Tag Archives: Election 2018

Wendy Davis is in for CD21

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

For some reason it hadn’t occurred to me that this was likely to happen on Monday. And here we are. Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis is running for Congress. Early Monday morning, Davis announced her candidacy for the Democratic … Continue reading →

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July 2019 campaign finance reports: Congress

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s move over to Congress and the Senate, where there are several new candidates, with more on the way. The January roundup is here, which closed out the 2017-18 election cycle, and the April report is here. For comparison, the … Continue reading →

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Mediation 3.0

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Third time’s the charm, right? The Houston firefighters union and Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration will return to mediation Aug. 1 in the hopes of working out a new contract amid a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Proposition B. The ballot … Continue reading →

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We’ll have a much better idea of who the candidates are soon

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

There are a lot of people filing to run for Congress as Democrats. It remains to be seen how many of them are viable. Three times as many Democrats have already filed to run for Congress in Texas this year … Continue reading →

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Here come the youths

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

There are a lot of younger candidates running for Houston City Council this year. Inspired by the recent electoral success of millennial and Generation Z-aged candidates, more young people are running for Houston city council than ever before, a trend … Continue reading →

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There’s no reason to trust the Republican study to “reform” the judicial election process

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Oh, hell no. After a punishing election for Republican judges, state leaders are set to take a long look at Texas’ often-criticized judicial selection system — a partisan election structure that Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht has described … Continue reading →

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Libertarians and Greens sue over the petition process for ballot access

Posted on July 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see about this. Ahead of the 2020 election cycle, a group of Texans, along with a number of nonmajor political parties, have sued the secretary of state’s office, alleging that Texas election law discriminates against third-party and independent candidates … Continue reading →

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We have a candidate in CD06

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good. A Waxahachie Democrat who is business partners with Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins is running for Congress in 2020 against Rep. Ron Wright, an Arlington Republican who was first elected to office last year. Stephen Daniel, an attorney, on … Continue reading →

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You want to be President, you’ve got to come to Houston

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

And so they are. No Democratic candidate for president has won Texas in over 40 years, and yet the flow of Democratic contenders coming through the state, and Houston specifically, has been unusually strong in 2019. Just since March, 14 … Continue reading →

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Chip off the old block

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Chip Roy, that is, the Ted Cruz minion in the House that no one said they needed. Freshman Rep. Chip Roy, who squeaked into office last year, has spent his first months in Congress establishing himself as a brash and … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rep. Jon Rosenthal

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I had the opportunity to talk with State Rep. Jon Rosenthal after the HCDP precinct chairs meeting on Saturday. Rosenthal is of course the freshman State Rep in HD135, one of two longtime Republican-held seats that Dems flipped in 2018. … Continue reading →

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How many contested judicial primaries should we expect?

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We already know that we’re going to get primary challenges to at least one Democratic countywide officeholder, as County Attorney Vince Ryan has two challengers lining up against him, and DA Kim Ogg has at least one person who has … Continue reading →

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Some county race updates

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

2020 is going to be a very different election year in Harris County, because for the first time in anyone’s memory all of the non-HCDE countywide offices are held by Democrats. If you’re a Democrat in Harris County and you … Continue reading →

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See ya, Stickland

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good riddance. State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, a firebrand conservative Republican from Bedford and one of the most vocal members of the Texas House, announced Monday he will not run for reelection in 2020. Stickland, first elected to represent House District … Continue reading →

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The battle for the Lege is gonna be lit

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Fasten your seat belts. While the Texas Senate appears safe for Republicans, Clinton’s comments underscored the emphasis that some Democrats — both in Texas and outside it — are already putting on the fight for the majority in the state … Continue reading →

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The lamentations of Big John

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

You guys, he may finally lose a race. I’m serious! There is no ghostwritten Cornyn memoir. His ego does not seem to live and die on how many times he appears on Sunday morning talk shows. And he’s never launched … Continue reading →

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By the way, City Council passed the budget

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

In the end, this was pretty boring. Which is a good thing. Houston city council approved Mayor Sylvester Turner’s $5.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year with little commotion Wednesday, authorizing a spending plan that was scrambled at the … Continue reading →

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What about Royce?

