It's plain to see that our state is broke, literally and figuratively. The Republicans broke it, what with their relentless obsession to cut spending, slash revenue, and shove right-wing ideology into any corner of government left standing.
Time to party!
That's right. Next month, the Republicans are holding a real humdinger of an event where you can dump money into the Texas Republican Party's coffers and get in good with the powers that be. Though it's illegal for individual officeholders to raise money during session, political parties and PACs face no such restriction.
...the Texas Republican Party is throwing a fundraiser next month featuring the state's big three GOP leaders - Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus and "many of our statewide elected officials and state legislators." It's a chance for lobbyists and anybody else with interests before the state to spend some quality time with influential policy makers, who will benefit from the fundraising the next time they seek office.
For $25,000, you get dinner for ten, access to a private VIP reception before dinner and photos with the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker. For $15,000, the same deal for six. $1,000 will get you dinner, but none of the trimmings. The event is set for March 9.
Got that, lobbyists and special interests? You know how Rick Perry plays. Give him some cash, and you might get your pet agenda items looked on with favor. This would be an especially good opportunity for recalcitrant KBH-supporters to try and beg their way back into the fold, lest their issues and concerns hit sine die with nary a hearing or vote.
What price Texas? Evidently $25,000.
Slater continues:
Not to be left out, Texans for Lawsuit Reform is sponsoring "Girls Night Out" the next day for all women legislators, legislative spouses and female staffers. "Join us for good times galore: Manicures, pedicures, chair massages and more," says the invitation for the evening to be held at the Four Seasons in Austin. Among lobby groups, TLR is one of the biggest spenders of campaign contributions. The group advocates curbing lawsuits against business.
That's right, ladies! Join the group that plows millions of dollars into primarily Republican campaign war chests, making sure not only that citizens can't get their day in court, but also that you can't exercise as much reproductive freedom as women elsewhere in this country.
I wonder if there's an RSVP list for this, or if I can just round up every out-of-work trial lawyer, pro bono attorney, and Legal Aid employee and take them down to 98 San Jacinto. Lord knows the do-gooder types can't afford a mani-pedi in this atmosphere.
Note: as of press time, it was unclear if Sen. Dan Patrick would be on hand to choose each lady's polish color for them, or to force each woman to gaze upon a sonogram before the procedure and exclaim "Wow, those are my cuticles."
Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the power-advocacy group behind tort reform in Texas, is going to take good care of the ladies of the legislature. TLR is treating female lawmakers, spouses and staff members to "manicure, pedicures, chair massages and more" (not sure what more means) at the Four Seasons Hotel next week.
If we did, we would at least make sure everyone was invited.
Update: One reader pointed out this may or may not be the PAC itself. If it is, then the invite is not properly disclaimed. More likely, this is an expense out of their non-profit corporation and will be a lobby expense (which we will find out soon enough). In either case, this is a donor funded pampering.
Update by KT: See, that's where John Sharp went wrong. We should have gotten together and chatted Senate race politics over mani-pedis!
Senate District 17 still needs our help; the Texas Senate needs one more Democrat. Kyle Janek vacated his seat before his term expired to anoint Republican Austen Furse. Because of Republican infighting, Furse lost and only received 10% of the vote. The winner on the Republican side was uber-conservative Joan Huffman, who squeaked in to a runoff with only 26.13% of the vote.
Simmons did what she was supposed to do: she forced a runoff. Simmons received 13.8% of the total vote in the high turnout election, and pushed it to a low turnout runoff. To add insult to injury, if you combine this percentage with Chris Bell's numbers, the Democratic Party received 52.2% of the total vote.
Because Edwards and Wilson decided to support the TLR candidate and force a runoff, taxpayers will be required to spend more money on another election during an economic downturn. On the other hand, Democrats need to step and help Congressman Bell overcome these political games by donating today.
Democrats can be cautiously optimistic going into the run-off. Bell was the top vote getter in every county except Brazoria. In Brazoria, the Republican runoff candidate Joan Huffman won with only 2,101 votes. On the other hand, Bell was the top getter in Democrat friendly Jefferson County with 6,335 votes (which is 3,433 more than Stephanie Simmons received).
The other high note is Bell's resounding victory in Harris County. Bell won 37.6% of the vote in Harris and the Democratic Party received 52.8% of the vote. Harris County also represents 36.4% of the total vote.
While the numbers favor Bell, the district is drawn to be Republican. While Democrats have done well in special elections recently, they are harder to win and money and a good ground game mean more.
Chris Bell can win, but what Dan Barrett and Donna Howard have proven is it takes statewide focus for us to win in a special election.
Kirk Watson wrote today:
Many of you have already given generously of your time and resources during this election cycle, and I wouldn't be asking you again if the stakes for Democrats weren't so high.
