Lunch with Tom Schieffer

Yesterday our Houston confederation of progressive bloggers -- Charles, Martha, Jaye, Stace, Greg, John, Neil, David and me -- met with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer and his communications director (and former Chron hand) Clay Robison.

While I posted this earlier regarding my opinion of the current standings in the race for governor, I found Schieffer hard not to like personally in our two-hour conversation. He has this little Bush problem, though, and nothing I have heard him say yet enables him to get past it. He's earnest and sincere and has some good ideas about what Texas needs to focus on -- education, economy, health care -- that need some fleshing out as to specifics. He's also not visibly perturbed about being challenged on his Democratic bona fides; in fact seems bemused by it. One remark that he made stood out to me in terms of casting aspersions against a primary rival, and that was, quote: "If Democrats nominate someone that does not scare people ...". I couldn't really place the person this was aimed at. Kinky, perhaps? I don't think Kinky scares anyone at all. Ronnie Earle? Earle would energize a Democratic base like Schieffer never will (of course, he'll also add a little gas to the Republican fire -- if you'll be able to tell from all the other crap they'll be throwing on the flames). Who have Democrats nominated in recent years that "scared" people?

My question to him was a hypothetical -- assuming it was offered, would he welcome a W endorsement of his candidacy in the general election -- that Schieffer deftly brushed aside with "He's not going to endorse me". Fair enough, but will you take a large donation from him? Will you ask him to call his sizable donor list on your behalf -- especially if Perry is once again the GOP nominee? Bush owes you a favor somewhere along the line, in my book.

Greg has posted his thoughts about it here, and David also has his take. Update: Kuffner sees it the same as the rest of us.

People who aren't running for office (and those who shouldn't)

There are already some good news/bad news posts about who definitely might be/probably is running for office in 2014, so I thought I'd veer off into some of the developments regarding who isn't running...and perhaps should not be.

-- Like Anthony Weiner. I thought I had already said everything that needed saying on this topic, but "Carlos Danger" had to make an appearance. If you need to generate your very own semi-anonymous Twitter sexting handle, here that is. Just call me Pablo Hazard from now on.

What a disaster this guy is. What shame his poor wife lives under. Go away, buddy. Far, far away. Update: Already there's a slew of rancid comments that won't ever get approved. If it was wrong when Mark Sanford did it and wrong when David Vitter did it, it's wrong when a Democrat does it. This is real simple shit, people. This country only needs one political party completely immune to hypocrisy.

-- Not running for anything in 2014 is Annise Parker, as Noah helpfully points out.

Parker is very obviously running for re-election, a race that will last until the middle of December if there is a runoff. If she were to run statewide, it would require filing the signatures for the primary ballot about the same day as her third inauguration. There are some pretty outlandish politicians in Houston who would have the unmitigated temerity to do something like that, but Parker is not one of them.

Parker doesn't lack brass, but she is certainly smart enough to see that 2014 isn't going to be the year that Democrats break through. She can term out of the mayor's office and spend a year raising money for a bid in 2016 for whatever she wants, though I question Noah's premise that Congress is in her sights. She's an executive office-styled politico, and I would expect her to run for whatever statewide position might be available in a presidential election year. That's the path to her successful political future. Though I am still convinced that her best fit is state comptroller, that would have to come in 2018 against an incumbent Republican. Magic 8 Ball say "ask again later".

-- Kinky Friedman is also in the news again for the wrong reasons. Since he can't deny himself the media attention, let's join Kuffner and hope he bids for something downballot like Land or Ag Commish, as he did in 2010. He might actually make some noise next year if he did. For example, a Pee Bush/Kinky tilt for GLO commissioner in the fall of '14 has the potential to generate a lot of free media.

-- And it is still too early to be concerned with who is slinging mud in Houston city council races. You'll always have Campos for that. Or even Big Jolly for that matter (don't miss the thrust-and-parry in the comments). As I perused the archives here I found this old post from September of 2009 that suggests that things don't really heat up in this cycle until after the kids go back to school.

I cringe just thinking about having to blog about local politics during the worst of hurricane season.

What's Kinky going to say on Monday?

Ross Ramsey thinks he'll slide down the ballot and challenge Hank Gilbert. First, Friedman's statement about today's events ...

"I think that all of these things are good for the party and good for the ticket. We all want new leadership in Austin and I think each candidate should be evaluating how best to achieve that. Everyone on the ticket or thinking of joining the ticket should be thinking about what will be best for Democrats in November. We will take the weekend to visit with all of the candidates, my advisors, and many of my supporters and have an announcement about how I believe I can best support our party on Monday."

Follow that with this:

Don't be surprised if he moves to another race. And don't forget that one of the people in this particular smoke-filled room is former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, who knows a little something about one of the agencies on the ballot.

Ever since Tom Schieffer dropped out of the race — he endorsed Houston Mayor Bill White on the way out — the Democrats have been talking about changes on the ballot. With two seriously well-finance candidates in the governor's race — Shami and White — there are millions of incentives for the other candidates to find something else to do. After an initial meeting with state party Chairman Boyd Richie, nobody moved. But reality is setting in, and there are open slots on the ballot that need to be filled by people — people who might otherwise get pureed in a contest that includes two candidates with big treasuries.

A bit of ballet lies ahead if Friedman wants to run for agriculture commissioner. Gilbert endorsed Shami and Shami "accepted" his endorsment and said nice things about him. But he didn't endorse Gilbert for ag commissioner. Shami is a longtime business associate of John McCall, who was Friedman's financial angel in the 2006 race for governor. McCall hasn't been nearly as generous this time around — you have to wonder if that has anything to do with having two friends in the same race — and might be more comfortable if Friedman ran for, say, ag commissioner. As long as there's no deal to break between Shami and Gilbert, that could work.

To that I say "harumph". If Kinky drops out of the governor's race and wants another statewide position, then I think he ought to run for land commissioner, like K-T (no disrespect to Bill Burton).

Truth to tell ... I'd just as soon see him go away.

Updates to earlier posts: BAF, Shami, Kinky, Kay, and Locke

-- Michael McCaul is getting all of the blame for letting the BAF Systems contract slip away to Wisconsin, despite even Bill White involving himself in some last-ditch effort to save it. More at Off the Kuff and Burnt Orange.

-- Farouk Shami -- in the wake of Hank Gilbert's withdrawal and endorsement -- is firing staffers and catching hell over his voting record -- or lack thereof.

-- Kinky is going to take a few more days to decide what to do. Update: Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson took out a personals ad begging for some competition.

-- Kay Bailey filed for governor yesterday, and then she quickly lost control of the day. She caught some flak for it, too.

-- The Gene Locke campaign has been paying for those gay-baiting mailers. Which also explains why he never renounced the endorsement from Hotze's group. How much deeper in the sewer can this campaign sink? Every day brings another fresh-yet-foul flush. More from Kuffner, Muse, Erik, Stace, Neil, and John.

Update: Nick Anderson again with the slam dunk.


