going where the Democrats are and making sure they vote this year as if it were a Presidential year. The more elected officials like Rep. Veasey that serve in deep blue districts but campaign as if their own elections depended on it, the better.

I included the fundraising bit as a point of reference, if nothing else. Forty million is what the pundits keep saying Davis needs to raise, so it must be true. I think that total is overkill given her already-high name ID, but it never hurts to be ambitious. That said, if there’s $40 million to be raised, I’d rather Wendy got $25 million of it, with $15 million going to Sen. Leticia Van de Putte in the Lite Gov slot. I personally think there’s more bang to be had with that distribution of the bucks. Either way, we need everyone on board to get out the vote. This has to be an off-year in name only. We need everyone in the game.

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

More on the Fort Bend ISD iPad failure

The Observer presents a good overview of the disastrous iPad experiment at the Fort Bend Independent School District.

An audit of Fort Bend ISD’s iAchieve program released last month, details the ways the effort was cursed. (You can read the report below.) In short, Fort Bend ISD expected too much from its program too soon. It rushed ahead without enough tech infrastructure, without the right people, and without enough control over where its money was going. It hired a contractor the district knew well, but that had little experience developing iPad learning platforms.

“I felt they were rushing it—they only did a one-month pilot,” says [Jenny] Bailey, a school trustee elected during the iAchieve backlash. “Everyone knows you can’t really measure anything in a month. I felt like it was being pushed out for some odd reason.”

Bailey says the district seemed determined to take a particularly hard road, building its own platform with all new lessons.

[…]

Naturally, the district would need a highly skilled contractors to handle the technical side of this monstrous undertaking, and in February 2012 they made their pick: a Louisiana-based company called Curriculum Ventures that, as the auditors note, first registered with the state on the same day it bid on the iAchieve contract.

Curriculum Ventures had two employees, one of whom boasts that his experience includes having “(so far) built 5 businesses that were failures, 1 that was semi-successful, and 1 more that is mostly successful.”

If anything, the audit downplays what a strange decision this was. Bonnie Louque, the company’s director, was well known to [former FBISD Superintendent] Timothy Jenney and Fort Bend ISD as the seller of a curriculum called Character Links, a set of classroom handouts about positive traits like acceptance and respect. (Louque did not reply to phone or email messages from the Observer.)

A 2007 Houston Chronicle story credits Jenney with “discover[ing] the program,” and since then Fort Bend ISD has been named a national “School of Character” thanks in part to its use of Character Links. How Louque parlayed that relationship into a key role developing technology for Texas’ seventh-largest school district is a little less clear.

In September 2011, Louque & Associates got a $135,000 contract to develop a prototype of the interactive science platform, awarded without a competitive bid process.

One month later, now known as Curriculum Ventures, they bid for the million-dollar iAchieve contract. Fort Bend administrators gave them the high score out of four bidders, with 4.5 out of a possible 5 in “demonstrated competence and qualification.”

With Curriculum Ventures on board—and already billing for project maintenance beginning on day one—the district piloted iAchieve in 4th, 5th and 8th grade classrooms in spring and fall of 2012.

See here and here for the background. Clearly, the lesson here is that this sort of project should not be undertaken without a well-thought out plan and a contractor capable of executing it. The Fort Bend experience can serve as a good example of what not to do for any other school district that’s thinking about going down this path. The good news for FBISD is that this isn’t a total loss. As the story notes, they do still have all the equipment, a more robust WiFi infrastructure, and some new tech experts on staff. They can regroup from here and still get value out of their investment. I wish them good luck with that.

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Saturday video break: The updated elements song

Surely you know Tom Lehrer’s song “The Elements”:

But seeing that video, you can also see that there have in fact been many more that have since been discovered. So what we need now is an updated elements song that includes all the subsequently discovered elements. And it should also be in atomic number order, with a digression where the periodic table splits. Fortunately, such a song exists:

I for one did not know there were now elements with three-letter symbols. You learn something new every day. By the way, it was Olivia that showed me this video. She’s in the fourth grade. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have any chemistry in school till I was in the seventh or eighth grade. Kids today, I tell you. And now, for something completely different, here is Daniel Radcliffe singing the Tom Lehrer elements song:

And you thought Hermione was the smart one.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The jail’s new non-discrimination policy

Not sure why I haven’t seen this story in the Chronicle.

The sheriff of Houston’s Harris County has adopted a sweeping policy designed to protect and guarantee equal treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inmates, including allowing transgender individuals to be housed based on the gender they identify with instead of their biological sex.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s office believes the new policy is one of the most comprehensive in the country. It states that “discrimination or harassment of any kind based on sexual orientation or gender identity is strictly prohibited,” and outlines how such inmates will be searched, booked and housed, according to a copy of the policy obtained by The Associated Press.

The policy also covers intersex inmates, defined as people born with sex chromosomes or reproductive systems that are not considered standard.

Houston has the third-largest county jail in the U.S., behind Los Angeles and Chicago’s Cook County, and processes some 125,000 inmates annually. Other major jails, including those in Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, D.C., have taken similar steps to meet new federal standards for protecting inmates from sexual abuse and assault.

But Harris County is the first in Texas to adopt this extensive of a policy, according to Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The state agency inspects, regulates and provides technical assistance to county jails.

The 11-page policy, along with a separate three-page document protecting this population from workplace discrimination, went into effect Wednesday and was the culmination of a thorough review that began in July 2012.

[…]

In officially announcing the policy on Thursday, Garcia said Harris County — like other municipalities that deal with federal law enforcement agencies — is required to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act signed by President George W. Bush.

But the sheriff noted that Harris County implemented the changes ahead of schedule.

“We stay ahead of the curve, we respect the public’s rights, we embrace innovation and best practices, looking for chances to lead to be a model 21st century law enforcement agency,” he said.

A copy of the press release is here, a copy of the policy on discrimination in the workplace is here, and a copy of the policy regarding LGBTI inmates is here. According to the story, about 250 inmates, or a bit less than three percent of the total population, identifies as LGBT. Their rights, which include the right to not be beaten up or raped, should be as protected as anyone else’s. Kudos to the Sheriff’s Office for being ahead of the curve on this. Equality Texas and Texpatriate have more.

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

Magnet reprieve

This was unexpected.

Terry Grier

Terry Grier

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier has reversed course and decided to give 20 struggling magnet programs another year before eliminating all their extra funding.

The sudden switch from the plan he unveiled last month comes after some parents and school officials expressed surprise their programs were on the chopping block.

Under Grier’s new plan, the campuses will keep half their magnet funding next school year. They will lose the full amount, which ranges from tens of thousands of dollars to more than $200,000, in fall 2015.

Making changes to HISD’s beloved magnet schools – which offer special courses in areas like fine arts and technology – has proved difficult for Grier and his predecessor, Abelardo Saavedra. Principals and parents covet the “magnet” label, even though some programs are lagging in quality.

Phasing out the funding over two years should give principals more time to review their budgets, perhaps allowing some to continue their programs in a limited form.

Still, students who transfer into those schools no longer will be guaranteed busing.

“We want to be reasonable,” Grier said in an interview about his new plan. “We never had the intent to hurt or destroy magnets, and I think this is the right thing to do.”

See here for the background. This is a phase-out, not a reversal, so the schools and students will have time to adjust to the change in status of their schools. This was indeed the right thing to do, to soften the blow and allow for a transition period. Several principals of the affected schools have appealed the ruling on their magnet status. I’m not exactly sure how that will work. The schools that were “on probation” will maintain their level of funding while they work to achieve the improvements that are required of them.

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Re-endorsement watch: Three Council repeats

The Chron reiterates its endorsement in three Council races.

David Robinson:

In the run-off for At-large Council Position 2, there is an especially clear choice facing city voters. Architect David Robinson has the professional skills and lengthy experience as a civic leader to make significant contributions at the council table from Day One.

We endorse Robinson for the Position 2 seat.

Brenda Stardig:

Brenda Stardig has the experience to get things done and deserves voters’ support in the runoff. Stardig has worked her way up the community government ladder, serving as civic club president, head of a superneighborhood, member of the Memorial City TIRZ and the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Transportation Policy Council. That transportation policy experience will come in handy for her commuter-heavy constituents. For all her sound and fury, incumbent Helena Brown accomplishes little at City Hall. She has not pushed hard for her district, nor has she been an effective force for fiscal responsibility. In our strong mayor form of city government, a single renegade council member cannot hurt the mayor. She can only hurt her constituents.

Graci Garces:

District I promises to encompass some of Houston’s greatest growth over the next six years. Extending from downtown into the East End, the skyscrapers, landmarks and booming neighborhoods of District I make this city council race one of the most important of the election season. Graci Garces will be able to hit the ground running for both the district’s Hispanic families and its Fortune 500 corporations.

These were the easy ones, since the Chron had already endorsed Robinson, Stardig, and Garces in Round One. There are two more Council runoffs, and in those the Chron will need to pick someone else, as they had endorsed Anthony Robinson in D and Rogene Calvert in At Large #3, but neither made the runoff. I have no idea what they might do in these last two races.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Friday random ten: If you like your ten random songs, you can keep them

They still cost nothing, and they’re good for the whole week, guaranteed.

1. Let Them Talk – Spoek Mathambo
2. Beaujolais – The Alan Parsons Project
3. Crying In The Rain – The Everly Brothers
4. St. Louis Blues March – Glenn Miller
5. A Room Of Our Own – Billy Joel
6. Got My Mojo Working – Asylum Street Spankers
7. Apeman – The Kinks
8. Nikorette – Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band
9. Mandolin Rain – Bruce Hornsby & The Range
10. Knock On Any Door – Jackson Browne

Remember, however, there are other random song options available to you.

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Two Dems file in SD10

May the best candidate win.

Libby Willis

After months of speculation, two Democratic candidates have emerged to campaign for the contested Senate District 10 seat that Sen. Wendy Davis has vacated to run for governor.

