TX State Legislator Donna Howard speaking on "Education Policy" , Aug. 18th, 6pm-8pm, Travis County Democratic Issues/Policy Forum!!
What: We'll network and present the issues and policies important to Travis County, important to TX, including Barack Obama's policy. We'll share, learn, frame, and market the issues. TX State Legislator Donna Howard will speak from 6:15pm to 7:00pm on Education Policy. 7:00pm-8:00pm is "Democratic Citizen Communication" where you present your issues important to you as a Democrat!
When: Mon., Aug. 18th, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Where: Travis County Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign Headquarters, 1107 N. I 35, Austin, TX (next door to CVS, in old Safeway Building at 12th and I-35)
Who: Anyone interested in networking with fun, cool, energizing, like-minded Democrats, and learning about the policies and issues important to our city, our state, and our nation heading into the November TX elections. 2nd hour is a "Democratic Party Town Hall Meeting".
Cost: FREE
You're welcome to bring food/drinks to share and bring your laptop (Laptop not mandatory).
Best,
David Kobierowski
Travis County Democratic Party Issues Committee Chair
Cleanair999@yahoo.com
Phil mentioned the first of what seems like very good numbers for Democrats.
With the TexBlog PAC endorsed Chris Turner mind blowing fundraising coming in at nearly a quarter million dollars, it seemed like he was the House candidate to beat. Well, Juan Garcia has done just that.
Garcia is announcing $520,000 cash on hand.
"I'm deeply gratified by the strong support I'm receiving from people who want to continue moving forward, not backward," Garcia said.
Garcia's contributions for the reporting period from January through June of this year came from 409 individual donors, with more than 90 percent raised in Texas, he said.
The largest single donation came from HEB chief and public education champion Charles Butt, who donated $75,000 during the first half of this year and $25,000 in the previous reporting period, for a total contribution of $100,000 in the current re-election campaign.
Donors who gave Garcia $1,000 or more this period include such business leaders as Tony Lamantia, CEO of L & F Distributors; developer Duane Scheumack of Scheumack Investments; restauranteurs Woo Sung Lee of Boat and Net restaurants and Randy Maldonado of Pete's Chicken-N-More; Sam Susser of Susser Holdings; CPA Scott Turner; engineers Dan Leyendecker and John Michael; and architects Bibiana Dykema and Raymond Gignac.
Sixteen medical doctors from House District 32 have also donated to Garcia's campaign, reflecting his strong support for health insurance reform. He has also been endorsed by the influential Texas Medical Association, which represents more than 42,000 physicians around the state.
In addition, State Senator Carlos Uresti, U.S. Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, and former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes also made contributions.
Austin State Rep Donna Howard has some impressive numbers too.
State Representative Donna Howard today filed her latest financial report, showing nearly $161,000 cash on hand as she heads toward the traditional start of the fall campaign season.
[...]
Howard's report shows that she raised $89,915.08 from 190 individual contributors between January 2008 and June 2008. She has $160,868.91 cash on hand and has scheduled numerous fundraisers to make sure she has the resources for a winning re-election campaign.
Our State Senate candidates seem to be doing well too. Joe Jaworski had an early present when a poll revealed fewer than one-third of voters in SD 11 approve of "Toxic" Mike Jackson's job performance. The same poll showed the race in a statistical dead heat and also that Jaworski is commanding a margin of more than 20 percent among independent voters, a critical component of the electorate this year.
Now Jaworski is reporting some solid fundraising numbers.
Texas Senate candidate Joe Jaworski today said that he will report raising more than $801,000 from 1,267 individual contributors in his race thus far, capping another successful fundraising period.
[...]
Jaworski will report a total of $801,218 raised to date, including $345,209.50 during the first six months of this year. His latest report shows more than $410,390 cash on hand after winning his primary race in March.
Larry Joe Doherty had some great numbers to report too. First some good poll numbers came out for LJD, then the Cook Political Report upgraded the race for Democrats, and now Doherty has some cash to spend going into the summer months.
Larry Joe Doherty, Democratic nominee in the 10th Congressional District, will report receiving over $247,000 in campaign contributions from 520 individuals since March 31st, more than doubling his cash-on-hand from the previous reporting period to $259,792.
[...]
Two recent polls put McCaul's lead in single digits. Doherty's internal campaign polling by Goodwin Simon Victoria Research, found McCaul's job approval at an anemic 28%, with 47% of constituents not recognizing McCaul's name. The poll also found George Bush with a disapproval rating of 70%. Full analysis is available here.
The filing deadline is just moments away, and it looks like we are going to have a lot of good news going into Netroots Nation.
Watch two of our great Travis County state representatives (Rep. Howard previously endorsed Clinton, Rep. Strama was one of Obama's early Texas backers) have a conversation about the importance of unity this November.
It is nearly 1AM here at the SD14 caucus. While all of the Travis County state representatives joined us earlier in the day, only one remains.
Donna Howard, who introduced a motion to allow for Clinton and Obama delegates to share committee assignments in SD14 just a few hours ago, is still going strong. There's not too many state reps who would stay with their fellow delegate this late into the night.
You know Democrats are excited for this fall when even our elected officials are hanging around this late.
(And I'm sure there are other elected officials who are still here, too. Rep. Howard just stood out for her clear enthusiasm and engagement in the process.)
In the SD14 caucus, state Rep. Donna Howard has called for two of the four remaining convention committee slots be reserved for Hillary Clinton delegates.
Her motion was immediately seconded by Obama supporter (and blogger and BOR reader) Steve Winchard. But not all the Obama delegates were as interested in sharing committee seats as Winchard.
