Tag Archives: Collin County

A few thoughts about Election 2020 before Tuesday

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Just a brain dump, to get this all out there before we find out what happened. Let’s start with this: After the conclusion of three weeks of early voting, 9.7 million Texans have cast ballots, crushing previous early voting totals … Continue reading →

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Paxton trial move back to Collin County on hold

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Delay is the natural state of being in this saga. I don’t know why we’d ever expect anything else. A Houston appeals court has pressed pause on a ruling that would have allowed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to stand … Continue reading →

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Judge sends Paxton case back to Collin County

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Pending appeal, of course. A Harris County judge on Friday moved Attorney General Ken Paxton’s criminal case to Collin County, handing Paxton a major win by placing the case in his hometown, where legal experts say he’s more likely to … Continue reading →

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Giving a motion its proper due

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, Ken Paxton really really wants to get his securities fraud case moved back to what he assumes are the warm and friendly confines of Collin County. The case was originally moved out of Collin County on the … Continue reading →

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Who knows what our positivity rate is?

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From the We Still Suck At Data Department: As schools begin to reopen and Gov. Greg Abbott faces pressure to relax shutdown measures, it is impossible to determine where Texas stands on a COVID-19 metric that has guided the governor’s … Continue reading →

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No new judge for Paxton

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, Kenny. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is still fighting five-year-old felony securities fraud charges, has failed in his bid to kick a Democratic Harris County judge off his ongoing criminal case. An administrative judge in Houston, Susan Brown, … Continue reading →

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Hollins asks for some slack on when mail ballots are received

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: On Wednesday, August 19, 2020, Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins sent a formal request to Governor Greg Abbott requesting that Governor Abbott extend the deadline by which county election administrators can receive mail ballots. The deadline for … Continue reading →

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Paxton (again) wants another judge on his case

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Round and round they go. Defense attorneys for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whose indictment for felony securities fraud is now more than five years old — are again asking for a different judge to oversee the case. It’s … Continue reading →

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A whole lot of Paxton case news all of a sudden

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Brace yourselves. A Houston appeals court on Monday abated a recent decision to move the criminal cases against Attorney General Ken Paxton from Harris to Collin County, giving a new judge on the case the chance to revisit that order. … Continue reading →

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Move to Collin County on hold, Paxton judge recuses himself

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Stay with me here. The Harris County state district judge who handed Attorney General Ken Paxton a big win by moving his criminal case back to Collin County two weeks ago is now recusing himself because Paxton’s office is representing … Continue reading →

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Ready or not, here we vote

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Hope it goes all right. Poll workers [began] greeting voters from behind face masks and shields as early voting begins in primary runoffs that will look and operate differently from any Texas election in the past 100 years. Although the … Continue reading →

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Back to Collin County for the Paxton trial

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Where it all began. Years after it was sent to Harris County, the criminal case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will move back to his native Collin County, a Harris County judge ruled Thursday. Paxton, a Republican, was indicted … Continue reading →

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The May elections will not happen

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not in May, anyway. Citing the state’s stay-at-home order, the Texas secretary of state is instructing municipalities to delay their May 2 elections. In an email to local election officials sent Thursday afternoon, the state’s director of elections, Keith Ingram, … Continue reading →

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Primary precinct analysis: Who did what in the RRC race

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Railroad Commissioner primary was a bit like the Senate primary – multiple candidates (though not nearly as many), not a whole lot of money, but the candidate who did best in fundraising was also the leading votegetter. Here’s a … Continue reading →

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Primary precinct analysis: Everyone did something in the Senate primary

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

So while we wait for actual precinct data from the primary, I thought I’d take a look at some county-level data from the non-Presidential races, as they have the county-by-county breakdown on the SOS election night pages. The US Senate … Continue reading →

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Let’s talk turnout

Posted on March 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Just a few random bits and pieces about turnout from the primaries. On the one hand, I think it’s great that Dems got the turnout that we did, in Harris County and around the state. On the other hand, I … Continue reading →

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Primary early voting: Comparing 2020 to 2016

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron looks into the early voting numbers around the state. Experts cautioned that early voting data should be taken with a grain of salt — for one because the subset of people who vote early aren’t necessarily representative of … Continue reading →

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Will the Paxton case move back to Collin County?

