Other views in SD-6 as EV concludes

-- The Chron's Allan Turner, quoting UH's Rice's Bob Stein.

"Substantively," said Rice University political science professor Robert Stein, "the two candidates, with minor exceptions, are in lockstep … Carol is a new-breed Latina. Sylvia is old school." 

Am I the only one who reads some condescension -- maybe even a little misogyny -- into that statement? Maybe it's just my residual sensitivity from Seth MacFarlane's Oscar night trainwreck. Leaving that bias out... WTF is a 'new-breed Latina' ?!

-- Charles reviews the battlefield and tips some disgust with the volume of commercials on his teevee.

I for one will be glad when all of the nasty ads are done running on TV, in particular all the ads during basketball games on ESPN and CSN Houston. That’s the problem with live sporting events, you can’t zap the commercials.

Thank goodness I haven't seen a single one. Nor have I looked at any at the various pieces of junk mail sent out by the campaigns (some images have been sent to me, which I have worked hard to ignore). Let's get clear: this is what Alvarado and Garcia are spending the bulk of their millions of dollars on: attack ads -- print and electronic -- discussed, produced, and purchased by their political consultants, earning themselves commissions every step of the way. It's been a great start to the new year for them. They're probably pulling for Alvarado just so they can create another business opportunity.

-- The Chron's Patti Hart, with all the money broken down (same link as above).

The Senate District 6 race has been heavily financed by the two biggest donors in Texas: Houston homebuilder Bob Perry and Houston plaintiff's lawyer Steve Mostyn.

The latest reports to the Texas Ethics Commission show that, since Jan. 19, Perry, who typically has financed Republican candidates and the tort reform effort in Texas, donated $5,000 to Alvarado.

The political action committee he founded, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, donated another $259,000 during the same time period. In addition, lobbyist Mike Toomey, who works for Perry, donated $1,000 and homebuilder David Weekley, also a TLR supporter, donated $5,000 to the District 145 representative.

Garcia reported receiving $356,750 from Mostyn or his law firm, while receiving another $117,319.26 from the Texas Organizing Project, a group funded mostly by Mostyn. In addition, Garcia received a contribution of $55,000 from Texas for Insurance Reform, another group that also receives significant Mostyn financial support.

Since the January election, Garcia has raised $662,686 and spent $641,435. Alvarado has raised $581,969 and spent $463,495.68

Both candidates have topped the $1 million mark in campaign spending: Alvarado's total campaign expenditures from July 2012 through the last report indicate she has spent $1.2 million; Garcia has spent $1.1 million.

I cannot find appropriate adjectives to convey the proper degree of revulsion with which I find all of that news. The only thing I would like to know in greater detail is to whom -- and how much -- TransCanada and their various entites (PACs, executives, etc.) have donated.

I am certain that I would need a prescription to Zofran in order to tolerate learning the answer.

Update: This afternoon Burnt Orange Report and Texas Liberal weighed in.

Katherine Haenschen at BOR, in TLR Trying to Buy Democratic Senate Seat With Carol Alvarado:

Carol Alvarado raised almost half of her run-off money from Texans from Lawsuit Reform, Stand for Children PAC, a teacher's union-busting organization, payday lenders, and several Republican PACs and mega-donors. ... Sylvia Garcia, on the other hand, is primarily funded by trial lawyers and labor organizations...

Neil Aquino, from TxLib, in I’d Sit Out The Alvarado-Garcia Texas Senate District 6 Race Because It Offers No Hopeful Options...

As far as I recall, I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18. But I would sit it out if I could vote in the Texas State Senate district 6 runoff between Democrats Carol Alvarado and Sylvia Garcia. ...

There is little ideological or policy difference between the two, both campaigns are captive to special interest money, the campaign has been relentlessly negative, and turnout will be so low as to delegitimize the process. While ultimate responsibility lies with the electorate, it is also so that what voting will accomplish in this case is to legitimize a process that offers no real options.

Norma Zenteno 1953 - 2013

We attended the event originally planned as a benefit which became her tribute Sunday afternoon, and couldn't get in the door. There were a hundred people or more lined up outside at 4 o'clock, allowed to enter only as others left, as the fire marshal ruled the crowd was too large for the facility.