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Gromer Jeffers examines the question of whether State Sen. Royce West will jump into the Democratic primary for US Senate in 2020. For several months, there’s been speculation that Democrats, against the wishes of some party leaders and donors, will … Continue reading →

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Scouting the opposition in CD07

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Not impressed so far. Facing a roomful of conservative voters at a meet-and-greet earlier this month, Republican Wesley Hunt laid out the stakes for his party’s primary in Texas’ 7th Congressional District. “This is about putting the best candidate forward … Continue reading →

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A starter agenda for when we have a Democratic state government

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve been pondering the recent legislative session, which as we have discussed wasn’t great but also wasn’t nearly as bad as some other recent sessions have been. The qualification for all this is that the key defining factor for our … Continue reading →

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Back to mediation

Posted on June 15, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Give it another sixty days. Maybe it’ll be different this time. A Texas appeals court Thursday ordered the Houston firefighters union and Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration back to mediation in the hope the two sides will agree to a new … Continue reading →

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Justice Democrats find a primary opponent for Rep. Henry Cuellar

Posted on June 15, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It’s on. A 26-year-old Laredoan, former valedictorian of Early College High School and current immigration and human rights attorney, Jessica Cisneros is announcing her campaign Thursday to run for Congress in 2020 to represent Laredo and the rest of Texas’ … Continue reading →

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Republicans are worried about Texas, part 583

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

When was the last time you head about a Republican-oriented mass voter registration effort? Wealthy Republican donors are preparing a multimillion-dollar effort to register more than 1 million new GOP voters in Texas for 2020 amid anxiety that President Trump … Continue reading →

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Checking in on the national political atmosphere

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox, via G. Elliott Morris’ weekly email blast: Are Democrats doing as well as they were in 2017-2018? The plural of “anecdote” is not “data”, but that’s what special elections and the generic ballot are for. These numbers … Continue reading →

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Prop B layoffs rescinded

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

No Prop B, no need for layoffs. Funny how that works. Houston City Council on Wednesday formally reversed the 220 firefighter layoffs and hundreds of demotions it approved earlier this year, making official Mayor Sylvester Turner’s pledge not to lay … Continue reading →

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In which I plead for a boon from national writers

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Dear national political writers: The former Texas congressman and one-time Senate hopeful has attended at least 67 Iowa town halls, driven nearly 3,000 miles across the state, and hired dozens of staffers there. He’s tall, white, charismatic, and handsome—traits that should serve … Continue reading →

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Do we have someone running in CD06 yet?

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This guy really needs a strong opponent. U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, R-Arlington, says on a video released by an abortion rights group that women commit murder if they have an abortion and should “absolutely” be punished Reproaction, an abortion rights … Continue reading →

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Could Beto-Cornyn still happen?

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

According to that same Quinnipiac poll, some people would like for it to happen. Most Texas Democrats say they’d prefer for former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke to abandon his campaign for president and instead take on Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. … Continue reading →

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One more in CD23

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Should be an interesting primary. Rosalinda “Rosey” Ramos Abuabara, organizer of a 2017 LGBTQ pride flash mob across the street from the home of then-mayor Ivy Taylor, has filed to run for the congressional seat now held by Republican Will … Continue reading →

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Looks like Boykins is in for Mayor

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This had been rumored for some time. Houston City Councilman Dwight Boykins has filed paperwork indicating he will run for mayor, setting up a clash with incumbent Sylvester Turner and at least two other major candidates. Boykins filed a report … Continue reading →

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The repeat Congressional candidates

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib looks at how the key 2020 Democratic Congressional campaigns are shaping up. Short answer: There are a number of repeat candidates from 2018. The situation in the 24th District is emblematic of a broader trend across the state. … Continue reading →

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How Texas Republicans did not make their case to women this session

Posted on June 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

They did have a not-excessively-misogynist session, but see if you can spot what’s missing in this recap and preview story. Texas could have tried to beat Alabama to become the first state in the nation to ban all abortions this … Continue reading →

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The view to the next session

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This legislative session was relatively free of drama (you can decide for yourself how substantive it was in other ways), but the forthcoming election season will be anything but, with control of the Legislature and all that means at stake. … Continue reading →

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Two for HD134

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Local attorney and business owner Ruby Powers announced on Thursday that she is running to represent District 134 in the Texas House of Representatives. “Our district deserves a state representative who will ensure that families can send … Continue reading →

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