Ed. note: The following is one of twenty races we are featuring in the Texas Political Report. Annie's List provided research and analysis for this race.
The district encompasses Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, and parts of the Spring Branch and Spring Woods communities of west and northwest Houston. The district is almost evenly split between Anglo and Hispanic residents and has a 10% African-American population, but working class Anglo voters make up a majority of the expected turnout. A Republican district since redistrciting in 2001, independent voters split their tickets in 2008, when Democratic County Sheriff Adrian Garcia carried HD 138 with 52.8% of the vote while Obama received 43.9% of the vote.
Bohac's record on education, jobs and insurance and utility rates is on the table, and Bohac must also deal with the fact that he is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, involving reports that he illegally procured voter data from an “inside-man” within the Harris County Voter Registrar’s office. Ed Johnson, associate voter registrar at the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collectors Office, was also the paid director for Computer Data Systems (CDS), a company started in 2003 with Bohac at its helm. CDS sells voter data to Republican clients – the same data Ed Johnson managed in his government job. The story generated a lot of heat for Bohac when it broke last year, and he’s now under formal investigation. Expect Yarbrough Camarena to continue to make this ethics scandal an issue in the campaign as she presents a choice for new leadership in the district.
Why Democrats Could Unseat Bohac This Year
Bohac is facing his first serious challenge in a district trending Democratic while defending his Craddick-era voting record and answering charges about an ethics scandal in a bad year for incumbents. He’s also running against a strong opponent with a professional team, who’s been working hard on the phones and block-walking for months. Yarbrough Camarena is no stranger to politics - her father having represented a large part of the district. Her background – a middle school teacher, born and raised in the district - fits well with the values of her potential constituents and she’s raised substantial cash to make a real play for the seat. And it doesn't hurt any Democrat in Harris County to have Bill White running above you at the top of the ticket when you're both trying to buck the national trend to defeat a Republican incumbent.
Today, Democrat Kendra Yarbrough Camerena filed for the House District 138 race. Her campaign released the following statement:
Today, Kendra Yarbrough Camerena filed for House District 138. Her campaign released the following statement:
Kendra’s experience as an educator, parent, and concerned citizen has prepared her to bring balanced leadership back to Austin.
“It’s time for legislators to put aside partisan politics and get to work addressing the concerns and challenges of everyday Texans,” Yarbrough Camarena said.
“I tell my students all the time that they must listen carefully to understand a problem, Yarbrough Camarena continued.“As I’ve met with voters, I’ve listened and heard their frustration with business as usual in Austin. As a State Representative, I’ll keep listening and I’ll stand up for the neighborhoods where we work and raise our families.”
Kendra Yarbrough Camarena is a life long resident of District 138 and is the daughter of former State Representative, the Honorable Ken Yarbrough. For the past seven years, Kendra has taught at Scarborough High School and Clifton Middle School in the Oak Forest area where Kendra grew up, and where she and her husband, Carlos, are raising their two children.
I had the great opportunity of meeting Kendra last night at a fundraising event at The Belmont. She is going to do an incredible job knocking on doors and connecting with voters one-on-one. She is young, energetic, a mother of two, a teacher -- and all of that keeps her grounded. She's someone who is running for office because she truly believes there is a duty, as a public servant, to improve the lives of the friends and neighbors around her.
Needless to say, she was very impressive, and will be a formiddable opponent for corrupt Republican Dwayne Bohac.
Bohac, remember, has a lot of scandals and corruption to answer for. From the Lone Star Project:
This will be one of the key races for Texas House Democrats in 2010. We will be writing much, much more on this race and in the coming months. For now -- learn more about Kendra at the resource pages below:
Empower Texas -- a staunchly conservative group run by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility -- has released their bi-annual Fiscal Responsiblity Index. From the group's website, they describe the purpose and practice of their ratings:
The Fiscal Responsibility Index is a measurement of how lawmakers perform on size and role of government issues. We use exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues. We look for clean votes that go to governing philosophy. In the Texas House, there are dozens of additional votes that might have been used in the measure, but without substantially affecting the ratings or the rankings.
Lawmakers and their offices knew in advance of TFR’s position on the issues rated. Lawmakers also received extra weighting (positive or negative) on their rating for sponsoring targeted legislation.
Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac, who represents House District 138 in northwest Houston, did not fair well in the group's ratings. Rep. Bohac was one of only nine House members in the entire state to not receive a passing grade from the group. Here was their remarks about how Rep. Bohac is not a fiscal conservative:
Failing Republicans?
Given the emphasis of the rating on limited government and low taxes, the most commonly asked question is, "Which Republicans rated below 70 percent?"