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Team Paxton is asking for that to happen. A Harris County judge said Tuesday he will rule by the end of next month on Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to move his felony securities fraud case back to his home … Continue reading →

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After-deadline filing review: The Lege

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Now we come to the State House, which is where most of the action will be in 2020. In 2018, much of the energy and focus was on Congressional races, to the point where some hand-wringing articles were written about … Continue reading →

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Our all-important metro areas

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Another look at the trouble Republicans face in Texas now. The key to Texas’ political future is whether it finally follows the geographic realignment that has transformed the politics of many other states over the past quarter century. Across the … Continue reading →

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Here come the Rangers

Posted on August 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know where this is going to go, but it sure will be fun getting there. The Texas House General Investigating Committee voted Monday to request that the Texas Rangers look into allegations against House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and … Continue reading →

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Raising money to register Republicans

Posted on August 3, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Just keeping an eye on things. A new super PAC focused on registering new Republican voters in Texas has raised nearly $10 million from some of the state’s biggest GOP donors, according to its first report to the Federal Election … Continue reading →

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Paxton wants to move his case back to Collin County

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Of course they do. Paxton’s defense team has asked that the case be moved back to his hometown of Collin County, years after it was moved from there to Harris County. The case was moved hundreds of miles southeast after … Continue reading →

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We return once again to the Paxton prosecutor pay fight

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is an interesting argument. The prosecutors appointed years ago to take Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to trial will continue to fight over their pay rate, lengthening a dispute that has already delayed the case for well over a … Continue reading →

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Will Ken Paxton ever be prosecuted?

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

At this point, I’d have to say it’s very unlikely. After mulling the question for nearly six months, the nine Republican judges on Texas’ highest criminal court will not reconsider their 2018 ruling that threatens to imperil the criminal case … Continue reading →

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Another reason David Whitley has to go

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

County elections officials feel like they can’t trust him or his office right now. That’s a big deal. As the Texas secretary of state’s office rolled out its botched effort to review the citizenship of nearly 100,000 voters, Betsy Schonhoff … Continue reading →

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A trio of updates about that bogus SOS letter

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Most counties reacted skeptically, as well they should. The Texas Tribune reached out to 13 of the 15 counties with the most registered voters on Monday; Galveston was the only one that indicated it would immediately send out letters, even … Continue reading →

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Meet KP George

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

He’s the new Fort Bend County Judge. In December, that strange suspended-in-motion month between his election and taking office, K.P. George was checking out the quaint old domed Fort Bend County Courthouse, soon to be his domain. In November, to … Continue reading →

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Paxton prosecutors take their shot at a do-over

Posted on December 29, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck. In a fiery filing that amounts to a legal Hail Mary, the attorneys appointed to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton implored the state’s highest criminal court to take the unusual step of considering their case again because … Continue reading →

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Paxton prosecutors want another shot

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck. The attorneys appointed to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton indicated in a court filing this week that they aren’t giving up a long-running fight to take the state’s top lawyer to court — at least not yet. … Continue reading →

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CCA may have killed the Paxton prosecution

Posted on November 22, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Ugh. Just, ugh. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday potentially imperiled the long-delayed criminal prosecution of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ruling that payments to special prosecutors were outside legal limits. If they cannot get paid, the prosecutors … Continue reading →

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An update on the close races

Posted on November 16, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Good news from Harris County. Fresh tallies of absentee and provisional ballots narrowed state Rep. Dwayne Bohac’s margin over Democrat Adam Milasincic to 47 votes, while incumbent Republican Mike Schofield of Katy trailed Democratic challenger Gina Calanni by 113 votes. … Continue reading →

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Projecting Tuesday turnout

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the statewide view. By the time the polls closed Thursday, 33.7 percent of registered voters in Bexar County had voted, well past the 17.3 percent turnout at the same point in 2014, the last midterm, and close to the … Continue reading →

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The meta-campaign for Senate

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s talk about what we talk about when we talk about the Senate campaign. It’s the most backhanded of compliments. U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s campaign for U.S. Senate has caught so much fire throughout the state that the new favorite … Continue reading →

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