Green Party's Jill Stein touring Texas this week

Eight stops -- Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, McAllen, Karnes City, and San Antonio -- in six days.  From the press release, and also here...

October 15th
Press Conference 10am, Dallas City Hall

Arriving in Dallas Thursday morning, Dr. Stein will hold a press conference regarding climate change and her campaign visit. In the afternoon she will take a tour of South Dallas with local activists, discussing the impacts of police brutality and environmental justice.

In the evening, she will participate in a panel discussion on the intersection of police brutality, poverty, and immigration at The Act of Change, 3200 S. Lancaster Rd., Suite 320, Dallas, at 7:00pm.

October 16th - Arlington and Fort Worth

On Friday Dr. Stein will tour fracking sites with Liveable Arlington, followed by a panel discussion at First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church, 1959 Sandy Lane, Fort Worth, at 3pm.

October 17th - Houston

In Houston on Saturday morning, Dr. Stein will briefly speak to the Chorizo Menudo breakfast gathering before joining the Harris County Green Party at their booth at the East End Street Festival on Saturday afternoon between 1 – 4pm.

On Saturday night, Harris County Greens will host a party for the progressive community.  Bring your poetry, instruments, and participatory spirits to a backyard social and open mic and Slam/Jam, 7 – 9pm. Details available on their Facebook event page.

October 18th - McAllen and Laredo

Sunday at noon, Dr. Stein will meet with local activists at Archer Park in McAllen.

From there she will travel to Laredo for a 5:30 – 7:30pm public appearance at TAMIU Student Center, 5201 University Blvd., Laredo, followed by dinner with the Webb County Greens.

October 19th - Karnes City and San Antonio

At 11am, Dr. Stein will visit Karnes County Residential Center, 409 FM 1144, Karnes City for discussion and Q&A with Sister Elizabeth Riebschlauger and other local activists.

In the evening, San Antonio residents will have an opportunity to meet and greet the presidential candidate between 6 – 8pm at The Friendly Spot Ice House, 943 S. Alamo St, San Antonio.

October 20 - San Antonio

Morning media availability before Stein departs. 

More from DBC.

Latest mayoral poll of very little value

I won't even celebrate its reveal of a huge Adrian Garcia slump.

Sylvester Turner remains the front-runner, but Adrian Garcia has lost his once firm grip on second place and Bill King rises into the top tier of contenders in the race for Houston mayor.

That's the headline from the latest poll conducted for KHOU 11 News and Houston Public Media, TV-8 and News 88.7, a survey indicating Garcia and King are now fighting it out for a chance to face Turner in a runoff.

Turner heads the pack of mayoral candidates at 19%, maintaining the lead he commanded in the same poll last May. No other candidate in this poll stands in double-digits.

Garcia and King tie for second-place, both supported by 9% of surveyed voters. Chris Bell comes in fourth at 6%, followed by Steve Costello at 5% and Ben Hall at 4%.

Still, a large number of voters haven't made up their minds. The survey of 567 likely voters conducted between September 25 and October 6 showed 42% undecided.

This is too many uncommitteds to glean any value from.  Last week's polling from Washington-based American Strategies had 25% who couldn't make up their minds, half as many KHOU/HPM's first poll in June, which had 53% undecided.  So you're telling me after all of this phone-calling and door knocking and mailers and TV commercials over the summer and early fall that only 11% more of the electorate has managed to pick a candidate?

No.  Sorry, that's worthless data to me.  I think they're doing a little better on their polling of HERO, which is 43% yes, 37 no, and 18 unsure, but even that many Houstonians who don't know how they'll vote on the ordinance has too much doubt in it.

They got it right on Sylvester Turner being one of two going to December -- that's been the trendline for a couple of weeks now -- but that just seems like a lucky shot compared to everything else.

"I would say Sylvester is as close to a lock on having it as you can get," Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said, referring to one of two spots in December's anticipated runoff.

Otherwise there's nothing to get excited about here.  This poll is crap.  That's too bad for UH's Bob Stein... and also Bill King.

King has been the chief beneficiary of Garcia's decline, mainly because of growing support from Republican voters. King and Costello have been fighting it out for GOP hearts and minds, emphasizing financial issues like the city's growing pension obligations.

But Costello's backing of the drainage fee to bankroll flood control infrastructure has hurt him with many Republican voters, who consider it a poorly implemented new tax.

"Bill King has gained tremendously," Stein said. "He was barely measurable in our May poll. He's now at 9 percentage points. Most importantly from our May poll, his gain appears to be from Republican voters."

Republicans polled for this survey are breaking for King over Costello by a 4-to-1 ratio, Stein said.

Too much spin, too many undecideds, too much uncertainty all around to be making these statements, Dr. Stein.  Take all of what he says with a few shakers of salt, but don't put your blood pressure at risk.

King is going to spin it even faster than Stein with his next fundraising appeals.  And hey, if they somehow got it right and I didn't, you'll see me with the plateful of blackbird and a knife and fork.  But if I'm giving the pep talk to anybody's campaign staff today, those words are: Ignore this poll.  It's still anybody's game.

Update: Danny Surman dives deeper, comes to the same conclusion.