BOR Endorsements: Election Day

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Apr 11, 2006 at 01:48 AM CDT

The following are written after consulting the full BOR writing crew. Among those that responded, the general feeling was divided, but hardly out of strong opinions (different in each case). So weighing those, here are the remaining Burnt Orange Endorsements.

Lt. Governor: Ben Z. Grant

Marked by a lack of campaign news a notch above Gene Kelly and a level of caring among activists about as high, our endorsement of Ben Grant is hardly one of a hard-line nature.  A teacher, Grant has served the state in public service as a State Rep for 10 years, six of those as Chair of the House Judiciary Cmte., District 71 Court Judge, and 17 years as a Judge of the Sixth Court of Appeals. A member of the Dirty 30 Reform group, Grant can add to the ethics message for November's election. He's also been endorsed by the Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and other state papers.

Simply put, Grant can stand up to Dewhurst in experience as a candidate, having already served the state, bringing a certain level of credibility and fundraising ability to the race, something lacking in his opponent Maria Alvarado, the remaining candidate of a pair of Alvarado's, one of which never made it on the ballot.  While some feel that we should toss away the Lt. Gov position in order to aid Bell in the governor's race with a Hispanic candidate to aid turnout, we disagree with the notion.  Alvarado, while a fine woman with a noble calling to service, cannot match Grant or Dewhurst in background or experience and with little to no money will have a marginal effect on any race. It will only be seen by the media and most Texans as feeding the narrative that Democrats "gave up" this year in state elections as viewed by our slate of nominees.

Texas House District 47: Valinda Bolton

While opinions were more available for this race, many are supportive of the quality of both candidates and cautious to endorse at all, prepared to support either nominee 100% in November.  That being taken into account, BOR endorses Valinda Bolton in today's primary over Jason Earle.

Surprising most by becoming the lead vote-getter in March, Bolton made wise use of her more limited funds (1/3 that of Earle) with volunteers, the Statesman and Chronicle endorsements, and TV to get her this far. Having also been endorsed by the Sierra Club and Annie's List (among many others), Valinda has brought the type of ground game to this race which will be needed heading into November to upset either Alex Castano or more likely Bill Welch, avidly anti-choice Republicans in an area similar to Donna Howard's more pro-choice district.

District 47 has also proven to be more favorable electorally to Democratic women, an advantage she can easily press this fall. Her background with Domestic Violence solutions and programs, adds a needed perspective to a House chamber that must realize that funding our social services and health care system are related to healthy and safe families, which make for a more economically viable Texas.

Texas House District 42: Richard Raymond

Current Representative Raymond missed winning his primary against 3 opponents outright by less than .2% of the vote.  We see no reason at this time to encourage anyone to replace him in representing his South Texas district. In 2 years, he may run against Cuellar (as he almost did this year) and for that alone 2 more years in the Texas House on his resume would be worth it.  He has our full endorsement.

Texas House District 146: Borris Miles

Borris Miles finished 2nd to Blogosphere favorite (in a bad way) Rep. Al Edwards, most widely known for his sponsorship of the "Sexy Cheerleader" bill last session. Often named 'furniture' by Texas Monthly and a water carrier at times for Speaker Craddick, it's hard for any of us not to support his ouster, even if it means Pink Dome loses half their traffic.  Borris Miles is a fully competent candidate with the backing of local blogger Greg Wythe who has supported him from the beginning. If you live in Houston, this is the race for you. Let's clean up our caucus if we can.

Statewide Candidate Websites

by: SADem

Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 06:58 PM CST

Maybe it's just me, but I wish Ben Grant would get a better website.  He's a candidate for statewide office (the most powerful in Texas) and his website just doesn't seem to convey that.  I know it has the under constuction picture on it, but still.

And while we're on the subject, Barbara Radnofsky's website still looks like the top part is being cut off. Is this intentional?

With websites being so important in campaigns, maybe the Democratic Party could hire some web designers to help candidates with their website designs and upkeep.

The Filibuster for Independence begins this Friday, March 3

by: PDiddie

Mon Feb 27, 2006 at 11:27 AM CST

In 1836 the founders of Texas declared and won their independence from dictatorship and entered the community of nations. In our day the people of Texas must again win their independence from the modern dictatorship of corruption, cronyism, and corporate government. We have a Constitution to save!

Please join Democratic Attorney General Candidate

DAVID VAN OS

in honoring the

170th Anniversary of the Texas Declaration of Independence

by conducting a

24-hour Filibuster for Independence

at the seat of Texas government on the State Capitol grounds.

Commencing 6:00 pm, Friday March 3
continuing until 6:00 pm, Saturday March 4

APC Endorsements

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Sat Feb 11, 2006 at 07:29 PM CST

Senate: Barbara Radnofsy
TX-10: Ted Ankrum
Governor: Bob Gammage
Lt. Gov: Ben Z. Grant
Ag. Comm: Hank Gilbert
299th Dist. Court: Charlie Baird
Cnty. Court at Law #2: Eric Shepperd
Cnty. Comm. Pct. #4: Margaret Gomez

In the County Commission Pct 2 race, CAD endorsed Sarah Eckhardt, and UDems went to 2 run-off votes where incumbent Karen Sonleitner was endorsed by a margin of one vote.

In the HD-47 race, CAD endorsed Valinda Bolton where UDems endorsed Jason Earle (by a margin of 4).

Some interesting points to note... Judge Charlie Baird won 100% of the vote in both groups.  While Chris Bell came all the way from the Houston Tejano Democrats state convention today to speak to us, Bob Gammage won by fairly healthy margins from what I've heard in both groups, led in part by speeches from former Chris Bell supporters who I worked with back when University Democrats helped launch the Bell campaign here at UT in August of 2005.  Oh the irony... 

Speaking of the Tejano Democrats convention, where Bob Gammage stayed for the day, a little scuttlebutt on that made its way to Austin this afternoon.  Apparently it was decided in the late afternoon that the Tejano Democrats as a statewide organization was not going to issue and endorsement in the Governor's race and voted instead to allow each individual chapter to make its own mind. 

The result?  Every local Tejano Democrats chapter except for Houston's, voted to endorse Bob Gammage.  Apparently there was some internal wrangling on behalf of one of the gubernatorial campaigns which was working to not seat all the clubs due to technicalities in their paperwork, which resulted in a motion to localize the endorsements away from Houston control.  (I'll update if I hear more that clarifies this situation).  It is held by many that the Tejano Democrats are more active and valuable in terms of their endorsement than the Mexican-American Democrats who splinted away from the former body a number of years ago due to leadership and naming issues.