The latest in the mayor's race (hold your nose)

Ben Hall still wants to make crime an issue in the Houston mayoral tilt.


Hall doesn't seem to understand why nobody shows up for his grandstanding press conferences at a murder scene.  For the mayor's part, her spokesperson is going to respond anyway, and will worsen matters by being hyper-aggressive about every non-thing Hall says.

(Parker's spokesperson Sue) Davis called Hall's appearance at Denny's despicable and a dishonor to victim Greig Placette.

"He was a friend of mine and he died protecting some children at another table and he was a hero and I am personally offended that Mr. Hall would use Greig's death for a political purpose," said Davis.

I don't wish to minimize the fact that minority neighborhoods in Houston have a disproportionate share of Houston's crime statistics.  Hall, just trying to make something stick at this point, is specifically targeting those residents.  He's hoping that he can increase minority turnout enough to make a strong showing in the runoff, wounding the mayor's re-election bid in the first round simply by placing a not-too-weak second.

The facts: Houston's statistics are contradictory as to whether crime is increasing or decreasing, and any increase in 2013 is probably attributable to Houston's exploding population growth as much as it is anything else.  As UH-D CJ prof Clete Snell put it...

"To take advantage of a decline in crime politically or to try to use an increase in crime politically, I think, indicates a lack of knowledge about how the statistics are developed," Snell said. "There's just many, many factors that can impact the rise or decline in crime."

Again... I'd like to feel something more than embarrassment about the state of play in the mayoral contest.  Both candidates are failing to talk about municipal topics of relevance to a real majority of Houstonians.  Hall isn't going to (perhaps he just can't) and Parker won't because Hall won't force her. The other eight candidates in the race are, as usual, on 'ignore' by the legacy media.  Update: If you've noticed the coverage of the New York mayoral race, with its mention of the multiple challengers just in the Dem primary, then you can understand how badly our local media has let us down in this regard.

Charles dissects Hall's "tuff on crime" tactic, while Stace is making the same point as I am with the mayor's acceptance of the SNAP challenge. And Texas Leftist has the rundown on that.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance sends condolences to Sen. Wendy Davis on the loss of her father as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff encourages Sen. Leticia Van de Putte to join Davis on the Democratic ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor in 2014.

Texpatriate interviews Annise Parker, the mayor of Houston.

Health insurance premiums may go up in Texas. Not because of Obamacare but because Rick Perry and the GOP didn't expand Medicaid. WCNews at Eye on Williamson shows that it's just More of the same from the Texas GOP.

Greg Abbott's appearances on Spanish language media so early in the 2014 gubernatorial campaign reveal he's taking nothing for granted, observes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme knows that Ted Cruz is just another batsh*t crazy Republican. No more. No less. Cruz doesn't care about anybody but himself. Certainly not other Latinos.

Neil at All People Have Value wrote about asking Houston Mayor Annise Parker if she would consider living wage legislation for Houston. All People Have Value is part of the website NeilAquino.com.

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

Offcite continues its look at new school designs with a review of buildings from the 2007 bond referendum.

Jason Stanford marvels at Big John Cornyn's disappearing act, courtesy of his junior colleague.

Better Texas Blog starts the countdown to coverage with an overview of the health insurance exchange marketplace.

Concerned Citizens decries Bible-based bigotry.

Educate For Texas gives an inside look at the so-called "Texas Miracle" in education.

Lone Star Ma commemorates Women's Equality Day.

Texas Living Waters Project explains recent court decisions on groundwater law.

Egberto Willies had a video interview with an African American representative of the Tea Party at a Kingwood festival.

TXSharon at Bluedaze had the news that Josh Fox will be at free screenings of Gasland Part II in San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth later this month.

Grits for Breakfast asks: If Texas justice reforms were so great, why does the state still have the nation's largest prison population?

jobsanger had the poll results that demonstrated an appalling lack of understanding on the part of Americans describing themselves as Democrats and Republicans, and their knowledge about who controls Congress.

And finally, The Texican says that Houston abides.

Sunday Funnies

Nearly half of Texas representatives undecided on Syria vote

"Hey man, is this possible global conflagration interrupting your video poker time? … Y'know what, Senator? Go! There's a Rascal scooter and a bucket of quarters with your name on it over at the Golden Nugget. You can play all the video poker you want. Instead of playing pretend poker in the actual Senate, go to an actual casino and pretend you know what the government should do."

-- Jon Stewart

John Boehner's answer on Syria is to hold more votes to repeal Obamacare

The NSA can access the data stored on your smartphone

Greg Abbott and Spanish language media

This is a very significant development.

In late August, the Austin Spanish-language TV station KAKW Univision 62 announced that it had topped all other broadcast stations, regardless of language, in July sweeps.

That station, along with the Univision stations in Houston and Dallas, was No. 1 among adults ages 18 to 49 in July for total day viewing, prime time and late local news, the network said, citing Nielsen Company ratings.

And nationally, Univision said it made history by finishing the July sweeps period as the No. 1 network in prime time for adults 18 to 49 and adults 18 to 34, the first time it had done so in any sweeps period.

“Número 1 is the NEW #1,” Univision wrote on Twitter in July.

As Texas’ 2014 campaign season heats up, candidates looking to reach Spanish-speaking voters are taking note (of the high viewer ratings Texas Spanish language stations earn), seeking out stations such as Univision even when they don't personally speak much Spanish.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful, appeared in late August on Conexión Texas, a public affairs show that debuted earlier this year on Univision stations around the state. Abbott, who knows some Spanish words but is not fluent, spoke in English as Spanish subtitles appeared on the screen. He talked about being married for 32 years to a Latina, and said he sees a connection between his values and Hispanic values.

Univision is a “huge platform for us,” said Avdiel Huerta, Abbott's campaign press secretary, adding that the campaign also regularly reaches out to the Spanish-language network Telemundo, as well as Spanish-language newspapers. 

Be sure you watch the video at the TxTrib link.

Abbott is demonstrating two things here: when you can raise a million bucks a month, you better not just sit on that wad; and if your party's sorest spot is correspondingly the opposition party's strongest, then go after it hammer and tong.

Oh, one more thing: if the electorate really is this stupid, then it's possible that someone as vile as Greg Abbott can persuade Latinos to vote for him because he's married to one.