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Monday, September 28, 2020

The Weekly TexLeftBlog Wrangle


Texas lefty bloggers and Tweeters are gearing up for the first Biden-Trump debate after steeling themselves from being triggered by the first half of "The Comey Rule", which aired last night on Showtime.  Brendan Gleeson -- starring as The President -- makes his grand entrance tonight on the last episode of the two-part docu-drama.  To say that there's been some PTSD suffered across the nation is understating the situation.


Anyway, we have lots of Lone Star Tweets and news to read and talk about (mostly election- and COVID-related today; other topics at the end of the week).  First and again from the courtroom:


Kuff stayed on top of the voting litigation news with updates about the wingnut assault on early voting, and the probably short-lived reinstatement of straight-ticket voting.  Corona Connor drew some interesting maps of CD10, one of the three Congressional districts that Beto carried in 2018 but the Republican incumbent won.  In your best-read of the week, Ben Wofford at Wired (republished at Portside so you don't have any paywall issues) details the decades-long give-and take between Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir and Rice University professor Dan Wallach -- and many others -- over secure voting machines.



A few SD30 special election updates.


Ross Ramsey at the TexTrib via Progrexas says "keep calm and vote on".


The Texas Politics Project has the executive summary of several of the above news items for those of you with limited reading time.


And looking past November ...


Following up on the growing divide between Texas Republicans, this next story was first referenced in the Friday 9/18 Round-up (scroll down to "Speaking of stupid").


As James Barragan Tweeted in last Friday's Round-up, the Lege must deal with the most ominous revenue shortfall (related to COVID and the crashing of oil, of course) in almost a century.  All tax streams must be on the table.  A full legalization of casino gambling and cannabis, with an appropriate taxing mechanism, should be under careful consideration.  The TXGOP cannot continue to allow the Evangelical Caucus to hinder progress for the sick (Medicaid expansion) the young (our public school system) and the old (our seniors' assisted living challenges during these crises).

In one of the more ridiculous election-related developments last week, Texas Monthly has a few questions about that Dan Crenshaw ad.


And the TexTrib provides the segue between politics and pandemic.


Erin Garcia de Jesus at the San Antonio Current worries about the "twindemic" of COVID plus influenza.


And we all hope we don't have a new environmental problem to be concerned about, after the weekend brought this tragic news.


More economic, ecological, and social justice headlines later.  Ending here today on as upbeat a message as possible.

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Thursday, June 18, 2020

Race for the White House Update: Trump gets booked

By John Bolton and by his niece, Mary.


President Donald Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his reelection prospects, according to a scathing new book by former Trump adviser John Bolton that accuses the president of being driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.

Odd how Bolton appears (I've only read an excerpt and some reviews) not to have mentioned some of these things when he was questioned under oath by impeachment managers and attorneys.


Don't know about yours, but my summer reading list is full.

And the hits just keep on comin'.


Now we're in Putin/Kim territory (as if we weren't previously).  With all this depressing news, you can kinda understand why Trump needs a rally right about now.


Masks optional, hand sanitizer available, social distancing not required.

That's the most I've blogged about Shitler in months.  It's been better for my mental health to have muted his Tweets, ignored the most hysterical of Resistance members who lose their minds on a daily basis over him, and generally just avoided getting triggered by his ignorance, his cruelty, his malignant narcissism, his sociopathy, and all the rest.  I spent eight years being mad at Bush Jr., after all, and decided the day after Election Day 2016 that I wasn't going to relive that again.  To be clear: Trump is a symptom of a broken political system.  There are simply no excuses for Hillary Clinton to have lost to him, no matter how many she has made or have been made for her.

And if you should happen to agree that Trump is the product of a dysfunctional America, then you must agree that Joe Biden has been one of the architects of it.



Why can't somebody sneak "I support Medicare for All" onto Joe's teleprompter?


Personally, I blame Obama.


But Joe has had plenty of enablers and gaslighters.


Still he is on his way to a landslide victory.  Not Trump; Biden.




That's Josh Putnam's map.  Here's mine as of today.



Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

Yes, I'm of the opinion that Joe is going to make it too close, and that the polling will be as unsound and unpredictable as ever.  There's lots of concerns about voter suppression, faulty voting machines, whether people will be able to vote by mail because of the virus, whether the counties can handle the massive flow of mail ballots regardless, etc.

