State Rep. Dan Branch (R-Dallas) will announce tomorrow that he will seek re-election, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Branch had been considering running for Attorney General, a position that will be open if Greg Abbott runs for higher office as expected.
“I’m running for re-election because I want to continue my work to make Texas the higher learning and research powerhouse our future economy will demand,” Dan Branch, the chairman of the Higher Education Committee, said in a statement that will go out to reporters Thursday. “Our campaign will offer thoughtful solutions that build on a record of results and reflect my vision for an effective and limited state government.”
Even had Branch decided to run, former solicitor general Ted Cruz may been the favorite to win the Republican nomination for Attorney General. Now with Branch out of the race, Cruz, who announced early and has already posted impressive fundraising numbers, will almost certainly be the Republican nominee.
Former U.S. Senate nominee Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who launched her website earlier this week, is the only Democrat to have entered the race so far.
It's only the first day after the July 4th weekend and campaign finance reports don't technically have to be reported until mid month. But that's not stopping the teasing of fundraising numbers from candidates considering running statewide for various offices.
A brief collection of reports so far...
Kay Bailey Hutchisonreleased a YouTube video to say that she has 6,500 donors. No work if that is "to date" or "this quarter" or "total" or "in Texas". I suppose it's time for her to start diversifying from her multi-million transfers of cash from her federal account which made up most of her last report.
Republican Ted Cruz, former Texas solicitor general, reports that he has now raised more than $1 million from over 500 donors across 20 states in a bid for Texas Attorney General. Of course, that's only in the event that incumbent Greg Abbott vacates the seat to run for, say, Lt. Governor which may or may not only happen if incumbent David Dewhurst gets appointed to or runs for Kay Bailey Hutchison's senate seat which may or may not become open depending on when or if she resigns her seat to run for Governor.
According to Quorum Report, Republican Rep. Dan Branch of Dallas says he'll be reporting over $1 million on hand, having raised $600,000 in just seven days (from only 200 donors) during the limited amount of time post session he could fundraise. He's also maybe exploring a run for Attorney General with the same caveats as listed in the above point.
For years, the University of Texas has been trying to amend the top ten percent rule to give them more flexibility in admissions. From my freshman class, 71% of those admitted were admitted by the top ten percent rule. With this year's freshman class, it was 80%. And in the 80th Session, too, the universities got real close. Top 10 Percent reform passed the Senate, and it even passed the House on a second reading -- but it failed on the third reading in the House.
Once again, Top Ten Percent Reform, in SB 175, has passed the Senate. Today it comes up in the House.
Democrats are pretty divided on this issue. The conflicting interests are accessibility (for Texans) and a higher national competitiveness for our Tier 1 universities. The Top Ten Percent Rule has been great for accessibility in that the best students at less privileged inner city schools and rural schools have more easily gotten into the University of Texas (and even Texas A&M).
The University of Texas and fellow proponents of reform have pointed out that the Top Ten Percent Rule has now left UT with much less choice as to who to admit, and the circumstances leave out smart high school students who simply were more dedicated to goals other than their grades. This might not be a problem, either, if UT has not tried to lower the amount of students on campus. The only problem is, the Legislature does not want to fund the University of Texas, so it was hard to keep so many students. Instead, the Lege has decided to work on kinks like this rule to help out.
Unfortunately, as the economy is worse, the current Top Ten Percent Rule will burden UT immensely, and such exclusivity to Texans that would come of it would lessen UT's reputation nationally. Attending this school, and seeing the professors that come here, I know this is one of the very top universities in the country, but not every ranking will show you that. Unfortunately, some students that rank, say, in the 8th percentile of their high school classes while doing little else with their lives come to UT instead of many people in the 12th percentile who are active in their communities. That is why some Democrats and I are on the side of reform. We are all for accessibility, but we want our schools to compete on the highest of levels.
Interestingly, the House Committee Substitute on SB 175 is more lenient to the Universities than the original SB 175 out of the Senate. I presume we will find out later today whether that is more reflective of the House moving towards reform than two years ago (as they were in the 78th and 79th sessions) or if it is more reflective of Higher Education Chair Dan Branch's strong relationship with UT President Bill Powers. I'd bet the latter, but we'll see where amendments go. And we'll see where the final vote ends up.
