Tag Archives: The Lege

Another example of why bail reform is needed

This is troubling in a lot of ways, but fortunately there is a path forward. Since November, eight defendants fresh out of jail on bond have walked into state District Judge Ramona Franklin’s court and been sent right back to … Continue reading

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

And now the state has sued to stop the Clerk’s mail ballot application program

Such a busy day in court. Acting at the request of the secretary of state, the Texas attorney general on Monday sued Harris County after it refused to drop plans to send applications for mail-in ballots for the November general … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Hotze and the Harris County GOP try to stop the Clerk from sending out mail ballot applications

It’s mandamus time! Again. The Harris County Republican Party on Monday joined a lawsuit asking the Texas Supreme Court to halt the county clerk’s plan to send mail ballot applications to all 2.4 million registered voters. The lawsuit accuses County … Continue reading

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Plaintiffs prevail again in Motor Voter Lawsuit 2.0

Same result as before, this time without the technicality that got the first try thrown out on appeal. A persistent Texas voter, twice thwarted when he tried registering to vote while renewing his driver’s license online, has for the second … Continue reading

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Republicans try and fail to remove Libertarian candidates from the ballot

From Patrick Svitek: . Texas appeals court rejects last-minute lawsuits by @NRCC, @TravisGOP to kick Libertarian candidates off November ballot for not paying filing fees: http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=fee8c1fc-f70a-4d57-baf0-5775ccdea786&coa=coa03&DT=Opinion&MediaID=9242cd19-73c0-441c-bc1f-786be9ec000f — Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) 12:00 AM – 26 August 2020 The Third Court of … Continue reading

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The state of the Democratic bench

It’s deeper now, and it could keep getting deeper after this year. The speaking turns may have been brief and the spotlight not as bright, but Texas Democrats got a glimpse at their national convention this week of their emerging … Continue reading

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Why wouldn’t Dems attack Abbott for his COVID response?

I am puzzled by the premise of this article. As the Democratic National Convention opened on Monday, former First Lady Michelle Obama condemned President Donald Trump for having downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and scenes flashed throughout the night from Houston, … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022, Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

Special election set for SD30

Can’t wait till November, apparently. Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday announced the special election to replace state Sen. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper, will be Sept. 29, setting off a sped-up race to fill his seat ahead of the next legislative session … Continue reading

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Weekend voting litigation news

I have two news items about voting-related lawsuits. Both of these come via the Daily Kos Voting Rights Roundup, which has been increasingly valuable to me lately, given the sheer number of such lawsuits and the fact that some news … Continue reading

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As goes Tarrant, 2020 edition

Hello, old friend. Shortly after Democrat Beto O’Rourke launched his campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, he made several visits to Tarrant County in North Texas to press the message that if he could flip this county, … Continue reading

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Further thoughts on the Dems defenestrating the Green candidates

But first, the Chron story about yesterday’s legal action. An appellate court on Wednesday blocked three Green Party candidates from the November ballot because they failed to pay candidate filing fees. The candidates are David Collins, who was running for … Continue reading

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More challenges to Green Party candidates

From Patrick Svitek: . @ChrystaForTexas, @wendydavis sue to remove their Green Party opponents from the ballot, saying they didn’t pay filing fees on time: http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=6f9426d1-7b86-4718-b99a-8356e5d806a6&coa=coa03&DT=Brief&MediaID=297d5426-ee45-4039-8bfc-dc8891686f76 The Green Party candidate in Davis’ race is @Wakely2020, who was the 2016 Democratic nominee … Continue reading

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Wait, you can’t cut that spending!

This is the sort of thing you come up with when you’re out of other ideas. Property tax revenue would be on the line for cities that choose to defund their police departments under a new legislative proposal pitched Tuesday … Continue reading

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

Where are we again with the IPOB?