And if you're voting blue, you're really voting for the person Biden selects as running mate.  That woman is going to be the president of the United States sooner than later.  The public polls remain very favorable to Elizabeth Warren.


Follow the 7-count thread to the link for more.  I'm still thinking Kamala, but reports indicate Val Demings and Keisha Bottoms have moved up into the top four.  Update: Amy pulls the plug, and endorses ... anybody but Warren.  Maybe Joe could still do better.


Doesn't matter to me anyway.  Whoever loses has a base that won't accept the result; Texas won't be close unless it's a landslide, and I'll be voting Green or indy no matter what.


"B-B-B-But the Supreme Court!"


Notoriously bad, Ruth.  "B-B-B-But a vote for ________ is a vote for Trump!"


As it happens, there is but one man standing between Trump and a second term.  And his name is ...

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Tuesday, March 24, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle II, extended pandemic pandemonium edition

Too much to cram into one.

Let's begin as we often do with TXElects, this time with a personal message from publisher Jeff Blaylock: "Like Much of Daily Life, Elections Grind to a Halt".



The ongoing response to contain the severity of the spread of COVID-19 has impacted most aspects of a normal, daily life in the state’s largest counties. ...

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week postponed the May 26 runoff elections until July 14, the date he ordered for the SD14 special election, which normally would have (occurred) in conjunction with the May 2 general election. Unable to postpone those elections on his own, Abbott  suspended portions of the Election Code and other codes to enable local governments to hold those elections in November. ...

Campaigns are hamstrung by social distancing, limits on the size of gatherings and the economic pressures so many Texans are facing. Candidates are simply unable to campaign. Door-to-door blockwalking efforts have largely ended. Rallies can’t be held because of social distancing guidelines and prohibitions of events above a certain attendance. “Retail politics” is largely impossible.

They are also unable to raise money. I expect the July semiannual and quarterly reports will show a significant downturn in contributions compared to the same period in prior election cycles.

Fundraising events cannot happen. Economic pressures and uncertainty affecting Texas families will sharply reduce the number of small donors. Candidates will likely be more reliant than ever on large donations or the ability to self-fund their campaigns. We may very well see this come into play in the runoff elections where candidates who have built a broad network of support are suddenly disadvantaged.

I expect campaigns will get created with digital campaigning, including video meet and greets and increased reliance on social media. Fundraising efforts will get creative as well, but they are facing a cascading uncertainty that will likely drive down political contributions. Creativity does not necessarily require money, so I expect we will see some innovative uses of cheap technology in the coming weeks and months.

I also expect the pandemic response will slow voter registrations, although we will not see this data for some time. The next statewide data point does not come until November, which we all hope is well after Texas has returned to business as usual. Depending on when that occurs, registrations may rebound.

In the meantime, there are signs that campaigns are shifting their grassroots efforts to community service from politics. “I will put my campaign’s grassroots team on the job of helping our neighbors across our huge district,” said CD13 Republican runoff candidate Josh Winegarner in a press release. “I want to help people and help Texans help each other.” Several other candidates have released similar statements, as has the Texas Democratic Party, which launched ConnectTexas, an online community where folks can connect with people locally and statewide to communicate their needs, share resources, and create a sense of unity despite the uncertainty.”

-- Lite Guv Dan Patrick saw Greg Abbott, John Cornyn, and Louie Gohmert all getting free publicity for being stupid, discriminatory, or just plain incompetent and hypocritical, and decided he couldn't be left out of that action.


 "No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in," he said. "And that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that.

"I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me ... that what we all care about and what we all love more than anything are those children," he added. "And I want to, you know, live smart and see through this, but I don't want to see the whole country to be sacrificed, and that's what I see."

Patrick -- as he has unceasingly reminded us -- is pro-life ... but should the Wall Street gods require a human sacrifice, I believe we have our first volunteer.  Personally I'll never be willing to risk myself for a corporation's P&L statement.  YMMV.

-- Speaking of "pro-life", Greg Abbott banned abortion on Sunday.

Gov. Greg Abbott didn't say anything about it last week when he announced his ban on elective medical procedures, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it clear Monday afternoon -- abortion is banned in Texas until, at the earliest, April 3. Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, anyone seeking an abortion in Texas faced a lengthy ordeal.
Now they face utter uncertainty.

