(Keith Hampton is a widely respected attorney in Texas seeking a seat on the Court of Criminal Appeals. He's running against presiding Judge Sharon Keller. - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
For over a year, I have worked tirelessly to persuade Republican Judge Larry Meyers to become the first statewide Republican to switch parties. I was so convinced he would run against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller as a Democrat, I decided to run in an open seat to ensure we had a Democratic candidate in each race. But after weeks of meetings at Texas Democratic Party offices, it recently became clear that Judge Meyers would remain a Republican. Under these circumstances, I have decided to run against the incumbent most deserving a challenger, Presiding Judge Keller.
I thank each of you who has worked to collect signatures. I must now collect those same signatures more quickly than ever to be on the ballot for Place 1 against Judge Keller. In my efforts to switch a Republican-to-Democrat I lost weeks of time, leaving me only 60 days to file the petitions necessary for me to be the only Democrat on the ballot for a statwide judicial race. Please sign up now to help collect petitions.
I thank you again for helping my campaign for this judicial office, and I thank you for caring about the state of justice in Texas. It matters.
In case you missed it, in this week's Watson Wire (by far the best elected official email program ever in the history of email, for real) State Senator Kirk Watson gave an overview of the upcoming constitutional amendments we're voting on this November. Election Day is November 8, 2011.
Watson is Co-Chair of Texans for Prop 8, the campaign to pass Proposition 8. Good to see him advocating for an important water stewardship effort, as well as educating the voters on everything else on the ballot.
From the Watson Wire:
Major propositions
Proposition 8 - Water Stewardship: Just to reiterate, nothing's more important than a clean, reliable water supply. Proposition 8 will protect water quality in rivers, streams and aquifers, while also helping the state meet its long-term goal of using better conservation methods for almost a quarter of its water supply. It will be Texas' first statewide water conservation tool.
This proposition will let owners have their land appraised in much the same way as some owners who receive an agricultural valuation (generally resulting in a lower tax bill). Landowners would receive this valuation if they manage their land in a way that improves water quality and quantity. However, the law would only apply to people who already qualify for the agriculture valuation - meaning it wouldn't cost the state money, but it would incentivize land management practices that help the state's water supply.
Proposition 2 - Water Bonds: This would allow the Texas Water Development Board to issue continuing debt, with no more than $6 billion outstanding at any time, for projects that help the state and local entities improve the state's water supply.
More than 90 percent of the state is in moderate to severe drought right now. We need tools such as both Prop 2 and Prop 8 to meet our future needs.
Proposition 6 - Money for Schools: This gives the state flexibility in how it calculates money that's available to schools from the state's Permanent School Fund. It also allows the state to distribute up to $300 million more per year from what's known as the Available School Fund. All told, that translates into more money for Texas schools and schoolkids.
Proposition 1 - Tax Exemption for Disabled Veterans' Spouses: The state already provides a full property tax exemption to veterans who are completely disabled. This proposition would extend that benefit to the surviving spouses of those veterans as long as they continue to meet certain conditions.
Proposition 3 - Higher Education Bonds: This would let the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board issue debt to pay for student loans, subject to restrictions such as a maximum amount of debt outstanding at any one time.
Proposition 9 - Pardons and Community Supervision: This lets the Governor, with the written recommendation of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, grant a pardon, reprieve or commutation of sentence to someone who completes deferred adjudication community supervision.
Not quite as major, but still needed, propositions
There are also a handful of propositions that, for technical legal reasons, need to pass so that the state and its local governments can function more efficiently and accountably. (I hope that explanation is reassuring as you're trying to figure out why you need to weigh in on this stuff in the same way you help pick the President of the United States.)
Proposition 4 allows counties to issue tax-supported bonds to develop or redevelop certain areas within the county.
Proposition 5 lets cities and counties contract with each other without having to meet certain conditions.
Proposition 10 extends the length of an unexpired term-in-office that triggers the automatic resignation of some local elected officials should those officials announce they're running for something else.
