Like every other MFer on the Internet, I'll have something to say about Beto O'Rourke running for President, or Senate -- or both in 2020 -- at some point before the holiday weekend is out. Until then, enjoy your tryptophan coma.
The Texas Progressive Alliance is grateful not to have to wrangle any actual turkeys for its holiday meal in this weather. Wrangling these blog posts and news items -- not all of which are turkeys -- is difficult enough.
Progrexas blogs that Texas Republicans and Democrats who barely won their Congressional and Lege contests in 2018 will be the top targets for their opposition in 2020.
Robert Garrett at the Dallas News documents the rapidly-concluded Texas House Speaker's contest and profiled the breakaway victor, Dennis Bonnen.
Texas Standard took note of the first bill filing day for the upcoming Texas legislative session (in January), seeing items regarding public school financing, property taxes, and marijuana policy changes among the flurry.
Better Texas Blog explains the spending cap that the Legislature adheres to.
Houston Justice, reporting from the NAACP Houston chapter's elections, saw the Old Guard prevail over the Young Turks (in the vernacular), a story the Chron and KPRC also had.
Bud Kennedy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noticed pastor Ed Young of Houston's Second Baptist Church (also losing CD-7 incumbent John Culberson's church) being so upset about Democratic gains in the wake of the midterms that he condemned the victors as "godless", a passing of judgment echoed by other so-called Christian leaders.
Houston Legal
has the details of the public reprimand issued by the State Bar of
Texas against former Harris County GOP chairman/homophobe Jared
Woodfill.
Nonsequiteuse urges Beto O'Rourke to take another run for the Senate in 2020.
Four Texas Libertarian candidates broke records for the number of votes received in the 2018 election, writes the Independent Political Report.
Downwinders at Risk blogs about San Antonio and Houston moving forward with new regional air monitoring networks, while Dallas does not.
Wilson, an outspoken anti-fracking activist, has advocated for better regulations to rein in the fracking industry, which utilizes horizontal drilling and fluid injections to crack open shale to release oil and gas trapped inside. But she no longer believes regulations are the answer because state and federal governments aren’t prepared to enforce them. “The only way to save the planet from climate change is to stop fracking now.”
Paradise in Hell tells you more than you cared to know about Trumpy Bear.
Dan Solomon at Texas Monthly is happy that Austin did not get Amazon's HQ2.
Harry Hamid's brother cut his first record album. And Travis Scott's 'Astroworld' music festival defied the trend, collecting a huge and enthusiastic crowd despite uncooperative weather. The rap celebration of the long-gone-but-warmly-remembered theme park capped a breakout year for Scott, who made his star shine in 2018 as much as did Beto O'Rourke.
Everybody's got an opinion the week after the landslide, and the Texas Progressive Alliance rounds up the best (and worst) of them in a ride around the Texblogosphere to celebrate the Democrats' big wins -- and mourn the losses -- from last Tuesday.
It's also the day following the Armistice Centenary, or the celebration of the ending of WWI, a hundred years ago. As Caitlin Johnstone noted, the best way to thank veterans for their service is to not make any more of them.
This synopsis of the US Senate race -- from January of 2017 to last Tuesday -- by Patrick Svitek and Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune is the best ten-minute read on how the most important election in Texas unfolded.
RG Ratcliffe at Texas Monthlycorrected the knobs at Politico about O'Rourke's shunning the use of political consultants as a reason why he lost. RG also had the best morning-after quick takes.
While early voting was under way, Politico also took the liberty of introducing us to the next Ted Cruz, aka Lamar Smith's successor in TX-21, Chip Roy.
Jeff Balke at the Houston Press wants to know if Lizzie Fletcher will do for METROrail what John Culberson refused to do.
There will be another chance for voters in Harris County's East End to cast a ballot before the end of the year: the special election to fill the state Senate seat relinquished by US Rep.-elect Sylvia Garcia was quickly set by Governor Abbott for December 11. Two statehouse representatives, Carol Alvarado and Ana Hernandez, announced their intentions to run for SD-6 way back in March (after Garcia won her CD-29 primary).
A handful of old TPA friends were on the ballot last week: Trey Martinez Fischer goes back to the Lege to represent HD-116, but Nick Lampsoncame up short in his bid to unseat party-switcher Jeff Branick as Jefferson County Judge. And the Alliance salutes former blogger KT Musselman on his election as Justice of the Peace in Williamson County.
Grits for Breakfast examined the 2018 results through his criminal justice reform lens. Scott Henson followed that up with a wrangle of more CJ news, leading off with a profile of Harris County's Judge-elect, Lina Hidalgo, and her reform platform.