“We must work together as Texans to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that our healthcare professionals and facilities have all the resources they need to fight the virus at this time,” Paxton said. “No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers. Those who violate the governor’s order will be met with the full force of the law.”

The full force of the law, in this case, is a $1,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail.

Paxton's office says the ban is essential to preserve Texas' stock of personal protective equipment. Texas anti-abortion groups are praising Abbott's order for different reasons.

-- Those centralized voting centers the Harris County Clerk and other election administrators throughout the state were so impressed with themselves about implementing?  Maybe not so much.

-- And postal voting might be a good thing (obviously the TDP wouldn't be paying Chad Dunn, et.al. the money they are if they didn't think so) but it would present a host of new problems.  Such as: where do we store all the paper?

While mail-in ballots seem like an elegant solution as the United States grapples with containing COVID-19, experts say slow-moving state and county governments, inconsistent state rules and limited resources to buy essentials such as envelopes and scanners could make it difficult to ramp up nationally to reach more than 200 million registered voters in the November general election. Among the possible downsides of a quick transition are increased voter fraud, logistical snafus and reduced turnout among voters who move frequently or lack a mailing address.

[...]

“To move from a couple of thousand to a couple of million (printed ballots) requires an entirely different infrastructure,” said Tammy Patrick, a former county election official who is now a senior adviser at the nonprofit Democracy Fund in Washington, D.C. “It’s going to be a different logistical lift for them to even ramp up the printing of the ballots, let alone ordering a million envelopes that are the right size and compatible with” the U.S. Postal Service’s method of sorting mail automatically.

Amber McReynolds is the CEO of Vote at Home, which helps policymakers and election officials improve their vote by mail processes and policies. “The unprecedented public health crisis” calls for localities to “be extraordinarily creative with our solutions,” she said.

Yet there are states, like Texas, where McReynolds thinks it may be very difficult to implement a robust and universal vote by mail system. Texas’ election administration is almost entirely controlled by counties, which each set their own voting processes. Rural counties frequently use machines that produce no paper backup and have no infrastructure to store it, while larger counties have more sophisticated systems that keep a printed record of ballots. The state has little authority to change local election administration decisions.

McReynolds has called for centralizing the printing, mailing and collecting of ballots at the state level, though without legislative action this would not be possible in Texas. Centralization, with appropriate technology to open, sort and scan ballots, would mean fewer people counting votes and less need to recruit thousands of volunteers.

Much, much more at the link above.

-- And courtesy US Senate candidate David Collins, here is your updated Texas Green Party list of state and Congressional nominees, with more likely to come out of the state convention.
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Monday, March 16, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle, Widespread Panic Edition (updates)

The Texas Progressive Alliance isn't praying for divine intervention from the coronapocalypse, and isn't interrupting its practice of social distancing to bring you this week's roundup of the best of the Lone Star left from last week.


Governor Greg Abbott's statewide emergency declaration rollout went less well than expected.


Update from TXElects:

Abbott ordered a July 14 special election to fill the unexpired term of Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin), who is resigning effective April 30. Abbott declined to set the election to coincide with the May 2 uniform election, citing the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Candidates for the special election must file with the Secretary of State between April 29 and May 13. Early voting will begin June 29.

The election date enables any state candidate on the November ballot to run without risking losing their seat. Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) and former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt (D) have announced for the race. Austin council member Greg Casar has formed a campaign committee for the race. Pflugerville council member Rudy Metayer, Austin attorney Adam Loewy and Austin attorney Chito Vela are considering the race.

Matt Goodman at D Mag says, "I don't think we should see other people."

Andy Langer interviewed Austin mayor Steve Adler for Texas Monthly, who explained why he canceled SxSW, a decision that seems a lot easier to understand today.

Some members of our state media -- not all of them corporate and oil-stained -- seem more concerned about the effects of the pandemic on the state's fossil fuel industry than its citizens' public health.  The moment presents an opportunity to change the course of mankind's pending demise from climate change ... presuming enough of us survive the plague, that is.


But there are always pettier political battles to wage.



After Mike Bloomberg's campaign abandoned Texas, some of the (unnamed) staff who got paid big bucks for a much shorter period than they were promised whined to the media about it.

“The entire Houston team was told by a top Bloomberg adviser that Texas is a battleground state,” said one Houston-area field organizer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We were told Texas is important and that the team would try to transition into helping down-ballot candidates if Bloomberg wasn’t the nominee.”