As many of you know, every ten years, states redraw their state and federal legislative districts to reflect new census data. What you may not be as familiar with is our infamous redistricting history in Texas.
The most recent, and probably most egregious, attempt at redistricting happened in 2003. We are still recovering from that battle.
Now, it's time for Texas to redistrict according to the new census numbers. So, even facing a deep budget hole and a typical set of legislative battles, we have to tackle redistricting, too.
Let's Get Into the Details
The Texas House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Texas Senate has 31 members. Each of those members' districts must be drawn with almost exactly the same number of people. According to census information, each Senate district should have around 811,147 people. To put that number in perspective, each Texas Senate district will have more residents than the states of Wyoming, Vermont, or Alaska. Each Texas House District should have 167,637 people after redistricting.
Unlike the number of Congressional Districts (which can increase or decrease based on the rate of population growth in Texas relative to the rest of the country), the number of Texas Senate districts is set at 31. So, as the population of Texas increases, the number of people within each Senate district also increases.
Simply dividing the districts evenly by population, of course, isn't very hard. Doing so in a way that is legal, and that fairly reflects Texas regional and political views as well as its historic communities of interest, is another matter. To get more information on Texas redistricting, visit: www.kirkwatson.com.
On Monday, February 14, future candidates will be able to officially file for a place on the May 14 Municipal Election ballot. This filing period will be open for 30 days until Monday March 14 at 5:00pm.
Hello Kunkle, Goodbye Moore and Hunt
While many progressives across Dallas have pined for City Councilor Angela Hunt (District 14) to run for mayor, Angela has decided that the time is not right for her and will be running for a fourth term as the City Councilor for District 14. Angela also had her first child barely 10 months ago. The story regarding Angela's announcement can be read in full at Council member Angela Hunt won't run for mayor.
Jim Moore was the first candidate to announce his run for mayor. On January 31, Mr. Moore announced in a letter to supporters that he was withdrawing his candidacy. Jim did not feel he would be able to raise the $1 million plus dollars required to run competitively across Dallas in 90 days before the election. Mr. Moore's lack of time serving on a local boards and negligible name ID would have made his candidacy even more difficult given the other potential contenders of city councilors and sitting board members. Jim's announcement is posted on the front page of his campaign website.
On the same day that Jim Moore withdrew, former Dallas Chief of Police, David Kunkle, jumped in. David Kunkle served as Chief of Police between 2004 to 2010, and has consistently voted in Democratic primaries during this period. David is married to Sarah Dodd, a former journalist and owner of Dodd Communications. David and Sarah live in north Dallas, and are represented by Angela Hunt on the Dallas City Council. The article discussing Kunkle's announcement can be read in full at Former Dallas police Chief Kunkle makes it official: he wants to be your next mayor.
Round Two for Billy MacLeod?
In 2009, William "Billy" MacLeod ran against Pauline Medrano for Dallas City Council District 2. Pauline received 74% of the vote, and spent a little over $8,000 during the race. Pauline is running for her fourth and final term as Dallas City Council. On January 15, Billy filed a campaign finance report indicating he was seeking election in District 2 on May 14, 2011. The report had only a single expense to GoDaddy.com for $80 and no campaign contributions. While Billy has not made any formal announcement, his Facebook postings have also indicated potential preparations to do something political in the very near future. Also, congratulations on your marital engagement, Billy.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
When Angela Hunt was considering a mayoral run, two candidates, James Nowlin and Jim Rogers, announced their intention to run for her open seat. Jim Rogers was explicit in his announcement that he would not run if Angela chose to run for a fourth term on city council rather than run for mayor. James Nowlin simply stated "We'll cross that bridge when we get there." James responded on Facebook to Angela's announcement to run for a fourth term in District 14 by stating he is "In it to win it" and will continue his campaign. Angela Hunt enjoys large amounts of popularity in District 14, and has already served 6 years as city councilor. Any opponent in District 14 will face an uphill battle in fighting that kind of name recognition and popularity.