Fort Worth community leader Libby Willis and businessman Mike Martinez officially entered the race on Saturday. They will compete to keep the seat under Democratic control in a swing district that tends to lean Republican. Four Republicans have already entered the race and have been campaigning for months.

Willis, the daughter-in-law of former state lawmaker Doyle Willis, is running on a platform focused on public education, job creation and government transparency.

Willis said she wants to bring “neighborhood-level common sense to the Legislature.”

“I have worked with people of all political stripes and economic backgrounds to come up with practical solutions for local problems,” Willis said in a press release announcing her candidacy.

Willis is the former president of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods. She is also the former executive director of the Historic Fort Worth nonprofit, which helps preserve historical landmarks in the city.

Martinez is a founder of Edge Resources, an oil and gas operator in Fort Worth. He filed his candidacy Saturday at the Tarrant County Democratic Party headquarters.

The Star Telegram mentioned these two as possible candidates a few days ago. Here’s what they said about them at the time:

Mike Martinez: The energy executive said he received calls from people who have encouraged him to run. The Democrat last sought public office in 1998, when he ran for the Tarrant County Commissioners Court but dropped out after being arrested twice on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He said he was twice convicted of DWI. “I started thinking about it, looking at the numbers, and looking at my true and sincere desire to serve my community,” he said. “I know my past will come up. It’s not about that. That is not who I am, that is not what I am about. I finally grew up and became the man I am today.”

Libby Willis: The Democrat and former president of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods — who has been active in historic preservation, community revitalization and city issues for years — is weighing a possible bid. She is the daughter-in-law of the late Doyle Willis, who represented Fort Worth in the House and Senate for decades. “People have definitely been talking to me,” she said. “The phone keeps ringing. I am really, really seriously considering it. … I’ve been looking for a place to serve for a while.”

Martinez clearly has a bit of baggage, but candidates have survived worse than that. This is what competitive primaries are for, to sort all that out. Quorum Report points us to Martinez’s company for more about him. The fact that he is a founder of a company that “has extensive leasing experience in the Barnett Shale” may be a bigger negative for him in a D primary than a couple of Clinton-era DWI arrests. QR has a copy of Willis’ press release here. Other Dems may jump in, and there are multiple Republicans fighting it out as well. It will be a tough job to hold this seat, but it would be very nice if we could.

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Another lawsuit filed against the voter ID law

The Observer reports.

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Election Day last week brought plenty of complaints at the polls about Texas’ new voter ID law, but it also brought one major complaint in Corpus Christi federal court, where nine voters joined La Unión Del Pueblo Entero in suing the state over its tough new voting requirements.

The plaintiffs are long-time voters from South Texas who lack the photo ID now required to vote in Texas since the 2011 law took effect. “The State knew or should have known,” the suit says, “that Hispanic and African-American Texans disproportionately lack the forms of photo ID required by SB 14.”

[…]

The new complaint is focused specifically on the burden the law places on poor, rural voters, according to David Hall, executive director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which is representing the new plaintiffs.

“What we were trying to do is fill in a niche that didn’t seem to be addressed much by the Justice Department suit or the other plaintiffs,” he told the Observer. “Most of our clients don’t have a handy certified copy of a birth certificate, so they’re going to be paying some money.”

That cost varies from $22—for the copy of a birth certificate you’d need in order to get a new state ID—to $345 for a copy of citizenship papers, according to the complaint. For residents of rural Willacy, Goliad or Karnes counties, getting that paperwork together can mean long, costly trips to the closest DPS office.

These are all familiar concerns to critics of the voter ID law—often raised by Democrats during the Legislature’s debate over the law, and dismissed by Republicans as abstract worries. Each of the nine plaintiffs in this suit demonstrate the very real problems Texas’ voter ID law created.

Eulalio Mendez, Jr., is an 82-year-old man living in Willacy County whose driver’s license expired in June 2012, and who has no way to travel to the DPS office in Harlingen that issues ID cards. Roxsanne Hernandez, in the Goliad County town of Berclair, had her state ID card stolen last year and doesn’t have a copy of her birth certificate. Estela Garcia Espinoza is a 69-year-old Raymondville woman who no longer drives, and whose license expired four years ago. She was born on a Starr County ranch in 1944 and her birth was never officially registered.

All the plaintiffs had voted regularly before this year, according to the complaint, and have incomes well below the poverty line.

Courthouse News has more on the suit; you can see a copy of it at the Observer. As I’ve been saying, the problem with voter ID is the effect it has on the hundreds of thousands of people in the state who don’t have an ID and who can’t easily get it. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit, all of whom have been effectively disenfranchised by the law, are clear examples of this, and no happy-talk pronouncement about how “smoothly” this past election went by Republican election officials can change that. Unfortunately, the trial may not even begin before next November’s election, so whatever the full effect of this law may be, we’ll feel it. I hope we’ll be able to get an injunction before then, but we’ll see. Texas Redistricting, who also reported that the Texas League of Young Voters has amended its complaint to include non-race based claims, has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Another lawsuit filed against the voter ID law

The states that are making life harder for their National Guard members

It’s not just Texas.

RedEquality

While a majority of states ban same-sex marriages, most are not fighting the new policy. But Pentagon officials say that in addition to Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia have balked. Each has cited a conflict with state laws that do not recognize same-sex marriages. (A West Virginia official said, however, that the state intended to follow the directive.) While the president has the power to call National Guard units into federal service — and nearly all Guard funding comes from the federal government — the states say the units are state agencies that must abide by state laws.

Requiring same-sex Guard spouses to go to federally owned bases “protects the integrity of our state Constitution and sends a message to the federal government that they cannot simply ignore our laws or the will of the people,” Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma said last week.

But the six states are violating federal law, Mr. Hagel told an audience recently. “It causes division among the ranks, and it furthers prejudice,” he said. Mr. Hagel has demanded full compliance, but Pentagon officials have not said what steps they would take with states that do not fall in line.

Though the government does not keep official figures on same-sex marriages in the military, the American Military Partner Association, which advocates for gay service members, estimates that the number could be 1,000 or more of the nearly half-million National Guard members nationwide, said Chris Rowzee, a spokeswoman for the group.

The military grants a range of significant benefits to the spouses of active-duty guardsmen, including the right to enroll in the military’s health insurance program and to obtain a higher monthly housing allowance. Spouse IDs allow unescorted access to bases with their lower-priced commissaries.

Officials in the six states say they are not preventing same-sex spouses from getting benefits, because those couples can register and receive IDs through federal bases. But those officials conceded that many couples would have to travel hours round trip to the nearest federal installation. Advocates for gay service members, though, fear that some benefits offered on bases, like support services for relatives of deployed service members, could still be blocked.

Moreover, gay spouses say that in an age that saw the scrapping of the military’s ban on openly gay service members, it is discriminatory — and humiliating — to have to jump through extra hoops to receive benefits.

See here, here, and here for the background. I’m still waiting for the threatened lawsuit to be filed. Note that even among the states that banned same-sex marriage, Texas and these others are a minority. There’s no public policy purpose being served here, just disrespect for people who have done nothing to deserve it. One way or another, these states need to be made to do the right thing and do right by their National Guard members.

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Re-endorsement watch: The same crew for HCC

The Chron reiterates its support for the three HCC runoff candidates they had originally endorsed for November.

Zeph Capo

Zeph Capo

Zeph Capo is the clear choice for voters in District 1, the northside district that has been extended to include the impoverished Gulfton neighborhood in southwest Houston. For far too long, this district has been harmed by the old-style, pay-to-play politics of the incumbent. Capo has pledged to make ethics and board transparency priorities in his board service. We also like his understanding of the central role of HCC in providing a path to well-paying employment in our high-growth sectors.

Adriana Tamez

Adriana Tamez is our choice to finish an unexpired term in District 3. As with District 1, the incumbent chosen by the board as a placeholder plays old-style politics that harm prospects for constituents in this majority-minority area. Tamez, a Denver Harbor native, holds graduate degrees in educational administration from the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Austin. Her involvement as an elementary teacher and principal, and as a founding member of the Raul Yzaguirre Charter School give her an on-the-ground perspective that will prove invaluable at the board level.

Robert Glaser is our choice to fill an open seat in District 5, which is in the Rice/Southampton/West University area. As the owner of a small business, Glaser would bring a keen understanding of the needs of businesses for disciplined, well-trained employees. There may be no more compelling mission for HCC than providing workers for good-paying technical and mechanical jobs in our energy and medical sectors. Glaser gets it.

As noted, all three were endorsed in Round One. Normally, they wouldn’t need to repeat themselves, but I think we all understand by now not to overlook these races. We all know what that leads to. Also, a vote for Zeph Capo or Adriana Tamez will be a vote against candidates that Dave Wilson supported.

Speaking of ol’ Dave, he gets his own editorial all to himself.

Despite flying under the radar, Wilson isn’t exactly a political unknown. For years, he made a name for himself as a perennial candidate for office (both as a Democrat and a Republican) who ran on a platform of foul-mouthed, hate-filled homophobic slurs. Until recently, his one successful campaign was a 2001 proposition to ban city employee benefits for same-sex or unmarried partners. Not exactly a praiseworthy accomplishment.

Others may get a kick out of this local shenanigan. We’re not laughing. HCC is a linchpin of the local economy, providing important vocational training that helps connect workers with employers. Houston’s regional success depends on a well-run community college system and joke candidates like Wilson don’t help.

The only thing funny about this whole pseudo-scandal is that it actually is time for new leadership at HCC. There are important questions about the wisdom of an HCC campus in Qatar, declining enrollment and cozy contracts with elected officials. During his meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, Austin bristled at questions about these issues. HCC management deserves a serious look, but Wilson is the wrong man to lead the charge.

