There are a lot of encouraging signs that Democrats will come closer to regaining the majority in the state house, as well articulated by Phillip earlier. A lot of the focus recently has been on Harris County and one race that wasn't covered was the challenge in Northwest Harris County for HD-135. The incumbent, Rep Gary Elkins (R), has had no real challenges since first taking office in 1995 and is in what would typically be considered a safe seat. I say "typically" because there are five factors to consider.
First, Gary Elkins is one of the worst legislators in the Lege, sponsoring less than a handful of bills each session and, for the most part, standing out by not standing up for anything but his pet cause: payday lending. Why does he care about payday lending?
The HIll basically anointed Watts as the frontrunner based on his big push to raise money not from his own bank account (more than $1.1 million in the last 30 days of the quarter):
Democratic Senate candidate Mikal Watts laid claim to early front-runner status in Texas with a strong first month of fundraising, just as his top competition announced it will launch a campaign this week.
Despite his pledge to spend $10 million of his own money on the campaign, Watts is showing that he isn’t content to rely on his own fortune in his bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). He raised more than $1.1 million in the final 30 days of the second quarter, setting a pace generally reserved for incumbents and celebrity candidates.
The article points out that's in the territory of John Kerry and Mary Landrieu (both strong incumbents), and above comedian Al Franken. Beyond that the article is filled with the usual discussion of who is strong where, with jabs from the Noriega and Cornyn camps.
(Some of you will remember Matt H. from when he was a guest writer here at BOR. Now he's working on a special election in Georgia. The places we go... - promoted by KT)
I'm currently working with the James Marlow campaign (check out their blog, which is an important special election to fill the seat vacated by the late Charlie Norwood.
What's so important about this race? Marlow is the only candidate talking seriously about the war, while his main opponent said "it's not a big issue in our district."
Do you know one of the best ways you can help end the war in Iraq and start an honorable withdrawal? Help me convince voters in a red district that the President is wrong on Iraq and to vote for me in a special election next month to override the President's veto of troop funding and an honorable withdrawal.
I'm James Marlow and I'm a Democratic candidate running for Congress in Georgia to fill the seat vacated by Charles Norwood.
Our military has done its job - it won the war against Saddam Hussein’s armed forces four years ago, it removed his government from power, and it brought him to justice. The Bush Administration, however, failed to plan for the day after the war was won, and our brave men and women in uniform are still putting themselves at risk every day because of it.
Americans voted to end the war in November. The President didn't listen. For most of the country, voters don't get another say for another 18 months. Fortunately, we have another accountability moment coming up with national implications. On June 19, Georgia voters will decide whether to end the war by voting for me or to stay stuck in somebody else's civil war for years to come by voting for one of my Republican opponents who blindly support the President's position.
(For a look at the TIR poll (which shows Bell in second with a 5-point gain and both Strayhorn and Friedman dropping), click here. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Looks like my thoughts on the post before this were not off the mark. Previous results here though I'll rechart this all in a new post. Kinky's collapse is real and and Granny's ads aren't doing much for her. We can start calling this the 2 person race that it always should have been. -KT
I'm sure that the guys are going to do a better job of this tomorrow, but in the meantime (precrosstabs):
Wow, this is a freaking great column written about Chris in Ft. Worth. Everyone doubting the surge Chris has gotten should read it:
Rain couldn't put out fires that Bell lit
By Bob Ray Sanders
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
At a campaign event in Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell was all wet -- from the beginning of his speech to the end.
And he and his audience loved every minute of it.
The scene on the south side reminded me of another historic moment in Fort Worth history.
I hesitate to mention it lest I be accused of outrageous exaggeration or deliberately overdramatizing a happening that others might describe as insignificant in the overall scheme of big-time state politics.
State Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, had sent out invitations for Tarrant County residents to meet the Democratic nominee for governor. He scheduled the event for the new Evans Avenue Plaza, an outdoor venue that beautifully recounts the history of African-Americans in Fort Worth.
It was clear from the starting time (4 p.m.) that organizers had checked whether the Dallas Cowboys game would be early or late that day, ensuring that football fans would have at least an hour for the political rally.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast is not as certain as the NFL schedule, so there was no way rally planners could know that it would rain much of Saturday night and into Sunday morning, the rain becoming a gentle but steady downpour by Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday, I kept expecting a call that the Bell campaign event was canceled or postponed or, at the very least, moved inside.
But that call never came. So I went, expecting to find the place empty except for a few local politicos. But as I approached the plaza, I noticed that cars lined both sides of the street. Then I saw a sea of umbrellas.
As Bell was introduced to the cheering crowd, he was obviously buoyed by their enthusiasm and affection. He was also obviously surprised, but delighted, that so many were willing to stand in the chilly rain to hear him.
Immediately, I was reminded of a rainy day back in November 1963.
President Kennedy looked out the window of his Hotel Texas suite that morning and was amazed to see more than 2,000 people -- many of them working-class men in their uniforms -- standing in the rain waiting to see him. The president was said to have been moved by that sight.
Chris Bell is hoping to raise support for himself and help support former New Orleans residents displaced by Katrina by holding a party at VII J's Restaurant. I think Bell views this as a better way of helping our new Texas residents than calling them "Crackheads and Thugs, which seems to by Kinky's approach.
You can read more about this new Austin institution in the Statesman here.