Unrest brewing in District 10?
Stultz is a heavily African-American area near Hamilton Park in North Dallas, and contained in Dallas City Council District 10. Residents have been fighting a zoning change that would change their area to a "Planned Development District," and open it up for future commercial development. Earlier today, Councilman Jerry Allen pushed to delay the vote for a second-time when a large group in opposition to the change appeared at City Hall. Speaking with residents from Stultz who attended the Council meeting revealed anger and frustration that their councilman was listening to developers over residents, and discussed looking for a candidate from their area who would represent them better than the incumbent.
January 15 Campaign Finance Reports
The table below outlines the data from recent campaign finance reports filed by City Council incumbents on January 15, 2011. To help provide context, I have also included each incumbent's election expenses that they incurred in their previous elections. The election expenses are calculated by reviewing their 30-day and 8-day election reports only for the relevant years.
It should be noted that Carolyn Davis submitted a campaign finance report with $0 cash on hand. This is most likely a clerical error since Dwaine Caraway and Angela Hunt initially had the same problem when using the City of Dallas' electronic filing system. Unfortunately, Councilwoman Davis has not corrected the error, unlike Dwaine and Angela. Subtracting the current report's expenses from contributions shows a minimum of $2300 possible cash. Her previous report also showed no cash on hand, but had an income of nearly $13,000 in contributions with barely $100 in expenses. So Carolyn has somewhere between $2,300 to $15,000 (or more) cash on hand.
District 6 is will be an open seat since incumbent Steve Salazar has reached his term limit. This is why the Cash OnHand value is blank for this district. Similarly, 2007 election expenses are blank for both Delia Jasso and Ann Margolin since they were first elected in 2009.
The campaign finance reports are coming in for incumbents and candidates who started their campaigns before January 1, 2011. The City of Dallas began publishing these filed reports on their website earlier this afternoon. I am looking forward to doing an analysis of this finance data once all the reports have been published online. In the meantime, we have more news on the Dallas mayoral and city council races.
Mayor Leppert and Ron Natinsky make it official
Tom Leppert made it official by publicly declaring that he will not run for re-election as Mayor of the City of Dallas. The Dallas Morning News covered the announcement in their article, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert says he won't run again, but hints at Senate. As many suspected, Mayor Leppert also hinted in a possible run for higher office when discussing finding ways to help his community other than being Mayor of Dallas. This does not mean helping out at the local soup kitchen, but is more likely the beginnings of his run for Senate or a statewide office, such as Lt. Gov if Dewhurst ran for Senate. Since Mayor Leppert's announcement Ron Natinsky has been making it as clear as possible that he is running for mayor. Ron is very likely to run his campaign as a "Stay the course" style race in support of continuing policies that Leppert favored. Beyond Jim Moore, no other candidate has made any formal announcements that they are running for Mayor yet. However, the filing period does not begin until February 14 and will run until March 14.
More City Council challengers
Now that the holidays and campaign finance reporting deadlines are past us, City Council candidates have begun announcing their runs for office. Here is a quick rundown of recently announced candidates:
Scott Griggs (District 3) - Scott Griggs announced in December. Scott is running against David Neumann, and has a history of voting in Democratic primaries. Scott is a patent lawyer by trade, and works for his family's firm Griggs Bergen LLP.
Monica Alonzo (District 6) - Monica Alonzo is the sister of current City Council incumbent, Steve Salazar, who just completed his fourth and final term in office. Monica is also State Representative Roberto Alonzo's sister-in-law. Monica announced her campaign through a letter sent to key individuals within District 6. Unfortunately, her campaign appears to have neither a website nor Facebook page at this time.
James Nowlin (District 14) - James Nowlin was appointed to the Police Review Board by Angela Hunt. The day after Angela indicated she was considering a run for mayor, James announced his own candidacy to replace Angela when she vacates the District 14 seat. James is a Democratic activist with a history of working with the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas club.
