Ok, I admit it. I was out sick last week. And today I wake up to find, what? That Sylvester Turner is considered an alternative (?) to Craddick? In 2006, even with the House turned what we would call upside down, the Dems put up a real fight for Speaker of the House, with even some Republicans puttting Committee Chair postitions on the line to overthrouw Craddick. Yet, thanks to the right-of center D's lead by Sylvester Turner himself, Craddick prevailed. Heads rolled. Even birds died in Austin.
And one of the bills sponsored by Turner that year....A tribute to Al Edwards years of service.....
IMHO...'Nuff said.
Reference: Birds died in Austin: (http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2007/01/08/drivers_should_avoid_congress.html) (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA011207_01B_Rodriguez_304bea5_html6723.html)
Tune into 91.7FM KOOP Radio today (Fri., Nov. 14th, 2008)from 2:00pm-3:00pm to hear Deece Ecksetin and David Kobierowski discuss the speaker's race with former Speaker of the TX House Pete Laney, TX Monthly President and Editor Evan Smith, and Austin American-Statesman political writer Laylan Copelin.
This will be a live interview.
If you can't get the FM signal from where you are, you can also catch it streaming live at www.koop.org between 2:00-3:00pm.
(Bill Dingus it the Democratic nominee against Tom Craddick. At least I think. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
A Message to House District 82 and All Texans
Why it is necessary that I sue the Texas Democratic Party.
From the beginning of this campaign, I have said that I am running to give the people of House District 82 a choice in who represents them in the Texas House.
And from the beginning, the Republican Party - with Tom Craddick operating in the background - has worked to deny the voters a choice.
As you may recall, when I filed to run for State Representative an attorney advised me that I could continue to serve on the Midland City Council because a federal court ruling superseded provisions of the state constitution. However, a federal judge later issued an order counter to this attorney's advice. The judge's ruling did not remove me from the ballot, but it has left my campaign in legal limbo.
After the ruling came out, the Texas Republican Party issued a press release crowing about its "victory." In my book, denying the voters a choice is not a victory, but a suppression of democracy.
Believing the judge in error, the Texas Democratic Party appealed that decision last Friday. However, my campaign is still in limbo and it is now clear that I can only resolve this issue by going to court.
I must act quickly, as there is a deadline looming - August 22. If the Republican leaders were to succeed in kicking me off the ballot after that date, the Democratic Party would be unable to replace me, and the Republican Party will have succeeded in denying the people a choice.
The facts are staggering. Close to 3 million Texans voted in the Democratic primary. More than 1.1 million went back Tuesday night to the caucuses. This extraordinary day and night was felt everywhere.
It is the proverbial thunder over the hill. Democrats are back. Everywhere.
There is a lot of loud whistling in the dark from Tom Craddick supporters about whether they gained votes or didn't lose votes or were given a low bail-bond to get out of electoral jail temporarily. And it's true that some Craddick-Ds won, but not because Democrats had a referendum on Craddick.
Instead, it's because Democrats attracted more than a million new and just-getting-informed voters to the polls. Would it have been better if anti-Craddick D's had won? Of course.
A million new people suited up as Democrats for battle. They haven't yet aimed their weapons at the most corrupt House leadership in Texas history. But that clicking sound is the sound of a million hammers being pulled back.
And by the way, as Phil wrote below, there were no real gains by Craddick. And Democrats had already gained three anti-Craddick votes since the session through special elections and party switching.
Would it have been possible to inform these new voters? The truth is, given the short fuse on this primary -- we only knew a few weeks ahead of time that the presidential hurricane was coming here -- it is highly doubtful that resources could have been marshaled. Craddick cronies were a bit lucky. They were already trying to buy their way out of trouble. And the massive spending by his corrupt contributor network just bought themselves a lot more scrutiny in November.
Brief tactical note: It's quite obvious these new voters are not political junkies, they are concerned and engaged citizens. They are not watching Hardball or Olbermann. Communicating with cable t.v. alone will not be sufficient to turn new and low information voters into repeat, high information voters.
To compare, Rick Noriega won without a runoff in this context of new, low-information voters. He spent his money on the networks. Which these new voters are watching.
Let's see. Ah yes, the politics of divisiveness and fearmongering? CHECK.
A sampling of the hate-mail we're seeing in HD99 to unseat Charlie Geren in the primary, from Dr. Tom's west-coast consultants. The very same who happen to be serving all of the Tom Craddick loyalists challenging in the primaries and general elections this year.
The Divisive Hate Mail:
Illegal Immigration? Apparently Charlie just loves Illegal Immigrants, much more than Texas.
Good Time Charlie. I'm Sorry - what the #%@#? Dr Tom accuses Charlies of putting drunk drivers behind the wheel. Charlie's Railhead *yum yum* closes at 9pm.
