SD-22: Kip Averitt, Darren Yancy, and perhaps some others

State Sen. Kip Averitt of Waco suddenly discontinued his bid for re-election yesterday, citing health concerns.

The decision comes a week and a half after the closing of the filing period to run for state elected office as a Democrat or Republican and leaves Burleson insurance agent Darren Yancy as the sole candidate left to campaign in the GOP primary.

No Democrats have filed to run for Averitt’s seat, which covers McLennan, Coryell, Falls, Bosque, Hill, Navarro, Somervell, Hood, Johnson and Ellis counties.

Averitt, 55, a certified public accountant, has represented Waco since 1992, when he was elected to the state House. He issued a statement to the Tribune-Herald that said in recent years he has struggled to balance health and the interests of his family with his role as a public servant.

“I have been advised that I must now put my health above all else — for me and my family — and it is with deep regret that I announce today the cessation of my Senate campaign,” the release states.

Averitt, a moderate Republican with tenure and respect from colleagues across the aisle, was in line for more power in the upcoming session.

In 2005, Averitt pushed to restore funding and loosen eligibility rules for Texas’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, which had been cut in the previous legislative session. He’s also been involved in crafting the state’s budget.

And as chairman of the influential Natural Resources Committee, he has been a strong voice for the creation of local groundwater-conservation districts and long-term planning of the state’s water.

On Dec. 10, Averitt and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst attended a Tribune-Herald editorial board meeting together. Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, said at the time that Averitt’s name was in the mix to head the powerful Senate Finance Committee in the upcoming legislative session. On Dec. 23, Averitt filed for re-election.

So ... three weeks after filing, and ten days after the deadline, the candidates remaining are Averitt's primary challenger, TeaBaggin' Darren Yancey (disregard the ECO's bragging) and one of two Libertarians that gets chosen at their March 13 convention (Tim Ballard of Cleburne or Ben Faulkner of Red Oak). Harvey Kronberg at Quorum Report has video from Yancey's aborted run at Cong. Chet Edwards:



Harvey also provides this, in a 11:47 p.m. update:

"If Averitt withdraws after winning the primary, then the Republican District Executive Committee (comprised of the County Chairmen from each of the counties SD 22, Sec 171.054) selects his replacement (not the SREC/SDEC); and the Democratic District Executive Committee also gets to nominate an opponent (Sec. 145.036). No litigation necessary."

That's also verified in this update from Michael Shapiro at the Waco Trib:

If GOP voters pick Averitt in the primary and he then withdraws, both parties would have the opportunity to name replacement candidates. Those candidates would be picked by the two parties’ District Executive Committees, which consist of party chairmen from the 10 counties in the district.

This district is pretty solidly red, but Averitt's withdrawal gives Democrats and independents a shot at an unexpected open Texas Senate. More developing.

Update: More inside baseball from the TexTrib.

Haiti

-- Two aggregates, one from Neil at Texas Liberal and one from conservative Blue Dot Blues have links you should follow.  You can simply text HAITI to 90999 and a $10 donation will be forwarded to the American Red Cross and billed to your cell by your provider. As BDB notes, the Red Cross is reporting that they have already extinguished their inventory of medical supplies.

Update: Katie Shellnutt at Believe It or Not posts ...

Apparently all those ten-buck and five-buck donations add up, with the Red Cross earning $1.2 million from texts alone by the end of Tuesday.

-- Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson quickly spewed their hate, and Keith Olbermann just as quickly shut them down.



Text:

"Even the worst of us in this political mosh pit of the early 21st Century can stop on occasion in grief and human sympathy, in mourning, or just in self-preservation. Not Rush Limbaugh, and not Pat Robertson. We'll explore this at length later, but Mr. Robertson, it is laughable now to try to call him Reverend, explained today that this earthquake was the result of a quote "Deal with the Devil" that he claims the nation made in the 19th Century to gain its freedom from France. "True story", Robertson says. Sir, because of your tone deafness and your delight in human misery, and your dripping, self-satisfied holier-than-thou senile crap, I am now likelier to believe that *you* are the Devil."