Jim Rogers (District 14) - Earlier today, Jim Rogers announced his candidacy for District 14. Jim is one of the founders of Bryan Place in District 14. Unfortunately, due to Jim's announcement earlier this afternoon, I still have sparse information on his full background and partisan leanings. I look forward to posting more about that in the near future.
The following table outlines the winners of Dallas City Council elections over the past 10 years. Winners who also had a runoff election during a particular year are shaded in yellow; winners who ran unopposed during an election cycle are highlighted in blue. An interesting tidbit is that Elba Garcia and Mitch Rasansky are the only city councilmembers in the past 10 years to be completely unopposed after winning their first elections. It is not uncommon for open seat races to have nearly a half dozen candidates running, which invariably results in a subsequent runoff election. Most city council districts only require 25 to 45 signatures for someone to appear on the ballot.
On January 11, Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News posted the story, Leppert's likely departure sets off scramble to field Dallas mayor candidates, indicating that incumbent Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert is "all but certain" to not run for re-election. Based on previous rumors about Mayor Leppert's future plans, this could be likely to begin building a statewide campaign to take on Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2012 Republican Primary. Time will tell what Leppert intends.
I mentioned in my previous post, Gearing up for 2011 in Dallas, that there were at least two Dallas City Councilors waiting to see if Mayor Leppert would run for re-election. Since that article, we already have one candidate who has announced their campaign and potentially four additional contenders. So without further ado, let's take a look into each of these candidates. I am including in parentheses what region of Dallas each candidate resides within.
Jim Moore (Preston Hollow) - Announced
Jim Moore gets listed first because he is the only candidate that has formally announced his campaign. Jim is a criminal defense attorney that resides in Preston Hollow (North Dallas) in City Councilwoman Linda Koop's district 11. While Jim may have voted in the 2010 Democratic Primary, his track record of voting in the 2006, 2002, 1998, 1996, 1994, and 1992 Republican Primaries give an indication of his political leanings. Unfortunately, Mr. Moore did not vote in any primary in 2008 or 2004.
Gromer Jeffers stated in his article that Jim is virtually an unknown compared to other potential candidates, and will have his work cut out for him. Since Jim announced his candidacy before 12/31/2010, it will be interesting to see what his upcoming finance report has to say about his campaign. Mr. Moore's campaign could be a potential dark horse, but that remains to be seen.
Angela Hunt has represented District 14 on the Dallas City Council since 2005. She was voted "Best Council Person" by the Dallas Voice in 2008 and 2009, and also "Most Effective Councilmember" by the Dallas Morning News in 2008. Councilwoman Hunt has also been a strong Democratic supporter, and many see her as a possible rising star for higher office.
Polling of Dallas City Councilmembers has suggested that Angela is one of the most well-known and popular members of the Dallas City Council on a citywide basis. However, her opposition to many of Mayor Leppert's policies and initiatives has put Angela at odds with many local leaders of the business community.
If Angela decides to run, she will need to raise several million dollars in order to win. Tom Leppert spent over $2.1 million dollars in 2007 in his election campaign. However, as former Dallas City Councilman and current School Board President Larry Duncan has proven multiple times, money is not everything when it comes to local municipal races. As a three term councilwoman, Mrs. Hunt is no stranger to campaigning, and can build a grassroots support network throughout the city.
Ron was first elected to the Dallas City Council in 2005 along with Angela Hunt. Councilman Natinsky is a former businessman who has a strong track record of voting in Republican primaries. While Angela Hunt has a strong history of opposing Mayor Leppert, Ron Natinsky has been the opposite on the matter and been an ardent supporter of the Mayor's policies. A key indicator that Natinsky is in and Leppert out is the fact that Natinsky has hired local consultant Carol Reed, who worked on Leppert's 2007 campaign as well as other Leppert initiatives such as the Trinity vote.
