Why is it that Texans get stuck with gawd awful lawmakers who are completely out of synch with the majority of sentiments and beliefs held by the American people? Why do they continue to serve as endless sources of shame, ignorance and embarrassment to those they supposedly represent? Why do they continue to bring the scorn of the rest of the nation into our living rooms on an almost daily basis? Tom Delay, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales and George W. Bush, Phil Gramm,Harriet Miers and Karen Hughes comprise the short list of Texas jackasses. It will take at least four Presidential Administrations to clean up after them. We will endure very hard times in the process, thanks to the brilliance of the Texas Brigade of Douche Nozzles.
Today we may have discovered one of the reasons why we have such a large number of Texas Republican jackasses and crooks who hold office. To be fair and honest, there are likely Texas Democrats in office who are jackasses and crooks as well.
As a constituent of Mike Jackson, I was horrified that he didn't show up at the UTMB Town Meeting during which our (I am a UTMB employee and patient) continued existence was discussed.
After Ike, Ron Paul's staffer's had helped me out with Amtrak to the tune of $700, and I was thrilled. They were invaluable at a true time of need for me. So when I emailed Mike Jackson's office, I was stunned to received this reply. Mike Jackson's campaign manager's reply is in italics, below.
Ms. Camp,
Senator Jackson and his staff were not aware of the Town Hall meeting otherwise he would have been there, just as he has been at every other Hurricane Ike Recovery meeting of which he has been contacted. Do you really believe any politician would skip the chance to be in the same place with 4000 of his constituents? Do you really think he would do nothing while 4000 of his constituents lose their jobs and one of the premier medical facilities in the country that serves much of his district just closes its doors? That would be crazy.
Nevertheless, he has already been working with his colleagues in the Legislature to make certain there is funding in our next state budget to help keep UTMB open and prevent the loss of jobs. He has been in constant contact with Dr. Callender and will continue to work closely with UTMB to make sure they have the resources they need to fully recover.
I wouldn't expect you to take me at my word though since you are a Democrat and are simply repeating Senator Jackson's opponents statements. Are you really inclined to believe lawyer a who really wants to be an elected official again? He wasn't any good when he was a City Councilman.
Joe Jaworski, the former Galveston city councilman who is running a strong campaign against Republican state Sen. Mike Jackson in Senate District 11, will suspend his campaign for at least a couple weeks in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
His campaign manager, Angie Patterson, said his house in Galveston's east and historic district is still staning but took on about three feet of water. She said Jaworski has suspended his campaign for at least two or three weeks to deal with his house and work on hurricane relief.
We're excited to let you know that we've launched the first television ad of the fall campaign, a 30-second spot that highlights Joe's family tradition of public service and pledge to do what's right.
The spot features Joe speaking directly to voters interspersed with historic photos and video footage of Joe on the campaign trail:
Hi, I'm Joe Jaworski.
My family's tradition of public service
runs deep in Texas.
My grandfather, Leon Jaworski,
held a powerful president accountable
when corruption turned into Watergate.
And as mayor pro-tem of the city of Galveston,
I tried to bring positive change to our community.
Now it's time for independent leadership and a new direction.
It won't be easy, and the powerful special interests will fight us every step of the way.
But that's okay.
I learned from my family a long time ago --
it's not about doing what's easy,
it's about doing what's right.
Produced by Jaworski's campaign team and airing throughout the district, "Doing What's Right" adds to the momentum of Joe's campaign as we head into the home stretch of this critical election year. You can see it during your favorite TV show, on Joe's campaign website , or on Joe's YouTube page .
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.
Joe Jaworski is competing to become the Democratic nominee in SD-11 and take on "Toxic" Mike Jackson this November. First he has to defeat Bryan Hermann.
Jaworski is a Texroots candidate--Donate or volunteer today.
It is outrageous that these taxpaying citizens - these Texans! - should be victimized twice - first by the storm, then again by the state bureaucracy.
That is how Democratic State Senate candidate Joe Jaworski feels about the restrictive bureaucracy being used to slow down aid to victims of hurricane Rita. Last Friday Joe Jaworski wrote to Governor Rick Perry asking why Texas has been so leisurely to help the victims of hurricane Rita.