Update II: Rick Casey ...

It was bad enough when mayoral candidate Gene Locke told us with a straight face that he wasn't rejecting the endorsement of Steve Hotze and his Conservative Republicans of Harris County political action committee because Hotze was backing him on the basis of something other than his opponent's sexual orientation.

“If it's based solely on that one issue I've rejected them,” Locke said when asked during a TV debate why he accepted Hotze's endorsement. “If it's based on looking at my record and seeing that I am the better candidate, I would accept them.” ...

Now Locke wants us to believe that neither he nor his campaign had anything to do with the fact that his campaign finance chairman, longtime political patron and activist Ned Holmes, and finance committee member James Dannenbaum each gave a whopping $20,000 to Hotze's political action committee just days before that committee sent out the mailer endorsing him over Parker. ...

According to Hotze's report, his committee was flat broke as of three weeks ago. Since then he raised $56,000, of which $40,000 came from Locke's two backers. (The) report shows about $9,700 in expenses for the mailing in November and a balance of $44,285 in the bank.

It's long past time for the Locke campaign to slither back into the ditch they came from. More with video at KHOU.

Republicans really shouldn't be debating

... particularly if they aren't capable of doing any better than Martha Wong performed last night in her tete-a-tete (that's French, Martha) with Ellen Cohen and Mhair Dekmezian last night at Rice.

Really. That Wong tapes over the word "Republicans" on her lawn signs starts to make sense when she says things like"The Trans-Texas Corridor will only cost $2 million dollars." I can't really blame her for doing that, though; if I were still a Republican, I wouldn't want anyone to know it either.

This woman isn't even my representative and I'm embarrassed. The same kind of embarrassment that wells up when Carole Strayhorn, who has been endorsed by Texas teachers' unions but can't name the newly-elected Mexican president, or when Kinky Friedman opens his mouth to say anything at all.

Wong also has an extraordinarily unsettling manner of viciously denouncing her opponents, and inappropriately grinning at the conclusion of her rabid attack. Disconcerting.

Pollyanna posted her lengthy summary (sorry we weren't introduced, Kim; next time let's do a kaffeklatsch --that's German, Martha -- afterwards) and she notes some of my highlighted moments:

-- Libertarian Dekmezian offered more than a few moments of Kinky-style comic relief. Visibly nervous all the way to the end, with no apparent rehearsal or even prepared remarks for opening or closing, Dekmezian still made points that the mostly progressive audience nodded and applauded and laughed at (in a good way). As hilarious as it is watching a 14-year-old trying to play with grown-ups, he ought to be excused from the third scheduled debate, despite the fact that he was better at understanding and communicating the issues than the Republican incumbent.

-- Wong is a little too redundant with phrases like "plaintiff's attorneys" and "tort reform", especially for an audience that is not the River Oaks Republicans.

We sat in the mezzanine, behind a row of seating reserved for the Wong campaign, and who should plop his fat ass down in front of us than Tom DeLay's Cabana Boy and two of his minions. Culberson acted just like the rest of the partisans in the audience, applauding after the moderator asked us not to, nodding his big fat head at the moronic pronouncements Wong made seemingly every 60 seconds, and so on. A special shout-out to John NoRailonRichmond: my mother-in-law and father-in-law, Republican voters since they came to the United States in 1962, are voting for Jim Henley. It's easy to see why you don't want to debate, either.

Enjoy your lobbying career, you miserable ass.

Ellen Cohen handled this affair the way Chris Bell managed his competition last Friday night: if it had been a prizefight, the referee would have stopped it at the halfway mark.

New, real, effective representation for the 134th. That fresh air you feel this morning inside the Loop isn't just a cool front.

Would-be Goobers and Senators will come together by July...or thereabouts

I've blogged about this before: what happens relative to all the high-profile Texas political tilts in 2006 depends on the proclivities of the Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison, as Texas Monthly details in an article from the May issue titled "Kay Sera Sera" (behind registration and a password found only in the print edition).

Here's a sample:

... All those ambitious pols down in Texas are twiddling their thumbs while you make up your mind. Not that you owe them anything; most of the statewide officials—except Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who may run for governor herself—have already endorsed Rick Perry. It’s a toss-up who’s more craven: Perry for asking them this early or them for doing it. Now you’re holding up their game of musical chairs, especially in the case of David Dewhurst, the lieutenant governor. He wants to succeed Perry in 2010, but if you beat Perry, he’s stuck in his current job for eight more years. So he might opt to run for your Senate seat, leaving his job open and touching off another mad scramble. Congressman Henry Bonilla, of San Antonio, has already said he’ll run for the Senate if you don’t. Strayhorn and Attorney General Greg Abbott would look at the lite gov’s office Dewhurst would be vacating, and railroad commissioner Michael Williams and Texas Supreme Court justice Harriet O’Neill are said to be interested in the AG’s job. Yes, all eyes are on you right now.

And apparently she's going to make a decision shortly, though there's some risk in continuing to shilly-shally:

Your waiting until summer to announce your plans runs the risk that Strayhorn might throw her hat in the ring first. In a three-way race, the likelihood is that you and Perry would end up in a runoff, but then the danger would be that those November Republicans and crossover Democrats might not return for the runoff, while the party faithful will. Advantage Perry.

So there's some interesting bits in there, but there's also some bullshit:

Let’s talk numbers. The Republican primary is the only race that matters. No Democrat can win, and Kinky Friedman isn’t Jesse Ventura.

Even though Paul Burka is by his own admission writing this article in the voice of a Hutchison political consultant, that's wrong on both counts. The only scenario in which the Democrats have no chance is if John Sharp decides to run for anything (this is assuming that Tony Sanchez isn't so stupid as to waste more of his personal fortune; an admittedly tenuous assumption). Kinky Friedman is going to be able to gather something like 15% of the votes in a general election -- give or take 5% -- with most of that peeling away from the Republican candidate (the 'pubs have more votes to lose, after all). While that won't be an impact like Jesse "The Body", it will be Ross Perot-like electoral influence. And Chris Bell is the man who stands to capitalize on GOP fatigue statewide, as evidenced by the following, which Burka wrote right before he wrote that above:

... there are pockets of the state where Perry has angered Republican voters: places like Abilene, which lost its congressman in redistricting; the Dallas suburbs and Austin, where toll roads are unpopular; South Texas, which has not benefited from the largesse Perry has showered on companies to entice them to Texas; and the medical community generally, which didn’t like his health care cuts. You can make inroads into these constituencies, although you’ll have to “me too” the ideological stuff.

His critics see him as a do-nothing governor, but he’s really more of a do-the-wrong-things governor. The first priority of Texas governors has always been education; Perry imposed budget cuts on both public and higher education in 2003, notwithstanding that education was one of his original areas of emphasis (along with the border, which he has likewise given short shrift). Instead, he has thrown his efforts into the aforementioned economic development and toll roads. And yet the long-standing view in Texas, under Republican and Democratic governors alike, is that improving education is the best economic development program there is.