DNC candidate Rick Cofer made a motion to discontinue the disclosure of committee candidates' presidential preference. Cofer's motion was not immediately adopted, however, it eventually won out.
Travis County Party Chair Andy Brown praised the "spriit" of the motions. Even those words were met with pushback from some delegates, apparently offended that Clinton delegates could possibly control 1/3 of the committee assignments in a senate district in which they won approximately 1/3 of the delegates.
I think Steve Winchard should be applauded for hsi efforts to bring true party unity. I hope the Obama supporters who objected to Winchard's resolution were not the same people who had been calling for Hillary to drop out since March.
After all, party unity is a two-way street, even here in Travis County.
11:12pm: We are lucky to have an excellent new county chair in Travis County. Andy Brown just showed great leadership when he made the decision not to identify committee candidate by presidential preference.
It is really sad to see some people put two committe spots above party unity. I am glad our new county chair stood up for Democratic unity.
11:15pm: The Nays have it. Party unity won out here. The remaining candidates will be identified simply as Democrats -- not Obama supporters or Clinton supporters -- and, at this point, that is exactly how it should be.
Granted, this is not unexpected, but I would be lacking in giving Rep. Howard her due in making her re-election bid official.
State Representative Donna Howard today announced that she will run for re-election to the Texas House seat she won early last year in a special election and then won again 12 months ago, saying that she hopes the community will help her continue to make progress on establishing fair property taxes, getting more resources into public schools, expanding access to quality health care, and addressing our region's growth and infrastructure needs while preserving our natural resources.
"We've come a long way in a short time," Howard said. "But there's still more to do to find common ground for positive change."
There is no word of any confirmed Republican challengers for either Donna Howard or her neighbor to the south, Valinda Bolton at this time. Same goes for Mark Strama and the rest of the delegation. Of course, who can blame the GOP in Travis County- their bench has been effectively obliterated in the past two cycles.
This letter to State Rep Donna Howard came my way today. It's from former State Rep. Rayford Price, an old friend of Tom Craddick's who helped Craddick get elected Speaker way back when. He knows his stuff, having served in the legendarily troubled 1972 session.
And no, he's no longer a Craddick supporter.
Dear Representative Howard:
I am writing you, as my State Representative, to share my opinions and observations in regard to the actions of some members of the House to remove Tom Craddick as Speaker and his response to those actions during the final days of the past session of the Legislature.
The money shot:
At the next session of the Legislature, you and the other members of the House should change the House Rules to provide that the Speaker may be removed at the will of the House upon a written motion made and signed by a majority of the members. This motion would take precedence over all other actions of the House and would be set for debate and action by the House at a time certain as provided in the motion and rule. The Speaker would be required to vacate the chair at the time the motion is considered and the House would be presided over by a temporary chair. If the motion prevails and the Speaker is removed, the House would immediately elect a new Speaker.
(Ed. note: The following is part of our ongoing series focusing on how Democrats won in Texas. Our first part focused on the work the Houston GLBT PAC did on the Ellen Cohen race. Today's piece is the second in the series. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
"Annie's List is changing the face of power in Texas politics by changing the playing field for women candidates."
That one line from the Annie's List website perfectly describes the focus and triumphs of one of the more successful Democratic organizations in Texas. Five of the seven new Democrats in the Texas House at the start of the 80th Regular Session will be women, and each and every one of them were Annie's List candidates.
Following the 2002 elections, Republicans regained the Texas House, and the number of Democratic women Representatives dropped to fourteen. In just two election cycles, that number has grown back to nineteen. This election cycle, Annie's List donated over $250,000 to their five targeted candidates:
Valinda Bolton in HD 47 ($80,000, won)
Paula Hightower-Pierson in HD 93 ($55,500 won)
Harriet Miller in HD 102 ($28,500, lost)
Kristi Thibaut in HD 133 ($25,500, lost)
Ellen Cohen in HD 134 ($23,500, won)
$10,000 to Katy Hubener in a special election in HD-106 last spring.
$10,000 to Democrat Rep. Donna Howard, an Annie's List candidate they helped elect in a special election last spring
For a better understanding of the success of Annie's List, I sat down with Robert Jones, Political Director for Annie's List, and the five field workers that he helped train to run their five targeted campaigns this election cycle. Each of the five workers are in their early twenties, and though all had some experience volunteering for campaigns before, none had ever taken on the role of helping run a campaign.
"There is no field where young people can gain experience and responsibility quicker, especially with training, than in politics," said Jones. "Hiring young adults is important for a number of reasons. They can adapt quickly and are eager and excited to work. And, to be honest, since they are an in-kind contribution from our PAC, it adds a level of accountability about how our contributions are used on the race."
To continue reading this story, click on the "There's More" link below.
"Donna Howard and her local Democratic partisan cohorts ran an extraordinarily negative campaign this past spring. That was very difficult for my family, very difficult for myself," Bentzin told the Statesman today.
He also said he believed there was "an imbalance in terms of (press) coverage" of the campaign.
I had a much different perspective on the HD-48 race: Rep. Donna Howard ran a terrific campaign. The fact that they ran an effective, fact-driven campaign about Bentzin's ties to Tom Delay just goes to show that the political culture of corruption had no place in HD 48.
With Bentzin off the ballot, Rep. Donna Howard is now a lock for re-election. We've taken back HD-48 -- let's look elsewhere in the state. Read the journal entry below about Juan Garcia's race against Gene Seaman, and help donate to send more Democrats to the Texas House.