After deceiving his way into office, with a history of frivolous lawsuits against HCC and pathetic anti-gay attacks, Wilson is far too easy to ignore.

If he honestly cares about good governance at HCC, Wilson should keep his head down and focus on the numbers. He is going to be one of nine trustees, and the others won’t be convinced by bigotry, hyperbolic name-calling or misleading mailers.

I’ve already said that the other Trustees should do everything they legally can to marginalize Wilson on the Board. If he wants to be seen as something other than a novelty candidate that won a fluke race he didn’t deserve to win, let him prove it.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Precinct analysis: At Large 2 and 3

Lots of action, and lots of candidates in the At Large races this year. Let’s look at the two races that are going to the runoffs, At Large #2 and 3. First is AL2, in which first term CM Andrew Burks trailed challenger David Robinson after Election Day.

Dist Robinson Rivera Burks Gordon =================================== A 3,644 1,475 3,533 883 B 3,419 840 6,239 332 C 12,038 2,808 5,024 1,127 D 4,294 1,228 9,250 729 E 4,647 3,339 3,761 932 F 2,263 981 1,649 438 G 8,313 1,826 6,072 1,592 H 2,484 2,593 1,836 333 I 2,111 2,655 1,963 396 J 1,813 725 1,269 283 K 4,520 1,285 4,818 575 Dist Robinson Rivera Burks Gordon ===================================== A 38.22% 15.47% 37.05% 9.26% B 31.57% 7.76% 57.61% 3.07% C 57.33% 13.37% 23.93% 5.37% D 27.70% 7.92% 59.67% 4.70% E 36.65% 26.33% 29.66% 7.35% F 42.45% 18.40% 30.93% 8.22% G 46.69% 10.26% 34.11% 8.94% H 34.28% 35.79% 25.34% 4.60% I 29.63% 37.26% 27.55% 5.56% J 44.33% 17.73% 31.03% 6.92% K 40.36% 11.48% 43.03% 5.13%

Though Robinson only led by a few points, he sure looks like he’s in good shape going into December. Robinson led in the Republican districts, dominated District C, and held his own in the African-American districts. In short, as Greg noted, he’s basically replicating Annise Parker’s coalition from 2009. His path to victory in the runoff is clear: more of the same, with maximal effort in C and a push for the Moe Rivera voters in H and I.

Andrew Burks also has a clear path to victory in the runoff: Maximize turnout in B and D, and hold his own in the Republican districts, which was his formula for victory in the 2011 runoff. Burks’ problem is that he’s never been good at maximizing turnout. The undervote in Burks’ At Large races is always higher than the undervote in the other At Large races. For example, this year the undervote in AL2 was 29.75%; in At Large #4, it was only 24.85%, and the next highest undervote after AL2 was in At Large #5, at 28.02%. In the 2011 runoff, the undervote rate was 8.63% in Burks’ race, 1.02% in the Jolanda Jones/Jack Christie race. In the 2009 runoff, the numbers were 19.47% and 12.63%. If Burks had approached Jolanda Jones’ numbers in B and D he would have won; in reality, he lost Harris County by nine points. If Burks can perform like Ronald Green or Brad Bradford in the runoff, he wins. If not, he loses. It’s as simple as that.

On to At Large #3:

Dist Batteau Chavez Calvert Kubosh Pool Morales ================================================= A 529 1,284 1,141 3,591 1,689 1,898 B 1,687 1,331 1,842 3,162 1,562 1,172 C 943 2,748 4,941 5,223 5,594 2,997 D 3,233 1,542 2,279 5,120 2,017 1,492 E 669 1,232 1,571 4,305 2,062 3,614 F 432 586 806 1,337 1,154 1,217 G 795 1,068 3,786 6,254 2,724 4,179 H 422 2,467 790 1,453 1,136 1,705 I 531 2,049 599 1,337 955 2,085 J 333 450 736 1,155 821 892 K 1,361 1,073 2,181 3,214 2,045 1,621 Dist Batteau Chavez Calvert Kubosh Pool Morales ==================================================== A 5.22% 12.67% 11.26% 35.44% 16.67% 18.73% B 15.68% 12.37% 17.13% 29.40% 14.52% 10.90% C 4.20% 12.24% 22.01% 23.27% 24.92% 13.35% D 20.61% 9.83% 14.53% 32.65% 12.86% 9.51% E 4.97% 9.16% 11.68% 32.00% 15.33% 26.86% F 7.81% 10.59% 14.57% 24.17% 20.86% 22.00% G 4.23% 5.68% 20.13% 33.26% 14.48% 22.22% H 5.29% 30.94% 9.91% 18.22% 14.25% 21.38% I 7.03% 27.12% 7.93% 17.69% 12.64% 27.59% J 7.59% 10.26% 16.78% 26.33% 18.71% 20.33% K 11.84% 9.33% 18.97% 27.96% 17.79% 14.10%

I’ve heard some grumbling from fellow Dems about how this race wound up as a runoff between two Republicans. I get the frustration, but I’m not sure what one would recommend doing about it. There were three good Democrats in this race, and they split the vote just evenly enough to keep themselves out of the top two slots. Short of going back in time and convincing one or more of them to not file or drop out, I don’t know what else there is to be done. Shrug it off as a fluke and put this one on the priority list for 2015.

I covered some of this ground yesterday, so let me just say again that I think Michael Kubosh has the advantage going into the runoff, and his path to victory is clear. Roy Morales needs help from the Annise Parker voters, which may or may not be there for him. It’s entirely possible we could see a sizable undervote in this race. It’ll be interesting to see whether more people skip this race or the one in At Large #2. I should add that while I’ve talked about Morales trying to convince the Parker voters to support him, there’s nothing stopping Kubosh from doing the same. He’s been cast as an adversary for the Mayor, but he can make a case that he was only opposing her on issues where he thought she was wrong and that on other things they’re reasonably in agreement. The field is open, and there’s plenty of room for either candidate to move to fill the space without having to move too far.

Anyway. This one can go a variety of directions. All I know for sure is that I have no idea yet how I will vote in that race. Houston Politics has more.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Lisa Falkenberg profiles Dave Wilson

I’m very glad to see some coverage of Dave Wilson that includes relevant information about who he is.

Dave Wilson

Dave Wilson

Narrow-minded bigot. Homophobic hate-meister. Political mischief-maker.

Given all the unkind labels Dave Wilson has incurred over the years, I wasn’t sure what kind of ghoul I’d encounter when I called Friday to talk about Wilson’s latest stunt: tricking voters in a predominantly black district into electing an old, bald, white guy to represent them on the Houston Community College Board of Trustees.

To my surprise, Wilson, the businessman, conservative activist and frequent candidate, was cordial, down-to-earth and, well, nice. Misguided, maybe. Obsessive, maybe. Prone to bomb-throwing, name-calling, and other fifth-grade pastimes, maybe. At times he seems kind of like a kid in a political control room, pushing all the buttons to see what works.

His goals are noble, though, for the troubled HCC board in desperate need of watchdog. Wilson wants to root out corruption and seek an independent audit of finances.

I want to believe he’d do what he says. Trickery aside, there’s something honest about him.

“My wife kind of refers to me a lot of times as Forrest Gump,” he told me. “And I am pretty simple, pretty straightforward. I’m not full of hate but I am passionate about my beliefs.”

[…]

Here’s where Wilson goes off the rails: Ultimately, he believes that [Mayor Annise] Parker and others who promote the “homosexual agenda” are “trying to convert and take people over.”

“I think they’re not satisfied until they completely have everybody indoctrinated and everybody’s homosexual,” he said.

You’d think someone with such farfetched ideals lived in a vacuum. But I was surprised when Wilson told me his wife, Connie, whose brother is gay, didn’t agree with his views: “We’ve had some issues at the family dinner table sometimes.”

Wilson also isn’t opposed to hiring gays or lesbians. Just ask 28-year-old truck driver Katherine Giadrosich who has nothing but good things to say about her new boss.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that I knew who he was, I would have never suspected it,” she told me when I visited the sign supply warehouse. “I’ve met homophobic people. And he doesn’t act that way, like I’m contagious, or they’re going to catch it or something. It’s not like that at all. They welcomed me with open arms when I started working here.”

Then there’s this – Wilson, the notorious warrior against “the homosexual agenda,” casually mentioned in our phone interview he’s considering proposing an anti-discrimination ordinance at HCC that would include protections for gays. It was a suggestion by his campaign adviser.

“That doesn’t mean that I agree with homosexual behavior. That means I agree that no one should be discriminated against,” he told me. “And I’m not including transgender.”

I was speechless. This is a guy who led the charge in 2001 to amend the City Charter to prohibit employees’ unmarried domestic partners – gay and straight – from receiving employment benefits.

Wilson seemed genuinely befuddled by my befuddlement: “Why is that so … You don’t know me, do you?”

No, actually. Not at all. And neither do most voters.

Kudos to Falkenberg for such an interesting and provocative piece. I have quite a few things to say about it.

1. It’s nice that Wilson behaves more tolerantly to people he’s connected to than to everybody else. It doesn’t change my basic impression of him, however.

2. Even if one could separate Wilson’s abhorrent views on LGBT folks from his other public policy beliefs, I’d have problems with him as HCC Trustee. From the Texas Observer:

Besides being non-representative of his district politically and racially, Wilson also joins the ranks of conservative neophytes elected to political bodies they openly despise. At a tea party event in October of last year, Wilson delivered a 76-slide presentation on why voters should reject the $425 million bond proposal to fund HCC, the gist of which was that enrollment was down and money is expensive. Despite his heroic PowerPoint, that bond passed. In 2011, Wilson sued the HCC trustees to prevent the purchase of land Wilson claimed was overpriced. The suit was summarily dismissed with prejudice and Wilson had to pay court costs.

That’s the first I’d heard of that particular lawsuit; clearly, there are still plenty of aspects of Wilson’s past actions to uncover. But if that paragraph where all I knew about Dave Wilson, I would know that I would not want him on the Board of Trustees.