The Abilene congressman mentioned is Charlie Stenholm, who in my humble O would be the Democrats' best candidate for US Senator, considering that Ron Kirk will apparently not be running. But Stenholm evidences no particular interest in returning to Washington; his websites are currently blank and he allegedly turned down President Bush's offer of Agriculture Secretary following his defeat in November. Martin Frost, Max Sandlin, and Jim Turner, all of whom were likewise displaced by the GOP gerrymander, strike me as weaker candidates for statewide office (Frost managed to also look bad losing the contest for DNC chair). Those men would be better served running for down-ballot slots like attorney general or treasurer or railroad commissioner -- strengthening the bench and laying the groundwork for a top-ticket run in the future. The Democrats are in a lot more trouble trying to win back a Senate seat than they are in removing Tom DeLay's bitch from the statehouse, especially if they wind up with a candidate with scant name recognition and no previous experience having been elected to something.

Texas will continue to be a one-party state for only as long as Texas Democrats continue to concede it as such.

Whatever happens, put the popcorn in the microwave and stay tuned, because it's going to be entertaining.

Kinky in town tomorrow

Kinky Friedman, the erstwhile novelist/musician/2006 Texas gubernatorial candidate will sign & discuss his novel Ten Little New Yorkers on Friday the 25th at 6 pm at Murder By The Book (2342 Bissonnet, Houston TX 77005, 713-524-8597 or (888) 4-AGATHA).

"The professionals gave us the Titanic, amateurs gave us the Ark. Career politicians are ribbon cutters. They see the governor's office as a job; I see it as an opportunity to make that Lone Star shine again. I'm an Independent, which is the party of George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Sam Houston, and Davy Crockett."

Yes; well, he's nuts, but that's never been a disqualification to stand for political office in Texas ...

Early vote doubles in Harris County (and predicted outcomes)

With early voting coming to end this evening, more Houstonians are casting their ballots before next week's primary than in 2006, the last time Texans went to the polls to choose a governor.

According to daily early-voting updates compiled by Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, a total of 55,960 had voted through midafternoon Thursday.

“It will easily double our turnout in early voting as of four years ago,” said Kevin Mauzy, chief deputy in the Harris County clerk's office. In 2006, the total number of early voters through Thursday afternoon was 33,362.

A total of 36,321 Republicans voted through Thursday. That number compares with 18,803 through the same period four years ago. On the Democratic side through Thursday, 23,914 voted early, compared with 6,454 in 2006.

My predictions for next Tuesday: Bill White gets the 60% Dr. Murray said he would; Governor AMF in a run-off with Kay Bailey; Hank Gilbert defeats Kinky Friedman in the race for commissioner of agriculture. Hector Uribe easily bests Bill Burton for commissioner of the general land office.

I can't predict the lieutenant governor contest between Linda Chavez-Thompson and Ronnie Earle, but Marc Katz might just get enough to force a run-off between them. Thompson has the surname advantage that usually sweeps a Democrat to victory in places like the Valley, but Earle's name recognition and perception of competence for the state's highest elected legislative job is formidable. I'll SWAG that Thompson finishes slightly ahead of Earle, run-off or no.

Sheila Jackson Lee comes in first against her two challengers in CD-18, but they hold her under 50% and she goes to a run-off with councilman Jarvis Johnson. Borris Miles edges Al Edwards in HD-146. And Sue Schechter just ahead of Ann Bennett for Harris County Clerk.  Here's a good story Chris Moran at the Chron did about the two women as well as the two Republicans running to replace Beverly Kaufman. Kevin Mauzy, quoted in the excerpt above, is one of them and is piling up his earned media, just as Kaufman promised.  Besides being the Chosen One, Mauzy seems competent and experienced and is running against an extreme party hack named Stan Stanart ...

Long a GOP activist, Stanart said he wants to give the public more confidence in the security and integrity of its elections. He suggested that not all voters are being asked for identification and that elections need protection from the activist group ACORN, which has been plagued by accusations of voter fraud. Stanart did not offer any instances of specific Harris County breaches, though. Stanart is also the former executive director of Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes.

There's your TeaBagger, folks.  Do you think he can win next Tuesday?

Chavez-Thompson to file for lt. governor today

Linda Chavez-Thompson, a national leader within the AFL-CIO and the Democratic Party, plans to enter the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, according to a source familiar with her plans.

She is expected to file today at state Democratic Party headquarters.

Former Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle and Austin deli owner Marc Katz are also seeking the Democratic nomination. The Republican nominee will probably be incumbent David Dewhurst.

Chavez-Thompson, a former AFL-CIO executive vice president, can tap a national network of organizing and fundraising contacts.

This is now easily the most exciting primary race on the ballot (all apologies to Rick v. Kay and Kinky v. Hank).  With Ronnie Earle collecting the progressive populist bloc, Thompson the Hispanics and labor, and Marc Katz the ... uh ... Jewish deli faction, this contest will shape up as a critical display of Democratic constituent stress testing. My humble O is that with either Thompson or Earle, Democrats don't lose.  Dewhurst has money but no respect among state Senators nor the TeaBag faction, which will dictate terms to the GOP this cycle.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is already wishing it would rain as it brings you the week's roundup of the best Texas lefty blog posts.

Off the Kuff cheers two wins against voter ID.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston says a picture is worth a thousand Dewhurst/Patrick debates.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos learns the truth about Rick Perry's Texas miracle. The fact of the matter is Rick Perry's Texas is a mess.

Horwitz at Texpatriate notes that Chris Bell has finally buried the hatchet in endorsing Kinky Friedman, thus forgiving all from 2006. You should too. Really.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is glad that colleges, including ones in south Texas, are being held responsible for handing rape cases.

In the wake of the Bundy/Sterling eruptions, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs came to the conclusion that racial bigotry is more generational than it is partisan. On the other hand, that blog post was written when everybody was still under the impression that the Clippers owner was a Democrat.

Neil at All People Have Value made note of the state-mandated rape of the forced sonogram law here in Texas that was strongly backed by Texas state Senator Dan Patrick and supported by three Texas state Senate Democrats. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

=======================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

The Makeshift Academic provides a historical perspective on Medicaid expansion.

Elaine White helped the Religious Right take over the Republican Party in the 1990s, and lived to tell about it.

Keep Austin Wonky reviews Austin's rail options.

The Texas Green Report and Texas Clean Air Matters analyze the Supreme Court decision upholding the cross-state air pollution Rule.

LGBTQ Insider calls on Texans to support their transgender teachers.

Beyond Bones presents five ways to combat light pollution.

Texas Watch rounds up some news stories of interest in Texas.

Newsdesk showcases another fine example of Ted Cruz's ignorance of history and international relations.

On slanguage

This conversation is the best result that's coming out of the Imus affair ...

Don Imus' firing Thursday was the result of a collision between mainstream popular culture and hip-hop culture. This generational and cultural debate has been fueled by the concept of "you people," whoever they — or we — are.

