The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is saying sine die in the mirror as it brings you this week's lefty blog post and news round-up.

Now I'm a political/editorial cartoon? That would be a first.... @HoustonChron https://t.co/Pu2VRCJ7zv pic.twitter.com/XhxXwYiLsm

— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) May 12, 2019

(news item: Rep. Jonathan Stickland calls vaccines 'sorcery')

Stephen Young, Dallas Observer:

There's a little more than two weeks left in Texas' regular legislative session. Dozens of bills will pass the Texas House and Senate and make their way to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk between now and May 27. But thanks to an annual Texas House deadline, hundreds more died as Thursday night faded into Friday morning. No bills that haven't received an initial sign-off will move any further in the House, but the Legislature's business is far from wrapped up.

Here's what you should be watching as the Legislature hits the homestretch:

Young lists his priorities as marijuana reform, abortion rights, school financing, a state income tax, and a drivers responsibility program along with red light cameras.  Go read his deep dive into the bills that your representatives and senators will be approving or denying in the coming days.

In related Lege reporting, the Dallas News indicates that the state's Senate and House leaders are essentially starting over from zero on the teachers' pay raise and other tax bill details.  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram covered the DFW area's annual Marijuana March, while Jonathan Tilove at the Statesman says that the Texas House hates those red light cameras even more than they hate Stickland.  And the Texas Freedom Network calls out the state's Health and Human Services Commission for the hypocrisy of tomorrow's "Pink Day" while systematically destroying women's health services in tandem with the extremist right wing.

Now HHS wants everyone to wear pink to show their support for women’s health. Well, yes, let’s all wear pink. But we would prefer having state HHS officials (and the elected officials who appoint them) who actually seem to care more about promoting women’s health than anti-abortion politics.

Progress Texas has a special report on the continuing battle over voting rights.  It centers on #SB9, which as Andrew Turner at the Quorum Report previews, is set for Wednesday.

Just as Texas retreats from a voting rights fight in federal court in San Antonio over the way embattled Secretary of State David Whitley handled the rollout of a botched voter purge, Senate Bill 9 by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R- Mineola, has the potential to inflame the situation if it gains any traction in the House during the closing weeks of the session.

The bill would increase the criminal penalty of forging a ballot from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony, something that voting rights groups say would have a negative impact on turnout.

Sanford Nowlin at the Current has more.

"This legislation magnifies the voter suppression tactics that (Texas politicians) have been pursuing for the last couple of years," said Zenén Jaimes Pérez, advocacy director for the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Somewhat related: Charlie Kuffner warns that the end of the TXSOS voter purge lawsuit is not the end of that business.

The Texas Observer and ProgTex have also been on the story about local control at the Lege.  For the Observer, Justin Miller:

More than 30 Confederate monuments were taken down in Texas between 2015 and 2018, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report. This has sparked an intense backlash from Anglo conservatives who see the removal of these monuments as an erasure of their Antebellum heritage. Activist groups pumped out robocalls and radio ads calling on Texas Republicans to keep the monuments in place.

State lawmakers responded this session by proposing controversial legislation -- Senate Bill 1663 and House Bill 3948 -- to strip local governments of their authority to take down historical monuments, statues or portraits, or even rename schools, parks, streets and other public property.

And for Progress Texas, Glenn Smith.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler was right when he observed recently that the Republican-led state government “has declared war against” Texas cities.

The state is trying to take self-government away from cities, counties and school districts. It is a war on local government. It is also a war on democracy.

From limiting local government’s ability to meet its financial needs, to pre-empting local worker protections and public health and safety ordinances, the state is saying local voices don’t matter.

Why, you ask? Consider this: Eighty-five percent of Texas residents and 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas. A glance at any state or national map of election results shows disproportionate Republican support in rural areas.

Cities in Texas and elsewhere are increasingly diverse, tolerant, progressive, and focused on actually addressing issues that matter. That’s probably why, in Texas and elsewhere, they are increasingly under Democratic control.