Ron Natinsky's campaign finance report posted on July 15, 2010 shows that Ron had $51k cash on hand. A strong start for any candidate running for city council, and Ron has had an additional 6 months to raise more money. Councilman Natinsky's strong support of Tom Leppert will likely allow him to step in with the business community that has backed the Mayor. This should allow him to lockup strong support and funds.
One local political consultant bluntly said "Natinsky is so far up Leppert's #%$#@ that you don't know where one ends and the other begins."
Mike Rawlings currently sits on the City of Dallas Parks and Recreation Board, which is considered a springboard for potential mayoral or city council candidates. Mr. Rawlings is also the former CEO of Pizza Hut, and has contributed thousands of dollars to both national and local Democratic candidates, including 2010 gubernatorial candidate Bill White.
If Mike Rawlings steps into the race, it is highly likely that he will lock up much of the Democratic fundraising community behind his banner. He is already independently wealthy and lives in Preston Hollow so he can also self-fund his own campaign. This will easily make Rawlings one of the heavies in the race should he decide to run.
Since Mike Rawlings has not actually announced, he has no campaign website. I am including an article below discussing his appointment to the Parks and Recreation Board by Mayor Leppert for your reading enjoyment, instead.
Brint Ryan's name came up in a recent poll asking about potential mayoral candidates. Neither Brint nor the polling firm is saying who was behind the poll. However, Brint has been included due to his past willingness to run for elected office, and proven he is not shy about spending his wealth in an election campaign.
Brint Ryan is the CEO of Ryan, Inc, which is a large tax services firm based in Dallas and founded by Brint. Ryan, Inc is also where potential 2012 Senate candidate John Sharp works as a Principal out of their Austin office. In 2009, Brint Ryan made an unsuccessful run to take the open seat in District 13 that was vacated by Mitch Rasansky. While Brint lost to Ann Margolin, he did spend over $1 million dollars in his election campaign.
Brint has shown in 2009 that he is not above spending large amounts of money to build name recognition, and can easily self-fund his campaign. Brint also has the benefit of hindsight from 2009 to understand the potential pitfalls in his background that his opponents will try to exploit.
Unfortunately, Brint's voting history is sparse at best, which also dogged him during his own council campaign. During this campaign, he labeled himself as a conservative businessman. Since then he has gone on to vote in the 2010 Republican primary. All of these factors should give an indication of Brint's political leanings.
Dallas County is a solid Democratic county in North Texas. This was proven for a third time in a row when every countywide Democratic candidate won their election, despite the terrible losses in the State Legislature. As Dallas County is blue so is the City of Dallas. Presently, 8 Democrats sit on a 14 member City Council, which is led by a Republican mayor. In the 2009 Municipal Election, over 22,000 people who voted have also voted in two of the last three Democratic Primaries. Compare this to the roughly 14,000 people who voted in two of the last three Republican primaries and also voted in the 2009 Municipal Election.
I stated in my previous post that first-time partisan candidates who have campaigned and served in non-partisan offices typically make stronger candidates. They have a better idea of how to campaign, report finances, and also serve as an elected official. It is time that Democrats help elect their future leaders to municipal offices, such as Dallas Mayor and City Council.
While the 2010 Elections are over and most partisan politicos are waiting for 2012 redistricting, I wanted to take some time to write and talk about the non-partisan elections in the City of Dallas. Non-partisan elections are often the starting place for people to get involved in politics and run for office. The turnout is small and money needed to win tiny compared to some State House or even State Senate races, not to mention a federal race. Rafael Anchia (House 103), Carol Kent (House 102), and Wendy Davis (Senate 10) are examples of great Democrats in the State Legislature who got their start in non-partisan offices.
A quick primer on Dallas City Council
Dallas City Council is made up of 14 districted seats that run every 2 odd-numbered years. They are term-limited to 4 consecutive terms (8 years) and earn $37,500 per year. Dallas Mayor, also known as Place 15, serves a 4 year term for a maximum 2 consecutive terms, and earns $60k per year. You can see a map of Dallas City Council Districts at Dallas County Elections website.