[...]

Six staffers on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing nondisclosure agreements they had signed with the campaign, said they were told upon their hiring that they’d have jobs through November -- mitigating the risk that typically comes with high-pressure campaign organizing. Now, they said, they were told to expect their final paycheck at the end of the month and that they only had health, vision and dental coverage until March 31. As a consolation prize, all were allowed to keep Bloomberg-provided iPhones and MacBook Air laptops, so long as they agreed to pay taxes on both electronics.

“There are a lot of folks who came down here from New York or Iowa who are now out of jobs,” said one Dallas-area field organizer, who was paid $6,000 per month since his hiring Feb. 17.

“People made decisions based on thinking they had a job until November,” said another former regional director for the campaign. “Someone dropped their insurance to pick up Bloomberg’s insurance, for instance.”

Boo hoo hoo.  Spread some of the Joe Biden Good Guy salve into your wounds.


Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer picks his worst candidates to emerge from the primaries.

In a remarkable stroke of even deeper inanity than most thought possible, Kuff got an early start on sucking up to the powers that be, no matter who, in welcoming Harris County's new lady judge overlords (overladies?).

With his latest installment of completely self-absorbed yet blissfully unself-conscious bragging, SocraticGadfly read the story about the Hobby Lobby-alleged Dead Sea Scrolls proven to be fakes and realized he has a personal academic-world connection to the story.

Dwight Silverman at the Chronic says to clean your damn filthy phone already.  Thanks, Captain Obvious Techburger.  Now go wash your hands, and keep them away from your face.


Despite all these fails, there was some intelligent reporting and blogging last week.  From Maria Mendez and Paul Cobler at the Dallas News:

A Texas civil rights group called the secretary of state, Texas’ top election official, to work with local officials to resolve the voting issues Texans faced on Super Tuesday before the November general election.

Attorneys from the Texas Civil Rights Project sent a letter to Texas Secretary of State Ruth R. Hughs on Thursday demanding the state to work to eliminate long lines caused by shortages of elections workers and problems with machines. Issues were reported in Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Hays, Tarrant and Travis counties.

“We demand that you and other relevant stakeholders take immediate action to invest in voting infrastructure and prevent a similar disaster from unfolding in November,” Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, wrote.

And the reporters got a real doozy of a quote from John Cornyn, who has clearly been drinking too much Corona during his self-isolation.

But Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn warned against federal intervention, saying some “raise a lot of money claiming that minorities’ votes are suppressed.”

He said the Voting Rights Advancement Act, a measure passed by U.S. House of Representatives three months ago to establish a process of federal supervision of voting changes in jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination, is unnecessary. The bill still has to go through the U.S. Senate.

“We don’t need the federal government to tell us how to run our elections in Texas. We’ve run free and fair elections and there’s no reason to punish Texas or other states that have corrected their problems with regards to access to voting,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Cornyn said he hoped local election officials “learned a few lessons” and advised voters to take advantage of early voting.

In the last decade, federal courts smacked down Texas multiple times for intentionally discriminatory policies that disproportionately affected black and brown voters, like its voter ID law and the way the Legislature drew its congressional and statehouse maps to limit the voting power of minorities.

David Collins updated on the status of the Texas Green Party's 2020 slate, the Harris Greens' conventions, and the surging presidential candidacy of Dario Hunter.  PDiddie at Brains and Eggs blogged that it won't be any easier being Green this year than it was four years ago, thanks to the Jackass Party re-running 2016 all over again.


Some Texans worry about their 401K or the price of oil; many others worry about their jobs, their health, their next meal, whether they will be homeless next month ...


It's all a matter of perspective.

Cherise Rohr-Allegrini at the Rivard Report encourages social distancing, but reminds to check on our neighbors, especially the seniors.

With some environmental news ...


And a long overdue plaudit to one of the hardest-working climate activists I know.


Reform Austin writes about cite-and-release, wondering if it will become the standard for low-level cannabis misdemeanor cases.


Plan a drive through wildflower country soon.


Stop and visit Washington-on-the-Brazos along the way.


And PDiddie thanks Anju Agrawal at Feedspot for inclusion in their "Top 50 Texas Blogs".
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Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Winner: The Democratic Establishment


Dylan Matthews, Vox.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been one week since Super Tuesday, as the landscape of the presidential race has shifted dramatically over the past seven days. Biden’s commanding performance that night, including an unexpected win in Texas, has spurred the party’s major donors like former rival Mike Bloomberg, luminaries like former candidates Sens. Kamala Harris (CA) and Cory Booker (NJ), and congressional leaders like Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (IL) to line up behind Biden.