Environment Texas provides us with another ecological legislative update.  Arya Sundarum at the Texas Tribune reports on the House bill that could have prevented future arrests like Sandra Bland's but multiple attempts to pass it failed.  Eric Trayson at the Houston Chronicle explains why one statehouse bill (stopped by a Democratic point of order last week) was a mortal threat to trans people like himself.  Better Texas Blog is concerned about Medicaid managed care protections.  And Scott Braddock sees a crackup coming in Texas Republican tax orthodoxy.

To wrap up the Wrangle's aggregation of Lege developments this week, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs blogged about the Greens' new hope of achieving ballot access in 2020 via a bill passed late Friday night.  David Collins followed up with more details, and Alyson Goldenstein at the Houston Chronicle also has an account.

Wesson Gaige, co-chair of the Green Party of Texas, was cautiously optimistic about the bill’s passage on Friday knowing that it still needs Senate approval.

If it does pass, Gaige said “we will be running Green candidates who uphold planet over profit, people over profit and peace over profit.”

[...]

“It’s a mixed bill from a third-party standpoint,” said Wes Benedict, former executive director for the Libertarian Party of Texas.

While the lower threshold would help Libertarian and Green Party candidates stay on the ballot, Benedict said the fee requirement will hurt the parties. He said the filing fee helps pay for primary elections, in which third party candidates generally don’t participate because of the high barrier to entry.

The Libertarian Party would likely challenge that fee in court should the bill pass, he added.

As Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez prepare to join the Sunrise Movement in Washington to rally for the Green New Deal ...

The final installment of our #Road2GND tour is happening tonight in DC.

Not to spoil anything, but we'll be rubbing elbows with lots of main characters, including @SenSanders, @AOC, and GND architect @rgunns.

Stream our biggest event yet at 7pm ET:https://t.co/HYreUCkyqZ pic.twitter.com/6X5NODBC3x

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) May 13, 2019

... SocraticGadfly continues his Greens vs. Democrats on the Green New Deal series with Part 4 about ag tech and its role in addressing climate change.

The Texas Living Waters Project uses the Austin Central Library to showcase the value of rainwater capture, condensate reuse and reclaimed water.

In the wake of severe flooding throughout southeast Texas last week, both Save Buffalo Bayou and Nick Powell at the Chronicle wrote about the Houston area's potential third reservoir likely having little effect in the northwest part of Harris County.

After tens of thousands of homes flooded in the watersheds of Cypress Creek and the Addicks and Barker reservoirs during Harvey in 2017, regional planners revived an idea originally conceived nearly 80 years ago by the Army Corps of Engineers: a third reservoir to supplement the capacity of Addicks and Barker in the event of a major flood.

But the study by Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center revealed the difficulties in attempting to eliminate flooding in the Cypress Creek watershed, which covers over 300 square miles in northwest Harris County and features over 250 miles of open streams.

[...]

The study also concluded that the remaining undeveloped land in the Cypress Creek area should be protected against development, specifically the Katy Prairie west of Houston, where vegetation and wetlands provide flood protection.

Last, a downtown Austin barbecue joint that only does pig caught the attention of Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn.

Sunday Funnies

Texas Greens get a shot at 2020 ballot access

A most surprising and welcome development.  Via Ballot Access News:

On May 10, the Texas House passed HB 2504.  It requires candidates nominated in convention to pay filing fees.  Currently only primary candidates pay filing fees, because Texas filing fees were always intended to help pay for the election administration costs of primaries.  The Libertarian Party is the only party on the ballot now that nominates by convention.  In the recent past, the Green Party did also.  The bill passed 77-57, with all Republicans who voted voting 'yes', and all Democrats who voted, voting 'no'.

The bill also says (see amendment) that if a party polled at least 2% for any statewide race in any of the last five elections, it is ballot-qualified.  If this provision becomes law, the Green Party will be on the ballot in 2020, because in 2016 it polled over 2% for Railroad Commissioner and two statewide judicial races.