Imus testily used those words during his appearance on the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show Monday. "You people" seemed directed at Sharpton and other activists more than African-Americans as a whole, unlike Ross Perot's use of that phrase during his 1992 presidential run.

Hip-hop has enjoyed tremendous crossover success. For better or worse, depending on one's tastes, it's unavoidable. And rap has, for years, been built on its street credibility, reflected in no small part in its slanguage. There are regional shorthands for cars, neighborhoods and other, more unsavory things. Hip-hop's impact explains how the phrase "nappy-headed hos" ever found its way to Imus' microphone.

"How can we ignore the problem that every 12-year-old in the country knows this phrase?" asks comedian-turned-gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, who also has been accused of being a racist and sexist. "And we're giving Grammys to guys for using the same phrase that gets Imus fired."

Are some words simply the sole property for use only by certain (race-specific) people?

Can words or symbols be "owned" and repurposed? The theory that the rampant use of the n-word in hip-hop has removed its poison is faulty. Ask comedian Michael Richards. Or better yet, ask the black audience members at his comedy show that turned into an epithet-filled meltdown, complete with threats.

Salikoko S. Mufwene, a professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago, says, "It's a matter of who has authority in language. There are certain terms used in the African-American community that are not licensed to other people."

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. If you want the conservative talking point go read these comments.

Just a dash of WTF (statewide races)

But a lot of SMH.  The no-surprises:

-- Wendy Davis, John Cornyn, and Greg Abbott.

There was no discernible effort by TeaBagger Country to send a statement in the top races on the Republican ticket. They saved their best for down-ballot.

The OMGs:

-- David "Money to Burn" Alameel led the field with 50%+ in early returns but finished at 47, pushed into a May runoff with Impeacha Rogers, who got 22%.  This is worse than a disaster for Democrats.  I can vote for Emily "Spicybrown" Sanchez (and I hope a lot of Latino Democrats in the RGV do the same) with a clean conscience, unlike Gadfly.

-- Dan Patrick (R-LG) over The Dew 41-28, Ken Paxton (R-AG) leading Dan Branch 44-33, Glenn Hegar (R-Compt.) apparently beating Harvey Hilderbrand and Debra Medina without a runoff (Update: or maybe there will be a runoff), Jim Hogan (D-Ag Commish) ahead of Kinky Friedman 39-38, and Sid Miller (R-Ag Commish) besting a field of five with 35% but in a runoff with Tommy Merritt.

Dan Patrick led nearly every urban county. He steamrolled Dewhurst and will finish him off in May. For comparison's sake, Dewhurst led Ted Cruz 45-34 in 2012's US Senate primary, and Cruz won the runoff with 56-43.  Dewhurst actually lost almost two percentage points in the runoff.

Paxton and Branch are both North Texas statewide legislators, one (Paxton) slightly more socially conservative than the other (Branch).  Both spent heavily on TV ads and sent ultra-RWNJ Barry Smitherman to the sidelines.

"Guns" Hegar's TV ads paid off and embarrassed the TexTrib's poll badly.

"No Name Means Everything" Jim Hogan, who raised no money and spent less than $5K of his own -- but none of it on a website -- led The Kinkster into a runoff for the Democratic nomination for Agriculture Commissioner.  The best candidate in the race, Hugh Fitzsimons, ate their dust.  It gets worse, however, because...

Sid Miller, who authored the sonogram law, who pulls his quarter horses behind his truck -- and not inside a trailer -- and who has Ted Nugent as his campaign manager, leads the Republican side for ag commissioner.

I'll be proudly voting for the Green, Kenneth Kendrick, in November no matter which of these exceptional blue and red morons prevails in the spring.

-- Last, Wayne "I am the Most" Christian leads Ryan Sitton into a runoff for Railroad Commission on the Republican side, 43-31.  State Impact notes that like so many other Republicans in contested primaries, they ran on an anti-Obama platform and not oil and gas issues.  And in a nutshell, that's why my friend Prairie Weather misses the mark here.  You can't understand Texas politics by reading DC and NY media.  Update: Talking Points Memo does seem to get the nuances in the TXGOP dynamic (but that's because Ed Kilgore wrote it).  And Booman has his take on both Kilgore's and John Fund's reaction to yesterday.  Note this at the very end.

Kilgore notes that even insofar as the Establishment had a decent night, they accomplished it by moving (or being pulled) to the right. How that works in detail depends on the issue you're concerned with. When a candidate has merely given lip service to a radical position, that's one thing. When they've felt compelled to make radical pledges and promises, that's another.

The Republican Establishment in Texas may remain distinguishable from the howling horde in some substantive ways, but the way they present themselves to the nation is now just plain frightening.

The GOP's biggest delegation looks and sounds just like Louie Gohmert. The smarter ones look and sound just like Ted Cruz.

That's going to be a problem for the national party going forward.

Charles and Ted have more, and some Harris County results coming up in a moment.

Remembering JFK Wrangle

On the 58th year marking the loss of the nation's 35th president, let's tip our hats in the general direction of conspiracy theorists everywhere for altering the minds of Americans for the worse.

On this date November 21 in 1963, a propaganda poster stating that U.S. President John F. Kennedy is "Wanted For Treason" was put up across Dallas by the John Birch Society. #JFKGuterman pic.twitter.com/vmEdO1EvNg

— Dr. Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) November 21, 2021

"The US Airforce assures me that UFO's pose no threat to National Security."
-John F. Kennedy#ufotwitter #uaptwitter
I think the strangest part of the conversation on this topic...is that it seems like this record has been spinning on repeat for multiple decades. pic.twitter.com/fxzorfbpVU

— The Undead Gaucho 🎥 (@TheUndeadGaucho) November 15, 2021

Follow both threads for historical -- and entertaining -- reading.  Oliver Stone wants the assassination history's archives opened (they were supposed to be last year).

(2/3) We’ve sent a letter dealing with #Trump & @JoeBiden’s postponements of the files to all the major newspapers, and not one has been accepted. Could there be a blackout on this subject? Has it become a memory hole? Not to judge from the thousands of responses we’re getting. pic.twitter.com/Oj6ekpCa0f

— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) November 19, 2021

Okay then; on to the present.  A new goobernatorial poll dropped yesterday.

New @dallasnews/@UTTyler poll:

Abbott 45
O’Rourke 39
Someone else 16

McConaughey 43
Abbott 35
Someone else 22

Abbott 37
McConaughey 27
O’Rourke 26
Someone else 10https://t.co/M7FIhMNKsX

— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) November 21, 2021

I don't think Wooderson is going to make a go of it, but I said the same about Beto, so there you go.  Speaking of repeating myself, it's 2006 all over again if he does.  You decide if McConaghey will be playing Kinky or Grandma.  This post will be long enough without opining more about this race today, so I'll save most of the rest for later.

Did the Tribune ever report on the other Dem candidates for TX Gov?

