Sunday, March 06, 2022
Friday, March 04, 2022
The Weekend Runoff Wrangle
Everybody else has posted their takes and takeaways, so if you're not tired of that yet, I'll get started with the not-trending-but-ought-to-be hashtag.
Blaming the customers is damned poor politics. #FireLongoria https://t.co/ahTxc5SQtp #HouNews #TexasPrimary
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) March 3, 2022
Judge Hidalgo, fresh off a convincing primary win, is going to wait for the investigation to determine precisely what the issues were and what action she should take to fix them. The haste with which she decides will probably be determined by the amount of screeching from her runoff-bound Republican challengers. So thirty days, maybe 60 or 75 (when her fall opponent is chosen) or soon thereafter, because the caterwauling will certainly increase in volume then. Longoria is heavy baggage and getting heavier every day, and the judge doesn't need that.
Besides her more obvious problems, the elections admin has a tin ear for PR.
"Peeing blood"? TMI https://t.co/IUIYzzY9J7
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) March 3, 2022
Anyone working in the central counting station who is urinating blood has a greater health concern than the stress caused by 'voter errors with new machines', and needs to be at the doctor's office stat.
Let me post this in Longoria's defense.
Time it took Harris County to report full midterm primary results after polls closed:
— Zach Despart (@zachdespart) March 4, 2022
'10 - 6 hrs
'14 - 6 hrs
'18 - 7 hrs
'22 - 28 hrs (last of 254 TX counties)
Elections office said this may be new normal. Don't expect biggest TX county to fully report on election night.
Absolutely correct. The days of election returns being mostly in for reporting on the 10 p.m. local news are long gone. Accuracy over speed is the better choice. If we wanted the most secure elections possible, then hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots would be what we ought to do. And everyone sitting around eating cold, shitty, unhealthy food and hitting 'refresh' on the SoS website, and the counties', could find something better to do with their life.
Mrs. Diddie and I had a wonderful, fun, Mardi Gras dinner with lots of booze. We wore masks and toasted our table guests, thanking them for not being those people who kept checking their phones for election results, or the State of the Union, or whether World War Three was about to be launched. (Everywhere else, as they say, it was just another Tuesday; in New Orleans, it was Phat. And unlike the Catholics I didn't have to bother getting up early to get ashes on Wednesday, and I'm not giving up anything for Lent. Religion can be such a downer.)
Conflicting takes on turnout, but the almost-final analysis says it was ahead of 2018 -- the proper comparison -- with the GOP up and the Dems down. Yes, the SB1 suppression effects were felt everywhere but nowhere greater than the mail ballots.
How many Texas voters were effectively disenfranchised by new state ID requirements for mail-in voting won’t be known for another week. https://t.co/FFFgd7pPmm
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) March 3, 2022
Captain Obvious with two weak takes. On to a few results:
As a whole, Harris County criminal court judges came under fire for issues relating to releasing violent offenders on low bonds. https://t.co/xDjsCkO4W1
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) March 3, 2022
This report comes just a little too late for those judges who got turned out yesterday. https://t.co/iaPjctVkqA #HarrisCounty #HouNews #TexasPrimary #TX2022 #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) March 3, 2022
Harris County DA Kim Ogg -- and her minions down the Democratic judicial ballot -- are Republicans in camo. Undervote accordingly in the fall. Houston DSA struck out twice, and I'm truly sorry about that. I don't know if they're falling in the Donkey line for the runoffs or in the fall, but the Texas Greens could sure use their help if they don't (or don't want to). Sure, there's Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros and Claudia Zapata and a few others, but the path to social progress in the Texas Democratic Party leads to the cemetery, and the sooner the younger generation understands that, the better off we all will be.
A personal appeal: Please. For the love of whatever higher power you do or do not believe in, don't waste 45 years of your life trying to change the Dems from within like I did. There just isn't that much time left for starters, and the fact is they don't want to change, and they certainly don't want you trying to change them. Let them fail.
The most competitive US House race in Texas this year could come in the 15th, a South Texas district that stretches from towns east of San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley. Republican Monica De La Cruz, who came within 3 percentage points of defeating Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in 2020, (won) the Republican nomination ... Democrats will choose her opponent on May 24 in a runoff between Ruben Ramirez, an attorney and Afghanistan war veteran, and Michelle Vallejo, a progressive favorite.
More of a Warren progressive than a Bernie one. The 15th is probably flipping blue to red in November no matter who, which is why incumbent Vicente Gonzales is running in the 34th.
