Tag Archives: Senate

UnidosUS 2024 Pre-Election Poll of Hispanic Electorate

Posted on September 19, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, today released findings from its 2024 Pre-Election Poll of Texas’s Hispanic Electorate. The data shows that the top five priorities for Texas Latino voters, two months out … Continue reading →

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Complaint filed over CenterPoint’s unused generators

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll admit, I didn’t even know there was a complaint process for this. The Texas Consumer Association filed a complaint Wednesday asking the state utility regulator to deny CenterPoint Energy the ability to continue to pass on the costs of … Continue reading →

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UT/Texas Policy Project: Trump 49, Harris 44

Posted on September 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. A new, statewide poll of registered voters in Texas shows a slight uptick in support for Democrats following last month’s Democratic National Convention. The poll by the Texas Politics Project at the … Continue reading →

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SCOTx declares 15th Court of Appeals to be legal

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Just in time for its grand opening. The Texas Supreme Court defended the state legislature’s creation of a statewide district court of appeals, holding the new court is constitutional. Dallas County and Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown challenged the constitutionality … Continue reading →

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The first Harris/Trump poll of Texas

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s talk about this for a minute. Vice President Kamala Harris trails former President Donald Trump by 5 percentage points in Texas, shaving off nearly half the Republican nominee’s one-time advantage over President Joe Biden from earlier this year, according … Continue reading →

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We’re stuck with CenterPoint’s useless generators

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

So what can we do about them? CenterPoint Energy executives said Thursday the company cannot terminate its lease for barely used generators that have already cost the utility $800 million, shocking regulators who are now turning on the investment after … Continue reading →

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News flash: Ted Cruz is extremely anti-abortion

Posted on August 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s cut to the chase here, shall we? Texas Democrats are making abortion rights a major campaign issue after Republicans in the state banned the procedure, and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is casting Ted Cruz’s views as “extreme” in his … Continue reading →

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The House gets its turn to yell at CenterPoint

Posted on August 2, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

They mostly focused on tree maintenance, which seems reasonable enough. House lawmakers on Wednesday questioned CenterPoint Energy’s tree maintenance ahead of Hurricane Beryl, in which tens of thousands of trees knocked out power lines, shutting off electricity to 2.3 million … Continue reading →

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So about those generators CenterPoint bought…

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I’m fine with all of this, but it shouldn’t be the endpoint of the conversation. It’s not even the main point. A state lawmaker said Monday he was considering pushing legislation to recoup some of the $800 million CenterPoint Energy … Continue reading →

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July 2024 campaign finance reports – State offices

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

PREVIOUSLY: Senate and Congress For the first time in awhile that I can remember, there’s not really a state or statewide legislative race generating much interest in Harris County. The candidates and incumbents for the Court of Appeals benches have … Continue reading →

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Third complaint over Ted Cruz’s podcast payments

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Three strikes and…well, nothing really. They’re just complaints and even if they’re found to be meritorious we’re a long way away from anything happening. But since I’m following this story, I’ll keep on it. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, remains … Continue reading →

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There’s a coordinated statewide campaign? We can do that?

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Who knew? U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a coordinated campaign to consolidate resources for races up and down the ticket, the party and Allred campaign announced Wednesday morning. The initiative, dubbed “Texas Offense,” will … Continue reading →

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July 2024 campaign finance reports – Senate and Congress

Posted on July 23, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I know there’s been a real firehose of news lately, but it’s July and that means it’s time to review campaign finance reports. This list will be a little smaller than the previous one as again there are fewer races … Continue reading →

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Now we’re concerned about crypto mining?

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

So, are we like gonna roll up the red carpet we laid out for these guys a couple of years ago? Texas is now home to 10 of 34 large Bitcoin mines. During cold spells or heat waves, Texans are … Continue reading →

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New accusations of sexual harassment in the Texas Senate

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A followup to a story from seven years ago. Sadly but not surprisingly, very little has changed since then. Texas senators were silent on Friday in the face of fresh allegations of sexual harassment revealed in in a Texas Monthly … Continue reading →

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National attention on the Allred-Cruz race

Posted on June 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Things are a little different now than they were in 2018. Also, Dems have very few even remotely realistic pickup opportunities this cycle, so. With more than four months left before Election Day 2018, Democrat Beto O’Rourke had campaigned in … Continue reading →

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All Texas Republicans vote against bill to protect contraception

Posted on June 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

The headline speaks for itself. The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday that would prevent states from banning birth control, though nearly the entire Republican delegation from Texas voted against it. The bill, which faces far more hurdles passing through … Continue reading →