With the election of Wendy Davis on November 4th, Democrats will hold 12 of 31 seats in the State Senate. With Chris as our lucky number 13, Senate Democrats will be able to make a real difference for Texas families by fighting for high-quality public schools, affordable utility rates, and accessible health insurance.
Having 12 Democrats in the Senate makes a difference. Having 13 means more. 13 can be our lucky number in the Senate. Having Chris Bell and Wendy Davis in the Senate requires a bipartisan approach to legislating.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform gave Simmons $201,745 just to force a runoff. Ron Wilson gave her another $30,000 and loaned her $7,000 more.
This has to be a people powered campaign. Help Chris today by donating your time or money.
(This is a seat we need to hold. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
While the Presidential race continues to suck a lot of the air out of the Texas political atmosphere, vitally important down-ballot races are kicking into high gear as early voting approaches. The race for HD-17 (Bastrop, Fayette, Lee, Burleson, Colorado counties)is heating up as the GOP looks to pick up the seat vacated by Robby Cook (D-Eagle Lake) and Donnie Dippel works hard to keep it in the Democratic column.
Rick Perry tool Tim Kleinschmidt has been spending gobs of PAC and lobbyist money (much of it from the likes of TLR, TX Oil and Gas PAC, and Bob Perry) trying to discredit Dippel and press hot buttons like he's done with his insidious mailers. The latest one I received (thanks, Tim!) touts his "plan to secure our borders" by spending state funds on border enforcement and requiring photo I.D. to vote. Apparently the cookie-cutters who designed his campaign neglected to tell Tim that border security is a FEDERAL issue and that photo I.D. for voting is an unconstitutional imposition akin to a poll tax.
Needless to say, Tim is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Kleinschmidt was recently busted for paying his daughter with campaign funds in direct violation of state election laws, and also apparently tried to film his campaign commercials during a non-partisan public forum in Bastrop recently. Later that week, at another candidate forum in Colorado County (in which the parties had agreed to no candidate cameras), Kleinschmidt failed to even show up and sent a surrogate instead. Clearly he's not interested in talking about the issues, since he's apparently confused about a number of them: Kleinschmidt mentions "supporting local schools" but also supports private school vouchers (which is it, Tim?), and claims to oppose toll roads and the TTC ( a new position from 2006...) while having fundraisers hosted by the Godfathers of the Toll Road Lobby like Perry and Mike Toomey. But despite his many ties with big insurance, big oil, and various other anti-labor and anti-working family forces that have made the Capitol and Guv's Mansion their personal playground for the last 10+ years - Tim claims he's an "independent voice" for rural Texas "values" !
Meanwhile, long-time Fayette County rancher and ag consultant Donnie Dippel (who would the cows really support, Tim?) is running on a sound platform that speaks to the actual issues affecting working families of the 17th District: fully funding our public schools and bringing back vocational training programs(strengthening the rural labor force), support for rural health care services like CHIP and local hospitals, support for volunteer fire departments and rural law enforcement, repealing the Republican-enacted small business tax, (back to those "small town values" again) , protecting our water resources (as Kleinschmidt sells his water out of the District!) and encouraging economic development in HD-17, with it's mix of rural and exurban communities.
This past Friday, the New York Times ran a piece on the recent influx of doctors to Texas ("More Doctors in Texas After Malpractice Caps," October 5, 2007). The article cited the long waiting lines for doctors wanting to receive their license to practice medicine in Texas:
The Texas Medical Board reports licensing 10,878 new physicians since 2003, up from 8,391 in the prior four years. It issued a record 980 medical licenses at its last meeting in August, raising the number of doctors in Texas to 44,752, with a backlog of nearly 2,500 applications. Of those awaiting processing, the largest number, after Texas, come from New York (145), followed by California (118) and Florida (100).
But are Texas patients receiving better care? Another set of statistics -- which was not included in the NY Times article -- shows that there has been a significant increase in disciplinary actions against doctors. The following figures are from the Texas Medical Board:
By the way, 2007 isn't shaping up much better, with 88 doctors disciplined at the Medical Board's August meeting, 30 in June, 34 in April, and 41 in February. That's 193 so far, with two more meetings to go, on a pace to well exceed the 2002 numbers.
Ultimately, it is better for Texas to attract high-quality doctors --- but not if recruiting those doctors jeopardizes the health care of Texans. Texans for Lawsuit Reform -- the group that pushed tort reform through in 2003 -- would disagree with me, I'm sure. But they also hired as a TLR spokesmen a doctor who misdiagnosed bone cancer in a 16-year old girl, so their credibility on promoting patient's rights comes into question.
Prop 12 was all about the politics -- Republicans wanting to limit the size of lawsuits so that trial lawyers wouldn't have as much money to donate to Democrats. Prop 12 was never about Texas patients having greater access to quality health care -- and all you have to do is look at the Texas Medical Board's own disciplinary action history I cited above to believe me.