3. Wilson’s claims about wanting to be a “watchdog” that roots out corruption on the HCC Board are completely undermined by his support of Yolanda Navarro Flores, the least ethical member of the current Board. If one truly wanted to clean up the HCC Board, one would have opposed Yolanda Navarro Flores in November, and one would now be supporting Zeph Capo in the runoff. But Wilson is incapable of doing that because he is so blinkered by his homophobia. This is a clear demonstration of how Wilson’s personal opinions can and will lead him astray on other matters as well.

4. Wilson may come across as honest in person, but that’s questionable as well. On this website run by Wilson – note that the mailing address given is the same one he uses on his voter registration card – Wilson’s campaign manager wrote this article with the following statement:

The first thing the campaign did was a radio spot, Carroll Robinson, sent his friend over to consult with Dave Wilson. Together they developed the radio spot that is immediately below.

I emailed Carroll Robinson about this claim. This was his response:

Lol. Why am I the person running everybody’s campaign? I have known Dave Wilson since my City Hall days like all of us who are politically active do. I did not “send” anyone to run his campaign.

I then responded to ask if he helped Wilson’s campaign in any way or if this claim was a lie. This was his response to that question:

Let me be clear I did not tell Dave Wilson to do any such thing. More importantly, how could a 24 year incumbent be so out of contact with his district that Dave Wilson of all people could beat him? I enjoy politics and talk to a lot of people like you do but I don’t control what they do with their campaign. I did not develop the radio spot and I did not develop any mail. I find it interesting that I am now advising everybody’s campaign. If I was advising Dave he would have won by more than 26 votes.

There’s a certain amount of wiggle room in Robinson’s statement, but at the least it suggests that Wilson’s unnamed campaign manager’s claim is overblown.

5. It also raises a question: Why is Wilson’s “consultant and strategist” unnamed in the article he wrote? If whoever he is did work for the Wilson campaign, it should be a matter of public record because Wilson would have to disclose it in his campaign finance reports, either as a payment to him or as an in-kind donation. The same would be true for any “friend of Carroll Robinson” that worked with him to develop a radio spot. Wilson’s finance reports do nothing to clarify this. His 30 Day report lists an expenditure to a “First Tuesday Campaign Group” in Jackson, MS, with the description “Radio”, but the only First Tuesday Campaign Group I can find in Google is based in Chicago and only lists Chicago-area clients. Googling the street address in Jackson suggests it is an apartment complex. He also listed an expenditure for Smart Consulting Firm in Houston, but the only relevant result I could find was for an engineering consulting firm. His eight day report yields no further clues. Again, for a guy who claims to be a champion of ethics and transparency, his finance reports are a mystery and he has an anonymous campaign consultant making claims about assistance from another HCC Trustee that that Trustee denies. All due respect here, but tell me again why I should put aside my animus towards him for his repellent views and give him a chance now that he’s finally managed to get himself elected to something?

(As far as I can tell, Wilson filed no finance reports for his 2012 campaign for Commissioners Court. His 30 Day report from 2011 lists several payments of about $400 each to various people for “Salaries/Wages/Contract Labor”, though I doubt any of them were doing campaign consultant work; his 8 day report from 2011 has two of the same names, but again no expenditures that say to me “campaign consultant”. Like I said, he’s a man of mystery on his reports.)

6. Let’s put aside all of the questions about Wilson’s honesty and ethics for a second. The bottom line is simply this: Can one overlook his history of homophobia and anti-gay activism and simply evaluate him on the policy merits as a candidate for HCC Trustee? Can one separate the public hater from the public official who might have some worthwhile policy positions for the job? Maybe you can, but I can’t, at least not without him acknowledging the harm that his longtime advocacy has caused and the wrongness of his beliefs about LGBT people. To do so, in my view, normalizes his hateful and retrogressive beliefs in the same way that formerly radical beliefs have become increasingly normalized in the Republican Party. Even if there were evidence to suggest he might be a competent Trustee, I would not accept him as legitimate in the absence of any renunciation of past beliefs. He hasn’t earned that and he doesn’t deserve it.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Van de Putte appears to be in for Lite Gov

Hot damn!

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte

Sources close to state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, say she is poised to make an announcement on her political future on Friday. But the likely Democratic contender for lieutenant governor is expected to do what gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis did: reveal a future date for a formal announcement.

“I can’t think of somebody who would be a better lieutenant governor for Texas,” Democratic consultant Glenn Smith said. “With her legislative experience, the deep care she has for Texas and its future, her work ethic, her honesty, I mean she’d be darn near perfect.”

If Van de Putte throws her name in, she’d be the only Democrat seeking the post currently held by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who is facing a Republican primary challenge from state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples.

Van de Putte’s formal campaign kickoff is expected to be Nov. 23.

It’s not actually true that Van de Putte would be the only Dem in the race so far – Maria Alvarado had previously announced her candidacy. As it happens, Wendy Davis will also have a primary opponent, former Corpus Christi Mayoral candidate Ray Madrigal. Van de Putte will have her official campaign kickoff on November 23. Note that unlike Davis, Van de Putte does not have to give up her Senate seat to run, as she is not on the ballot till 2016. I’m thrilled she’s taken the plunge, and I look forward to voting for both her and Wendy Davis.

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of November 11

The Texas Progressive Alliance honors the service of America’s veterans as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading

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Reminder: I-45 public meeting tonight

From The Highwayman:

As officials take another step in the process of widening Interstate 45 from downtown north to the Sam Houston Tollway, one option to essentially make the teardrop-shaped inner loop created by I-45 and U.S. 59 an odd confluence of I-45 running along both sides of the business district remains a possibility, according to planning to handouts for a Thursday meeting.

Texas Department of Transportation officials have spent years planning for a wider I-45 north of downtown, holding public sessions for the past decade to gather comment. Residents, especially those within Loop 610 north of downtown, have vehemently and vocally opposed any idea that widens the freeway in its existing right of way.

After a lot of winnowing of options, TxDOT officials have proposed three options for adding lanes between Loop 610 and Interstate 10. The first simply widens the freeway by adding two carpool/toll lanes in each direction, either by taking more right of way or by burying the freeway and capping it with concrete so the frontage road is atop the freeway. Two other options add the managed lanes either as a center-bridge structure or double-decking the managed lanes.

Things get even more complex south of I-10, where the three remaining options seem to be widening the Pierce Elevated portion of I-45 and making Pierce Street more narrow; moving I-45 to where U.S. 59 is and running the freeways parallel along the eastern side of downtown while tearing out the Pierce and turning the route into a parkway to get to I-10; and leaving I-45 southbound lanes on the Pierce Elevated and moving the northbound lanes to follow U.S. 59.

See here, here, and here for more on the meeting, and here for more on the giant downtown highway roundabout. Personally, I think all of these choices are lousy, but if you forced me to pick one anyway, I’d take the bury-the-freeway option. I have a schedule conflict and can’t attend this meeting tonight, so if you go please feel free to tell us about it in the comments, or drop me a note at kuff – at – offthekuff – dot – com. Thanks.

UPDATE: Today’s Chron story has some more detail.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Reminder: I-45 public meeting tonight

Three questions for the runoffs

There are eight runoff elections on the ballot in Houston – two At Large Council races, three District Council races, and three HCC Trustee races. As we transition into runoff mode, there are three questions on my mind for the races that will conclude in December.

1. Where will the vote come from?

November turnout is driven by Mayoral races. December turnout is also driven by Mayoral races. In runoffs where there isn’t a Mayoral race, turnout is driven by the district Council races, but at a much more modest level. You can go door to door in a District race as opposed to an At Large race, you don’t need as much money to get your message out, and people tend to think about district Council members as “their” Council member in a way they generally don’t about At Large members. District runoffs are in A, D, and I, with the bulk of the turnout likely to come from A and D. Turnout in D will benefit Michael Kubosh and CM Andrew Burks; turnout in A probably won’t strongly favor one candidate over another in either race; turnout in I will probably benefit Roy Morales. David Robinson’s base is deepest in District C – I’ll have the precinct analysis for the At Large races tomorrow – and it’s not clear where Morales will want to go to find his voters. I have a thought on that, which I will explore in item 2. I don’t expect the HCC runoffs to play a significant role in any of the Council races.

But the key is that runoff turnout will be lower, a lot lower than what we just saw. Turnout for the 2011 runoffs, which exceeded 50,000 thanks to the unusually high profile of the At Large #5 runoff. Thirty thousand votes would not be out of line for this year’s runoffs, so all of these races can be won with a very small number. Getting your voters out, whether or not there’s another race that might motivate them, is the goal.

2. Does Mayor Parker get involved?

Mayor Annise Parker

Mayor Annise Parker

With five Council runoffs, the December races could have a significant effect on the makeup of Council, and therefore of Mayor Parker’s third term ambitions. Incumbent officeholders are often reluctant to involve themselves in these races – not always, but often – and for good reason, since no one wants to voluntarily add to one’s enemies list. But Mayor Parker has a stake in the outcome of at least two races, arguably three races, and she will never appear on a City of Houston ballot again, though perhaps she will run for something else someday. Given the scope of her ambitions and the need for a Council that will work with her, I’d argue she can’t afford to sit out the runoffs. Let’s look more closely at the races she might want to get involved in.

– District A. This is practically a no-brainer. Mayor Parker helped out then-CM Brenda Stardig in the 2011 runoff, though it was too little too late, so there’s no argument that neutrality is the default position. Stardig would be an ally on Council. CM Helena Brown is not, and unless there are some detente talks going on that I haven’t heard of, she will continue to not be an ally whether Parker meddles in this race or not. Brown is one of Parker’s main problems on Council, and this is an opportunity to solve that problem. I don’t know why she wouldn’t try.