Two aspects here as I see them:

-- The TXGOP wants to reduce its competition with the Texas Libertarian Party by squeezing some money out of their candidates, who fill the state's ballots top to bottom every two years.  (There remains the petition/signature gathering option, of course.)

Update: David Collins expands, linking to the schedule of filing fees associated with various state offices, and recalling the history of past Green petition drives that received RPT assistance.

-- Texas Republicans also want Texas Democrats to get some competition back, thus the party line vote you see in the excerpt.  With a similar majority in the state Senate, this bill would seemingly have a good chance of becoming law.  We'll be watching.

Should Democrats nominate another appalling conservative for president next year, las fortunas de Partido Verde get strengthened in the Lone Star State.  (Recall in a previous 2020 Update that US Greens appear to be coming together around Howie Hawkins.)  If Bernie Sanders -- or another D progressive -- gets tapped, the dynamic changes; Los Burros de la Izquierda get to quarrel with the GPTX while the jackass centrists sulk -- or more likely, piss and bitch louder than ever about "spoiler".  This fight could get hostile if, for example, "capitalist to her bones"/"Israel has a right to defend itself" practice genocide on the Palestinians' Elizabeth Warren winds up as the nominee.

Good times!

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update

"Electability" is an establishment construct.

The concept of electability was on some candidates’ minds this week as they considered the potential of the eventual Democratic presidential nominee to win the general election, especially in Midwestern states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ...

But in an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted at the end of April, the preference for a candidate who matched the respondent’s views was nearly equal to preference for a nominee who could beat Trump.

Several hopefuls also spoke out this week to argue that it should not be assumed that moderate blue-collar Midwestern voters prefer a white, male candidate or even that they’re all moderate and blue collar themselves.

The establishment is Biden.

Anyone the Democrats nominate ought to be able to defeat Trump.  Hillary Clinton should have defeated Trump in a rout.  On the one hand, it's patently ridiculous for me to imagine that the Democrats could nominate someone with the most remote chance of losing to President Shitler.

On the other ...

There is is a third way: convincing Dems that "electability" is a loser's metric. Perhaps reflecting on portraits of these past presidents will set them on the path to truth. pic.twitter.com/yaqYPAAeA3

— Moondog (@mattaknox) May 9, 2019

Salon: Are centrist candidates really the most electable? It may be the opposite

Let's roll.

Michael Bennet

Bennet hit the ground running in the first week after his May 2 announcement of his 2020 presidential bid. Bennet, the 21st Democratic candidate to join the race, was in Iowa talking about the cost of education.

“Getting to free college for everybody is not a very progressive way to approach this because a lot of wealthy kids will benefit from that, but let’s see if we can get you out debt free,” Bennet told a voter, without offering any specifics.

Bennet also appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday to respond to criticism of his voting record. The senator from Colorado had previously been given an 'F' rating from progressive super PAC Demand Justice for helping to advance Trump’s judicial nominees and specifically for voting against filibustering the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch.

What, really, is the point of this man's campaign?  He's entering too late to gain a podium for the first debate (IMO).  His well-right-of-center positioning is a crowded lane.  He's not the biggest joke in the running but he's tied for second with about ten others.


Joe Biden

The former vice president received pushback from Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to a claim Biden made in March that he has “the most progressive record of anyone running.”

“I think if you look at Joe’s record and you look at my record, I don’t think there’s much question about who’s more progressive,” Sanders told ABC's Jonathan Karl in an interview from Des Moines, Iowa, that aired on This Week last Sunday. Sanders’ refutation was part of a trend of 2020 candidates defining themselves in relation to Biden.

Biden also stopped in Columbia, South Carolina Saturday to speak with African American voters and attended a private fundraiser on Saturday evening at the home of his longtime adviser Dick Harpootlian, an attorney and former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman. On Wednesday, a health care union in California held a protest at a fundraiser for Biden at the home of a board member for Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles.

