More than two years after he began video blogging, State Rep. Richard Raymond (D-Laredo) has continued the practice, logging an entry every week or two at RichardRaymond.com.
On February 12, when the committees were announced, Raymond posted a video that began by explaining the House committee assignment system (very helpful to constituents who may be unfamiliar with it) and then announced that he had been named Vice-Chair.
Raymond will be a stronger Democratic voice on budget issues than we have had in the past as Vice-Chair of Appropriations. Last month, he filed legislation that called for yearly legislative budget sessions, from KRLD:
Representative Richard Raymond says no other government or business in Texas passes a two year budget and it’s time the state stops doing it too. “I think that what we’re about to go through is going to allow me to make the case for annual budget sessions.” Raymond’s plan would mean a 60 day legislative session in even years just to do the budget and nothing else. He says budgeting yearly will make it easier to deal with revenue shortages like the state is currently facing.
More House members should consider taking up video blogging. Besides being a good resource for bloggers, video blogging is also a great way to use technology to reach out constituents and explain issues that are more complicated than a single soundbite.
Government Reform is merged into State Affairs; Judiciary into Civil Jurisprudence; Law Enforcement into Criminal Jurisprudence and Law Enforcement; Local Government Ways and Means into Ways and Means; and Pensions and Investments is merged into Financial Services and Pensions.
Regulated Industries was eliminated and its duties spread over five committees. A new committee, Technology and Workforce Training, was created.
There will be 35 committees instead of the previous 40.
Several committees will have more members.
The important Appropriations Committee will have 29 members, up from 27. Calendars will grow from 11 to 13. State Affairs and Ways and Means will increase from 9 to 11 members.
Craddick had bloated the number of committees to give himself more appointments. The end of Craddick has meant the end of several committees that probably should not have existed in the first place and can easily be absorbed into other committees.
(I still have the napkin on which Al wrote up the contract with Matt and me. I hope you'll consider Al's request and we'll put the Too Close to Craddick PAC to bed, just like we did to Craddick. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
I started the Too Close to Craddick PAC in December, 2006 to support viable primary challengers to Democrats who supported Tom Craddick's election as speaker in the 80th Legislature.
In the March, 2008 primary, Too Close to Craddick supported three challengers and helped elect one--Armando Walle versus Kevin Bailey in Houston. Our funding of Walle's field campaign resulted in a heavy election-day turnout for Walle, swamping Bailey's lead in early voting.
We raised over $33,000 and $32,000 went to the campaigns. The rest went to BOR and Austin Chronicle ads (for fund-raising) and website development.
Two great Democrats--Karl-Thomas Musselman and Matt Glazer--helped with web development, and I would like to raise about $300 owed to them before closing shop. Our agreement was "subject to the availability of funds," and they've told me not to worry about it, but I am not wired not to worry. And they deserve it.
And I will close shop. Assuming the 72 Democrats now pledged to vote with the House Democratic leadership follow through, I will dissolve Too Close to Craddick. Any surplus funds will go to Paint Texas Blue.
I undertook this effort--supporting challengers to Democrats who voted against their leadership--"more in sorrow than in anger," as the Bard wrote. I will be glad to be done with it, and I hope for a great outcome on January 13th.
Republicans, with an assist from disciplined and unified Democrats, appear to have successfully unseated Tom Craddick as speaker of the Texas House. Moments ago, Rep. Joe Straus of San Antonio is releasing the names of 80+ House members who have pledged their support for him in writing. It's being reported that Craddick will release his pledges shortly.
Over the last six years Craddick has led the House into an unprecedented era of corruption, special interest focus and division within the House. Texas newspapers have called for his removal. House members, who suffered Craddick's retro-extremism along with the rest of Texas, got the job done.
There will be a lot of analyses written about this remarkable turn of events. Since I have watched much of the effort from close-up, I hope the analysts will give credit to those House members from both parties who took great risks over a long period of time in the hopes that honor, integrity, openness and honesty could be returned to the House. It has taken a great deal of hard work, none of it glamorous but all of it critical, to get this done.
Straus' gathering of a significant majority support is not the end, of course. Members must still cast a formal ballot when they convene on Jan. 13. Some Craddick supporters may try to revive the corpse of their rule, rallying around day-late-dollar-short John Smithee. But we have reached a major turning point in the history of the Texas Legislature.
You ARE Ed Martin's son, right? Good guy Ed. I worked with him alot back during his days as Ex. Dir of the Texas Democratic Party when Bob Slagle was Chair. Saw both of them last in Danver at the 2008 Convention - as did I see you in the blogger's lounge at Pepsi Center.
Say, what will the balance be in the Texas House between Republican and Democratic members in the upcoming 81st Session of the Texas Legislature as a result of last Tuesday's election? I heard it is now 75 & 75. And also the balance going into the 81st D&R-wise in the Texas Senate if you don't mind.