Babies (Roe v Wade)? Charlie apparently hates babies too. They actually put Roe v Wade on the mailer.
When Dr. Tom knocked on Sheila's door in December, with no list apparently, the "facts" on this good-time Charlie message nonsense were at the forefront of his answer to Sheila's query of "Why do you hate Charlie?"
Hey, if Dr. Tom doesn't ask or know who he's talking to while blockwalking...
Hey Dr. Tom, where do you stand on school vouchers? It's fun to see a Craddick loyalist squirm. (Yes - she did ask, Yes - he did avoid the answer and walk away)
Well it didnt take long for Craddick and his Republican buds to start hiding their money to Craddick D's Kino Flores, Aaaron Pena, and Kevin Bailey. On January 10, Craddick sent $250,000 to the Texas Job and Opportunity Build PAC ("Craddick's Hand Job"). On 1/11/08, with no other funds, the PAC sent $50,000 to each of the 3 Craddick D's.
Bailey even listed the contribution from Craddick's Hand Job as of January 9, 2008, before the PAC had any funds.
Bailey raised 90% of his money on the 30 day report from Craddick's Hand Job, Texans for Lawsuit Reform ($25,000), and Dwayne Henson (a developer bud of Bailey's).
Hillco PAC, Speaker's Craddick's trojan horse, is up to its same old trick: cleaning up Bob Perry's Republican money and giving it to Craddick Ds. In 2007, Kevin Bailey got $21,000 from Hillco, Kino Fliores $11,000 and Dwanna Dukes $10,000. Bailey would have essentially a zero cash balance without Hillco, the Speaker's closest lobbyists.
Bob Perry, the largest donor in Texas and the nation, gave $125,000 to Hillco PAC so far in 2007 and over $1.2 million since 2000. Shameless.
I've just written up a piece on the errors of parliamentary procedure that have been occurring over the past few days. I want to quote a part of that article here, for a very important purpose: Rep. Dunnam asked if there is "any recourse" to the chair's refusal to recognize the will of the body. All manuals of procedure I know of do give a way -- extreme, no doubt -- of circumventing the speaker when he no longer represents the will of the body. I quote the article's conclusion here:
House Speaker Craddick blamed winter storms Thursday for his inability to announce Committee Assignments as planned. Due to icy conditions, the Speaker claims he was unable to meet with key House members and as a result, the Assignment Announcement was postponed indefinitely.
The Statesman, however, reports that there may be a different motive behind the delay;
Given that 68 House members signaled their opposition to Craddick's re-election on Jan. 9, Craddick promised in the election aftermath to be kinder-and-gentler in running the House, listening more to the members than ramrodding his agenda.
The delay, according to Craddick loyalists who sought anonymity because their committee assignments are in play, is prompted more by his longest-serving allies feeling they are not getting enough in return for their loyalty. As Craddick told members of his new team what their assignments would be, the word trickled out to other members. Some weren't satisfied. Craddick is finding it hard to please everyone-or at least the 80 members who stuck with him.
Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, is questioning Craddick's motives. "He's not kinder and gentler," said Talton, who voted against Craddick. "He's just trying to be smarter."
As we read daily reports of new bills filed in the Senate, the days roll on without any sign of progress in the House. What appears to be bitter infighting and an overall lack of Republican leadership continues to prevent our state from seeking the Legislative attention it deserves.
Though it is far from the list we would like to provide, The Statesman tells us:
On Wednesday, sources close to the process said two Central Texas Democrats, Dawnna Dukes of Austin and Patrick Rose of Dripping Springs, would get key assignments on appropriations and human services, respectively. The other Craddick loyalists in the Central Texas delegation, Republicans Mike Krusee and Dan Gattis, both of Williamson County, would stay on transportation and appropriations, respectively.
Committee assignments are rumored to be coming down Thursday. So very soon, we will know if the Craddick Alley Cats will get their turkee.
What lies in store for those Democrats so enamored with Craddick that 100,000 of children are freed from the need to apply for Health Insurance -b/c there isn't any? God only knows. But, I imagine that for this year there will be a record number of appointments of Democratic Chairmen chosen to lead Republican controlled committees.
So, what is their collective 30 pieces of silver for betraying their constituents needs so egregiously? Whatever it is; it won't be worth a nickel to make Texas a better place.
Many voted to protect their chairmanships. Others may have voted to protect god only knows what. I will not conjecture about the motives of my elected betters. Call me a petty jerk, but each one of those turn coats is a breathless, panting high school heather hoping against hope that the captain of the football team Tom Craddick will notice the color of their lip gloss.
But to be clear, horribly clear, but for the personal avarice of these members, Texas might have become a better place to live, learn, and work.
After the flip there will be a table that you may use to track the upward mobility of these Craddick Alley Cats.
Warning: this entry is long and possibly only interesting to me.
