2008 Texas House developments

This article from editor Mike Hailey of Capitol Inside -- the self-described "Fox News of the Austin insider world" -- has a good rundown of the jockeying for post position for Texas House races in the Houston area next year ( article sits behind subscription firewall, bold emphasis mine):

While Houston school board member Greg Meyers tests the waters for a race as a Republican against Democratic State Rep. Hubert Vo, Democrats are debating whether they should try to clear the deck for outgoing City Council member Carol Alvarado in the district that State Rep. Rick Noriega appears ready to give up in order to run for the U.S. Senate in 2008.

The hottest potential primary race that appears to be shaping up in the state's largest city could pit State Rep. Kevin Bailey against Armando Walle in a litmus test of the Democratic incumbent's loyalty to Republican Speaker Tom Craddick. Walle is the community liaison for U.S. Rep. Gene Green and chairman of the Harris County Tejano Democrats.

A pair of Republican lawmakers - State Reps. Dwayne Bohac and Jim Murphy - could end up facing Democratic challengers in next year's general election in their respective bids for re-election in GOP-leaning districts that Democrats consider to be within striking distance. Kristi Thibaut has been weighing a possible rematch with Murphy in House District 133 while Ginny Stogner McDavid ponders whether to run for the seat that Bohac successfully defended last year in a battle with her husband, Mark McDavid.

Democrats are also keeping an eye on the seat that Republican State Rep. Robert Talton of Pasadena would be giving up if he decides to run for Congress in 2008.

Hailey also provides the backstory of the family feud among east-side Hispanic Democrats:

Alvarado supporters hoped she'd have a clear path to the Democratic nomination in HD 145. But the uncontested primary race that Alvarado forces envisioned has apparently run into some potential obstacles with State Reps. Jessica Farrar and Ana Hernandez reportedly resisting. While Alvarado has the baggage of an ongoing investigation into a scandal involving pay raises and bonuses for several employees when she was mayor pro tem, the problem that other Hispanic state lawmakers in nearby House districts appear to have with her possible candidacy for Noriega's seat seems to center more on her association with consultant Marc Campos.

The longtime Democratic strategist supported Hernandez's main rival in a special election battle for a seat that opened when Joe Moreno died in a car wreck in 2005. Farrar was arguably Hernandez's most influential supporter in the special House race. Campos has also drawn the ire powerful Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia for opposing her in a past race and backing Alvarado aide James Rodriguez against the candidate she favors for the open council seat. Alvarado has been a Campos client as well.

Hailey is pretty plugged in here. The Tejano Dems fight a lot amongst themselves (though not as much as they used to) during the primary but always come together in the general. Their more important task in the next cycle is turning out their vote.

Harris County is poised to go blue in 2008, and the Latinos are pivotal to that success. If Noriega tops the ballot in Texas -- with a vice-presidential candidate named, say, Bill Richardson -- then Alvarado, Walle, and lots of other Democrats not necessarily having Hispanic surnames are poised to ride long coattails to victory.

There's lots of work to do, though -- for Democratic activists of every shade -- in order to pull that off.

Texas Senate candidate videos

The contrasts are simply striking.

Rick Noriega's:



Mikal Watts' can be viewed at his website.

Forget the obvious and apparent differences in experience, character, and principle. For a fellow with all of his money, Watts should have hired someone brave enough to tell him to look directly into the camera. Stu Rothenberg at Roll Call (via RG Ratcliffe at the Chronic) has more on Watts' repetitive declaration of himself as a "fighter" and a "leader".

Wishing won't make it so, Mr. Watts.

You can still be one of the 800 netroots supporters to Change the Equation.

BREAKING: Idiotpathic seizure

Only Tuesday and already it's a lousy week to be a Republican

-- Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure while on vacation. He likely has epilepsy.

-- Alaska Senator Ted Stevens -- he of the Bridge to Nowhere and "the Internet is a series of tubes" fame -- had his house raided by agents of the FBI and the IRS yesterday.

Lazy Fred Thompson hit less than two-thirds of his fundraising goal for the month of June, which further disillusions Republican prospects for retaining the White House in 2008:

But many Republicans have turned queasy as Thompson has ousted part of his original brain trust and repeatedly delayed his official announcement, which is now planned for shortly after Labor Day, in the first two weeks of September.

Some are already saying a prospective Thompson run is a flop. “I just don’t see it anymore,” said a key Republican who had been extremely enthusiastic about a Thompson candidacy. "That number is really underwhelming. There were indications it could be double that. They've been saying that people were waiting for Fred, and the money was going to pour in. He looks like he's already losing momentum."