* Michael Cooper, @Cooper4txgov, Black man

* Yomi Hardison, Black woman

* Deirdre Gilbert, Black woman

— Bystander In Texas 🛹 (@BystanderInTX) November 18, 2021

Same old same old.  Another point, via Hector Mendez:

“There is no real long-term investment in cultivating generations of voters because it takes time and money,” Navarro said. “It isn’t enough to just simply register voters and expect them to vote Democrat.”

This is the reason why polling separates registered voters from likely voters.  All of this makes Kuffner's parlor musing a running joke.  It's also why one of the country's A+ pollsters wants to (listen) get out (read) of the game/charade.

Of course that would make people like political consultants mostly obsolete, and if we could do that, Gawd forbid, we might even be able to ban corporate money in elections.  Perish the thought.  Maybe we could start by outlawing Congress critters from trading in the stock market.  Is that too much also?

Alas, we won't have EBJ to kick around any more.  Her announcement on Saturday, with "Re-Elect" in the graphic, was a head fake.

Updated: U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson announces retirement after almost 3 decades in Congress https://t.co/aUqymWKEjC #TX30

— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) November 20, 2021

Read down Svitek's other thread for a few of the would-be replacements.  He fails to mention the progressive Democrat who's been in the race for several months, Jessica Mason.  Typical.

The criminal and social justice headlines, after a weekend of national news that was as tragic as one could imagine.

The only gender clinic dedicated to transgender youth in the state of Texas has formally dissolved after far-right activists harassed doctors and called the services provided there child abuse https://t.co/Es1gRplHP6

— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) November 21, 2021

(CW: Police violence)

Police spray and tase students at Little Elm Highschool in Texas after a walk out for a girl who was sexually assaulted and put on suspension. this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/SEenszaAdD

— 🥀_Imposter_🕸️ (@Imposter_Edits) November 19, 2021

Woman says off-duty Texas officer shot her when she confronted him in driving disputehttps://t.co/QOBS6kvR2g

— Petty Is Praxis (@rtyson82) May 26, 2021

In today’s Friday news dump…DPD got an arrest warrant for Melvin Williams, officer caught on video beating a man in Deep Ellum on July 18. He was already under 2 use-of-force investigations stemming from protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.https://t.co/26nwjjwrvr pic.twitter.com/gDF9PRFDN2

— Kelli Smith (@KelliSmithNews) November 20, 2021

Newly installed marker in downtown Dallas. pic.twitter.com/uYEqwL5aAi

— Krista Nightengale (@Knightengale) November 20, 2021

“This is not just lines. This is not just an election. This is people’s lives. They fought for this for years. And with a stroke of a pen you’re going to take it away.” https://t.co/wzM7Qo3fYm

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) November 18, 2021

Invoking budget authority when the Lege is not in session, Greg Abbott et. al. took $4 million allocated to the state's prisons and gave it to the Texas secretary of state for county "election integrity" audits, as mandated by state law (SB1).  Trump has been whining about an audit of 2020, and belittled the 4-county audit which the SoS announced on September 23 as 'weak.'

New: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, GOP leaders shift $4M to pay for election audits called for in new state law.#txlege #elections https://t.co/b3vzWrO71O

— Bob Garrett (@RobertTGarrett) November 19, 2021

A week before the riot and killing earlier this month in Texas prisons, records show there were 2 suicides in 4 days at the same unit.

There's been an uptick in suicides in Texas prisons over the past year, but two in less than a week at the same unit is unusual. pic.twitter.com/n1X7MpEfI5

— Keri Blakinger (@keribla) November 18, 2021

As D.C. dollars dry up and Texas continues to resist Medicaid expansion, millions of uninsured Texans see no signs of improvement. Read more in this week's cover story: https://t.co/1VC9ZalB2C pic.twitter.com/AqLlbq5uzj

— Austin Chronicle (@AustinChronicle) November 18, 2021

A pair of obscure state laws let city and county officials in Texas give away public money with no limits on how long the deals can last or how big the tax breaks can be.

No one knows how many deals are out there or how much they’re costing taxpayers. https://t.co/hK1evpf2DQ pic.twitter.com/e4cRiOJI8v

— Mike Morris (@mmorris011) November 18, 2021

This is the line that stopped me in my tracks. https://t.co/1PakOzcVLX pic.twitter.com/ruqSlAl9ky

— Jordan (@JRDNLTHMS) November 19, 2021

Watch This: Michael Williams -- the most conservative ed commish in the last 3 decades, takes a swing at the state's new Critical Race Theory law in Texas. https://t.co/e7fS62mAoO via @YouTube #txlege #txed @quorumreport

— Kimberly Reeves (@edwonkkimmy) November 19, 2021

V for Vendetta is on the list of banned books in TX.

— Mary Lou says: Biden should resign (@DELETETRUMP9) November 19, 2021

Still with me?  Thank you.  Let's do some environmental news.

As @emfoxhall writes, "The added pollution is one more issue for people to fight."https://t.co/KgMDA6TKi9

— One Breath Partnership (@OneBreathHOU) November 19, 2021

I've seen that look on Mayor Sylvester Turner's face before.  It's his "Gosh that's terrible, I wish there was something I could do" face.

Harris County Attorney @CDMenefee joined EPA Administrator @EPAMichaelRegan and other local leaders today in Houston’s Fifth Ward to discuss solutions for environmental justice issues facing the community. pic.twitter.com/ESQtWUgtEt

— The Harris County Attorney, Christian D. Menefee (@HarrisCountyAO) November 19, 2021

Biden just quietly installed a coal guy at the Department of Energy. https://t.co/A3rZfeIQ7v

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) November 19, 2021

As power plants winterize in Texas, gas producers are getting a pass. https://t.co/SGdAD6V1ai

— KUT Austin (@KUT) November 19, 2021

It's a good thing that Beto and others plan on running next year on keeping the lights on.  That's an issue they can win on, especially if there's another hard freeze.

Superb investigative story from @ScottNBC5. Sen. @loiskolkhorst (R) says gas supply is the "achilles heel" of the system, Sen. @whitmire_john (D) says the @txrrc rule sucks, & ERCOT CEO worries it's not enough to ensure gas flows. #winteriscoming #txlegehttps://t.co/x4h4p28f43

— Doug Lewin (@douglewinenergy) November 18, 2021

Investigators warn Texas needs to step it up and protect power-generating equipment from the cold and ice to ensure the state doesn't see another repeat of the February freeze. https://t.co/NZ2Zdw3glM

— KVUE News (@KVUE) November 19, 2021

More politics in the next Wrangle, before Turkey Day.  The soothers:

🚨NOW OPEN🚨

The world premiere exhibition 'Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs' is now open in conjunction with the new Hall of Ancient Egypt.

Tickets to the Ramses exhibition allow guests exclusive access to the Egypt hall.