Who's on First (Incumbents)
This year only a single City Council seat held by Steve Salazar in District 6 will be an open seat due to term limits. To my knowledge, no other incumbent has signaled that they do not plan to run for re-election. Below in a list of each incumbent currently up for re-election. The numbers to the right of these names indicate the terms each incumbent has completed so far.
District 1 - Delia Jasso (1)
District 2 - Pauline Medrano (3)
District 3 - David Neumann (3)
District 4 - Dwaine Caraway (2)
District 5 - Vonciel Hill (2)
District 6 - (Open Seat)
District 7 - Carolyn Davis (2)
District 8 - Tennell Atkins (2)
District 9 - Sheffie Kadane (2)
District 10 - Jerry Allen (2)
District 11 - Linda Koop (3)
District 12 - Ron Natinsky (3)
District 13 - Ann Margolin (1)
District 14 - Angela Hunt (3)
As the numbers indicate, a 2011 win will begin the fourth term for Angela Hunt, Ron Natinsky, Linda Koop, and Pauline Medrano.
Who's on Second (Challengers)
So far, the list of challengers is few. It is not uncommon for City Council seats to run unopposed. Dr. Elba Garcia (now County Commissioner Garcia) was virtually unopposed after winning her first term against now outgoing city council member Steve Salazar. Jerry Allen was actually elected to his first term unopposed on the ballot.
At the end of 2010, only Scott Griggs has come out as a declared candidate for District 3 against incumbent David Neumann. Scott Griggs is a patent lawyer. His campaign website is GriggsForDallas.com and link to his Facebook Page. I plan on discussing more of the District 3 race once campaign finance reports have been filed by both David Neumann and Scott Griggs after January 15.
Who's on Third (Mayoral Race)
The gorilla in the room for 2011 is "What will Mayor Leppert do?" Mayor Tom Leppert is up for re-election in 2011. However, Mayor Leppert has indicated an interest in doing a primary challenge against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. The Mayor could decide to follow in the steps of Ron Kirk by running for re-election, and then leaving office 6 months later in order to run against Senator Hutchison. Alternatively, Mayor Leppert could decide to not run for re-election, and spent the next year raising money and building support among Texas Republicans.
If Tom Leppert does not run for re-election, that will cause a shift in City Council elections. Both city councilors Angela Hunt and Ron Natinsky have indicated an interest in running for Mayor. In Dallas City politics, Angela Hunt has been a solid voice of opposition to many of Mayor Leppert's initiatives, while Ron Natinsky has been on the opposite side. Naturally, other individuals outside of Dallas City Council would also seek the mayoral seat, but none have announced as of this writing.
Finding Home Base
As mentioned earlier, many local politicos are waiting to see what Mayor Leppert will do and for more challengers to announce their candidacies. It can easily be assumed that most challengers are waiting till after January 1 to avoid having to file a campaign finance report on January 15.
The official 2011 election calendar has not yet been released on the City of Dallas website. However, using the 2009 calendar, we can assume the following dates for 2011.
Jan 15 - Semi-Annual Campaign Finance Reports
Feb 14 - First day to file for office
Mar 14 - Last day to file for office
Apr 14 - 30 Day Campaign Finance Reports
May 02 - Early Voting Begins
May 06 - 8 Day Campaign Finance Reports
May 10 - Early Voting Ends
May 14 - Election Day
I hope to write further on Dallas City elections once campaign finance reports have been filed after January 15. I will go into how much cash on hand each incumbent reported, along with an analysis of past election costs in their district.
A voting problem left more than 1,500 local ballots off the Nov. 2 election canvass, a problem the Tom Green County Elections Office said would not have changed the outcomes but which it has reported to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and local political leaders.