A small group of members from the National Union of Healthcare Workers -- which represents 3,500 mental health clinicians who work for Kaiser Permanente in California -- stood outside the home of Cynthia Telles, a member of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan boards of directors, to protest long wait times for patients to receive follow-up care and fight inequities between mental health care and medical health care with Kaiser Permanente.

Union president Sal Rosselli (said) that his members hope Biden, who has been an advocate for mental health care, would support the union’s position. Biden did not address the protests during his remarks at the fundraiser and the Biden campaign declined to comment to ABC News for a story.

Biden's raising money the old-fashioned way, relying on Hillary's money train, which belonged to Obama.  No mention of the words "swamp" or "drain" yet.  And again, this doesn't appear to be impacting Uncle Joe's polling yet.  Although methodology is an important consideration (pgs. 21, 22 at bottom) when assessing these polls and their relative value.

The poll spotlighted a generational divide, with Sanders leading among those 49 and younger, and Biden on top with voters 50 and older. The survey also pointed to a partisan split, with Democrats giving Biden a six point advantage, and Sanders holding a nearly two-to-one margin among independents likely to vote in the Democratic primary. New Hampshire is one of two dozen states across the county where independent voters can cast a ballot in either the Democratic or Republican primaries.

Vox's Ella Nilsen is of the opinion that New Hampshire will make or break Bernie (and Elizabeth Warren, and maybe even Biden).

Political Wire: be skeptical of Biden's surge


Cory Booker

Booker introduced what his campaign team called “the most sweeping gun violence prevention proposal ever advanced by a presidential candidate.” Booker supporters were notified Monday in an email titled: “I’m sick and tired of thoughts and prayers.”

His plan focuses on pressuring gun manufacturers to comply with new regulations and imposing rigorous oversight over their products. The senator has previously vowed to “bring a fight to the NRA like they have never ever seen before.”

In an interview with ABC’s Nightline, Booker reflected on the violence in Newark, a city he led for over seven years as mayor.

Booker told co-anchor Byron Pitts. “I’m tired of walking around cities like mine that have shrines of teddy bears and dead kids. Teddy bears and candles and places where the murders happen.”

Pete Buttigieg

On Sunday, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, joined former President Jimmy Carter’s Sunday school class in rural south Georgia, according to the Associated Press. Carter said he knew Buttigieg from working on a Habitat for Humanity project in Indiana where the mayor volunteered.

On Friday night Buttigieg was heckled by protesters at (the Dallas County Democratic Party's Johnson-Jordan fundraising dinner).  Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was interrupted on several occasions by anti-gay remarks. Protesters yelled, “Marriage is between a man and a woman,” and “Repent,” according to a CNN reporter in the audience.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is also running for president, came to Buttigieg’s defense on Twitter. O’Rourke wrote: “Texans don’t stand for this kind of homophobia and hatred. Mayor Pete, we are grateful you came to Texas and hope to see you and Chasten back again soon.”

Julián Castro

Last Friday, Castro’s campaign announced it met the 65,000 donor threshold to earn the former Housing and Urban Development secretary a spot in the first presidential debate.

In an interview with PBS Newshour, Castro expressed confidence that his campaign “will steadily but surely get stronger and stronger,” despite polling that currently shows him in the back of the field.

He further proclaimed that he would remain in the race, at least until the Iowa caucuses next February, pushing back against the idea of stepping out of the race should his support remain stagnant.

John Delaney

Delaney was sharply critical of some of the major proposals being debated on the campaign trail, including the Green New Deal and Medicare for all, in a radio interview earlier this week, labeling them “half-baked socialist policies.”

“I’m just going to point outL their policies are bad policies,” the former Maryland congressman said in the interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.  [Emphasis mine.-PD]  “Medicare for all, in terms of the bill that’s been introduced in the Senate, is fundamentally bad health care policy. Putting aside we have no way of paying for it, even if we were able to pay for it, it still would be bad policy.”

Delaney laid out his alternative, a public health care option, in a PBS Newshour interview, arguing that Americans want to be given choices rather than be limited to one plan.