TICKETS: https://t.co/FmSVMJhSpv pic.twitter.com/ebwfsgVLjl

— HMNS ❤️🦖🧠🌌 (@hmns) November 20, 2021

See photos from The Rolling Stones' Austin concert Saturday. https://t.co/S5Phpj3dkj

— Austin 360 (@austin360) November 21, 2021

Get your tickets for Lightscape at @sabotgarden before they are gone! Magical light displays will captivate attendees of all ages - plus there will be festive food options to enjoy.

Find out more: https://t.co/Q0nDlePSMV pic.twitter.com/sctoOQTcYt

— Visit San Antonio (@VisitSanAntonio) November 21, 2021

Scattershooting while we wait for Nevada caucus and SC primary results

More on that if you need it here.

Update, 5:15 p.m. CST: About an hour ago the networks called it for Clinton, who at this posting leads 52-48 with 80% reporting.  She's currently giving her victory speech.  She's still scheduled to be speaking in Houston in a few hours.

Update, 7:40 p.m.: Jeb Bush brings an end to his White House campaign after finishing fourth in South Carolina, well behind Trump, Rubio, and Cruz.

==============

-- Bad news for Hillary Clinton: Chris Bell has endorsed her.

So as Democrats, can we maybe try to take advantage of the situation — even here in Texas? We have become the mainstream party, and it’s time to start acting like it. If we nominate Bernie Sanders, we will forfeit any advantage we might have gained. While he has certainly struck a populist nerve and I appreciate many of the positions he has taken, the American people are not going to elect a socialist as president. It’s that simple.

Bell -- like almost all Americans -- is a card-carrying socialist himself.

I am certain he does not realize it.  There's a lot of things Chris Bell doesn't get, though, much like his fellow traveler, Ted at jobsanger.  In 2006 Ted spent a lot of time and effort promoting Kinky Friedman for governor and attacking both Bell, the Dems' nominee and the Democratic Party ... the same party he vigorously defends today from the evil, Not-A-Democrat Bernie Sanders.

You cannot plumb the depths of this hypocrisy with a nuclear submarine.  Like Clinton herself, both men have "always tried to" tell the truth, at least in their own minds.  (I thought Hillary was a Stars Wars fan.  Did she miss Yoda's exhortation to Luke Skywalker during his Jedi training on Dagobah?)

The only question I have left is: why didn't the Houston Chronicle run Bell's op-ed?

-- I'm not sure I understand how Bernie Sanders is going to be able to ask his support network to line up behind Hillary Clinton after this:

"I chose to run proudly in the Democratic primary and caucus and look forward to winning that process. But clearly, as a nation, I think we flourish when there are different ideas out there," Sanders said during MSNBC's Democratic presidential candidate forum in Nevada on Thursday.

"Sometimes the two-party system makes it very, very difficult to get on the ballot if you are a third party, and I think that's wrong. I think we should welcome competition."

That, as loyal readers know, is what I have been saying for some years now.  It's just not what the DNC or the TDP is willing to acknowledge.  They seem to be hoping that people won't remember their cyclical, abject, repeated failures to motivate their base to turn out.

Is Steve Mostyn still paying BGTX's bills, and if so ... why?

-- Donald Trump has to hold off a hard-charging Ted Cruz in the Palmetto State (just as Hillary is "trying to" do with Bernie in the Silver State).  Those apes have been throwing their feces at each other for a week now, since last Saturday night's debate.  Where Marco Ruboto and John Lobster Hands Kasich and Jeb Zombie Walker Bush finish will allegedly be a story.  Do you care?  I don't.

And that's why Bill White and John Sharp are running for Senate

Because Kay Bailey Perjury Technicality spanks "the longest serving governor in Texas history" like an unruly child. Let's give Harvey Kronberg the chance to shout a little:

NEW POLL PUTS KBH AHEAD OF PERRY 56-31

Company uses controversial robo-dialing methodology but notes it was the most accurate in 2008 Texas GOP presidential primary

A North Carolina polling company called Public Policy Polling reports that a recent poll of 797 likely Republican primary voters puts Kay Bailey Hutchison decisively ahead of Rick Perry by a margin of 56-31.

PPP uses a controversial method of automated telephone polling that has both supporters and detractors. To pre-empt arguments about methodology, the company forwarded an analysis indicating that they had the most accurate Texas numbers in the 2008 GOP presidential primary.

KBH has 76% favorables to RP’s 60%. But the 27% Perry unfavorables lean to Hutchison by a factor of 85-8.

PPP President Dean Debman said, “Rick Perry is in grave danger of losing in the primary. It’s partly because he’s worn out his welcome with a certain segment of the Republican electorate, but he even bigger reason is that Kay Bailey Hutchison is just a lot more popular than him. It would be hard for anyone to beat her in an election.”

Most observers believe that a contested primary would draw well over a million voters rather than the six to seven hundred thousand that normally vote in a gubernatorial year.

The poll results can be found here.

Does an all-out assault on DC, abortion, and running so hard right he's knee-deep in the bar ditch get Rick Perry back in good graces with all the freaks who will vote in the Texas GOP primary next March?

I predict that my year's supply of Orville Redenbacher is going to run out before the summer.

Meanwhile ... what's Boyd Richie telling Kinky Friedman and Tom Schieffer?

The state of the #TXSen Democratic Primary

It's a crine-ass shame that our corporate media not only picks their favorite candidates, to the exclusion (read: blackout) of all others, but then refuses to perform the due diligence to learn, and disclose, that one of their favorites is laden with heavy, reeking baggage.

I'll get to that in just a moment.  Let me open with the premise (you're welcome to disagree) that Bernie Sanders is going to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.  There is, unsurprisingly, major fuckery afoot to stop that from happening.  Again, whether efforts to subvert democracy by the Democratic Party establishment succeed or fail is -- or for now, will be -- a conversation for another day.

Today we'll start with the postulate above.  And if you buy that, then ...

#Texas will have no use for a Democrat in the US Senate who is to the right of Joe Manchin -- to the right of Mitt Romney, even -- when #BernieSanders is President. https://t.co/XCem8XjonQ

— A Companion Unobtrusive (@PDiddie) February 12, 2020

Despite my longtime denigration of polls and polling, I tend to place more faith in the pseudo-science as Election Day draws closer ... despite the outcome of the presidential election in 2016 defying even the prognostications of the once-mighty Nate Silver.  (Hey, I believed him and them too.)

So Bernie's on a roll; he'll emerge next Wednesday morning with a bushel full of delegates; his various challengers are in assorted stages of disarray, and only some treachery is going to stop his nomination.  And with those circumstances, and with the Senate in desperate need of flipping blue so as to enact his sweeping reforms ... why is a Libertarian who voted in the GOP primary in 2016 and a self-confessed gun nut -- she stands for everything Beto O'Rourke fought against ...

... leading a dozen candidates by a mile in the race to replace John Cornyn?  The strength of her campaign seems to be, as it was in 2018 when she ran for Congress against John Carter, based on her military service.  Oh, and she also rides a motorcycle.