I know you share my outrage at the snail's pace of state aid for Texas families more than two years after Hurricane Rita came ashore with such force. The recent State Auditor's report finds that of nearly 4,300 applications for federal assistance controlled by your administration, only 13 have been helped.
Rather than helping families, Perry and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs seem to be playing political favoritism to private companies.
The State Auditor's report makes clear that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has been too cautious in providing relief to the storm's victims but thrown caution to the wind when it comes to privatizing relief effort, including a multi-million dollar contract with a private firm whose top lobbyist is your former chief of staff.
The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has also squandered more than $230,000 in hurricane relief on administrative expenses, according the State Auditor's report. That's one-fifth of what has been spent thus far-a ratio that would make Halliburton blush.
I urge you to make sure that Texans who applied for aid receive initial payments to get things going. The state can then provide additional funds based on a more thorough approval process. This plan will guarantee immediate help while allowing for safeguards to protect taxpayers against fraud or abuse.
Jaworski served as a city councilman in Galveston in 2005 (something he points to in his letter), and helped in the efforts to prepare for Hurricane Rita. While his area was not the hardest hit by the storm, thousands of people in the Galveston area were affected with thousands more along the Gulf Coast. It is time to help the other 4,287 Texans who need assistance. As Jaworski says in his letter, "They deserve help - now." Sadly, Mike Jackson, the Republican incumbent in SD-11, is silent on the issue.
Rumors have been circulating that Joe Jaworski had some good poll numbers to report.
Friday, we reported Jaworski had a 10 point lead among informed voters, and now we have seen the top page on the full poll (sorry it's a pdf) and it looks much better than we first thought.
Here are some of the highlights:
Mike Jackson has an abysmal 28% approval rating.
Less than half of the voters (48%) say they would re-elect Jackson if the election were today.
Mike Jackson leads in the initial vote preference. However, after being read a short paragraphs about each candidate, the race for State Senate is stastically tied (44% for Jaworski- 48% Jackson, and 8% undecided.
The other telling fact is how the people in Senate District 11 feel about the current Republican leadership.
57% have a negative perception of the Texas Legislature/
Republicans have a negative view of the legislature with 44% of Republican voters giving the Republican controlled legislature positive marks and 49% have a negative perception of the lege.
52% have an unfavorable perception of Rick Perry.
A plurality of voters in the district favor an outside who would lead the state in a new direction.
SD-11 continues to look more and more like a possible pick up. Jaworski is running a hard race and is raising tons of cash through out the state. Jaworski and Wendy Davis in SD-10 could bring our Democratic numbers in the Texas Senate up to 13 from 11 in seats specifically drawn to give Republicans an advantage. 2008 is a change election nationally, it appears there could be a wave in Texas too.
In an unprecedented show of strength nine months before next year's primary elections, Joe Jaworski announced today that he will report raising more than a quarter-million dollars in contributions for his Texas Senate race, saying that voters are investing their money and hopes in his campaign to bring independent leadership for a new direction to Austin.
The filing deadline is Monday for the latest fundraising period from January 1, 2007, to June 30, 2007. Jaworski will report a total of $214,495 raised from 348 individuals for the period. His campaign had $209,508.50 cash on hand at the deadline and has raised $37,000 in online contributions.
Jaworski is running for Senate District 11, which includes portions of Harris, Brazoria and Galveston Counties. He has raised more than $250,000 since entering the race last fall.
... SB 1317, an industry-friendly bill by Sen. Mike Jackson (R-LaPorte), that would block Houston and other cities from using nuisance ordinances to regulate air pollution from outside the city. Clean air advocate Meg Healy, with GHASP!, was blunt in her criticism of Jackson’s proposal. “This bill has no other purpose than to protect the most significant polluters from the increased scrutiny of the city,” she said. ...
“Nobody has a right to chemically alter the atmosphere in a way that you know is dangerous to human health…and send [pollution] for somebody’s child or grandmother to breath,” said (Houston Mayor Bill) White. ... Sen. Jackson closed on his bill with this Rumsfeldian gem: “The more you learn, the more that you learn there’s more to learn.” Sen. Jackson has been in the Texas Legislature for 20 years.
There's a very old country song called "Twenty Years is a Mighty Long Time" and I'd have to agree. That's way too long for one dumbass to be in the Senate.