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A couple of followups on the runoffs

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Sen. Molly Cook gets some deserved attention. State Sen. Molly Cook appears to have narrowly defeated state Rep. Jarvis Johnson in the Senate District 15 primary runoff for the second time this month, setting the stage for her to hold … Continue reading →

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Primary runoff results: Harris County

Posted on May 29, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

So this happened: That was quite the storm, though after what we’ve already experienced just this month it’s not as impressive as it might have been. It was even worse in North Texas, where some polls stayed open until 9 … Continue reading →

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Primary runoff day is tomorrow

Posted on May 27, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth reminds voters that Tuesday, May 28, is Election Day for the Primary Runoff Elections. Voters can cast their ballots in person at one of the more than 300 vote centers in Harris … Continue reading →

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Final EV totals for the May 2024 primary runoffs

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Here are your final EV totals for the May 2024 primary runoffs. I’ll go ahead and break out a chart, as per tradition: Party Mail Early Total ============================== Dem 11,534 16,421 27,955 GOP 662 1,861 2,523 Again, one must remember … Continue reading →

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Early voting to proceed mostly as normal

Posted on May 20, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth announces that early voting for the May 28 Primary Runoff Elections will start on Monday, May 20, as scheduled. Despite the challenges the county faces due to the storm on Friday, we … Continue reading →

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Early voting for the May primary runoffs begins Monday

Posted on May 18, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth announces that early voting for the May 28 Primary Runoff Elections starts on Monday, May 20. Be aware that these elections offer only five days of early voting. Voters can cast their … Continue reading →

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My interviews and Q&As for the runoffs

Posted on May 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Early voting begins Monday, May 20, for the primary runoffs. Yes, I know, we just finished voting for the HCAD/SD15 special elections, but here we are again, and we’ll have one more after that for the HCAD runoffs. So get … Continue reading →

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Election 3 of 4 for SD15 is up next

Posted on May 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Early voting for the primary runoffs starts May 20, which is to say a week from Monday. Are we not excited? Few voters paid attention to Saturday’s state Senate District 15 special election that saw emergency room nurse Molly Cook … Continue reading →

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April 2024 campaign finance reports – Senate and Congress

Posted on May 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

With the primaries settled and there being no runoffs of interest for Senate and Congress, we can combine the two sets of reports into a single post. The January reports for Senate are here the October 2023 reports are here, … Continue reading →

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Some further special election stuff

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We begin with this from the inbox. The Harris County Clerk’s Office posted the unofficial May 4 Uniform and Special Elections results on the Harris Votes website early Sunday morning, with 56,612 ballots cast in total. About 2% of Harris … Continue reading →

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May 2024 Harris County special election results

Posted on May 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Election live results are here. As of the 11 PM update, in which 118 of 151 voting centers had reported, Molly Cook was easily winning the SD15 special election, with about 56% of the vote. In the HCAD elections: Position … Continue reading →

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Texas man seeks to “investigate” ex’s out of state abortion

Posted on May 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Take a couple of deep breaths and we’ll have a brief discussion of this on the other side. A Texas man has asked a court for permission to launch an investigation into his ex-partner’s alleged out-of-state abortion, which could lead … Continue reading →

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One last pre-election look at those Appraisal Board elections

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the Trib, which did the initial reporting that informed me of these dumb new elections in the first place. The new law requires only counties with more than 75,000 residents to hold the elections, a designation that applies to … Continue reading →

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The SD15 effect on the HCAD elections

Posted on May 3, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We have had two elections going on these past weeks. I’ve done my best to bring attention to the three HCAD elections, but they have gone on alongside the special election in SD15. While the stakes in that one are … Continue reading →

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Election Day for HCAD and SD15 is tomorrow

Posted on May 3, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth reminds citizens that Election Day for the Uniform and Special Elections is this Saturday, May 4. Harris County uses the countywide polling place program, meaning voters can vote at any of the … Continue reading →

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Final May 2024 special election early voting: The usual pattern holds

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We come to the end of the early voting period for this weird and not really wanted May special election – okay, not wanted for HCAD, the SD15 special was fine and normal. All along we’ve tried to guess at … Continue reading →

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May 2024 special election early voting, Day Eight: A little bit of an uptick

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll cut right to the chase: Here’s your Day Eight early voting report for the May 4 HCAD and SD15 special elections. As the penultimate day of early voting, as well as the first day of a truncated Week Two, … Continue reading →

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