The problem resulted partly from a mobile ballot box getting left behind at one of the precincts during early voting, said Vona McKerley, the elections administrator.
“Once we realized it was something to do with early voting, we realized one of the mobile ballot boxes was missing,” McKerley said. “We found a shelf that had our training equipment, and somehow that piece of equipment had gotten set on those shelves.”
[...]
“I take full responsibility that this has happened,” McKerley said. “We were under no obligation to let anybody know, but because our office aims for integrity, we let people know that this happened and that we will try to find ways that this never happens again.”
Personally -- I don't really care. Mistakes happen. No election outcomes were changed by the discovery of the missing ballots, and this woman appears to have done everything she can to take full responsibility and announce a problem she probably could have just tried to cover up. I applaud her honor and integrity on the matter.
But in the upcoming legislative session, Republicans are going to push -- and most likely pass -- voter ID legislation. They will dehumanize Democrats and Hispanics for cheating the system. For Republicans, a granddaughter helping her grandmother vote can constitute voter fraud in the right circumstances. They will choose cases involving a single misplaced ballot and pontificate for hours about how that single ballot could have led to the end of democracy as we know it. So when they do, kindly remind Republicans that a Republican elections administrator lost over 1,500 ballots for an entire month, and nobody is persecuting her or claiming she was trying to steal an election or demanding drastic new laws to increase government control in order to over-correct a simple human error.
Reason and sensibility is one of our only advantages we'll have in the next seven months. Keep this story in your back pocket, Democrats.
As the filing deadline approaches the political maneuvering is increasing and it appears that there is significant maneuvering revolving around Texas State Senate District Five. State Representative Dan Gattis announced this weekend that he will not be seeking the Republican nomination for Senate District Five, and according to a report by the Bryan College-Station Eagle, Gattis will also not be running for reelection citing personal reasons. Senator Steve Ogden announced this year that he was not running for reelection, but according to Gattis, Ogden's "willingness to return to the senate" was one of the reasons he decided to step aside.
According to an article in the Eagle, Senator Ogden's office made a statement that there will be an announcement later this week about the upcoming election. Currently Ogden's campaign web site displays the Senator's statement from earlier this year in regards to not seeking reelection. Ben Bius, the only other Republican seeking the nomination for Senate District Five, made a statement in the Eagle article that the speculation about Ogden running for reelection is "completely unfounded and baseless."
Could it be a question of fundraising? According to Texas Ethics Commission records, Senator Ogden reported $737,578 cash on hand as of the July Semiannual campaign finance report, while Representative Gattis reported only $81,039 on hand as of the July Semiannual campaign finance report. However, according to the latest campaign finance report, Ben Bius has reported no campaign contributions. Even if Gattis is having a difficult time raising money before the primary it does not mean that he would have a difficult time raising money for a general election, and the likelihood that he would face a serious Democratic opponent is low.
College Station City Council member Dave Ruesink is facing a challenge for the council seat in Place 6 from two Texas A&M University students: Cliff Eggers and Chandler Salome.
Ruesink has served on the on the city council for the last three years, and the Bryan-College Station newspaper The Eagle said in a recent editorial that he "has shown himself to be more than up to the challenge of the job."
Ruesink supports funding for a permanent farmers marker in a visible central locations, and noted that having a market in Central Park would be a step forward but that a better location should be found. Also, Ruesink supports "smart growth," as opposed to urban sprawl, and has proposed the possibility of rasping property taxes on undeveloped property within the city to "make it more attractive to sell than to hold onto the land."
The construction of a new city hall has been an issue of great concern, and Ruesink had the most thoughtful approach to the problem. While agreeing that the city needs to be expanded, he also noted that it might not be possible to expand the current city hall efficiently in its current location. Ruesink said that "it would be more effective to being a totally new building that could incorporation "green" methods for construction."
*Note: Ruesink did not respond to Brazos Progressives questions about the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, the curb side recycling program, or access for pedestrians, bicyclist, and wheel chair users.