I listened to her music for years and was thrilled to meet her about two years ago as shared supporters of Barrio Dogs, the East End effort to help abandoned, abused, and neglected animals.

She could have easily reached national fame and fortune as a musician, but she didn't care about having those things. And as tremendous as her musical talents were, her warmth and grace and compassion exceeded even that.

There will be a service for her on Friday, March 1, from 10 to noon, at the Catholic Charismatic Center on Cullen Blvd.

There's just no getting accustomed to the loss of a soul like Norma Zenteno. The rest of us just get to hold our wonderful memories of her, and try a little harder to live our lives as she did hers.

Vaya con Dios, Norma.

This Week in Texans of Infamy

-- I am still holding out on posting anything at length about this miserable POS. As previously mentioned, I am trying. real. hard, Ringo... to be the shepherd. Or at least to not feed the trolls.

This wad craves the attention he is getting and I just don't want to give him any.

-- And the same goes for this douchebag. Even Ed Emmett has figured out that he's a moron. And yet, he makes an appeal to logic. Which of the two is more stupid, really?

-- I'm not cutting Phil Gramm any slack, though. He is precisely...

... the Forrest Gump of financial calamity. Time and again, his face appears at key moments in history. Unlike Gump, Gramm is usually planting the seeds of future disaster whenever he pops up. 

From Gramm, to Kay Bailey, to the current occupant of that Senate seat. It sure will be a beautiful day when Texas Republican voters wake up and smell the coffee, won't it?

-- This is a fellow we should all get to know better: Edward Blum, the godfather of the legal challenges to the Voting Rights Act. As the Supreme Court begins to decide whether or not to eviscerate it, just remember that if Craig Washington's personal financial difficulties had been publicly disclosed a little sooner, Blum might have made it to Congress for a two-year term... just like Steve Stockman.

Why is the VRA still necessary, you wonder? Because this. And this.

-- I would like to be more encouraged about this development, but until Texas Democrats stop advancing online petitions and start registering Latino voters in their neighborhoods -- and then going back and driving them to the polls during early voting periods and on Election Day -- I will remain skeptimistic. Similar to Socratic Gadfly.

Update: Jeremy Bird understands the scope of the challenge.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Paraphrasing from the interview above: "1.5 million citizen Latinos in Texas, 500,000 African Americans, and 200,000 Asian Americans are not registered to vote. In 2008, 54% of Latinos were registered to vote, but only 35% turned out..."

The Weekly Wrangle, expanded

The Texas Progressive Alliance remains unsequestered and without an Oscar as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff talks about what happens after SCOTUS rules on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

As the special election runoff in Senate District 6 lurched into its final days, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had a couple more posts on the sordid last-minute developments.

How we get Medicaid expanded in Texas makes no difference as long as it eventually gets done. That's why WCNews at Eye on Williamson says this about the Texas GOP: However they want to rationalize it is fine with me.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted a picture of an old VW van with a bunch of Republican bumper stickers. What kind of a lousy counterculture is that! Also, Neil continues to work on his new website that will feature a variety of creative efforts as well as a blog on the 2013 City of Houston elections.

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Snips from other Texas blogs...

Bluedaze previewed the tar sands pipeline presentation to be revealed at the National Summit to Stop the Frack Attack, in Dallas on March 2-3.

Burnt Orange Report covered the development of Beaumont's selection as America's Saddest City. Cue the sad trombone.

Dos Centavos reminded Texas legislators *cough*RickPerry*cough* that it is time to support the expansion of Medicaid.

Grits for Breakfast also had a legislative dispatch; 101 House members endorsed a bill that criminalizes taking or distributing photos taken via drone without a court order.

South Texas Chisme rejoiced in the fact that the Texas DPS can no longer shoot at people from helicopters for any old reason, and called for some respect for the remains of migrants who died while fleeing economic hardship.

Letters from Texas gathered the reactions to Rick Perry's California troll-baiting excursion.

And state Sen. Kelly Hancock got spanked by McBlogger for his craven pandering to State Farm.

Sunday Funnies