-- And an impeachment resolution was introduced yesterday in the House of Representatives.

All that and we still await a flash from Louisiana Senator Diaper Vitter, who last week suggested to his colleagues that they should "rebrand" the Republican party as fiscal conservatives. (This must be out of concern for the lost libertarian faction.)

There's really no schadenfruede in any of this news, frankly. Illness, legal woes, another politician's campaign and career collapsing ...

Good luck the rest of this week, Republicans. Maybe things will get better, though with Talmadge Heflin now at the helm in Texas, I wouldn't count on it.

Tooling around the Tex-o-sphere

(I liked the Texas Kaos header so much I appropriated it along with this week's round-up.) It's Monday and that means it's time for another Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up. This week's round-up is brought to you by Vince at Capitol Annex. Diarist Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos has had enough, and she shares the letter she wrote Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn in Tell Me That Our Elected U.S. Lawmakers Do Not Embrace a W. Monarchy.

Could Be True ponders the often asked question (by the Right): "Why Post-Election Information in Spanish" at South Texas Chisme. Capitol Annex reveals a letter House Speaker Tom Craddick sent to former Parliamentarian Denise Davis telling her to keep her mouth shut about her time as parliamentarian. Texas public education just took another hit, thanks to Governor Perry, according to a post by TXSharon at Bluedaze. Perry appointed Dr. Don McLeroy as chair of the Texas State Board of Education. McLeroy is infamous for his radical fundamentalist views. This is especially bad because textbooks are up for review this year. Hal at Half Empty ponders early endorsements in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in An Endorsement Is Worth Watt Price? Matt at Stop Cornyn lets us know that John Kerry has announced a contest to Remove Republican Roadblocks (like John Cornyn). Karl-Thomas at Burnt Orange Report tells us about Town Lake being named after Lady Bird Johnson. Muse at Musings has the invitation to LTC Rick Noriega's change of command ceremony at the Alamo on August 4th. Noriega will take command of the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, which can trace its history back to the Republic of Texas. The event is open to the public. Thought we were done with Accenture and HHSC privatization? Charles at Off the Kuff says think again. Stace at Dos Centavos tells us about a Pew study which finds Latino political participation is not matching up to Latino population growth. Will demographic changes be enough to put Democrats over the top? Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News points to a peer-reviewed study that shows illegal immigrants are not criminals -- they go to jail at an amazinging low one-fifth the rate of current citizens. Perhaps we should promote immigration to reduce the crime rate in the United States? Dembones at Eye On Williamson County posts on the similarities between the latest right-wing talking points on Iraq and the change in rhetoric by Rep. John Carter (R-Round Rock) on bringing troops home from Iraq in John Carter Heeds Grover Norquist's Talking Points. John C. at Bay Area Houston, in Raising Campaign Cash 2007 from Bob Perry says that during early 2007 Bob Perry didn't get close to his record contributions last year, which totaled $4.5 million. In 2007 he has donated $471,000, with $250,000 going to Texans for Lawsuit Reform. HillCo PAC, another fine anti-consumer organization, received $50,000 and Lt. Governor Dewhurst received $25,000. Texas Toad at North Texas Liberal tells us that Carrollton attorney Karen Guerra is set to run as a Democrat for the 16th District Court in 2008. And, don't forget about these other Texas Progressive Alliance Members: Three Wise Men, In The Pink Texas, Marc's Miscellany, Common Sense, The Agonist, People's Republic of Seabrook, McBlogger, B and B, Feet To The Fire, and Who's Playin'.

"Mmarrvin Zindlerrrr, Eyewitness News", 1921 - 2007

There will still be slime in the ice machines, but there won't be any more Friday rat and roach reports from the King.

Though he was proudest of his work championing "the little guy" and helping secure medical care for needy children, he was best known for stories he did a mere seven months after starting the job in 1973 that led to the closing of the state's best-known "bawdy house," as Zindler called it — a notorious La Grange brothel known as the Chicken Ranch.

The reports not only won him national notoriety but also a public thrashing by Fayette County Sheriff T.J. Flournoy, a Chicken House partisan, who broke two of Zindler's ribs and snatched his toupee, reportedly waving it in the air as if it were a prized enemy scalp.

Texas author Larry L. King wrote an article about it for Playboy magazine in 1974, which was turned into a long-running Broadway musical four years later and became a kitschy 1982 movie starring Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise.

And this (a lesson perhaps for the rest of Houston's Republicans):

Zindler became involved in Democratic Party politics, serving as a delegate one year at the state Democratic convention where a conservative delegate slugged him after Zindler had made disparaging comments about the conservative wing of the party in a speech.