"Limbaugh, meantime, did not know when to just shut up. Today he blamed "Communism" for the poverty of Haiti, blamed President Obama for holding a news conference the day after this cataclysm, when he did not hold one after the failed, half-assed terror attempt in Detroit, and said Mr. Obama would quote "Use Haiti" to quote "Burnish their shall we say, credibility with the Black community in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned Black community in this country."

"Mr Robertson, Mr. Limbaugh. Your lives are not worth those of the lowest, meanest, poorest of those victims still lying under that rubble in Haiti tonight. You serve no good, you serve no God. You inspire only stupidity and hatred, and I would wish you to Hell. But knowing how empty your souls must be for you to be able to say such things in a time of such pain, I suspect the vacant, purposeless lives you both live now, are Hell enough already."

As did Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States:

"I would like the whole world to know -- America especially -- that the independence of Haiti, when the slaves rose up against the French and defeated the French army -- powerful army -- the U.S. was able to gain the Louisiana territory for $15 million. That's 3 cents an acre. That's 13 states west of the Mississippi that the Haitian slave revolt in Haiti provided ..."

"So, what pact the Haitian made with the devil has helped the United States become what it is."

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Late Night spat

The drama consuming NBC's late night programming has been hard to keep up with ever since rumors spread that Leno was losing his prime time show and returning to late night. The fate, not only of Jay's show, but Conan O'Brien's and Jimmy Fallon's hang in the balance as negotiations continue between the network and its comedy stars.

I'll let you do the clicking and the watching of the videos at the links, but some are do-not-miss; these ...

CBS' late night king David Letterman put his two cents in Tuesday night, saying the entire shuffle is and will cost NBC "Hundreds and hundreds of millions and millions of dollars" and that between Leno and O'Brien it all boils down to money. He also suggested a replacement for NBC's soon-to-be-vacant 10:00 p.m. time slot: "Law And Order: Leno Victims Unit."

... and this one:

Jimmy Kimmel has also come out in support of Conan, going as far as doing his entire show last night dressed as Jay Leno.  With prosthetic chin and all, Kimmel mocked Leno's lack of scruples over the switch: "Conan O'Brien today announced that he is leaving NBC. He released a statement today that said, 'I won't participate in the destruction of the Tonight Show.' Fortunately though - I will!", he mocked.

The (coldest) Weekly Wrangle

With blue lips and chattering teeth, the Texas Progressive Alliance brings you a hot steaming mug of blog highlights for the week.

This week on Left of College Station: the filling deadline has ended and the primaries in the Brazos Valley are crowded with candidates. Also take a look at who tweets among the primary candidates for Texas Congressional District 17 and which does not want Left of College Station to follow their tweets. Teddy also posts about the modern day slavery of human trafficking, and how Houston has become one of the biggest hubs for the modern day slave trade. L o C S also covers the week in headlines.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the Texas GOP's inability to govern and the opportunities that provides for Democrats: GOP divisions can bring Democratic gains in Texas.

The Denton County candidates are ready to go at the Texas Cloverleaf.

How does Texas compare with other states? A statistical analysis with graphs reveals the truth at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Off the Kuff has a modest suggestion for how to handle Harris County's current budget shortfall.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme agrees it's time to put our money in community banks.

Thinking and acting both locally and globally, Neil at Texas Liberal sent membership donations to both Greenpeace and the Democratic Women of Denton County.

After a noted anti-gay and Republican activist filed to run as a Democrat against an unchallenged incumbent GOP county commissioner, investigation determined that the man used the wrong address and was disqualified from the ballot. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more on the story.

Bay Area Houston nominates Dave Wilson for the "Dripping with Hypocrisy" award with One Man. No Woman.

WhosPlayin has the story of a public servant who manages a $13 million facility, where he works for the taxpayer by day, and for the private club that rents the facility at night.

McBlogger sees some problems with Sen. Hutchison's ad taking on Gov. 39% and some of the people making excuses for 39%.

A big bag of postpourri

-- Harry Reid was racially insensitive.   Trent Lott was racist.  Not at all surprised that conservatives don't know the difference.

There is a BIG difference between praising a segregationist in public like Lott did, and Reid's making, in private, a racially insensitive comment while praising and welcoming the candidacy of the man who would go on to become the first African American President of the United States.