– At Large #2. CM Burks isn’t an antagonist like CM Brown is, but he’s not a reliable vote for the Mayor. He opposes her food trucks ordinance and while he stated support for a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance in his Texas Leftist candidate questionnaire, he was non-committal about repealing the 2001 charter amendment that forbids the city from offering domestic partner benefits in the interview he did with me. I don’t know where he would stand on new regulatory items like the wage theft or payday lending ordinances. Even if he is on board with these other parts of the Mayor’s agenda, David Robinson unquestionably would be an ally, and would not need to be worked for a vote. Robinson is an upgrade from Parker’s perspective, but the decision here is not as clear because Burks does vote with the Mayor more often than not, and if he survives the runoff he likely would become a stronger opponent of hers if she works against his re-election. It’s a calculated risk, and I could see going either way. For sure, unlike in A, the safe choice is to stay out of it.

– At Large #3. At first glance, it would not appear that there’s anything to be done here, as the runoff is between two Republicans, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Clearly, Michael Kubosh would stand in opposition to Mayor Parker. He’s been a vocal and active critic, fighting against the red light cameras and the homeless feeding ordinance. He endorsed Ben Hall this year, and has contributed financially to Helena Brown. Like CM Brown, I don’t think anything would change in his behavior or their relationship if Mayor Parker actively opposed him in December. Roy Morales ran against Parker in 2009, but then Peter Brown ran against her in 2009 and he was a supporter of hers this year. I certainly don’t see Morales as an ally, but there’s nothing to suggest he’s be an all-out opponent, either. He came across as a fairly mainstream right-of-center type in the interview I did with him. He would almost certainly be an upgrade over Kubosh from the Mayor’s perspective, perhaps a significant one. It can’t hurt for the Mayor to send an envoy to him and see what possibilities for cooperation might exist.

What it comes down to is this: Kubosh has campaigned as an opponent of the Mayor. His voters will have a reason to come out in December. Morales has a smaller base than Kubosh, and there’s not an obvious catalyst that would push his voters to the polls. That’s where Mayor Parker, who just won an election with 57% of the vote, can help him. Let her tell her supporters that a vote for Morales means a vote for supporting the Mayor, and this runoff gets a lot more interesting. There are no guarantees here – Parker would be trying to sell a guy that has held office and run for other offices as a Republican to a mostly Democratic group of voters, and they will have every reason to be skeptical of that – but a message that Morales would be better for the Mayor (assuming, of course, that he would be agreeable to this) than Kubosh is clear enough. This is all my thinking, I have no idea what the Mayor might make of this. But that’s how I see it.

Again, there are no guarantees. If the Mayor gets involved in any of these races and her candidates lose, that will start her third term off with a negative story line, that her support was unhelpful, possibly even hurtful. Some people, especially other officeholders, believe strongly that incumbents should avoid butting in on races like this, so even if she picks winners there will be some blowback. Surely CMs Brown and Burks have friends on Council, and they may not like the Mayor going after them. Playing in these races is a risk. It’s just a question of how the risk stacks up against the potential reward.

3. Will the HCC races finally get some attention?

As far as I can tell, the HCC Trustee races were not covered at all by the Chronicle before the election. No stories, not even a cursory one-paragraphs-about-each-candidate overview story of the five slots that were on the ballot, which is two more than usual thanks to the departures of Rep. Mary Ann Perez and Richard Schechter. Even after the election, with three runoffs and the victory by hatemonger Dave Wilson, there’s not much out there about these races. All things considered, I’m not that hopeful that we’ll get a more complete picture of the candidates that are running for these six-year-term offices.

As noted in item 2, one can make a case for Mayor Parker to get involved in some of the Council runoffs. I think there’s an even more compelling case for her to get involved with at least one of the HCC runoffs as well. Sure, they don’t directly intersect with city business, but this isn’t about that. It’s about Dave Wilson, who has been an opponent of equality in general, and of Annise Parker in particular, for many years now. We can’t do anything about Wilson’s election now, but something can be done to prevent him from having allies on the HCC Board of Trustees. We know he supported Yolanda Navarro Flores. There are now reports that Wilson supported Herlinda Garcia in HCC 3 as well. Given that, I can’t think of any good reason for Mayor Parker to sit on the sidelines. She needs to directly support the efforts of Zeph Capo, and if the reports in HCC 3 are true, of Adriana Tamez. The risks are the same as in the Council runoffs, but the case for action couldn’t be clearer. Let’s shine a nice, bright spotlight on these races and these candidates and who supports what, because letting these races go on under cover of darkness does us all no good.

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Not in a rush about the Dome after all

We’ll get to deciding what to do with the Dome when we get to it.

We still have the memories

Harris County leaders are in no rush to decide what to do with the Astrodome, leaving the empty and decaying stadium to languish further following last week’s voter rejection of a $217 million plan to convert the iconic stadium to an events center.

Although a majority of court members said prior to Election Day that demolition would be the obvious choice in the event voters turned down the event center plan, not one of them is championing a tear-down.

“I’m kind of over it. I mean, I’m going to go do other things for awhile and see what happens,” Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said Monday. “This really isn’t the top priority in my life.”

The delay could give historic preservationists time to gain some type of landmark status for the 1965 Dome, which could block its demolition or place limitations on what could be done with it.

Even Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, who has suggested turning the sunken floor of the Dome into a detention pond in an effort to mitigate flooding and slash the cost of filling the 35-foot-deep hole, said he has no plans to push for a vote to demolish the dilapidated stadium.

“I do not intend to put that on the agenda anytime soon,” Radack said. “We’ll see what other ideas emerge.”

[…]

Commissioners Court will have some built-in lag time: Dome asbestos abatement, slated for approval Tuesday, is expected to begin in December and will take an estimated six months to complete.

“I have no deadlines in my mind,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle said last week after the election.

Look, I voted for the Dome resolution. I myself suggested that the referendum didn’t specify demolition if it failed. I’m as happy as anyone that we’re not fitting it up for the wrecking ball right now. But something needs to happen, and Commissioners Court needs to make up its mind. We can’t go back to the status quo, if only because the 2017 Super Bowl is looming, and there will for sure be plenty of pressure from the Texans and the NFL to Do Something. If demolition is in the future, then let’s be clear about it and not raise any false hopes. If Commissioners Court really doesn’t want to demolish the Dome, then they need to get another plan out there pronto. There is a deadline, and we can’t just sit around and wait any more.

In the meantime, other groups that do know what they want to do are taking their own action.

The city of Houston’s historical commission has voted unanimously to consider an effort that could give landmark status to the endangered Astrodome.

Maverick Welsh, chairman of the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission, put forward the motion at the agency’s monthly meeting last week.

“I think it was the right thing to do,” Welsh said. “We have to focus on saving this building.”

The move, however, was principally symbolic. Such a designation would only put a 90-day hold on any demolition.

“It’s the only thing we can do as a commission to try and raise attention of saving the dome,” Welsh said.

If the commission decides to move forward, City Council would have final say on the historic designation.

I don’t know that this is anything more than a symbolic gesture, but at least it’s a direction. If the stakes in this election were “vote for the New Dome Experience or we’ll be forced to try and figure something else out” and not “vote for the New Dome Experience or the Dome goes bye-bye”, then Commissioners Court needs to get cracking on figuring out that something else. If it was the latter, then I’d rather get it over with quickly than string it out. But please, we’ve had the vote. Please tell us what it meant and then do something about it. Campos and Texpatriate have more.

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How Dave Wilson campaigned

From KHOU:

Dave Wilson

Dave Wilson

Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign.

“I’d always said it was a long shot,” Wilson says. “No, I didn’t expect to win.”

Still, he figured he’d have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called “all the shenanigans” at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him.

Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found “disgusting.” If a white guy didn’t have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he’s black.

And it apparently worked. In one of the biggest political upsets in Houston politics this election season, Wilson — an anti-gay activist and former fringe candidate for mayor — emerged as the surprise winner over 24-year incumbent Bruce Austin. His razor thin margin of victory, only 26 votes, was almost certainly influenced by his racially tinged campaign.

“Every time a politician talks, he’s out there deceiving voters,” he says.

Wilson, a gleeful political troublemaker, printed direct mail pieces strongly implying that he’s black. His fliers were decorated with photographs of smiling African-American faces — which he readily admits he just lifted off websites — and captioned with the words “Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson.”

One of his mailers said he was “Endorsed by Ron Wilson,” which longtime Houston voters might easily interpret as a statement of support from a former state representative of the same name who’s also African-American. Fine print beneath the headline says “Ron Wilson and Dave Wilson are cousins,” a reference to one of Wilson’s relatives living in Iowa.

This is the story the Chron should have written but hasn’t. I can tell from my referral logs, which are showing links to that latter post from a variety of locales, that this story is going national. I want to stress that while Wilson’s campaign tactics were dishonest and cynical, they’re hardly unheard of, and they’re far from the worst things Dave Wilson has ever done. In the pantheon of campaign sins, they’re venial, not mortal. But pay attention to Wilson’s tone and the obvious pleasure he’s taking in having put one over on the voters. On top of his long history of hatred, that’s the kind of person we’re getting on the HCC Board of Trustees.

It’s easy to point a finger at the voters for being duped, but let’s be honest. Most people have no idea who their HCC Trustee is. Most of us have little reason to interact with our HCC Trustee, unlike our State Rep or our district Council member or school board trustee. It’s telling that Wilson was able to pull this off not while running for an open seat against some first-time candidate but against a 24-year incumbent, running for his fourth re-election. Bruce Austin did run a campaign, but it wasn’t enough, and he didn’t have sufficient name ID to overcome Wilson’s stealth attack. And so here we are.

The best defense against this – really, the only defense – is to be an informed voter. Don’t vote for someone unless you have at least some idea who they are. Better to skip a race than to accidentally cast a ballot for the likes of Dave Wilson. In the meantime, let’s shine a light on the other candidates that Wilson helped support and be sure to do what you can to get Zeph Capo elected in December It’s too late to stop Dave Wilson, but we can stop his friends. The Makeshift Academic and the Observer have more.