Law and Crime talked to State District Judge-elect Franklin Bynum, one of three DSA members elected in Harris County.
Harris County's new Clerk, Diane Trautman, has plans to replace the county's antiquated eSlate voting machines with new ones that provide a paper trail. The problem, as always, will be finding the money to do so.
David Collins has three posts on the progressive POV of the election results, all linked at Part I, while Sanford Nowlin at the San Antonio Current has a thirty-second take on how Democrats of a progressive bent hope to build on 2018.
Off the Kuff had some fun with the Harris County Republican Party and its ridiculous whining about straight-ticket voting.
In the lousiest political take/least progressive category, we have Blue Dog Democrat consultant Colin Strother making the case for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2.0. Sample:
Unlike many politicians, Pelosi doesn’t have an ego.
AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA
Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher vents about the Saturday Night Live/Dan Crenshaw apology.
Paradise in Hell interprets the presidential appointment-making process.
AndHarry Hamid is in a time machine at the end of the hall.
Not mine, yours. Or maybe it's theirs. Those guys -- pardon me, women -- on the other side who beat your team. They're the ones waking up this morning celebrating victory ... and agonizing about defeat at the same time.
The duopoly does make for simple analogies.
Can we say the blue wave rose up in the cities, swept out to the suburbs and exurbs, but crashed into the crimson dikes in the boondocks? Yes we can, at least in Deep-In-The-Hearta.
Never forget that rural Texas is where the baboons with their swollen asses all live. And vote.
They kept Texas red.
After the early and mail ballots were reported and most of the GOP statewide slate (save Governor More Powerful Than Putin) found themselves in much tighter races than has historically been the case -- at least for a generation -- some of my good neighbors assembled just down the road at the Redneck Country Club surely put down their nachos, went to the bathroom, and vomited.
Things improved within the hour, so maybe they didn't go home and turn in early.
That is, as long as they didn't care too much about John Culberson (or Pete Sessions or Konnie Burton or Matt Rinaldi) or any of their judicial pals at the many Harris County Courthouses.
We already know they didn't care too much about Ed Emmett, after all.
Commissioners Court has a blue majority this morning, with Lina Hidalgo and Adrian Garcia replacing Hunker Down and -- in what had to feel like some pretty sweet payback for Senator US Rep. Sylvia -- Jack Morman.
Stan Stanart finally got fired, so did Chris Daniel and Orlando Garcia and every single judge, despite the pleadings of the Houston Chronicle's op-eds. (The midterms used to be the last refuge for Republican judges; it was always presidential cycles where they washed out before.) Let's see if Harris Democrats can hold their monopoly for a few years, and more importantly bring some justice -- like ending cash bail -- with it. Poor Gary Polland just lost half a million bucks' worth of income.
All of your regular online resources will be overwhelmed, so hang out with me and your favorite food or beverage. I'll post something that breaks news, irregularly, once in awhile.
For the obsessive-compulsive in you (and me), keep an eye on the Twitter feed, top right, and the blog feed, also in the column on the right but below the 'endorsements'. Those will be coming off shortly after the polls close in most of Texas -- looking at you, El Paso -- and Stan Stanart is (supposed) to have the mail and early voting results up on HarrisVotes.com.
The news on the corporate media at the moment has to do with some concerns about all the troubles Georgians are having in trying to vote. But that's also true across the country. It just may affect her race more than others.
Meanwhile, here's a good piece on how seriously to take those exit polls, which we should be getting some results from in short order.
More below here throughout the evening.
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Update 1: About 7:30 p.m. Central
Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly is losing, fairly badly. In Florida, Ron DeSantis has pulled ahead of Andrew Gillum and Rick Scott noses in front of Bill Nelson, with 91% counted. In Kansas, Kris Kobach is losing his bid for the governorship.
In Texas, early returns look good for Beto O'Rourke, Gina Ortiz Jones, and all of the Dallas County Democrats. Harris County returns are delayed due to a judge's decree holding some polls open late because they opened late this morning.
As of 7:30 p.m., most of the big counties are in except for El Paso and Harris:
There are a lot of racists in Florida. Georgia is looking grim for Stacy Abrams.
All of the US Senate races for Democrats are a nightmare. The House is still moving toward a flip.
Harris County and Fort Bend are blue, with much of Election Day tallies still to count. But it appears that there will remain no statewide D elected, although so many came so close.
Update 3: 11:30 p.m.
He needed to revitalize one of the weakest Dem state parties in the country; reverse demographic voting trends in one cycle; coattails for down ballot; and defeat a savvy incumbent in a very red state. He appears to have pulled off all of but the last.