There were two ways that decision could have played out. It could have dramatically backfired. If Sanders had managed a come-from-behind victory in Michigan, and maybe a closer-than-expected performance in Mississippi where Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba endorsed him, then the narrative of a primary that was winding down would have been challenged. Additional undecided Democratic politicians would have hesitated to jump in. They might have concluded that Harris, Booker, Durbin, etc. miscalculated, and that those figures might find themselves on the wrong side of Sanders should he ultimately become the nominee.

The other possible outcome was what actually happened: Sanders losing to Biden across the board, and Biden’s endorsers looking like they made a difference. Indeed, Biden has already gotten new, powerful backers, like the prominent and deep-pocketed Super PAC Priorities USA, which spent nearly $200 million in the 2016 presidential cycle.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat whose support helped Biden to his remarkable string of victories, took a victory lap over Sanders supporters in the wake of the night’s results:


This is a bit much, given that Americans still haven’t seen Biden and Sanders face off one-on-one in a televised debate. Given each’s advanced age, and their ability to rely on having limited screen time in previous contests, the next debate might be revealing of their stamina and debating prowess in a one-on-one match with Trump.

But the core of Clyburn’s case is sound. Biden is the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination, and voters show no sign of rebelling for Sanders in defiance of party leaders. The party decided, and the voters are ratifying that decision.

Follow the links.  In particular, that last one.  Next up: the field negro.

Poor Bernie has never been able to capture the black vote, because black folks tend to be a little too pragmatic for his "revolution". We know that the white power structure will not allow the political system that benefits the few and the powerful to stray far from the status quo. And so we vote with our heads and not our hearts. We want to beat trump, and we don't think that Bernie is the man to do it.

Still, I am a little leery of the democratic party that can always count on us, but we can't always count on them. Republicans see our angst, and that's why Donald trump is cranking up his Negro outreach.

Follow the link.

Had African Americans turned out to vote in 2016 like they did in 2012, Hillary Clinton would be the president of the United States. Instead, Democrats overlooked and under-invested in the community, resulting in a cataclysmic drop-off in black voter turnout. The percentage of eligible African Americans who voted dropped to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, allowing Trump to eke out his razor-thin electoral college victory.

I titled the penultimate chapter of my book “Conservatives Can Count”, and Republicans have indeed done the math and are working overtime to reduce the margins by which they lose the black vote. During the Super Bowl, Trump’s re-election campaign spent $11m on a very effective ad featuring an African American woman who’d been released from prison after criminal justice reform legislation. She says in heartfelt fashion to the millions of people watching the ad: “I want to thank President Donald John Trump.”

I'm so old I remember when Black Democrats said they were voting for George W. Bush over John Kerry in 2004 because "he needs to clean up his own mess".  How'd that work out?

Black Dems don't want the blame for Trump this go-around (sorry to disappoint all the Jill Stein haters and Russia conspiracy theorists out there).  But going back to 'the way it was', BT (Before Trump)?  When Obama was president?  When kids were first put in cages at the border and thousands of civilians were killed by drones?

"It's the economy, stupid PDiddie," you say.  Right; the Obama economy that Trump is running on, BC (Before COVID19).  When Goldman Sachs alums were in charge of the economy that Goldman Sachs alums wrecked during Bush's second term.  That Biden wants to put in charge.

This isn't a rant directed solely at my African American Boomer brothers and sisters.  There are plenty of shithole centrist white people driving the Biden Bus.  And we know that it is predominantly Democrats in elected office suppressing the vote in minority precincts, and also where young voters showed up, but were discouraged by long lines, forced to wait outside in sub-freezing weather, and got the least-reliable voting machines to use.




Exit polls taken yesterday revealed voters think "the system needs a complete overhaul", and support a government-run single-payer healthcare system.



Yet Joe Biden swept to victory by telling his wealthy doors "nothing would fundamentally change", and that he would veto a Medicare for All bill if it reached his desk as president.

I am sensing a disconnect somewhere.

WTF ever happened to hope and change?
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Monday, March 09, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle

You can do a sufficient job of washing your hands in the time it will take you to read this week's Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.  And you should be doing both.  Perhaps not at the same time.

