Monday, August 31, 2020

The Once-Again Weekly Wrangle


Back after a week's break!  Let's open with a lame joke.


Ha. Ha. Ha. But seriously ...


Our fellow Texans in Beaumont and Port Arthur, mostly spared the worst of Laura, evacuated to Austin but still found a reason to fight about something.


And our neighbors in Orange and Lake Charles probably aren't feeling the joke or the lessening, so if you're feeling charitable ...


There's still 42 days remaining before the start of early voting for the November elections, but Greg Abbott is giving SD-30 a head start on replacing Pat Fallon, who replaced John Ratcliffe in TX4 when he joined the Trump administration as DNI. (You may have heard Ratcliffe's name taken in vain over the weekend.)


Luther is the beauty shop owner who defied Greg Abbott and re-opened her salon while the COVID ban was still in effect, drawing headlines, armed supporters, and a brief stint in the pokey.  Springer is the Texas House representative for HD68, and the establishment choice to thwart Luther's bid to join the anti-Abbott Caucus in the Texas Senate.  The other Republicans -- Carter, Hopper, and Watts -- and Democrat Minter are mentioned in this TexTrib piece.

Expect a runoff, with the D and one of the Rs advancing.  The game to watch is whether Dan Patrick -- or acolytes of his that may want to cause trouble for Abbott -- come out publicly for Luther, work behind the scenes, or stay on the sidelines.  Activity like this signals the intensity of GOP primary scuffling in 2022, which the Govnuh is keen to avoid but won't shy away from.

If Springer wins the primary or the runoff, there'll be yet another special election to fill his Texas House seat at some point, in December or January.

Socratic Gadfly also blogged about Abbott, Fallon, and Springer and had some prognostications on the SD-30 race.

TXElects has analyzed Central Texas and Harris County statehouse races.


Who do the newly homeless plan on voting for? Do you think there will be poll watchers challenging their registrations, who've been keeping an eye on the public eviction records?


We know that they -- and everybody else who gets to vote -- won't be able to vote for many Green candidates, thanks to Texas Democrats.


But it's not like the TXGOP is making sure that everyone who wants to vote can do so.


This must be that "lesser evil" stuff I keep hearing about. Remind me again which is which? Oh yeah; I remember now.


There's cruel, and then there's just plain stupid.


Glenn Melancon at Living Blue in Texas points out that some have wasted their entire summer chasing conservative conspiracy theories. (Not this blogger.)

"Cops Behaving Badly" is still news in Texas.


Perhaps there's going to be some room made for improvement.


Here's some environmental headlines over the past week.


With a couple of educational updates:

Dos Centavos points you to a post by researcher Angela Gutierrez regarding a Latino Decisions survey of Latino parents and the challenges they face as schools reopen.


Should I wrap this Wrangle here? Yes, I should. Let's rock (in remembrance).

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