If you believe what the so-called smart people in Texas politics say, MJ Hegar will be followed into the runoff by a man or a person of color, and that sounds a lot like Royce West, the Dallas state senator with a long service history, many endorsements from his peers in the Lege, and a proud record of Democratic conservatism that Texas Donks are renowned for.  (Once upon a time, before they were called Blue Dogs, they were Boll Weevils, Reagan Democrats, Goldwater Democrats, Shivercrats, and other less-flattering monikers, but back then they were also all Kluckers.  Far be it from me to suggest that an African American conservaDem be classified with white racists.)

Hegar and West don't support Medicare for All, don't support the Green New Deal, but do support a host of middling half-measures and corporate centrist views that have been demonstrable failures in the Senate by Democrats of their stripe for many, many years.  A new generation of Texans needs new blood and fresh thinking.  These two ain't it.

Chris Bell, as I have blogged and Tweeted a thousand times, is a horse's ass of a different color.  He boasts of being progressive, but endorsed Bill King over Sylvester Turner in the 2015 mayor's race in which he failed to make the runoff.  That's not progressive (though to be fair, he might have told the truth if he'd simply amended his declaration of being "the most progressive in the race" to "the most progressive between King and Turner", although that's not much better).

And we know that Bell couldn't beat Rick Perry in 2006 in a four-person race for governor, losing votes to Kinky Friedman (not progressive) and Carole "Grandma" Keeton Rylander Strayhorn (also not progressive).  This is supposed to tell us, inexorably, that progressives can't win in Texas.  So sayeth the paid political class, pundits, and what have you.  We also know ad nauseum that Lone Star Dems have run nearly no one but conservaDems -- there have been a couple of exceptions -- and lost every statewide race since the mid-90's.

And then along came Beto O'Rourke in 2018.  Without digressing too much, Beto's shooting star has turned into a small meteor falling in the barren West Texas desert.  His close loss to Ted Cruz 1.5 years ago, his flameout in the White House sweepstakes last November, and his heavy bet on a longshot bid to flip a statehouse seat in Fort Bend County last month give him the look of a flash in the pan, in fact.  He's avoided making an endorsement here, though one candidate has staffed her campaign full of Beto alumni.

Amanda Edwards, the former at-large Houston city council member who is the fourth "favorite" in the race, has the solid pedigree and the consultant-speak down pat.  She's gotten some late media assistance, probably too late, but maybe the Black woman vote is undersampled in the polls and she sneaks into the runoff.  Does "Moderate Millennial" bang anybody's shutters?

That brings us to Cubic Zirconia "More Mexican/Good Stock", aka Christine Costello, aka Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez.  As the nickname I've given her implies, she has considerably less worth than what you might see at first glance.  Not for lack of promotion by the Texas Tribune and their CEO and co-founder Evan A. Smith, that's for sure.

So in the absence of any good journalism, you should read all the way through John's thread.

Buckle up, Fam. We're about to have a difficult discussion about racial appropriation and racial impersonation in the Texas Senate race.

A thread. https://t.co/0jbUb9GVzm

— Plain Ol' Johnny Graz (@jvgraz) February 27, 2020

It's ten Tweets, with a few links and some video and audio.   CTzR has not responded, as best as I can determine, to any of the allegations above.  She and Hegar have recently squabbled over a few things, so it's not like Ms. Tzintzún Ramirez plays the "lalala I can't hear you" game.

John G and me are biased, of course.  He works on Sema Hernandez's campaign and I've been a supporter, financial and social media and otherwise, since her run against Beto in 2018, where she got a fourth of the primary vote, winning several counties.

Despite Beto O’Rourke’s aggressive campaigning, he lost several border counties to a lesser-known primary challenger, Sema Hernandez, who received about 24% of the vote. #tx2018 #texasprimary

Here are some primary results by county: https://t.co/oHTwGxSP78 pic.twitter.com/ZxYLrQCc7w

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) March 7, 2018

Despite that, she was dismissed by Smith at the TexTrib (according to Hernandez.  Smith has not responded to the allegation below).

.@EvanASmith allegedly told @_SemaHernandez_ that he "made a personal judgment call that she was not a serious candidate" for #TXSen. Is he the arbiter of this? Let's prove he's wrong. #TX2020 https://t.co/fuiTOHRc5W

— A Companion Unobtrusive (@PDiddie) February 13, 2020

The voters in the Texas Democratic primary are currently in the process of rendering a verdict on the viability of Hernandez's candidacy, but I do not think the seriousness of it has ever been -- or should have been -- in question.  And in any case, Evan Smith would not be the judge of who is or isn't a serious candidate, no matter how deep our democracy has sunk into oligarchy.

So if any of this is something you'd like to have a say in, at the ballot box, between now and next Tuesday evening, please go to it.  As a reminder:

#Bernie2020 #Sema2020 #Time4Sema #TexasForBernie #NotMeUs @_SemaHernandez_
is the only Texas candidate for US Senate who endorsed Bernie and supports every one of his policy positions.

Donate today: https://t.co/o3qGwYYXRU #Vote4Sema#Medicare4All #GreenNewDeal #NoMoreWars pic.twitter.com/vBWsDyywqd

— Mokum Misfit #MakeLoveNotWar💗🏴 (@Mokum_Misfit) February 27, 2020

See you at the polling place.

Responses from Evan Smith and Miya Shay

I posted about the Texas Tribune's wacky poll last week, and had a conversation with Tribune CEO Evan Smith yesterday afternoon prompted by it.

First, a correction: Farouk Shami was not included in their list of Democratic gubernatorial candidates, as I wrote. The candidates they DID poll included Kinky Friedman, Tom Schieffer, Felix Alvarado, Mark Thompson (who withdrew from the race and endorsed Hank Gilbert as the poll was concluding) and Ronnie Earle, who has still not declared for it.

Smith indicated to me that he retains confidence in the polling outfit, in fact that they will do additional polling for the Tribune in 2010. He also trusts the methodology of polling via internet, as compared for example to polling via telephone. He was quick to say that he did not trust it more, just that it was worthy of his trust. Here is an excerpt containing the Trib's explanation:

There is a lot of interest in our use of the internet for polling. There is a deep discussion of our method in the attached methodology section, and similar discussions for all the polls in the polling section at the Texas Politics website. For those who want to dig still deeper into the underlying statistical methods, the founder of the polling firm we use, Doug Rivers, has been a central figure in developing the matched random sampling methods for use over the internet, and weighed in on some of the issues being discussed in this post at Pollster.com in September. If you’re interested, you can trace the discussion backward and forward from this post, and get a detailed explanation of why the matched random sampling method is different from opt-in polls.

Smith also said, without my having to ask, that leaving Gilbert off the poll was "a f***up". He's certainly right about that.

And he is still confident in the poll's results, despite having instructed the pollsters to go back and re-poll the 266 respondents who indicated they would 'definitely' or 'probably' be voting in the Democratic primary to ask them if they would vote for Gilbert.