Reid's choice of words shows that when it comes to race and discussing African Americans, he is very unenlighted. THIS DOES NOT MEAN HE IS RACIST, it just means this guy, who it should be pointed out enthusiastically campaigned for Obama, has a long way to go when it comes to learning how to discuss race. His heart is most likely in the right place, his mouth and vocabulary? Not so much.

Lott on the other hand made a point to say that if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948 "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." Thurmond ran a presidential campaign on a segrationist platform in 1948 and on the campaign's plank remarked "all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."

When Michael Steele -- who recently came under criticism himself for using the phrase "honest injun" -- OR ANYONE ELSE advances the notion that there is any comparision between Reid's and Lott's comments, they show themselves either to be ignorant or worse; they show themselves as folks who will seek to exploit discussions of race as a launching pad to provoke racial division.

Update: Hal at Half Empty has more.

-- Visit my friend Michele's (yes, he's French) excellent blog Miss Welby.

-- If the Supreme Court rules in favor of corporations' political spending as free speech, then we will be one more giant leap down the road to American fascism.

If this vision becomes reality, businesses and other big-money players will spend billions either hyping their preferred candidates or running attack ads against elected officials who don't support their preferred agenda. Voters will be forced into a couch-potato role, mere viewers of the electoral spectacle bought and paid for by wealthy companies.

The Supreme Court's decision in the hotly anticipated campaign finance reform case Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission -- which may be announced as early as Tuesday -- will show whether a majority of the Roberts court is buying their argument.

-- Dennis Hopper is dying of prostate cancer.

-- Kelly Fero's memorial service yesterday included this reading of Che Guevara's last letter to his children:

If one day you must read this letter, it will be because I am no longer with you. You practically will not remember me, and the smaller ones will not remember me at all.

Your father has been a man who acted on his beliefs and certainly has been faithful to his convictions.

Grow up as good revolutionaries. Study hard so that you can master technology, which allows us to master nature. Remember that the Revolution is what is important, and that each of us, alone, is nothing.

Above all, try always to be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

Until forever, my children. I still hope to see you.

A big kiss and a big hug from Papa.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre.

-- Read this excerpt of John Heilemann's book about John and Elizabeth Edwards and the collapse of his 2008 presidential campaign, replete with the tales of Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth's cancer, and more behind the scenes. I didn't think I was capable of being shocked by this sordid episode any more, but this certainly did the trick.

-- The bra-color Facebook meme is tiresome already.

-- The most powerful man in American media and politics simultaneously is Roger Ailes.  No one disputes this. The question -- even among scions of Rupert Murdoch -- is whether, despite the enormous profits, this is a good thing.

-- The inventor of Gumby passed away. Art Clokey originally fashioned Gumby's crooked head after his deceased father's Conan O'Brien-styled hair swoop. Clokey was placed in an orphanage shortly after his father's death when his stepfather forced his mother to choose between them. He was adopted at age 11 and encouraged by his adoptive father to expand his artistic horizons.  As an adult he managed a little controversy as well.

-- When Mary Matalin and Dana Perino and Rudy Giuliani all claim that there were no terrorist attacks during George Bush's terms, that's not stupidity or even a mistake; that's premeditated.

Not only does the statement suggest Giuliani does not remember the devastating attack in his own city, it also omits the anthrax attacks and the attempted shoe bomber attack.

A day earlier, Giuliani falsely claimed that the shoe bomber attack occurred before September 11th.

Curiously, the Associated Press did a long write-up of Giuliani's Obama criticisms but omitted the startling mistake. George Stephanopoulos, who conducted the ABC interview, included the quote in a blog post but did not question it.

 This demonstrates again that Republicans are repeating lies as often as they can get away with in order that they become the "truth".

And when the media refuses to challenge them, then our democracy is failed.

Update: Harold Cook at Letters from Texas ...

In political messaging, one person misspeaking is a mistake. Two misspeaking is a concerted coordinated trend, and thinking, patriotic Americans should call them on their lies every time they attempt them. Those who seek to re-write this history only serve to so utterly mask the roots of our life-threatening challenges that they themselves put Americans at further grave risk.

And what of the so-called "reporters" interviewing these liars? Best I can tell from the video clips, neither Perino's or Guliani's false claims were at all challenged by their interviewers. Of course, Perino's interview was on FoxNews, which is to political news coverage what pro wrestling is to sports - it's not real, they just want you to think it is.