Zindler went on to work in the senatorial campaign of Lyndon Johnson and in other Democratic campaigns before switching to the Republican Party, where he continued to espouse liberal notions such as national health insurance.

A wealthy man -- a Republican -- born into a wealthy family, who cared deeply about the little guy. Who supported health care reform.

Where are any more of those left?

Sunday Funnies

Equal time for Greg ...

Cheney having heart surgery tomorrow, Bush will briefly be 'President'

Wonkette:

Last Saturday doctors performed surgery on George Bush’s asshole, and this Saturday they’ll do it again! But this time, it’s the other asshole, Dick Cheney. They are going to take apart his robotic pig heart and replace the core reactor.

That’s the Friday News Fun from the White House this afternoon. The procedure is just the latest of so very many operations for Cheney, who has already racked up “four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant the defibrillator.”

During Bush’s time as “president” tomorrow morning, he is expected to play with his dogs and maybe work on his fort in the back yard.

Overheard this week

“This senator (John Cornyn) decided early on to represent one Texan -- the President of the United States. He has carried George Bush’s brief case. He has not represented the 22 million people that live in the state of Texas."

-- State rep. and LTC Rick Noriega

“I would love to earn Mikal’s support. With his support we have a much better chance of defeating Cornyn.”

-- Noriega, gently suggesting that his potential primary opponent find another statewide office upon which to spend his considerable fortune


"Well, you know, what’s interesting is that there have been all these hearings on the attorney general and yet nobody’s really laid a glove on him. … At this point, we have hundreds of hearings that have produced bupkis."

-- Tony Snow, talking about Alberto Gonzales


“Coming soon to a classroom near you, Al Qaeda!”

-- Alan Colmes, on FOX News

Bill O'Reilly: "(Daily Kos is) like the Ku Klux Klan. It's like the Nazi party."

Stephen Colbert: "Exactly! The Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis were both notorious for allowing people to express unpopular views in an open and free forum. "

-- The Colbert Report

(Bob Costas is a) "little midget man who knows (nothing) about baseball."

-- Barry Bonds, in response to this week's edition of HBO's Costas Now, which discussed Bonds' alleged steroid use

"As anyone can plainly see, I'm 5-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally."

-- Costas

"How do YOU know?"

-- Bonds, to the reporter who relayed Costas' retort

Tracking the sports scandals

Considering little of sporting importance is supposed to happen in July, it's a great month for a vacation, which is why nearly everyone except me takes one.

Only this July has turned out like no other. Indictments, drug scandals and humiliated commissioners -- and no, not talking about Barry Bonds. Hell, Barry looks like a Boy Scout compared to Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy, and that's just the top of the list.

Here's a few quick hits of the month nearly passed. With so much foolishness, maybe all of sports should consider taking some time off:

• The irony of the NBA's crooked referee scandal is that the league's critics have been bashing it for years because its players are too bold, too brash and, let's face it, too black for some people's comfort.

And then it's the clean-cut white guy who ruins the whole thing.

• There's no excuse for dog fighting, but why doesn't everyone get even remotely as outraged about all the pro athletes who beat up women? That's practically an every-week crime.

• I all but gave up on cycling some time ago -- great sport, lots of cheating; even Lance Armstrong was implicated yet cleared -- but how does anyone remain a fan when UCI president Pat McQuaid says the following about Tour de Farce leader Michael Rasmussen: "It would be better if somebody else were to win. The last thing this sport needs is more speculation about doping."

Rasmussen was removed from the race Wednesday.

• And why was anyone surprised by Gary Player's claim that some PGA pros are on the juice, too? People cheat in every walk of life -- religion, charity, government, marriage. Why would golfers tempted by millions of dollars be the only honest bunch left out there?

• Then there's the poor NHL, which can't even get a good scandal going.

• I ruefully admit to watching part of one segment of "Who's Now?," the SportsCenter series so ridiculously bad it makes Chris Berman continuing to ruin the home run derby seem reasonable.

Matt Leinart was up against Tiger Woods (I think) and, I swear, one of Leinart's attributes was that he may have hooked up with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. This was cited as a positive. And Mike Wilbon went along with it. I saw this happen. Really.

That's a wretched two minutes of my life I can never do over.

In August -- maybe even before we exit July -- Bonds will break Aaron's home record, Tom Glavine will get his 300th win, and some of the focus will turn to baseball playoffs and the anticipation of football season. It has to get better for the sporting life -- doesn't it?