I am not. There is no alternate reality in which Mark Thompson could have gotten ten times the number of supporters than Gilbert did. At best, the poll's result had been compromised by the omission-and-then-late-addition of Gilbert's name. As well, including Farouk Shami as a polling option would have been as reasonable as including Ronnie Earle. With all of those errors and omissions, and especially since Thompson has now withdrawn (he was reported to be considering it even as the poll was concluding), I find the Democratic portion of the Texas Tribune's poll to be simply invalid.

My last question for Smith was relative to Rick Perry's twelve-point lead over Kay Bailey, and I offered a premise (which Smith did not necessarily agree with): could his poll's higher numbers for the governor possibly reflect a coalescing of the conservative base specifically in reaction to October's news surrounding the Todd Willingham case? Smith would not grant that but did note that Perry is very probably stronger with the prototypical GOP primary voter. I agree with that much.

The Trib won't conduct another poll until after the first of the year, according to Smith, so my humble O is that we will have to look elsewhere for some indications about how the governor's race is shaping up.

And Miya Shay posted the following to me at my Facebook wall in response to this post:

Hey Perry, I read your blog about my blog..Thanks for commenting! I just wanted you to know that i wasn't impressed or complimenting Kaufman. If you read the blog, I was simply stating a fact that her tactic may be effective. It doesn't mean I support it or oppose it.. I am just being realistic. thanks

Sorry, Miya. That won't wash.

Not too long ago (perhaps before you were born, I don't know) the media's role was that of watchdog for the public against the powerful. The media won Pulitzers for that work when they did it relentlessly and well. When elected officials breach their public trust and attempt to corrupt the process -- in fact the free choice -- of the voters then it is, or used to be, the media's job to call them out about it. Not simply observe it, and certainly not to marvel at it.

Maybe some other member of the local media will choose that role, since you appear unwilling to take it on.

Kenneth Kendrick: the best choice for Texas Agriculture Commissioner

To tell the truth, he's the only rational choice on your ballot in November.

So you might suspect that I am a little biased.  I have been getting to know Kenneth for some time now, and as the Republican and Democratic primaries produced two of the absolute worst candidates for statewide office in recent memory, now is a good time for considerate, thinking Texans to take stock of their options.

Kendrick has undergone some of the usual -- as well as unusual -- circumstances that befall public whistleblowers.  He's the fellow who revealed the salmonella charades going on at Peanut Corporation of America's facilities in Plainview, Texas and Blakely, Georgia.  As that case finally went to trial this week, here's the latest from Lubbock's KAMC (video at link).

The trial is a relief to people like Kenneth Kendrick, who feel wronged by PCA's actions. Kendrick was a former employee turned whistleblower who tried to expose the company in 2006.

"I had worked there as production planner and assistant manager." He said. " I only stayed four months for obvious reasons. Was asked to falsify documents and do things I was not comfortable with and I blocked it."

Kendrick described the horrible conditions of the Plainview plant saying that there were "holes in the wall that let mice in" and "leaky roofs -- (they) don't want to spend the money to fix it -- bird droppings were being washed in.

Kenneth and I spoke recently about his campaign for Commissioner of Texas Agriculture.

================

What motivated you to run for this office?

After getting some notoriety as a whistleblower against PCA, I hit the lecture circuit of a sort; speaking to students at universities and conferences about the experience. Nine people died from salmonella poisoning across the country, and 700 were made ill.  The Texas Department of Agriculture, under Commissioner Todd Staples, had certified the Plainview plant for organic processing three separate times even though they were not registered with the Department of State Health Services.  They had no license to operate, yet were certified for safety!

Three years after my reporting it, Texas still had done nothing to investigate my claims of poor health practices by the company.   I made up my mind that no person -- no child, no adult -- should ever have to suffer or die because of corporate ineptitude or greed.

Just yesterday, it was reported that the nationwide cyclospora outbreak includes more than half of the reported cases in Texas!  We still have tremendous food safety problems in Texas and nothing has been done, nor likely will be done if the Republican or Democrat is elected.

What are your top issues and your plans for addressing them?

1) We want food safety and GMO labeling, working in conjunction with the DSHS, to make Texas the safest place in the United States to buy food and food products, increasing our economic viability. There is no harm in consumers having all the information possible when buying food. This will require the Texas Department of Agriculture to be restructured to have more inspectors on the ground, and a direct connection with other agencies as a top priority when safety issues outside the Department are noted.

2) Safe water and more aggressive conservation methods, along with the use of renewable energy.  Fracking is not the answer given our state's water shortages.  Too many rural towns already have warnings that their water does not meet minimum standards to drink.  Wichita Falls is already recycling waste water.  In West Texas there are lots of wind generators already, and room for plenty more.  Texas is becoming a leader in renewable energy, and we must continue to do more.  Less water used for fracking and electricity generation means more water for Texas farms and cities.

3) Holding corporations accountable. As I have said many times, we the people are fined and arrested when we break the law, but corporations are just told to get into compliance, as has been shown with 355 unlicensed facilities that broke the law. Instead of just a compliance warning, these companies should have at least been fined... just like people.

4) There are virtually no fines that have been handed out to pest control companies (and they fall under the Department of Agriculture) that break the law. We have regulations in place, but no enforcement.

5) And legal protection for whistleblowers who report in good faith those who break the law!

What sets you apart from your opponents?

My Democratic opponent Jim Hogan -- well, if anyone knew anything about where he stands I could respond, but I do not see much of anything out there.  I guess taking no position on anything is good enough to get you the Democratic nomination?

No website?  No Facebook page?  He refuses to give interviews for the most part and runs away from Democrats and the Texas Democratic Party like it's the plague.  What sets me apart from a blank slate?  I feel comfortable letting the voters decide that one.

My Republican opponent, Sid Miller, helped cut $64 million from Planned Parenthood and sponsored the sonogram bill.  And the Agriculture Commissioner has what to do with this?  Here's a quote from his website: "An avid rancher and hunter, Sid Miller believes in the Constitutional right to bear arms".  Does the Agriculture Commissioner get a vote on gun legislation?  I don't think so.  Let's stick to the issues relevant to the office!  I am the only candidate in the race for Agriculture Commissioner talking about the issues relevant to agriculture in Texas... that is, if you don't count my Libertarian opponent, Rocky Palmquist, taking over Kinky Friedman's advocacy for marijuana legalization.  But you won't find that on his website, since all it says is 'coming soon'.

In keeping with the tenets of the Green Party, I have taken zero donations from corporations (such as Monsanto).  My campaign is true grassroots, for the people.  I owe no one.

What's the best way for people wanting to help your campaign to get in touch?

I have FB page, web page and a direct #.

https://www.facebook.com/kendrickforAgCommish

www.kendrickfortexas.com 

806-800-1021

Paypal address is kkendrick41 at gmail dot com.  Please mark it as political donation, and leave your name, address, phone, and occupation (this information is needed for the Texas Ethics Commission). They make it difficult for a 3rd party candidate without a full time treasurer to run (go figure, Texas would never do that, right?)

======================

Make you own choice for Ag Commish, readers.  Trust me, I have.