Thank you.  Next.


Tulsi Gabbard

In a fundraising email to supporters, Gabbard attacked the media, claiming that reporters were ignoring her campaign because she is “taking on … the corporate media and the military industrial complex who drive us into war for their own power and profit.”

The congresswoman from Hawaii outlined her platform in a nearly 30-minute-long interview with The Intercept on Thursday. She also talked about her decision to run for president after endorsing Sanders in 2016, her isolationist foreign policy views and her opinion that it’s time for the Democratic Party to move on from the Mueller report and focus on issues.

Some candidates get more than a fair shake in the corporate media, and some don't.


Kirsten Gillibrand

The senator from New York pledged Tuesday that, as president, she would only nominate judges who would uphold Roe v. Wade. Gillibrand acknowledged that it was unusual for presidential candidates to set such a litmus test, but argued that such a stance was necessary after “Mitch McConnell obstructed the nomination process and stole a Supreme Court seat.”

“I believe that reproductive rights are human rights, and they are nonnegotiable,” Gillibrand wrote in a Medium post. “Women in America must be trusted to make their own medical decisions and have access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.”

This weekend, Gillibrand travels to New Hampshire for six stops from Friday through Saturday, including at New England College, where she will deliver a commencement address.

Gillibrand spoke in Houston last weekend (as advanced in last Friday's Update).

“What rules in Washington is power and greed...my plan is to get money out of politics and give power back to the people” @SenGillibrand HCDP Presidential Candidate Series #ProgressStartsHere pic.twitter.com/RsJJI3lq69

— Harris Democrats (@harrisdemocrats) May 4, 2019

Kamala Harris

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Harris is reworking her campaign strategy to focus more on Trump, particularly after her aggressive questioning of Attorney General William Barr during last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earned her praise.

And during a trip to Michigan last weekend, the senator from California took on the idea of “electability” -- a concept other female candidates have had to navigate as they seek higher office.

She took a direct jab at the idea of her chances to move into the White House at the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit on Sunday, the largest NAACP chapter in the country.

“There has been a lot of conversation by pundits, about electability. And who can speak to the Midwest? But when they say that, they usually put the Midwest in a simplistic box and a narrow narrative. And too often their definition of the Midwest leaves people out. It leaves out people in this room who helped build cities like Detroit,” Harris said.

I strongly encourage you to read the various takes Twitter has for you on this topic.


John Hickenlooper

Hickenlooper authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed Sunday titled “I’m running to save capitalism,” in which he explains his belief that while income inequality has led many Democrats to support socialist ideas, “capitalism is the only economic system that can support a strong middle class, a growing economy, and innovative entrepreneurs leading global technological advancements.”

The former Colorado governor concedes however that “the government has to adjust (capitalism),” making it easier for Americans to access higher education, raise wages and strengthen anti-trust laws.

I can't say this loud enough: Fuck this guy and the horse named Howard Schultz he rode in on.


Jay Inslee

The Washington governor unveiled what he called the”100% Clean Energy for America Plan,” which calls for clean energy standards with regard to electricity, new vehicles and building construction.

In conjunction with the plan -- which would begin on the first day of his presidency and attempt to achieve renewable, zero-emission energy by 2035 -- Inslee told ABC News that he is interested in retraining workers, such as coal miners, who currently labor in positions that would be affected by the plan, to work in new, clean-energy jobs.

Amy Klobuchar

Klobuchar rolled out a $100 billion proposal last Friday to fight drug and alcohol addiction and improve mental health care. In a statement announcing the initiative, the Minnesota senator tied it to her father’s alcoholism and subsequent treatment, saying that she feels “everyone should have the same opportunity my dad had … (to get the) help they need.”

The plan’s foundation includes prevention, early intervention and treatment initiatives, as well as justice reforms that would de-prioritize jail sentences for non-violent drug crimes and economic and housing opportunities to support recovery.

Completely unnoticed by most media was Klobuchar's Fox News town hall this past Wednesday.