All the details and bluster are at www.tlcv.org/blog (and, soon, on our nifty and gorgeous new www.tlcv.org), but the news is Texas' environment won on Election Day.
26 of 34 Texas House candidates and incumbents in contested races endorsed by the Texas League of Conservation Voters PAC won Tuesday night.
2 endorsees for the Senate move forward, 1 doesn't.
11 of the PAC"s top 14 priority races were victories - including helping return leaders like Rep Vo and Rep Frost (a dam hero if you ask me) to Austin, ejecting bad incumbents like Rep Goolsby (who lied to KERA about his clean energy voting record) for good challengers like Carol Kent, and snatching open seats away from anti-conservation candidates, like Joe Moody's victory over Dee Margo.
And as discussed, very much, elsewhere, the opportunity to elect a pro-conservation House Speaker depends on a recount in Irving.
Nationally, the League of Conservation Voters helped President Elect Obama win, along with lots of pro-conservation folks to Congress, like those Udalls.
Texas voters had lots of good choices to vote for in districts across Texas, and in a whole lot of the ones where the League's PAC was active, good people were elected and re-elected. Texas air quality may still be the worst, but I'm breathing easier now.
If the House is going to be led by a dictator, all Texans should be involved in the selection process.
That was the concluding sentence to an editorial arguing -- albeit only half-heartedly -- that if unlimited money can be spent on a Speaker's race (which a new ruling allows), then the position should just be a statewide office.
However, the editorial is filled with clues of dissatisfaction of Craddick:
The opening sentence points out, "the rancor spawned by state Rep. Tom Craddick's six-year tenure as Texas Speaker of the House"
"The speaker appoints committee members...and recognizes members to speak — or refuses to, as Craddick, a Republican from Midland, did last session."
"The speaker also has a very nice apartment in the Capitol, now that Craddick and his wife fixed it up with $1 million of lobby money"
(It isn't the Libertarians' fault, it's the fault of a failed Republican Party platform. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Smells like Republican desperation:
Austin American-Statesman: A former Republican state representative called three Libertarian Party candidates for the state House on Friday to request that they drop out of their races rather than take votes from their Republican opponents.
Suzanna Hupp, who represented District 54 in Central Texas for 10 years, said she made the calls Friday because of concerns that the Libertarian candidates would take Republican votes and ultimately give Democrats control over state and national seats.
"The fact is, we've got redistricting coming up in a few years," said Hupp, from Lampasas, who served in the House from 1997 to 2007, "and if the Republicans lose the (Texas) House of Representatives because there are a handful of people mad at them and vote for the Libertarians instead, then we could be in big trouble at the federal level."
One day later, though, she could only recall two of the three districts (HD-64, incumbent Crownover, and HD-9, incumbent Christian) where she made calls to the Lib candidates asking them to quit.
Here's a comprehensive look at the fundraising numbers for twenty-seven competitive Texas House races:
ALL RACES
Raised
Spent
Cash on Hand
Democrats
$2,613,330.83
$934,956.05
$2,838,787.76
Republicans
$2,152,704.07
$1,545,539.71
$2,068,912.64
Democratic Advantage
$460,626.76
($610,583.66)
$769,875.12
These are based on a total of 15 incumbent seats and 12 challenge seats. I'll discuss who got picked to be where below, as we go into more detail on these races:
15 Incumbent / Protection Races in the Texas House
Hold Seats (15 )
Raised
Spent
Cash on Hand
Democrat
$1,405,120.66
$ 503,339.44
$1,888,091.67
Republican
$1,022,477.66
$ 689,111.70
$670,808.75
Democratic Advantage
$382,643.00
$(185,772.26)
$1,217,282.92
First, let's look at the list of races we're talking about. These are listed in order of who has the largest Cash-on-Hand (CoH) advantage (races in bold indicate that the Democrat also outraised his or her opponent):
House District 32 (Rep. Juan Garcia vs. Todd Hunter) -- Rep. Garcia has a $356,430.57 advantage.
House District 41 (Rep. Veronica Gonzales vs. Javier Villalobos) -- Rep. Gonzales has a $204,836.84 advantage.
House District 3 (Rep. Mark Homer vs. Kirby Hollingsworth) -- Rep. Homer has a $110,219.63 advantage.
House District 11 (Rep. Chuck Hopson vs. Brian Walker) -- Rep. Hopson has a $103,070.91 advantage.
House District 106 (Rep. Kirk England vs. Karen Wiegman) -- Rep. England has a $101,967.68 advantage.
House District 93 (Rep. Paula Pierson vs Bill Burch) -- Rep. Pierson has an $83,714.40 advantage.