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SCOTUS to review request to reinstate injunction against HB2

It’s never a good thing to have one’s fate in Justice Scalia’s hands, but that’s where we are.

State attorneys filed a response on Tuesday to abortion providers’ request for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the ongoing legal battle over the constitutionality of Texas’ new regulations on the procedure.

Abortion providers on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a lower federal court’s injunction that blocked Texas from implementing strict new abortion rules, which the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted. Justice Antonin Scalia, who is considering the plaintiffs’ request, ordered the state to respond by Nov. 12.

“The applicants focus almost exclusively on their claim that ‘approximately 20,000 Texas women’ will be unable to obtain abortions each year on account of HB2’s hospital-admitting privileges requirement,” the Texas attorney general’s office responded on Tuesday. “But a litigant does not establish a factual proposition by asserting it to be so.”

The state’s attorneys debate evidence presented by the plaintiffs that 13 abortion facilities that do not have a physician with nearby hospital admitting privileges would be forced to stop performing abortion, leading an estimated 20,000 women to lose access to abortion services. The state argues there’s not enough evidence that remaining abortion providers could not take on those additional patients.

The 5th Circuit plans to hold a hearing to fully consider the case in January. The state’s attorneys argued in their response that it’s “hard to imagine” the Supreme Court would reconsider the case after the 5th Circuit, unless the 5th Circuit’s ruling conflicts with the 7th Circuit’s ruling on a similar hospital admitting privileges requirement in Wisconsin. “The applicants do not allege that this scenario is ‘likely,’ and it is highly unlikely, especially when the Wisconsin and Texas cases are likely to turn on features unique to each state’s abortion market,” state attorneys note in their response.

The plaintiffs anticipate that Scalia will issue an expedited decision shortly after receiving the state’s response. He could also refer the case to the entire U.S. Supreme Court. If Scalia does not reverse the 5th Circuit’s decision or refer the case to the whole court, the plaintiffs may ask another Supreme Court justice to consider the case. If the case is not considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, it will still proceed in the 5th Circuit.

See here and here for previous updates, and click the Trib link above to see copies of the filings. I have no idea what to expect here, but as it happens on Tuesday the Supreme Court also refused to hear an appeal from the state of Oklahoma asking for a review of a state court ruling that struck down their law requiring an ultrasound before an abortion. As I said the last time, that only required SCOTUS to decline to act, where here we need them to take action. But you find your reasons to be optimistic where you can.

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Precinct analysis: The Dome and the jail

Now that precinct data is out, the Chron has an updated take on what sunk the Astrodome referendum.

We still have the memories

Overall, 53.4 percent of Harris County voters rejected the bond issue that would have renovated the long-vacant Dome into a convention and exhibit space. In Houston, 50.1 percent of the voters turned it down, while in unincorporated Harris County, 56.4 percent snubbed it.

Political analysts saw overlapping trends with the preliminary data, released last week by the Harris County Clerk’s Office.

First, residents who lived farther from the Dome were more likely to vote it down. Second, conservative areas – not only the suburbs but also inside the city, particularly the west side – tended to oppose the measure. And third, whites opposed the measure, with blacks in support.

University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus and others agreed race was not the controlling factor, however. Rottinghaus said age could explain the correlation: Many black neighborhoods inside the city are full of older folks who have lived in their homes for decades, he noted, and might have more memories of the Dome.

“If you conceive of the Dome question as being a question of those who had a nostalgic feel for the Dome, older people gave it what little support it had,” Rottinghaus said. “But newer areas of Houston or people who have been transplanted from other places, those people are less likely to have a nostalgic feel for the Dome.”

Rice University political scientist Bob Stein was less convinced that nostalgia was a driving force. Data shows the deciding factor was proximity to the Dome, he said.

Political philosophy drove the Dome’s poor showing in typically conservative areas, including the suburbs, said Republican communications consultant Jim McGrath. He noted the ballot language specified, at the request of Harris County Commissioners Court, that approval would result in a tax hike.

“I kept hearing it was a boondoggle and nobody wanted to sign on for that,” McGrath said. “A lot of people said it was great architecture and ought to be preserved and it was the Eighth Wonder of the World. I get all of that, but the passion was on the side of the folks who said, ‘We ought not be spending this kind of money, we have other priorities in the county.’ ”

A lot of what is being said here was said before, only this time now we have the numbers. And here’s what they look like by my check:

Dist For Against For % =============================== A 7,172 8,693 45.21% B 6,817 6,203 52.36% C 15,428 15,288 50.23% D 9,874 7,954 55.38% E 7,819 12,302 38.86% F 3,674 4,189 46.73% G 11,049 14,766 42.80% H 4,761 4,390 52.03% I 4,400 4,042 52.12% J 2,782 2,540 52.27% K 7,872 6,420 55.08%

Here it is broken down by various groups:

Group For Against For % =============================== Houston 81,648 86,787 48.47% Harris 30,312 41,699 42.09% Dem 49,152 44,297 52.60% Rep 26,040 35,761 42.14% Swing 6,456 6,729 48.96% AA 24,563 20,577 54.42% Latino 9,161 8,432 52.07% Anglo 41,468 51,049 44.82% Other 6,456 6,729 48.96%

My percentage for the city of Houston is lower than what the Chron cites because of split precincts, by which I mean precincts that are partly in Houston and partly not. I’ve tried to tease it out where I can, but for the most part in a precinct where there are city of Houston votes, all of them are counted towards the Houston total.

The other groups are determined by Council district. I’ve defined “Dem” as Districts B, C, D, H, I, and K; “Rep” as A, E, and G; and “Swing” as F and J. Similarly, African-American districts are B, D, and K; Latino districts are H and I; Anglo districts are A, C, E, and G; and Other are F and J.

The numbers basically speak for themselves. I agree with the observation Houston Politics makes in its presentation of maps that show the vote by precinct that there was a lot more fervent opposition to the Dome project than there was fervent support. There were people who were passionate about saving the Dome, but that didn’t necessarily translate to them being passionate about this specific plan to save the Dome. I agree with Jim McGrath’s point about people thinking this plan wasn’t worth a bump in their property taxes. Now, I’m sure some of these people would rather starve to death than vote to increase their property taxes, but I think a lot of people just didn’t see the value in this particular plan. Some of that may be due to lack of campaigning for the Dome, some of it may be due to lack of a clear understanding what the New Dome project would mean and how it would work, and some of it may be due to other factors. While at this point I think it’s probably best to take another crack at finding a private investor to do something with the Dome, I do think it’s possible that a different referendum for a publicly-financed Dome project to pass. That referendum will need a clear statement about what the money is going to be used for and how it will benefit the County, and it will need a better conceived and executed sales plan to get the voters to buy in to it.

I believe a similar lesson can be learned from the successful but too-close-for-comfort joint inmate processing facility referendum. Here are those numbers, with the same disclaimers as above:

Dist For Against For % =============================== A 7,146 7,707 48.11% B 5,797 6,146 48.54% C 15,897 12,366 56.25% D 7,864 8,437 48.24% E 8,295 10,719 43.63% F 3,530 3,884 47.61% G 13,390 10,726 55.52% H 4,075 4,370 48.25% I 3,543 4,258 45.42% J 2,620 2,371 52.49% K 6,754 6,320 51.66% Group For Against For % =============================== Houston 78,911 77,304 50.51% Harris 33,468 34,600 49.17% Dem 43,930 41,897 51.18% Rep 28,831 29,152 49.72% Swing 6,150 6,255 49.58% AA 20,415 20,903 49.41% Latino 7,618 8,628 46.89% Anglo 44,728 41,518 51.86% Other 6,150 6,255 49.58%

Here it’s clear that this referendum owes its passage to the voters in Districts C and G. What this says to me is that just because an item has no opposition doesn’t mean it needs no advocacy. In the absence of other information, it’s likely that some people read this referendum and wrongly concluded that it meant increasing jail capacity like the failed 2007 bond, or another bump in taxes like the Astrodome item. People can’t be blamed for reaching faulty conclusions if they have incomplete evidence. There needed to be a campaign to create and send mailers to targeted voters explaining the virtues of this referendum – no new taxes, no increase in jail capacity, better city-county cooperation, better and more efficient means to divert non-violent offenders into drug counseling and/or mental health treatment, etc. Given that there were no outside groups that had a stake in this, and given that it was an item on the to do lists for Commissioners Court and the Sheriff, I think what should have happened is that Judge Emmett, Sheriff Garcia, and each of the Commissioners should have kicked in a few bucks from their personal finance accounts to help create a PAC to advertise this referendum. Mayor Parker could contribute, too, since closing the city jails was a key component of this. They could work it out among themselves who gave how much, then they could find a couple of respected folks from the mental health or drug rehab worlds to over see the PAC and design the message. If accomplishing an important piece of local government business requires a vote from the public, then local government leaders need to do more than just put the question before the voters and hope the come back with the right answer. There may be campaign finance issues to be dealt with for something like this to happen, but my bottom line remains the same: No opposition doesn’t equate to automatic approval. Let’s learn that lesson and be happy we didn’t have to learn it the hard way.

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Meet Richard Nguyen

The Council Member-elect in District F is little known outside the district.

Richard Nguyen

Richard Nguyen

From the opaque world of local Vietnamese politics comes a story as old as American politics, as inspiring as a Frank Capra movie, as bittersweet as the lost war that haunts a generation of aging immigrants who were given new opportunity at a painful price.

It is the story of Richard Nguyen, who emerged from obscurity as a lower-level civil servant into the spotlight of the Houston City Council with an improbable election victory last week. The 50-year-old city employee had no campaign war chest, or even piggy bank – his two modest fundraisers ended up with a negative net balance – but he managed to oust District F incumbent Al Hoang, whose controversial two-term tenure finished 196 votes shy of a third.