It's worth noting that Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to appear at his own Fox town hall on May 19, and Kirsten Gillibrand on June 2.


Beto O’Rourke

On Monday, the former Texas congressman spoke at the United Steel Workers Local 310 as part of a five-day trip across Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. A union pipefitter asked O’Rourke if he would commit to a federal law that would give unions the power to collect money from non-union members for collective bargaining.

“Everyone needs to pay into the benefits that they gain as a result of those who are willing to organize and fight,” O’Rourke responded.

On Wednesday, Sasha Watson, a writer who dated O’Rourke when she was in college, penned a story for the Washington Post Magazine about watching his rise to fame.

Watching him run for Senate, she wrote, “I was no longer one of a small group of friends who watched him at a distance, but a member of the public, and I followed his campaign along with tens of thousands of people.”

Tim Ryan

In an interview with CNN last weekend, Ryan criticized Biden for saying China was “not competition,” calling the statement “stunningly out-of-touch.” The Ohio congressman elaborated by noting that China was “putting billions of dollars” behind construction in the South China Sea and investment in the solar industry.

Bernie Sanders

The senator from Vermont debuted an agriculture and rural investment plan in Iowa on Sunday which includes sweeping reforms to break up agribusiness conglomerates, establish a 'right to repair' law for farm equipment and redirect subsidies to prevent their disproportionate distribution to large producers as opposed to small farmers, among other proposals.

Sanders campaign staffers ratified a union contract with leadership this week, the first of its kind in presidential campaign history. Included in the contract are provisions that require the campaign to pay health insurance premiums for low-salaried employees and a pay ceiling for senior officials.

On Thursday, together with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Sanders proposed legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 15% and establish basic banking services at post offices.

Another very strong week for Bernie.


Eric Swalwell

Swalwell would not commit to supporting Trump’s impeachment during an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, but said the president should face “consequences,” comparing the situation to one with his children.

“We have to start taking this president seriously and speaking the only language they know, which is force and consequence,” Swalwell said on the show Sunday. “I’m a father of a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old. We’re going through the terrible twos. When my son misbehaves, we take a toy away.”

Too mealy-mouthed for the Democratic "BeatTrump" caucus.  Booker is beginning to steal Swalwell's gun-sense thunder also.


Elizabeth Warren

Warren appears on the cover of TIME this week and the accompanying profile directs a spotlight on her policy-heavy campaign.

On Wednesday, Warren released a $100 billion plan to combat opioid addiction over 10 years. Friday, Warren is scheduled to visit West Virginia, the state with the highest level of opioid-related deaths in the nation, and a state that voted for Trump in 2016. The senator will visit the town of Kermit, where in 2016 the Charleston Gazette-Mail revealed the trail of nearly 9 million opioid pills shipped to a single pharmacy in the town.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, the senator from Massachusetts read portions of the Mueller report and continued to call for Trump’s impeachment, explaining to Politico that, in the wake of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 'case closed' pronouncement, she “felt a responsibility to go to the floor to say: 'Case not closed, buddy.'”

Warren is also continuing to build on her solid momentum.


Andrew Yang

The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday that Yang did not disclose on his campaign finance reports his monthly gifts of $1,000 to a New Hampshire family to demonstrate his proposed universal basic income plan. A spokesperson for Yang’s campaign said that their first quarter report would be updated.

Next week, Yang will hold a rally in New York City’s Washington Square Park, for which his campaign claims over 5,000 people have already RSVP’d.

Marianne Williamson

Good! She has some wonderful policies & deserves to be heard.

"Marianne Williamson reaches donor threshold for Democratic debates in June" https://t.co/8aNuqM2GOE

— Leftward Swing 🌹🌻 (@LeftwardSwing) May 10, 2019

The Week: There are officially too many Democrats for the debate stage

Politico: Desperate drive to make the debate stage shakes Dem campaigns

Think Progress: The big-name Democrats in danger of being left off the 2020 debate stage

Political Wire: DNC sets tiebreakers for debates