Here's the info from the campaign
Start:
September 28, 2006 - 12:00pm
Location:
VII Js Restaurant, 1900 Rosewood Ave, Austin
Chris will meet with local Democratic supporters over lunch at VII J's New Orleans Style Restaurant in East Austin, Thursday, September 28, from 12-1pm.
Thursday's visit to VII J's will highlight the positive outcomes of tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina when Texans open their homes as well as their hearts. VII J's Restaurant is one of many success stories rising from New Orleans residents who chose to make Texas their home after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina.
This is an old column I did for the Texan after they had a "Straight Pride Parade." Man, it's so easy to make fun of these almost universally unattractive, trollish, borish human beings. Enjoy!
YCT: Thanks For Making it OK To Like Girls
It's hard for me to say this because I know what people will think ... but I'm straight as an arrow. I have seen how society has judged the "heteros" and have felt like an outsider. I've seen news reports about people beaten and killed just for being straight, and I have been too afraid to tell anyone.
I felt this way right up until last Wednesday afternoon when I saw the Young Conservatives of Texas straight pride table. Someone was obstructing the full view of the sign so all I saw was a table full of nothing but guys and the word "Pride" so you know what I thought it was. A demonstration without girls around doesn't seem like much of a "Straight Parade," but what can you expect? As straight people, they've been persecuted and asking them to find a girl to sit with them and exhibit her straight-hood is too much toask for so early in our struggle.
To be fair, YCT was only the final push in a long struggle with my unyielding desire for women. Television shows that portray the love between a man and a woman such as "Grounded for Life," "The O.C.," "Everbody Loves Raymond," "I Love Lucy, "Ed," "8 Simple Rules," "Guiding Light," "King of the Hill" and "The Simpsons" have become more common and have started to make me feel better about spending so much time with my ... my ... girlfriend. There, I said it. I have a friend, who I like more than just a friend, and she's a girl.
I feel so relieved just to be writing this. Thank God I can live in a world where I don't feel strange about holding my girlfriend's hand in public. The looks that I get when I kiss my girlfriend are atrocious.
And to those of you who say I'm weird or that I had some sort of strange childhood experience that led me this way, let me promise you that I've felt this way my whole life. From Jessica Bailey in second-grade all the way up to my current girlfriend, I've felt for girls in a way that would probably make you feel awkward.
I'm ready for the names also. Straighty, poor-dancer, normal and macho are no longer names that I'm afraid of. They are marks of pride!
So I applaud the guys from YCT for admitting, however hard it is for them, that they like girls. It may be a while before they will do it openly, it may be a while before they "go on dates" or even are okay with "open physical relations." But I think, and maybe this is just me, that this is the first step in admitting they're okay with girls.
That being said, I will be honest and admit that I had promised myself, and a few others, that I would stop writing about the YCT since, like little children, attention is all they want. But, I got to thinking about that old expression, "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade." In the same way, "If life hands you clowns, make a circus."
(Our eminent writer, Matt Hardigree, writes in today's Daily Texan. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
This is posted here in The Daily Texan, though they put the online editors name up at top instead of mine. But would it be the Texan without a little mistake?
Why? The Hell Not.
A campaign that asks "Why the hell not?" is deserving of an answer.
The Kinky Friedman gubernatorial campaign started out as a bad joke and has now well overstayed its welcome. I've had friends, who I've found to be otherwise intelligent people, say that they planned on voting for Kinky. Almost without fail, the response they give is borne not out of a nihilistic lack of concern for the future of Texas, but merely out of a lack of good information.
As a service to the well-meaning but misinformed, I've compiled the top three reasons people have given for why they would vote for Kinky and the many, many reasons why they're wrong.
1. A Democrat Can't Win in Texas. This is both the worst and best excuse I get. It's the worst because it flies in the face of recent elections across the state, in which Republican districts are turning Democratic, and because it supports an attitude that Republicans just love. Tell that to Nick Lampson and Juan Garcia, who are going to win races in Republican-held seats this November. Democrats are winning in Texas, and they'll keep winning in Texas.
It's the best reason because it's the easiest to disprove. This is actually the best chance democrats have had in recent history to win an election. Polling shows that Rick Perry is hovering somewhere in the mid-30-percent range, which means that a Democrat would only have to get in the upper-30-percent range to win, which is what Democrats usually get anyway.
I even had a friend say that her Republican parents were voting for Kinky and that's why Democrats should. That's exactly the reason why they shouldn't! If Republicans vote for Grandma, Kinky and Perry, only the usual Democrats have to show up for Bell and Democrats will all be celebrating victory this November. It's simple math.
Here's me having fun with some stock Chris Bell photos from his recent dove hunting adventure. Let me point out these aren't from the Bell campaign. This is all just sport.
Now that KT has started printing his columns under the title Texan Tuesday, I too thought I should share some of my old columns with everyone. If only to prove that the Texan doesn't always print crap (I kid, I kid).
I'm going to keep it off the front page, because I'm that vain. If you like it, I may put some more on the site.
For some of you, high school ended five years ago. For others, it has only been a few months. But no matter who you are, high school is over, so shut the hell up about it.
I'm not trying to be mean or cold. I'm not saying you should forget your friends or your accomplishments. But if I have to hear about what you scored on your SATs one more time I'm going to rip the first chair flute district band patch off your letter jacket and burn it along with every high school yearbook you brought with you.
For freshmen, it can be a little harder since you probably didn't win state in anything or score with any hot guys or girls over the summer. Of course, you're freshmen, and the odds that you've scored at all or ever won state in anything are kind of low as it is.
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