Candidate who got 30 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Dem lite gov primary calls on candidate who got 42 percent to drop out of the race https://t.co/2qP7MsoEhG via @houstonchron #hounews
— Matt Schwartz (@SchwartzChron) March 3, 2022
I'm with her. I'll have more on the Dems later, but probably next week, and also some Tweets about the Republican clowns, the cops behaving badly as usual, the environment, and some social justice updates, one of those possible before the Funnies on Sunday.
Tuesday, March 01, 2022
The Fat Tuesday Wrangle from Far Left Texas
The Democratic primary race between the Texas Senate's longest-serving member State Sen. John Whitmire and community organizer Molly Cook is seen by many as a bellwether for the 2023 Houston mayoral race. #txlege #publicpolicy #politics #election #Texas https://t.co/iiXZ4bY0aH
— PLCTexas (@PLC_Texas) February 28, 2022
I don't like Quitmire for a bevy of reasons, and my grudges include his abandoning the quorum-breakers 20 years ago, his calling my side of town a dump when he killed UT's medical school, and his belief in the divine right of prospective H-Town mayors. So I would really like to see Molly Cook pull off the upset today.
Molly Cook, primary foe to @whitmire_john, has filed daily TEC report showing $22,500 in checks from Gilbert Garcia & associates, who've also given to her earlier. Whitmire plans to run next year for Houston mayor, & Garcia, an ex-METRO chair, is seen as a possible rival. #txlege
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) February 25, 2022
Not the kind of insider dope you'll ever read on Off The Kuff. Garcia has been a longtime friend to local bloggers, and despite his nationally-ranked status as a giver to the Democratic Party establishment, could earn this one's seal of approval if he throws in his hat against the Dean in '23.
π΅Texas Democrats Are Out to Prove “Medicare for All” Is a Winning Issue.
— 10 Votes (@10Votes81) February 28, 2022
π¨ @GregCasar ➡️ #TX35
π¨ @JCisnerosTX ➡️ #TX28 https://t.co/lVLgs3NA1k
I am frankly not thrilled with either Cisneros nor Casar because of their groveling before the Israeli lobby. AOC's visit to San Antonio to boost them may have, as the gaggle of state media insiders solemnly and collectively speculated, hurt Texas Democrats generally a bit more than it helped, especially in the RGV. But it's also true that in a midterm when Dems in DC are going to be hosed, these two going to Congress theoretically strengthens a Progressive Caucus that to this point has been long on performative action and short to nonexistent on results. Cisneros only lost to Cuellar by four points two years ago, and his Blue Dog base may be voting in the GOP primary this go-round even if they would be inclined to ignore his oil-soaked, FBI-investigated baggage. But he could easily force a runoff because Tannya Benavides is going to draw some measure of Cisneros support away.
So if I check in on election results between slurps of turtle soup from Brennan's tonight, it will be about these two races, SD-15 and CD-28.
But I'll also be interested to see who prevails in the Congressional 21st ...
ENDORSEMENT: I am so excited to announce that @statesman has endorsed me in #TX21 to be the Democrat to take on Chip Roy!
— Claudia Zapata for TX-21 (@PoderConClaudia) February 24, 2022
π₯ “Zapata…has the most civic engagement and political experience of the Democrats vying to unseat Roy.”
Read more: https://t.co/vcGlRyfxd3 pic.twitter.com/gnMrOU57IP
... and the 15th. Harris County judicial races can wait until tomorrow morning.
Houston has an unusually stark showdown on the ballot next week between reform-minded judges and county prosecutors. The police union has gotten involved, using these Democratic primaries as an opportunity to fight bail reform. https://t.co/b3JyrlOyO3
— Bolts (@boltsmag) February 25, 2022
We're about to find out if the local Donks are regressing to Kim Ogg's "lawn order" position or whether bail reform will progress. My hopes for the latter are not high given the conservative Republican squealing. Be sure and vote for Franklin Bynum if you're casting a ballot today.
Hidalgo: if you work at Kroger, HEB, Fiesta, gas station, bar, clothing store, etc. Others qualify too, including artists - everything eligible is listed on https://t.co/pHxyaoXB9k. This is literally free childcare for up to 12 months. Program has been live since August 2020.
— Rafael Lemaitre (@CJOspox) February 23, 2022
Lina Hidalgo might have to fight through a runoff, and she'll still be a top target for the Rethugs in November whether she does or not. She's done a fine job overall, but I have enough gripes that I could undervote her race in the fall.
No Black person has represented Brazoria County on the state or federal level since 1897. Thanks to new congressional maps, that may be about to change.https://t.co/0pe0B0F7dp
— Texas Monthly (@TexasMonthly) February 22, 2022
Just a sidebar. Certainly not as interesting as both attorney general primaries, but worth noting. Reverend Al might draw a conservative challenger in 2024, and with Trump potentially on the ballot, could be endangered.
That's all for now but I might update here later.