House District 12 (Rep. Jim McReynolds vs. Van Brookshire) -- Rep. McReynolds has a $63,565.64 advantage.
House District 34 (Rep. Abel Herrero vs. Connie Scott) -- Rep. Herrero has a $59,876.46 advantage.
House District 47 (Rep. Valinda Bolton vs. Donna Keel) -- Rep. Bolton has a $51,893.18 advantage.
House District 97 (Rep. Dan Barrett vs. Mark Shelton) -- Rep. Barrett has a $37,502.83 advantage.
House District 1 (Rep. Stephen Frost vs. George Lavendar) -- Rep. Frost has a $23,261.05 advantage.
House District 85 (Rep. Joe Heflin vs. Isaac Castro) -- Rep. Heflin has a $22,873.53 advantage.
House District 149 (Rep. Hubert Vo vs. Gregory Myers) -- Rep. Vo has a $17,645 advantage.
House District 107 (Rep. Allen Vaught vs. Bill Keffer) -- Keffer has a $6747.60 advantage.
House District 17 (open seat -- Democrat Donnie Dippel vs. Tim Kleinschmidt) -- Republican Kleinschmidt has a $12,827.20 advantage.
Two important things to note:
Democrats were soundly outspent last cycle -- the fact that we have so many incumbents who have more CoH than Republicans is truly remarkable. And while Craddick's Stars Over Texas PAC may have a lot of money, so do a few Democrat PACs to counter.
Many top-name Democrats that used to be competitive aren't included on this list -- including Rep. Patrick Rose (with his $800k war chest), Rep. Strama, Rep. Howard, Rep. Cohen, and more. These are seats that have not only flipped red to blue, but have done so with such intensity that they can't be considered that competitive this cycle.
------------------------------
12 Challenge Races in the Texas House -- Where We Need to Pick Up Seats!
Challenge Seats (12)
Raised
Spent
Cash on Hand
Democrat
$1,208,210.17
$ 431,616.61
$950,696.09
Republican
$1,130,226.41
$ 856,428.01
$1,398,103.89
Democratic Advantage
$77,983.76
$(424,811.40)
$(447,407.80)
As before, here's a look at the list considered "challenge" seats. While Democrats are behind in CoH, they have overall outraised Republicans! Considering many challengers were outspent 3:1 in the '06 cycle, this is a solid place for many House Democrat candidates to be in -- and look at where our three TexBlog PAC endorsed candidates are below!
Again, these are listed in order of who has the largest Cash-on-Hand (CoH) advantage, and Democrats that outraised their opponents this cycle are in bold:
House District 101 (Republican lost in primary -- Robert Miklos vs. Mike Anderson) -- Republican Anderson has a $22,351.57 advantage.
House District 78 (Republican lost in primary -- Joe Moody vs. Dee Margo) -- Margo has a $70,883.13 advantage.
House District 133 (Kristi Thibaut vs. Rep. Jim Murphy) -- Murphy has a $77,718.38 advantage.
House District 19 (Larry Hunter vs. Rep. Mike Hamilton) -- Hamilton has a $112,762.49 advantage.
House District 138 (Ginny McDavis vs. Rep. Dwayne Bohac) -- Bohac has a $116,985.14 advantage.
House District 102 (Carol Kent vs. Rep. Tony Goolsby) -- Goolsby has a $280,776.24 advantage.
Again, some important take-aways from these numbers:
All three of the TexBlog PAC endorsed candidates both have more Cash-on-Hand, and outraised their opponents last cycle. We're investing our resources wisely, and helping make sure some candidates (like Matula) are bumped from Second to First Tier Candidates to watch.
Every candidate has something to be proud about. Kent outraised Goolsby -- even though she's still far behind. Thibaut brought in an incredible amount of cash (over $116k) this cycle. Two semi unknown challengers -- Redmond and Murphey -- are going to turn some heads with the numbers they posted.
We'll have more in-depth, race-by-race analysis in the coming days and weeks. For now, talk about the races you're surprised by -- and let us know what races we should be watching more closely.
(While Grant has garnered more endorsements, Doherty has a wide lead in fundraising. This will be definitely be a race to watch. Here, Grant adds another impressive endorsement. - promoted by David Mauro)
State Representative Senfronia Thompson, the dean of women lawmakers at the Texas Capitol and one of the state's leading champions for civil rights, today endorsed Dan Grant in his race for the Democratic nomination for Congressional District 10, saying that Washington needs a fresh voice to help strengthen economic security for middle-class families, end the war in Iraq, and restore protections for consumers, children, senior citizens, and other ordinary Texans whose values have been largely overlooked by the current administration.
"Dan is the best candidate to get the job done in Washington," Rep. Thompson said. "His vision is broad enough to encompass the entire district, and he has the energy and expertise to represent us all, from Northwest Austin to Northwest Houston."