I imagine if the Committee Substitute from the House Committee on Higher Education passes the House, then a compromise will definitely be reached in the Senate. The Senate passed Top Ten Percent Reform easily for the second year in a row, and I doubt many Senators in a conference committee will have trouble working with a version more lenient to UT and A&M. On the other hand, do not be surprised if amendments in the House change SB 175 to be less lenient to UT and A&M than the Senate version. If a less lenient version passes the House, proponents of SB 175 will still have to lobby hard to get this passed. As we saw in 2007, it's the type of issue that can die quite easily.
In the Senate, everyone who voted against SB 175 was a Democrat. I imagine the same won't be true in the House. Since House districts are smaller, there are many more Republicans who represent entirely rural districts. And the Top Ten Percent rule helps out the rural districts more than urban districts. I think we will learn today a lot about the fate of Top Ten Percent reform, though. We will see how strongly the argument of accessibility for every TYPE of Texan does today.
It was a sea of people. Capitol staffers, reporters, dozens of elected officials from both sides of the aisle, and a few tourist all mixed under the rotunda today.
Every balcony was full with camera flashes and inquisitive pointing.
I sat front and center among TV cameras from across the city and state. Constantly bumped by paper media, citizen journalist and the unfortunate souls simply at the wrong place at the right time.
Because of the size, I broke the press conference into two parts-- Straus and Straus supporters.
The reality of it was that Straus spoke, his supporters from both sides of the aisle spoke, and then he took nearly 5 minutes of questions. The Q&A was particularly interesting because Craddick has avoided cameras since November 2008. Already we see a huge departure of access and transparency in the Speakers office.
Straus has already announced 96 Representatives pledged to support him or roughly 2/3 of the entire House of Representatives. One of the few names surprisingly missing is Rep. Frank Corte who also represents San Antonio. It seems Representative Corte would want a Speaker from San Antonio in order to better serve his district.
(This was written by House Democratic Leader Jim Dunnam, not by a staff writer of BOR. We continue to be proud of our Democratic leaders and look forward to a Democratic Speaker. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
Today, House Democrats stand at 70 seats strong.
No one predicted we would be this strong this fast. Not in 2001, when the Legislative Redistrict Board drew a map designed to elect 98 Republicans -- almost two-thirds of the Texas House. And not in 2002, when 88 Republicans were elected to the House.
I believe the secret to our success rests in our refusal to give up the hard fight for our constituents and our ability to work together. But as we get away from Austin, we don't always know what is going on with our Democratic House colleagues. If you don't know what's happening to our friends, you should.
Here's but one example:
Recently, Rep. Allen Vaught politely declined to meet with a potential opponent of Dan Branch. Allen explained that, in the greater interest of Dallas County, he did not think he should be personally involved in county House races. This is Allen's choice, and certainly understandable.
Imagine Allen's surprise when he received a copy of the invitation to former Rep. Bill Keffer's fundraiser this month. Of course, you can guess correctly that Linda Harper-Brown's name is on it; heck, she did the same against Republican incumbents during the 2006 primaries. But you might be surprised by some of the other host names: Joe Driver, Ken Paxton, Jim Jackson, and Jodie Laubenberg. Oh, and Rep. Dan Branch. But wait, you say, Joe Driver isn't like Harper-Brown? And Paxton has always treated other members with respect, hasn't he? And this is how Mr. Branch says thank you to Allen Vaught?
This is being duplicated across the state. These incidents are neither isolated nor uncalculated. We must recognize the great effort our Republican colleagues are making, as incumbent elected officials, to actively campaign against Democratic House members. We must understand that when our Republican colleagues go after one of us, they are going after all of us. You might be in a safe district and say to yourself, "Well, they are not coming after me," but the truth is that when they attack one of us, they attack all of us. Their goal is to weaken our collective voice by defeating us one by one.
Rumors are that Emil Reichstadt, one of three declared candidates for the Democratic primary for US Senate, will bow out early this week.