Who, or what, gets the blame if the Ds can't get it done tomorrow? Voter suppression, from Georgia to North Dakota to Texas college campuses like Prairie View A&M and Texas State? Voting machines flipping straight-ticket votes (to Ted Cruz?) There will still be plenty of finger-pointing at Russian hackers and Green candidates, I feel certain. Even if some dropped out of their race and endorsed the Democrat.
[The old Catch-22: "Greens should run in state and local races and build up to presidential races" instead of playing spoiler (sic) every four years. "Greens should drop out and endorse Democrats because this is the most important election of our lifetime". You know, since the one two years ago. That was their fault Democrats lost. Blah blah.]
There may be some less nefarious, more legitimate reasons the election will be won -- or lost; for example, the strength of women voters. Notable for the demographers, moderate Republican women who live in suburban America turning out to cast their ballots against Trump and the GOP. No, wait; it's the youth vote. That's it *snaps fingers*, the children are our future. Either is better than blaming the Latinxs, after all. We're all tired of hearing that.
Hold on a minute: this is a midterm election, and Texas Democrats who haven't elected one of theirs since, you know, Jim Hightower was Ag Commissioner always lose because they can't raise any money for consultants, advisers, pollsters, etc. Except they did, a shitpot full of dough, in 2018 -- at least those running for Congress; not so much the statewides save Congressman SuperBeto, whose massive Bernie-like ATM machine reversed both the prevailing Texas narrative and the cash flow, doubling the take of Senator Serpent Covered in Vaseline.
The Cult of RFO'R aims for the upset tomorrow evening. Rumor has it happening.
Hearing from more Texas Republicans tonight that they think @tedcruz is under water. It is Saturday before the election #TXSen#txlege
So as President Shitler is fond of saying: we'll see what happens. I'm ready for it to be over; how about you? Here's your roundup of lefty blog posts and news from the final week before E-Day.
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One unplumbed premise that the midterms might reveal is whether the strength of the Lone Star grassroots has shifted from one major party to the other, either because of 'outsiders' becoming 'insiders' or because there needs to be a "bad guy" to focus on and motivate the base.
Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, says Democrats nationally — and in some parts of Texas — have unleashed the kind of intensity we used to see from the tea party.
“So the question of whether there is still that ability to motivate Republican voters on the other side is the big question going into this cycle,” Henson said.
Henson believes one reason the tea party’s galvanizing force has slipped in local and congressional races is that conservatives no longer have Barack Obama to target. And Donald Trump has taken over the role of chief agitator of conservatives.
Tea party-backed candidates have also been elected. In Texas, the movement has been changed by that success.
“I think once you have people who are part of institutions, it inevitably looks different, because you aren’t banging from the outside,” Henson said. “Like it or not, you are part of the status quo, and you are part of the establishment.”
In addition to the TV ads, Paxton’s recent campaign finance filings have indicated that Republicans in high places are tuned in to the race in its home stretch. In recent days, the attorney general has received a $282,000 in-kind donation from Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign; more than $350,000 in in-kind contributions from Texas for Lawsuit Reform, the political arm of the tort reform group; and $10,000 each from two of the biggest donors in the Republican Party: Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.
In Harris County, the Texas Observer foresees a day of reckoning for Republican judges who have held fast to the money bail system, rewarding their friends and penalizing the poor.
Isiah Carey of Fox26 was first with the news that Houston mayor Sylvester Turner's first announced challenger next year will be former Democrat*, now (?) not-Trump Republican, non-DWI-convict and megawealthy trial lawyer -- Rick Perry's defense attorney, for those catching up -- Tony Buzbee. *Lookie here, from Texpatriate:
(D)espite being the one-time Chairman of the Galveston County Democratic Party, a two-time Democrat nominee for the State Legislature and the once rumored Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor. However, of late, Buzbee has been appointed to the Board of Regents of his alma matter, Texas A&M University, and become a key financial supporter of both Perry and (Gov. Greg) Abbott.
Durrel Douglas at Houston Justice blogged the 2019 Houston City Council District B early line. And in an excellent explainer, described how the local activist/consultant game -- getting paid to do politics, that is -- is a lot like having the app on your phone for the jukebox down at the local bar.
Socratic Gadfly, returning from a recent vacation, took a look at a major nature and environment issue that fired up up opposition to Trump — the Bears Ears downsizing — and offered his thoughts on the value of the original national monument site versus critics of several angles, and things that could make it even better.
Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher also leavens the politics with some Game of Thrones news.
And Harry Hamid's midnight tale from last weekmoves ahead to 1 a.m. (with no accounting for Daylight Savings Time and 'falling back' noted).