Sunday, March 03, 2013

Post-mortem on SD-6

-- Charles notes that the new senator from the 6th won't be sworn in next week, after all.

Now here’s the bad news:

Harris County has 10 days to canvass the results after Saturday’s contest, and Gov. Rick Perry’s office of has an additional four days. The winner cannot take her oath until the governor’s canvass, which means the victor will not be able to file any bills after taking office.

Cripes. After all this time, we still have to wait another two weeks for SD06 to be represented. If Sen.-elect Garcia were able to file bills, I’d recommend that her first would be to amend the special election procedure to allow for an immediate swearing in when a special election to fill a vacancy occurs during a session and there’s no question of a recount or other challenge to the election to fill that vacancy. I mean seriously, in a just world Garcia would be sworn in on Monday. Maybe one of her colleagues-to-be can file this legislation on her behalf, or perhaps Rep. Alvarado can do it as a gesture of letting bygones be bygones.

You think that was just a coincidence? You don't think that the governor got some advice on how to proceed with the scheduling from some loyal flacks in the Texas AG's office, do you?

Update:

Though the formal March 8 deadline for filing bills will have passed when Garcia is sworn in, (Democratic political consultant Harold) Cook said, professional courtesy would allow her to introduce legislation. 

-- Harvey:

IN WHAT BECOMES ANOTHER PROXY WAR, MOSTYN AND UNIONS TRUMP TLR AND ALLIES IN SD6 SPECIAL ELECTION BATTLE  

Gallegos family endorsed Alvarado but union base backed Garcia 
 
Texans for Lawsuit Reform took another trouncing tonight as former county commissioner Sylvia Garcia beat former Rep. Carol Alvarado in tonight’s run-off election for Senate District 6.

First: Alvarado is a current state representative, not a former one. TLR was the largest contributor to the Alvarado campaign by far, at $184,000, but Garcia got more than 2.5 times that much from Steve Mostyn and his activist network, Texas Organizing Project; nearly $475,000 in monetary and in-kind contributions. In some respects it is difficult to see this as a good thing (unless you are a bright blue partisan, of course).

-- Poor Campos. Another vivid demonstration of him not knowing how to win, and not getting things done. Clue to him: you can't take GOP money, GOP operatives, and GOP electeds and win in a predominantly Democratic district. I suppose you can make some pretty good commissions, however.

Why would any Democrat running for office hire him at this point unless they intended to use the same strategy -- attract Republican support to try to win a swing seat -- for example, on Houston city council? Try to keep this guy's M.O. in mind in the future, Democrats (those of you from the Democratic wing of the party, that is).

--  On the other hand, much of this effort on the part of Alvarado and the Republicans and Democrats who supported her has to be considered an investment in the future. She is 45 and remains a state representative in a safe district. She can hold that seat for the next 20 years or longer... when she will be the same age as Garcia.

Garcia is either 66 years old if you trust the Chronicle, or 62 by her own disclosure. How long does she realistically remain a state senator beyond this term (4 years) and the next one? By then she will be at least 70. Do you know how many septuagenarians there currently are in the Texas Senate? That would be none.

So whenever it might be that Sylvia Garcia is no longer a state senator -- and not far in the future it will be -- who is it that has not just the inside track, but obviously first claim?

Nice to know everything's all taken care of, isn't it?

Sunday Funnies (Racial Entitlement edition)



Saturday, March 02, 2013

SD-6 results *updated*

The conclusion of the sliming is at hand.

County Clerk Stan Stanart had the early vote/absentee total posted at 7:02, and they show Sylvia Garcia with a small lead.

Garcia  5101 votes, 53.42 %

Alvarado 4448 votes, 46.58%

It might be a half hour or longer before we get some tallies that reflect votes cast today. We'll update here as the night goes on.

Update (8:14 p.m.): Garcia adds another 309 votes to her lead.

Garcia 5911 votes, 54.43%

Alvarado 4949 votes, 45.57%

Update II (8:45 p.m.):  Garcia has a 1400 vote lead with 45% of precincts in.

Garcia 6816 votes, 55.78%

Alvarado 5404 votes, 44.22%

Update III (9:11 p.m.): Garcia's lead narrows slightly, to 1317 votes. 68% of precincts have reported. I don't think that Alvarado can close the gap fast enough.

Garcia 8106 votes 54.42%

Alvarado 6789 votes, 45.78%

Last Update (9:35 p.m.): With 95% of precincts counted, Sylvia Garcia will defeat Carol Alvarado and be sworn in as state Senator of the 6th District of Texas next week.

Garcia 9250 votes, 53.07%

Alvarado 8180 votes, 46.93%

Friday, March 01, 2013

A troll on the Supreme Court

Probably more than one, but let's just deal with the worst one for the moment.


Maddow said that Scalia apparently thinks voting is now a “racial entitlement,” but he only says things like this because he’s a “troll” and loves to hear his comments elicit gasps.

Yes, that's exactly it. It's as if Glenn Beck is on the bench. Because that's where Scalia gets his talking points.


But feeding the troll is a bad idea also. Giving this pig-eyed sack of shit the publicity he seeks only serves to make his trollishness worse. Supreme Court Justices are, however, more difficult to ignore than Sean Hannity.

This is also not the right approach. A single SCOTUS justice has been impeached in the history of the Republic: Samuel Chase, who was acquitted by large margins on all counts. And the charges against him had to do with "intemperate, inflammatory" remarks and not misconduct, the standard by which legal action against judges was established by this precedent. Read that link and you will see many similarities, and not just to Scalia.

No, like Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz, I'm just going to place Antonin Scalia on 'ignore' and recognize that what he is saying and doing should serve as motivation to those who do not want to have a Republican president nominate a Supreme Court justice for a long, long, time.

And to make that happen, the best investment of one's time and energy is to encourage as many minority voter registrations as they possibly can. On a daily basis, everywhere one is and everywhere one goes. As far as I am concerned, it is the one thing everyone can do that will make the biggest difference in the fastest amount of time.