COVID-19 claims South by Southwest as its most significant Lone Star victim to date.


Austin's annual technology, music, and film festival has been canceled over fears of coronavirus, with the festivities just a week away.

(Tech) giants had already pulled out, creating a dire vibe in the previous weeks: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Apple, Netflix, Intel, Amazon Studios, Mashable and Vevo ...

The Dallas Morning News reported (Friday) afternoon that the Austin mayor Steve Adler said: “Based on the recommendation of our public health officer and director of public health, and after consultation with the city manager, I’ve gone ahead and declared a local disaster in the city, and associated with that, have issued an order that effectively cancels SXSW.”

Adler's state of emergency, and the festival’s corresponding statement, came despite the fact there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Austin (as of Friday, March 6).

Out of concern for the many artists, waitstaff, and others whose livelihoods were dependent on the festival's thousands of attendees to help make ends meet, a campaign to #TipforTwo began.


Ted Cruz placed himself under self-quarantine after he was informed that he interacted with a CPAC attendee who tested positive for the virus.

The pandemic is slamming nearly all sectors of the global economy, and Texas will suffer a pair of body blows as its fossil-fuel based companies take a hit from slumping demand just as the Saudi-Russian agreement to curb supply disintegrates.

While many drillers in Texas and other shale regions look vulnerable, as they’re overly indebted and already battered by rock-bottom natural gas prices, significant declines in U.S. production may take time. The largest American oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., now control many shale wells and have the balance sheets to withstand lower prices. Some smaller drillers may go out of business, but many will have bought financial hedges against the drop in crude.

In the short run, Russia is in a good position to withstand an oil price slump. The budget breaks even at a price of $42 a barrel and the finance ministry has squirreled away billions in a rainy-day fund. Nonetheless, the coronavirus’s impact on the global economy is still unclear and with millions more barrels poised to flood the market, Wall Street analysts are warning oil could test recent lows of $26 a barrel.

With some post-election day news ...


One of the biggest and most disturbing storylines to emerge on Super Tuesday wasn’t about any top-of-the-ticket race, but rather the shockingly long wait times as some Texas polling locations struggled to keep up with increased turnout.


Dallas County Election Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole is asking a district court to authorize a manual recount after her office discovered ballots from 44 tabulating machines were not included in the county’s election results, reported the Texas Tribune’s Alexa Ura. The staff discovered the error when it could not reconcile the number of voters who checked in to cast ballots and the number of ballots counted. It is unclear which precincts, and thus which races, could be affected.

Several primary-challenged Congressional incumbents -- Kay Granger, Henry Cuellar -- survived on Super Tuesday, as Texas Donkeys and Elephants mostly settled for the status quo.  Some familiar names won and some lost.

One candidate who won without a runoff was former state Senator Wendy Davis, who garnered national attention in a bid for governor in 2014. She moved from Fort Worth to Austin to run in the 21st District and easily won the Democratic nomination to face freshman Republican incumbent Chip Roy.

Trump’s controversial former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, advanced to a runoff in the Panhandle region's 13th District GOP primary, while Pete Sessions, a veteran Republican congressman who lost his metro Dallas seat in 2018, found more luck in Waco, where he too made a runoff.

However, the latest Bush family member to try to launch a political career, Pierce Bush, came up short in suburban Houston.

The Houston Chronicle supplied the results for statewide, Harris County, and Southeast Texas-area Congressional elections.

-- Joe Biden beats Bernie Sanders in tight Texas primary

-- MJ Hegar leads in runoff for U.S. Senate race; Royce West finishes second (Dallas Observer)

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs realized on Election Night that he should have been exposing the other fraudulent Latina in the Democratic primary opposite John Cornyn.

-- Ogg declares victory in Harris County DA race

-- Menefee defeats incumbent Ryan in county attorney Dem primary

Ryan filed suit a week ago against 43 generic drug manufacturers, alleging they are fixing prices on "at least" 181 separate medications.

“These manufacturers routinely and systematically sought out their competitors in an effort to reach agreements to allocate market share and maintain or raise prices,” said County Attorney Ryan. “We intend to hold these pharmaceutical companies accountable for one of the most egregious and massive price-fixing conspiracies in the history of the United States.”

