The Texas Progressive Alliance is wearing a mask while watching the coronavirus dashboard for signs of an increase (or decrease) in infections as a result of the state's continuing re-opening.
In a 14-count thread, the TexTrib boils down the differences between those who are wearing facemasks and those who are refusing to.
“There is no reason -- capital N, capital O -- no reason that anyone under
65 should be able to say I am afraid to go vote,” Patrick, a
Republican, said in an interview with Fox News.
“Have they been to a grocery store? Have they been to Walmart? Have
they been to Lowe’s? Have they been to Home Depot? Have they been
anywhere? Have they been afraid to go out of their house? This is a scam
by the Democrats to steal the election.”
Dan Quinn at the
Texas Freedom Network also saw race and politics in the state's Republican leaders’
sorry response to COVID-19.
Here's a smattering of additional pandemic-related developments.
-- And
Living Blue in Texas discovered that the state is outsourcing contact tracing to a company that also developed an election canvassing app.
Kuff has the
latest in the various vote-by-mail lawsuits.
The Senate on (May 19) confirmed a
conservative Texas lawyer nominated by President Trump to the Federal
Election Commission, restoring a voting quorum on the agency for the first time since August amid a mounting backlog of complaints and requests for guidance in an election year.
James E. “Trey” Trainor III, an Austin-based election law attorney, has pushed for less regulation of money in politics and
opposed efforts to require politically active nonprofit organizations
to disclose their donors. He previously advised the Republican National
Committee and Trump during the 2016 election.
The party-line
confirmation of Trainor ends the longest period in the agency’s history
without a quorum, giving the panel the four votes necessary to regulate
and enforce federal campaign finance laws.
With Trainor, the
commission is again equally divided ideologically, which could resume
the FEC’s practice of often deadlocking on alleged elections violations.
Two vacancies remain on the panel, and it is unclear when the Senate
will take action to fill them.
More on the Ratcliffe confirmation and the vacancy in Congress it leaves behind from
TXElects.
(Ratcliffe's) eventual resignation will leave the CD4 seat vacant until at
least January because Gov. Greg Abbott is not expected to order a
special election. Ratcliffe is the Republican Party’s nominee for the
general election ballot. An August 8 meeting of the CD4 Congressional
District Executive Committee has been scheduled to select a replacement
Republican nominee for the general election ballot, if they can.Jason Ross, Ratcliffe’s former district director, and Rockwall
council member Trace Johannesen are actively seeking the seat. Former
congressional candidates Floyd McLendon, who lost the CD32 primary to
Genevieve Collins, and T.C. Manning, who unsuccessfully sought the
party’s nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
(D-Houston), are believed to be considering the “race.” Any replacement
nominee is highly likely to serve in the next Congress. CD4 was 22
points redder than the state as a whole in 2018 and is trending redder.
Unless there is no replacement nominee, in which case Ratcliffe’s
name must either remain on the ballot or, if he withdraws, no Republican
would be on the ballot except as a write-in candidate, as happened in
CD22 in 2006. If Ratcliffe won the general election, a special election
would be needed to fill his vacant seat.
Section 145.036, Election Code provides that a political party may
make a replacement nomination “only if” any of three circumstances
apply.
Here's more Texas Congressional runoff news:
And a couple of Democrats also got new jobs this past week.
Here's a pair of environmental news stories.
We have more activism to report!
Rep. Lloyd Criss, D-Galveston, a longtime and former state lawmaker who helped champion the labor movement including helping secure rights for farmworkers, addresses a joint session of the Texas Legislature in this image taken in the mid-1980s on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives. Also in this photograph, seated from left, are Texas Speaker of the House Gib Lewis, D-Ft. Worth; U.S. Speaker of the House Jim Wright, D-Ft. Worth; Gov. Bill Clements and his wife Rita.
Let's wrap a long Wrangle with some of the lighter fare.