Only nine had that distinction in the Texas House. They are: Jim Jackson (R-Carrollton), Will Hartnett (R-Dallas), Todd Smith (R-Bedford), Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston), Tommy Merritt (R-Longview), Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth), Brian McCall (R-Plano), Susan King (R-Abilene) and Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie).
Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac -- who is a member of the House Elections Committee and one of the key champions of voter ID suppression legislation in the Texas legislature -- has on his payroll for the company Campaign Data Systems a man named Ed Johnson, the associate voter registrar at the Harris County Tax Assesor Collectors office.
Here's the whole story from Off the Kuff -- with original reporting also from KHOU TV in Houston:
As you know, there was a lawsuit filed against Paul Bettencourt and the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office over allegations of illegal mishandling of provisional ballots in the past November election. That suit was later expanded to include allegations of voter disenfranchisement by Bettencourt’s office. According to KHOU, some mighty interesting facts have come out so far in the deposition phase.
“This is as blatant a case of election corruption that I have seen,” said Matt Angle of the Lone Star Project, a Democrat activist group.
The Lone Star Project’s complaint revolves around Ed Johnson.
Johnson is the associate voter registrar at the Harris County Tax Assessor Collectors office, but according to state documents, that’s just his day job. Johnson is also a paid director of a small company that provides voter data to Republican candidates for office. That company, Campaign Data Systems, billed at least $140,000 in 2008.
Campaign Data Systems happens to be owned by Republican State Rep. Dwayne Bohac, who also happens to be one of the big pushers of voter ID bills. Johnson testified before the Senate about supposed instances of vote fraud. He tells the Republicans what they want to hear in the guise of a nonpartisan election official, while being on their payroll. Nice little scam they’ve got going there, no? I think we all have a better idea now why State Reps. Garnet Coleman and Ana Hernandez called for appointed Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez’s resignation over Johnson’s (and George Hammerlein’s) testimony, and it makes Vasquez’s response look that much weaker.
For the last few weeks we have been listening to wall-to-wall coverage 24/7 about the flamboyant governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, and pay-to-play politics. As we all know by now the Illinois governor is charged with criminal conspiracy for attempting to sell President Elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Rod Blagojevich is clearly another crooked and arrogant politician who thinks he is above the law. But at least this one found himself impeached by the Illinois House.
It is nice to know some states have lawmakers who have an ethical spine where such blatant corruption and beyond the pale pay-to-play politics are concerned. Too bad Texas is sorely lacking in this area. But one has to remember the Party that is running the state at this time, although not all Democratic politicians would receive A's in ethics and integrity departments either.
When the Blagojevich scandal broke, several of the cable TV talking heads and pundits appeared especially outraged by pay-to-play politics and so I promptly sent off an email to MSNBC and CNN and suggested that if they are so livid about pay-to-play, they ought to send their research staff down to Texas to see how it works in a state where purchasing elections and pay-to-play is business du jour. Apparently other folks from around the U.S. contacted the media with the same request. Chris Matthews of Hardball responded with a chart that listed the most offending states. Texas is among them.
Virginia Stogner McDavid formally announced her candidacy for HD 138. McDavid is challenging Republican incumbent Dwayne Bohac November 2008 election. The district includes Oak Forest, Shady Acres, parts of Spring Branch, Carverdale, and Mangum Manor.
McDavid has already earned the support of local, state, and federal officials in the area and has put together a campaign committee that includes U.S.Congressman Gene Green, State Representatives Alma Allen and Ana Hernandez, Houston City Councilmembers Ada Edwards and Ronald Green, and Brazoria County Commissioner Donald "Dude" Payne.
In addition, McDavid has already been endorsed by former Texas Governor Mark White the Texas State Machinists Council, Texas Doctors' Council Local Lodge 1199, and the International Longshoremen's Association Local 24. She also has received the endorsement of the National Women's Political Caucus of Texas, for which she is a past President.
"I'm excited about restoring true representation for 138, which is a diverse district with changing needs that aren't being adequately addressed. I have the passion, experience, and dedication necessary to win in November, 2008," said Virginia.
According to a release, her speech Wednesday night emphasized the need for being smart on crime and not just tough, strengthening our public schools and making college more affordable, restoring CHIP funding, cleaning up our air & water, and restoring fairness for Texas families by improving rights of consumers and increasing transparency in government.
In 2006, Bill Moody received 45% of the vote. This will not be an easy seat to win, but neither was Heflin, Garcia, Bolton, or Vaught. If there is another wave election and strong top of the ticket, we will see Virginia McDavid in Austin.