Democrats Mike Siegel and Pritesh Gandhi advance to runoff in CD 10

-- Republicans Nehls, Wall in runoff as Kulkarni clinches Dem nomination in CD 22

-- Ladjevardian will face Dan Crenshaw in CD 2 after Cardnell withdraws from D runoff

And both Progrexas and the Chron noted that being a male judge in the Democratic primary was hazardous to their re-election prospects.

Off the Kuff reported on the latest lawsuit filed by Texas Democrats, seeking to overturn the law against straight ticket voting in time for November.

Dos Centavos explored the story of the ghost of HD142.

SocraticGadfly said that as opposed to fearmongering by Greg Abbott and recent reporting by The Atlantic -- based on worse reporting by the Dallas Snooze -- Texas is not being Californicated.

Paradise in Hell is enjoying the fight between Dan Patrick and George P. Bush over the Alamo.

Durrell Douglas at Houston Justice documents how #ProjectOrange is helping inmates at the Harris County Jail exercise their right to vote.

Rick Casey of the Rivard Report reminds us that Texas was the first Southern state and the ninth in the nation to ratify the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.

Rick Hasen at the Election Law Blog excerpts Roll Call to tell us that John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, alongside Lindsey Graham, are by far the largest beneficiaries of financial contributions from judicial nominees.  All three men sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with approving federal judges submitted for appointment by the Trump Administration.


Before they put on their robes, dozens of federal judges appointed during the Trump and Obama administrations made significant campaign contributions to Senate Judiciary Committee members and their home-state senators -- the very people who could make or break their nominations.

And three Republican senators -- Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- got more money than the rest of the Judiciary Committee combined. Virtually all of those contributions came from judicial nominees they ultimately backed.

In the latest environmental developments ...

Houston has ten of the most toxic industrial polluters in the United States, according to a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project.


A deadline in late August has been set for cleanup of a creosote-contaminated Union Pacific railyard in Houston.  The chemical's underground plume, a result of treating railroad ties for decades, was detected beneath more than 100 homes in the nearby Kashmere Gardens/Fifth Ward neighborhood.  There has also been a cancer cluster among residents.

Texas ICE officials are keeping migrants in jail with what appears to be illegal blanket parole denials, according to Felipe de la Hoz at The Intercept.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in San Antonio have been systematically denying parole to large numbers of people who were detained after crossing into the United States hoping to apply for asylum. Instead of being allowed to join family or sponsors and work on their cases in the U.S., many migrants are being held without a chance of release while they wait for court dates.

According to documents reviewed by The Intercept and lawyers working in the area, ICE’s San Antonio field office has been refusing parole for any detainee subject to a new Trump administration policy known as the transit bar, which makes migrants ineligible for asylum if they did not ask for protection in countries they crossed on their way to the U.S. The bar applies to most non-Mexicans arriving at the southern border.

The Texas Central Railway is poised to begin construction, possibly by the end of the year.

David Hagy with Texas Central said the Texas High-Speed Rail, a 240-mile high-speed rail line meant to make a 90-minute commute from Houston to Dallas, is expected to complete its Economic Impact Statement and safety guidelines by this summer.


Hagy said the Texas High-Speed Rail is expected to have $36 billion of positive economic impact on the city of Houston through 1,500 jobs needed for operation, faster economic connections between medical institutions, colleges and businesses between Dallas and Houston and tourism.

“You connect Houston and Dallas and you add in Bryan/College Station, Texas A&M, Blinn, Huntsville and Sam Houston State (University), you’re connecting about 42 Fortune 500 companies, about 83 Fortune 1,000 companies, over 30 academic institutions, meaning medical centers and universities, and over 350,000 graduate and undergraduate students not only fast, but reliably.”

And we'll wrap another Wrangle with some lighter items.


From LareDOS:

Organizers of Matagorda Bay Birdfest in Palacios are in high gear to make good on the promise that the fourth annual educational event connects people, birds, and nature.

Birdfest spans the weekend of Friday, March 27, through Sunday, March 29.

The small coastal town of Palacios on Matagorda Bay and its surrounding wetlands and estuaries offer a rich setting for experienced birders and adventurous beginners.

Blake Earle at D Magazine reviews Stephen Harrigan's Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas, questioning its Dallas origin tale.

Nicholas Frank at the Rivard Report tells of a captivating rediscovered novel about WWII-era San Antonio, The Duchess of Angus.  The first excerpt from it is here, with more to come.

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