Monday, June 07, 2021

Lone Star Election News Round-up


I'll start with the municipal runoffs that concluded over the weekend.  First, from Fort Worth and the mayor's race there:


It didn't get any closer after they counted Election Day votes.  Bud Kennedy wrote about the importance of not losing the office for Tarrant County Repubs.

The biggest win for the Texas Pachys came in the Valley again.


Send congratulations to Gilberto Hinojosa once more.

The news was better in Alamo City council runoffs.


District 2 challenger Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 5 candidate Teri Castillo won their runoff races Saturday, adding two young, progressive voices to the San Antonio City Council on Saturday ...

McKee-Rodriguez, a 26-year-old teacher, defeated the woman he used to work for, Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan, who was seeking a second term. He will be the first openly gay man to serve on City Council ...


Castillo, a 29-year-old urban historian and substitute teacher, outpaced retiree Rudy Lopez in early vote results and held her lead through the rest of Saturday night. She and McKee-Rodriguez both ran on progressive platforms and were endorsed by the Texas Organizing Project (TOP), the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio, and the San Antonio chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Castillo will find another colleague who prioritizes environmental issues in newcomer Mario Bravo, an Environmental Defense Fund project manager who defeated (three-term incumbent Roberto) Treviño.

Castillo was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders, both Castro brothers, and their mother Rosie.  Together with incumbent John Courage's re-election, the San Antonio City Council is by far the most progressive in the state.  Very impressive.


Moving on to 2022 statewides and Greg Abbott's announced challengers and potential ones.  Let's begin in the GOP primary.


If Miller runs against Abbott -- some rumors swirl that he might throw his extremely large hat into the ring against Dan Patrick -- he would join Don Huffines in vying for the MAGAt vote.  Trump, as you likely know, endorsed the governor last week.


West might run for Congress; speculation again suggests that he has been offered a favorable re-draw of TX-32 (Colin Allred is the incumbent).  Texas D Congress members will lose seats in '22, and not just in the RGV because of regional dysfunction there, but because what may be happening with West will happen for others after the second special session in the fall.


And then there's Beto.  ICYMI ...


SB7, or whatever it will be called in the first special, will pass.  Beto won't run.  Neither will Julian Castro.  Next?

There's just too much to write about George Pee Bush and Ken Paxton -- and for that matter, Joe Jaworski --  so I'll also do a shorter post on what will very possibly be the marquee statewide race next year.  That is to say, without some big name running for governor, which I candidly doubt will happen.  Even AllRight x3 isn't that stupid.

So how about some more disgusting Congresscritter news?


Congress is going to flip in 2022, both House and Senate, unless the Donks and Joe Biden can pull their shit together.  Then again, they'll have all the excuses they need to shrug and say, 'well, we just can't get anything done because of those mean ol' Republicans'.  In other words, nothing will fundamentally change from now.

Seizing the day, early-bird TX Rethugs are plucking worms and jumping into new races.


Finally, Dallas Democrats filled their vacancy in the county chairwomanship, and ...


Evbagharu explained his candidacy in that Medium post.  Frankly I'll be surprised if the powers that be -- Gerry Birnberg and Dave Matthiesen -- don't find another lackey to install over him, but we'll see.

Still working on eco- and social justice collations.
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The #87th Lege Autopsies Wrangle from Far Left Texas



Some things can still take your (or at least my) breath away, and that scene -- on Sine Die a week ago -- was one.  Speaker Phorehead was pilloried by the Trump faction inside and outside the Capitol; Lt. Dan got in his licks, but the Beaumont Hi-Brow returned fire.


They blamed staff -- clerks and those who verify their work -- for mistakes, but they also lied about typographical errors.


Mostly they blamed each other, but they also blamed anybody and everybody but themselves for failing to pass legislation that would've let them brag even more about being "tha Mos' Cunservative".




Yeah, it's always somebody else's fault.


More election news in the next post, followed by environmental, then social justice, and maybe some more, all separate as I play a week's worth of catch-up.


Yes, we all have known this for quite some time now, Cillizza.  Little slow on the uptake, dude.  Still, I suppose it bears repeating for the exceptionally "special" learners among us (like the TXGOP).

The elephants plan on taking their revenge in special session.




I'll also break out Greg Abbott's week in a stand-alone post.

So we know what the Lege did, and did not, accomplish before the curtain came down on the 87th.  Let's review anyway.


Looking forward to more stories like this one.


I suppose that will wrap this for now.  Here's a few calm-me-downs.


Lots more on the way.
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Sunday, June 06, 2021

Sunday "Still Has Dem in It" Funnies



Federal judge overturns California's 32-year-old ban on assault weapons

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Wednesday, June 02, 2021

The king is dead. Long live the king

Mood.


Indeed, Alexa Ura tweets for all of us, and about the entire legislative session now finally over.  It was not a slog or a grind, it was a death march.  And like all Trails of Tears, the trauma continues long after they end.


Biden's passed the buck to VP Harris, who's already trying to escape the last quagmire he dumped in her lap (the border crisis).  And as long as Joe Manchin is king of the Senate, how much do you think is going to happen?  Really, we can have voting rights or the filibuster, and the status quo means 59-41 is still a losing score for Senate Democrats.

Good times.

Meanwhile Supreme Commander Abbott will strike out the pay of those who labored through this 140-day nightmare ...


... and if you thought he had finished off all his Haterade, you had better think again.


After securing Trump's endorsement in his 2022 re-election bid -- neutering Sid Miller and the rest of the Super Goon Squad -- Governor Helen Wheels is going on offense again, changing the subject from his fails at the Lege.


His chances of sweeping back into the Governor's Mansion for another four years just increased dramatically.  More politics in the next post.


Progress Texas posted their ten best and worst moments, but stuck to their usual "Democrats good, Republicans bad" script.  A fresh exception was the dishonorable mentions of Sen. Ed Lucio and Rep. Harold Dutton.  But there were plenty more bad Donkeys in this session, and some of them were your favorites.


(In a Svitek update, Minarez and Bernal apparently intended to vote against, and had that corrected.)


Accurate.  They killed some decent bills along with the bad, and SB7 will be brought back from the dead in a special.


Robert Rivard at the San Antonio Report had his fill of the 87th and the bizarre priorities of the state's leaders.  Reform Austin condemned the lack of action on fixing the power grid.  Jessica Montoya Coggins, blogging for the Texas Signal, offered some advice about accessing an abortion now that SB8 passed.  And Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast abandoned bipartisanship and called it what it is: fascism.

Harvey Kronberg also came up from the bipartisan ether.


So with a lot more to blog, let me post some of the other items, good and sad.


On a much-needed lighter note, The Great God Pan Is Dead introduces you to Houston's notorious "Darth Vader House", which is now on sale for the low, low price of $4.3 million.

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