Are we moving forward, or are we standing still? A longtime member of Houston’s Independent Police Oversight Board has resigned, saying the organization’s structure prevents it from providing meaningful oversight of the Houston Police Department and should be disbanded. In … Continue reading

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Despite it all, voter registration keeps increasing

You love to see it. Not even the worst pandemic to hit Texas in a century was enough to stem the surge in voter registrations that has remade the state’s electorate over the past four years. Just since March, Texas … Continue reading

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Introducing the George Floyd Act

Coming this spring to the Legislature. Black lawmakers at the Texas Legislature unveiled on Thursday the George Floyd Act, a sweeping police reform proposal that would ban chokeholds across the state and require law enforcement officers to intervene or render … Continue reading

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Now we’re getting favorable State House polls

From the inbox: A recent poll of Texas House District 126, conducted for Democratic challenger Natali Hurtado’s campaign shows her essentially tied with Republican incumbent Sam Harless. The poll of 401 likely voters, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, showed Hurtado … Continue reading

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We don’t need a vote to expand Medicaid

There’s a fundamental truth that needs to be addressed in this. On Tuesday, Missouri became the 38th state to expand Medicaid, opening healthcare to over 230,000 Missourians. It joins a lengthy list of GOP-led states in expanding healthcare, including Nebraska, … Continue reading

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Hemp lawsuit

This ought to be interesting. New rules prohibiting the retail sale and distribution of “smokable” hemp products are unconstitutional, companies argue in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Travis County. When Texas legalized hemp last year, the legislation explicitly outlawed manufacturing … Continue reading

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fallon fallout

Of interest. After Sen. Pat Fallon’s impressive though not unexpected victory this weekend in the insider’s race to be the GOP nominee for Congressional District 4 – being vacated by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe – rumors are flying … Continue reading

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July 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 4

So yeah, after my previous entry I went and talked myself into checking on the finance reports from the 10 non-Houston-area seats that Dems flipped in 2018, plus four others of interest. It’s a sickness, I admit it, but here … Continue reading

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July 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 3

Here I continue with a look at the State Rep races outside the Houston area where Dems are competing to flip seats. I did not look at the districts the Dems are defending, but I may return to that at … Continue reading

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No eviction moratoriums

So opines Ken Paxton, and we all know what an unimpeachable source he is. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton advised Friday that local Texas governments’ attempts to delay evictions for renters grappling with the COVID-19 recession amounted to rewriting state … Continue reading

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It’s like we don’t want any extra Congresspeople

As someone once said, where’s the outrage? For months, as Texans have been asked to stay home to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus, Jennifer Edwards has been doing the rounds at gas stations in a trio of counties … Continue reading

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

July 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 2

Let’s move on to finance reports from the State House, which I will break up into two parts. Today’s look is on the various races in the greater Houston area, and after that I’ll look at the other races of … Continue reading

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Another lawsuit against Abbott over emergency orders

This one is a bit more serious due to the lack of Hotze and Woodfill, but it’s still not a great way to have the debate about this issue. Five Republican Texas lawmakers are suing Gov. Greg Abbott over the … Continue reading

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An analysis of that Paxton opinion about schools and county health authorities

Short version: That’s just, like, his opinion, man. The law should mean what it says. Rule §97.6(h) of the Texas Administrative Code says: “The health authority is empowered to close any public or private child-care facility, school or other place … Continue reading

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SCOTX rejects multiple Hotze petitions

Some good news. The Texas Supreme Court has refused to hear several challenges by a Houston conservative power broker to emergency orders on coronavirus issued by Gov. Greg Abbott and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Without comment, the nine Republican … Continue reading

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Revisiting the May elections

I’m ambivalent about this. Most cities in Texas — from Galveston to Lubbock — moved their May elections to November under a pandemic-era decree by Gov. Greg Abbott. But the choices facing voters will remain limited to candidates who filed … Continue reading

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A slightly less rosy view of Democratic prospects

Here’s the latest race ratings from Texas Elects: Texas Election Source has updated 27 race ratings based on the latest polling, July campaign finance reports and primary runoff results. Twenty of those races moved one column toward the Democrats’ advantage. … Continue reading

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What a Democratic House means for redistricting

Rick Casey makes a point about what a Democratic-majority State House will and won’t be able to do in 2021, in particular with redistricting. I would put the Democrats’ chances of taking back the State House of Representatives as better … Continue reading

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Rep. Rodriguez concedes in SD14

No runoff after all. Former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt will succeed former state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, in the Texas Senate after state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez said Monday he is dropping out of the race. Eckhardt and Rodriguez, both … Continue reading

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How to lose a Congressional seat

As things stand right now, Texas will gain three Congressional seats in the 2021 reapportionment, as Texas continues to be the fastest-growing state in the country. There is one thing that can stop that, however: Donald Trump. President Donald Trump … Continue reading

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What Ted Cruz is scared of

Let’s give him a reason for it. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a dire message to Texas Republican activists on Saturday about the danger President Donald Trump faces in November here. “This is a real race,” Cruz told the Republican … Continue reading

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