I liked Emil Reichstadt personally. I've met him a couple of times and he is a very likeable man. I was never sure of what he could do in this primary but he apparently saw the writing on the wall too and didn't want to ripple the waters.
Instead of pursuing John Cornyn it would appear that the former Army JAG officer is going to take on Republican Dan Branch in HD 108. I'm very pleased to see he will shift resources and stay in the hunt against Republicans one way or another.
In 2006 Dan Branch was oppossed by openly gay Democrat Jack Borden, who ran basically no campaign at all. Even with running no campaign he managed 40.42% of the vote in a strong Republican district.
With the resources that Reichstadt can bring to the table in HD 108 I would expect that those numbers would improve dramatically.
I wish Emil Reichstadt and his campaign all the luck in the world. Give Bush-lite Republican Dan Branch a good run for his money.
The debate can be summed up with Branch's own words, "we can always out sunshine ourselves". Yesterday the House passed House Joint Resolution (HJR) 19, a constitutional amendment that requires each chamber of the legislature to take a record vote on final passage of a bill other than certain local bills, of a resolution proposing or ratifying a constitutional amendment, or of any other nonceremonial resolution, and to publish the record vote on the Internet.
Nobody opposes this first step. The constitutional amendment passed 142 to 0. The problem is, why only third reading? Why stop here?
We are going to require the Secretary of State to spend millions of dollars to put an amendment into our growing state constitution (over 400 amendments and counting). Instead of doing the minimum, our state must shine the spotlight at the heart of the debate. As Mark Veasey pointed out, all the action is in the second reading.
"Do we really want to ask the voters to approve something and then have an election process that's going to cost money, when most of the real debate is [over]?" said Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth.
It's true. The third reading of a bill is hampered with restrictions and barriers to debate. To amend a bill in third reading it takes a 2/3 majority, but in second reading it only takes a simple majority. Where do you think the amendment process happens? Just think back to the long night we call the budget debate. Democrats and Republican offered over 100 amendments until early the next morning all in second reading.
Legislation is typically debated and voted on for two consecutive days. If a bill passes the preliminary vote on the first day, it's almost certain to survive final passage.
Bills rarely die on final passage, though it's not unprecedented. Last week, a bill that would have required anyone to give a police officer their name and address on demand - even those who weren't being arrested - passed easily on a voice vote on the first day of debate.
I need to give a nod to the Morning News because of their hard work on this issue. The Dallas Morning News has been in the thick of this debate since 2003-- listening to Texans, law makers, and testifying.
Texans deserve to see the process and witness the debate. They deserve time to see how their representative voted and why and encourage them to change their mind before third reading.
If we are going to take the time to educate voters on an issue, put HJR 19 on a ballot, and mobilize voters, let's go the distance. Information is key to healthy democracy, and we need to outshine Dan Branch's empty gesture.
(Again great stuff from RBH. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Using the data on the election analysis page (for 2004, I'll update slightly when the 2006 data is posted), here are the 7 Republicans who are in the bluest districts.
Haggerty (HD78), Murphy (HD133), Goolsby (HD102), England (HD106), Harper-Brown (HD105), Latham (HD101), and Branch (HD108).
Haggerty hasn't been challenged by a Democrat since 1998. He was almost unseated in the primary though.
Murphy and Latham are freshmen. Murphy won with 56%. Latham beat an incumbent in the primary and didn't face a Democrat.
Goolsby won with 52%, England won with 49%, Brown won with 55%, and Branch won with 56%.
I've always thought a number of the Republicans in the Lege were prostitutes for James Leininger, but it appears we Democrats have a bona fide ex-prostitute on the ballot: Tom Malin, candidate for State Rep in HD 108.
Turns out Malin, a salesman and former actor, once worked as a male escort. Malin faces Jack Borden in the primary to oust Republican Dan Branch.
But, before Republicans start complaining about Democrats' lack of moral fiber and all of that jazz, note that Malin (who was endorsed by the Dallas Tejano Democrats and the Dallas Morning News) says he has turned his life around and become a Christian. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that at least half of the Republicans campaigning for or in the Texas House right now claim to be "born again Christians," and many Republicans are quite happy to mention their "born again" status, I'm sure the stone throwing will be starting soon.