“He defeated himself more than I beat him,” acknowledged Nguyen, who works for the Dumpster Inspection Branch of the solid waste department. “I was never confident, but I had faith. I had no money, but I had motivation. I am surrounded by sincerity over sycophants. People saw how real I am, how much of a mission I have. I promised them I would honor them instead of hustle them.”

When the last ballot box was counted, the job was his – to everyone’s surprise, him included. Nguyen had no plan or agenda. He said he was not too sure what was involved with being a council member, or whether it is truly a full-time position. Nor did he realize that a council member’s pay, $62,000, would give him a $20,000 raise. He still talks about needing some part-time gig that will help with bills and a $10,000 campaign debt. He and his wife have two children, a mortgage and no room to splurge.

[…]

Nguyen’s biggest resource was a reservoir of ill feeling toward the incumbent, who did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

There were accusations – never proved – that Hoang had misused funds intended for a Vietnamese community center. There was a lawsuit he filed to evict a nonprofit organization from a building it shares with another organization. There were claims that he had forged signatures on a petition to change the name of the street he lives on. And there were widespread complaints about an attitude of condescension and arrogance displayed toward the Vietnamese community in both public and private.

Even worse, much worse for the older generation of Vietnamese refugees who escaped the country after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, was Hoang’s trip to Vietnam in 2010 and his polite participation in a reception for a visiting dignitary from the country. What outsiders might see as a reasonable economic development trip or proper show of respect to visiting foreign dignitaries can look like betrayal to those who still carry the burden of great loss.

While this story tells us a few things about Richard Nguyen, it’s at least as much about soon-to-be-former CM Al Hoang. What’s funny to me is that it seemed like Hoang’s second term was more peaceful and less controversial than his first term. Both the lawsuit against the nonprofit anf the trip to Vietnam took place in 2010. Even though Hoang was re-elected without too much trouble in 2011, and has avoided generating that kind of news since then, it’s clear the rifts were never healed, and this time around the people who cared the most about them had a candidate they wanted to rally behind. Let that be a lesson to us all about political memory.

As for CM-elect Nguyen, we’re going to need more of these stories because there just isn’t anything out there to find on him. He had no campaign website or Facebook page. He did a candidate Q&A with Texpatriate that tells us nothing about what he would actually do as Council member other than not be Al Hoang. A post from September on Little Saigon that discusses the race, which PDiddie cited in the immediate aftermath of the election, is also mostly about Hoang. One key question that hasn’t been answered, or asked as far as I know, is how Nguyen feels about Mayor Parker. CM Hoang endorsed Mayor Parker for re-election this year, so his loss could have an effect on her ability to move her third term agenda forward. I’m sure Mayor Parker has reached out to CM-elect Nguyen, but until we know how that went, we don’t know if she’s facing a less friendly Council this term than she might have expected or not. We’ll just have to see.

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It always comes down to the IT guys

The joint processing center that’s on the Harris County ballot this year will need a new computer system to fully realize its gains.

go_to_jail

The so-called “jail management system,” which the Sheriff’s Office hopes will be up and running at least a year before the processing center would open, will allow the jail to track the tens of thousands of inmates it books every year electronically, in one main system, rather than with paper and stand-alone databases.

“We process inmates primarily using stacks of paper,” said Capt. Greg Summerlin, who helped write the request for proposals seeking vendors to operate the system.

That means that when an inmate’s paperwork is stuck in a stack at the fingerprinting station and he or she needs to be seen in court, pre-trial services, or the medical ward, the inmate – and everyone else – has to wait.

“It’s very inefficient, it’s very cumbersome,” Summerlin said.

Several vendors have responded to the request, Summerlin said, and staff hopes to recommend one to Harris County Commissioners Court for approval before the end of the year.

Under the new electronic system, the paper index cards currently used to keep track of inmates will go away.

[…]

Officials estimated the processing center would take about three years to complete.

Asked whether there is concern about the jail management system rolling out on time, Summerlin said they are on track to select a vendor before the end of the year and that the system should go live within 12 to 18 months after a contract is signed early next year. A review committee is overseeing the implementation of the system, he said.

They ought to have the time to get the new system in place, and unlike some other high-profile IT projects that have been in the news lately, they won’t have a hard start date. Big IT projects are always messy and take longer than you expect, and I’ll be surprised if the new system is running smoothly by the time the new facility is completed, assuming the referendum passes. Just remember as the inevitable bugs get worked out that it’s always like this.

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Piling on Judge Pratt

Boy, an awful lot of lawyers have it in for Judge Denise Pratt, and they wrote all about it in a letter sent to other lawyers asking them to call on her to resign.

Judge Denise Pratt

The letter, signed by 32 prominent Houston-area family lawyers was penned by Webster family lawyer Greg Enos, whose criminal complaint sent last month to the district attorney’s office has sparked an investigation, according to county and courthouse sources.

The complaint also led to an internal investigation by the Harris County District Clerk’s office, the keeper of all court records, which led to the resignation late last month of Pratt’s lead clerk.

The Monday letter asks colleagues to support “our effort to get Judge Denise Pratt off the bench for the good of the family bar, the families and children of Harris County and the many excellent family court judges whose re-elections might be endangered with Judge Pratt on the same ballot with them.”

“We are all too familiar with the problems caused by Judge Pratt’s work ethic, her refusal to accept agreements made by parents regarding their children and her rulings which are so frequently delayed or contrary to the law or facts presented in court,” the letter says. “We are ‘sticking our necks out’ to stand up for what is right and asking you to do the same.”

One of the signatories, longtime divorce lawyer Joan Jenkins, said she would have signed the letter just based on all the complaints against Pratt she has heard from reputable lawyers. She said she has, however, experienced problems with Pratt on a case this year that led her to draft a complaint that she sent to Enos for consideration.

“I have never in my entire career experienced a judge that I felt was more corrupt with less actual knowledge of the law and with a poorer work ethic than Judge Pratt,” Jenkins said. “There is really nothing I can say about her that I consider to be representative of a good judge.”

See here and here for the background, and here for a revised and updated criminal complaint against Judge Pratt filed by Enos. I don’t have any insight on this, I’m just watching it all with a wide-eyed sense of amazement. Hair Balls has more.

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Precinct analysis: Mayoral race

Precinct data arrived late on Friday, so you know what that means. I’ll be taking a look at all of the races this week. Let’s start with the main event, the Mayor’s race.

Dist Drab Dick Cook Keryl Hall Parker Fitz Lane Perk =============================================================== A 59 2,439 231 64 2,911 7,072 100 148 78 B 76 219 67 172 7,953 4,549 43 132 102 C 85 3,047 250 100 4,117 23,683 186 201 75 D 105 533 136 298 10,046 7,669 90 193 102 E 81 4,073 268 77 3,895 9,335 187 161 106 F 55 863 112 71 1,764 4,323 65 167 43 G 100 4,411 212 56 4,660 16,624 214 125 85 H 58 582 117 69 2,423 6,389 76 185 53 I 57 580 122 88 2,577 5,392 74 223 72 J 30 623 87 46 1,341 3,463 54 83 31 K 57 921 114 151 5,056 8,469 90 162 75

Here are the same numbers as percentages, for those of you that prefer that sort of thing.

Dist Drab Dick Cook Keryl Hall Parker Fitz Lane Perk ===================================================================== A 0.45% 18.62% 1.76% 0.49% 22.22% 53.98% 0.76% 1.13% 0.60% B 0.57% 1.65% 0.50% 1.29% 59.74% 34.17% 0.32% 0.99% 0.77% C 0.27% 9.60% 0.79% 0.32% 12.97% 74.61% 0.59% 0.63% 0.24% D 0.55% 2.78% 0.71% 1.55% 52.40% 40.00% 0.47% 1.01% 0.53% E 0.45% 22.40% 1.47% 0.42% 21.42% 51.34% 1.03% 0.89% 0.58% F 0.74% 11.56% 1.50% 0.95% 23.64% 57.93% 0.87% 2.24% 0.58% G 0.38% 16.65% 0.80% 0.21% 17.59% 62.76% 0.81% 0.47% 0.32% H 0.58% 5.85% 1.18% 0.69% 24.35% 64.20% 0.76% 1.86% 0.53% I 0.62% 6.31% 1.33% 0.96% 28.06% 58.70% 0.81% 2.43% 0.78% J 0.52% 10.82% 1.51% 0.80% 23.29% 60.14% 0.94% 1.44% 0.54% K 0.38% 6.10% 0.76% 1.00% 33.49% 56.10% 0.60% 1.07% 0.50%
Mayor Annise Parker

Mayor Annise Parker

Disclaimer time: These are unofficial results, as the final canvass has not yet taken place. Provisional ballots may affect the ultimate totals. For a variety of reasons, the numbers don’t add up to the exact totals you will find on the Harris County Clerk webpage. And of course, these are Harris County totals only – there’s a tiny piece of District E in Montgomery County, a tiny piece of F in Fort Bend, and a not-so-tiny piece of K in Fort Bend. Keep all of those things in mind.

Let me start by saying that if this isn’t the death knell for the “Pincer Strategy”, it’s at least Strike Two, and Justin Verlander is on the mound, in the windup. Maybe there’s a combination of African-American Democrat and conservative Anglo Republican that can squeeze out an Anglo Democrat for Mayor, but we haven’t seen one recently, and Lord knows Ben Hall and Eric Dick weren’t it. I plan to point and laugh at the next person quoted in a media outlet that mentions this as a possibility. We’re likely to be spared it in 2015 if only because the big names being bandied about are folks that don’t fit this mold like Adrian Garcia and Stephen Costello, but regardless. The pincer is broken. Let us not speak of it again.

Well, okay, one last point about the pincer. A key principle of that strategy is for the African-American candidate to dominate the African-American vote. Ben Hall didn’t come close to doing that. Even if you add in his margin in Fort Bend County, he still lost District K, and didn’t crack 60% in B or D. That wasn’t because Keryl Douglass or Victoria Lane siphoned votes away from him, he just didn’t do that well. When I run the numbers later for candidates like Ronald Green and Brad Bradford, you’ll see more clearly how weak he was. I think you have to give Mayor Parker credit for that. I wish there were some exit poll data to get a better picture of why he did so underwhelmingly, but for now let’s stick to what’s right before us: Mayor Parker had a very good second term and a strong economy at her back, she’s a better candidate than she’s given credit for, and Hall ran a lousy campaign. We shouldn’t overcomplicate things.

As for Mayor Parker, a quick comparison to 2011 will show how different things are this time around. The economy certainly helped, as did Hall’s flaws as a candidate, but the simple fact is that Parker ran an aggressive campaign that had a significant GOTV effort that got a lot less attention than her attack ads against Hall did, and the results speak for themselves. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The time to beat her was two years ago. Timing matters. Greg has more.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What next in Pasadena?

Just waiting on the lawsuit at this point.

Pasadena City Council

There have been other elections in Pasadena with closer results, but not many.

After all of the votes were counted in Tuesday’s (November 5) Charter Amendment election, Proposition One: “Shall the City Charter be amended to replace the current Council election system, which consists of a Mayor and eight Councilmembers elected from single-member Districts, with a Council with a Mayor, six Councilmembers elected from single-member Districts, and two Councilmembers elected at-large,” passed.

The tally: For 3,290 (51 percent) to Against 3,203 (49 percent), just an 87 vote difference.

“I figured it would win but it was definitely closer than I thought,” said Councilmember Steve Cote.

The Texas Organizing Project (TOP), joined by Congressman Gene Green, State Senator Sylvia Garcia and four current Pasadena councilmembers, came out against Proposition One.

Shortly after the votes were totaled, TOP released a statement indicating that a lawsuit may be in the works.

“The Texas Organizing Project is committed to continuing to fight Proposition 1 and, barring a change in these close totals during official canvass of votes, we fully intend to pursue legal action against the City on behalf of the minority citizens who will lose their voice in the political process.

“In a city that is more than 60 percent Latino, it defies all sense of right and wrong that there would be no council members who are the candidates of choice of the Latino community,” the statement said.

[…]

The new (two districts fewer than before) maps will have to be drawn and finalized. Before the election, Mayor Johnny Isbell told The Pasadena Citizen he thought that could be done in 60 to 90 days and the first election they will be in effect is for councilmembers’ elections in May 2015.

I couldn’t find any statement on the TOP homepage or Facebook page, so I have no more information on the future lawsuit than what we see here. As I previously noted, the other three items on the Pasadena ballot passed by wide margins. I don’t think this will be settled any time soon, and there sure won’t be any “healing” till there’s justice. See this Chris Hayes segment on MSNBC for more.

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Empty benches

It would be nice to have some more federal judges here in Texas.

"Objection Overruled", by Charles Bragg

“Objection Overruled”, by Charles Bragg

Saying that Texas has more vacant federal judgeships than any other state, leaders from state and national liberal advocacy organizations on Monday called on U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn to do more to fill the openings.

“The Republican senators go out of their way to prevent certain seats from being filled, hoping that a future Republican president will step in and fill them,” Janet Neuenschwander, coordinator of the National Council of Jewish Women, said Monday at a news conference addressing the vacancies. “You have got a circuit court of appeals heavily weighted in favor of Republicans. I can only assume that the two senators do not want to put any additional judges on that circuit to maintain the substantial advantage that they have on that circuit.”

There are seven Texas federal district court judgeships vacant and two Texas seats on the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Seven of the vacant spots have been declared “judicial emergencies” by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts because of the length of the vacancies.

[…]

In April, Cruz and Cornyn established a Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee to collect nominations for the seats. “It is crucial that we ensure Texans have the best, most qualified judges and prosecutors defending their rights in court,” Cruz said in a news release on the commission.

The panel accepted applications throughout the summer but has yet to make any nominations. Some of the seats have been open for as long as five years.

According to a statement from Progress Texas, the vacant seats can have serious consequences for Texans trying to have their cases heard.

“When there are not enough judges, Texans can’t stand up for their rights in court,” the group’s statement said. “Delays can stretch from months into years. Memories can fade, witnesses can die, a nd families can be bankrupted.”

Lord knows, the slowrolled by Texas’ Senators on federal appointments since pretty much the beginning. It would be nice if government were allowed to function normally, but that’s not what Cruz and Cornyn were elected to do.

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Chron keeps trying to talk to Ted Cruz

It’s kind of cute, and probably about as effective as my efforts to talk to my dog.

Not Ted Cruz

Not Ted Cruz

When U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, stands before the Greater Houston Partnership tomorrow morning to deliver his “State of the Senate” address, he’ll receive a respectful hearing from an audience of Houston’s most influential business and civic leaders. We hope he’ll respond in kind, in light of the fact that a number of those same leaders are frustrated with the zealotry and ideological rigidity that have marked his brief Senate tenure so far.

Immigration reform is high on their list, and yet the state’s junior senator has been a stumbling block, not a pragmatic problem-solver when it comes to sorting out the complicated issues involved with determining who belongs in this country and who doesn’t. An attitude of stubbornness and rigidity is not the way Partnership members operate their businesses; nor is it the way they expect elected officials to represent Texans and their interests in Washington.

Cruz professes to be an immigration reform advocate, but his notion of reform is to build a Berlin Wall along the 2,000-mile Mexican border at $21 million per mile, deploy so many troops and Border Patrol agents that those ubiquitous “boots on the ground” will be stomping all over each other and set a standard of apprehension so high – 100 percent “situational awareness,” it’s called – that a skittish jack rabbit couldn’t venture into this country from across the border. In other words, he doesn’t want reform at all.

[…]

The Senate already has passed a bipartisan legislative package that goes a long way toward reforming the nation’s unfair and unwieldy immigration system, despite immigrant Cruz’s typically adamant opposition. For the moment, and probably for the foreseeable future, the effort is stalled in the House.

With consensus for sensible reform building across the nation – and certainly here in Houston – both Cruz and House opponents need to be held accountable. Tomorrow, Greater Houston Partnership members have an opportunity to do just that.

Well, at least they didn’t embarrass themselves with another invocation of Kay Bailey Hutchison. Maybe there is hope they can learn from their mistakes. Obviously, Cruz isn’t listening to what the Chron has to say – I mean, come on – but it’s possible that the Greater Houston Partnership is. It’s going to be five years before anyone gets to hold Ted Cruz accountable. It can’t hurt in the meantime to remind groups like the GHP that if they want elected officials that will actually listen to them, they’re going to need to support someone other than Ted Cruz.

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Weekend link dump for November 10

The 2014 filing season is now officially open.

Sometimes, finding nothing is really something.

Hopefully, this Captain James Kirk won’t encounter any Klingons.

“Getting injured while having sex on a business trip does not qualify you for workers’ comp benefits.” In Australia, anyway.

What Bill Gates is up to these days. Well worth your time to read.

How to erase yourself from the Internet if for some reason you wanted to. Are there still Usenet archives out there? Because if there are, I could never fully disappear.

If you don’t know the cause of your problems, you probably won’t be too clear on what the solutions to those problems are, either.

One reason for those “rate shock” stories you hear is insurance companies behaving badly, sending customers deceptive letters about their renewal options.

People don’t like to fly anymore, and it’s hard to blame them.

“Today, we have 50 states carved into one another, often capriciously. The map is a product of conflicting land grants from foreign powers, long-forgotten political battles (including some violent ones), historical oddities, and limited surveying capacity. States are gerrymandered just as badly as House districts, but they don’t have the benefit of being redrawn after every census.”

“There are more extreme conservatives than extreme liberals, and the extreme wingers really and truly believe that Democrats are destroying America. There just aren’t that many lefties who believe the same thing about Republicans. The truth is that the American left is basically pretty moderate. If you want an explanation for why liberals don’t have the same apocalyptic approach to politics as tea party conservatives, that’s why. It’s simple.”

I like Daylight Savings Time, but even if I didn’t I would not support any plan to reduce the number of time zones in the continental United States.

Getting rid of the TV sports blackout rules would be a good thing.

“So tiny fish are eating all our litter. Does that mean it’s okay to stop recycling?” (Spoiler alert: No.)

“Did you know that on November 1, millions of Americans suffered painful cuts to nutritional assistance? Not a single Sunday-morning talk-show mentioned it.”

Please tell me this guy lost. I can’t bring myself to Google it.

“By the eighth page I was emitting a stricken woofle like a bulldog that has been denied cake.” Now that’s how you write a book review.

“One of the biggest mysteries about T. rex has nagged palaeontologists for more than a century: what use did the giant have for arms so stubby that they could not even have reached its mouth?”

Swedish moviegoers will soon know if their films pass the Bechdel test or not. Of course, not passing that test doesn’t necessarily mean that the film in question isn’t feminist in nature. as with many things, one measurement is often not enough.

RIP Ace Parker, at the time of his death the oldest member of the NFL Hall of Fame.

“For every person who is pissed off at having their junk insurance policy cancelled and has to sign up for a new one, there are dozens who are elated that they can finally have just a little bit of breathing room in their lives because they finally will have health insurance.”

Mike Bloomberg rules your food world, whether you like it or not.

“The Affordable Care Act is the closest we have gotten to a health system that cares for all citizens. Catholic hospitals and Catholic Charities should be among the leaders in signing people up for coverage, and the bishops should be directing their staff to find ways to make the program better.”

Hawaii gets moving on marriage equality.

“How about we let everyone who got a threatening letter from an insurance company buy in to Medicare?”

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment