Irving resident Loretta Haldenwang has filed for the Democratic primary in State House District 105, running on an agenda that positions Texas for an economic comeback.
Topping her priorities are incentives to attract more math and science teachers to the classroom, tackling local transportation issues, and freeing up more money for middle class families by taking on rising utility rates, the highest homeowner's insurance rates in the country, and the skyrocketing cost of college education.
Haldenwang, a partner in a Dallas venture capital firm and former outreach director of the Greater Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, will be challenging incumbent Republican Linda Harper Brown, who escaped defeat in 2008 by a mere 18 votes.
Loretta's focus on economic issues and her commitment to bringing regular people into the process has won her the support of Dallas County elected officials such as District Attorney Craig Watkins, statewide organizations including Annie's List, and many local leaders including Hon. Pauline Medrano and House District 105 precinct chairs including Joe Ramirez, Mary Richarte and Shirley Layton.
Since beginning her campaign, Loretta has held four town halls across Irving, and her volunteer block walk program has met with voters at over 1,100 doors. During these encounters, Irving voters have said that they're ready for change, and for representation that will put the needs of Texas families back on the agenda in Austin.
"Since last August I've been conducting a listening tour across our community. Irving families are fed up with Austin politicians that put special interests ahead of middle class families," Loretta noted.
Prior to her career in business, Haldenwang served as a District Director for Democratic State Representative Joaquin Castro, a position that gave her an in-depth knowledge of the legislative process.
"I saw first-hand what happens when the lobbyists run the show. We can make a difference if we bring the voices of North Texas families to the table," Haldenwang said.
House District 105 is a critical race for Democrats seeking a majority in the Texas House in 2011. Linda Harper Brown's right wing voting record has put her at odds of the needs and desires of her constituents, creating an opportunity for a strong, progressive candidate to change this district from red to blue.
In 2010, voters in Irving will have the opportunity to bring needed change to their community and the state of Texas by electing Loretta Haldenwang to the Texas House of Representatives from District 105. Loretta will be a progressive representative from Irving who will focus on issues that really matter to Texas families, including economic development and improving access to quality education. She will also be the critical 75th vote for new leadership in the Texas House.
Today, Loretta reported receiving more than $61,000 in contributions and in-kind donations since beginning her campaign in late April -- a strong start to what will be a hard fought campaign.
Since starting her campaign, Loretta has been meeting with local activists and leaders in Irving, and has been endorsed by Annie's List, one of the most successful candidate-supporting organizations in the state. She'll be holding a series of meet and greet events this summer and early Fall, which will offer opportunities for volunteers to help with early voter contact and canvassing efforts.
I'm particularly excited about this race, as I'll be leaving Austin for Irving at the end of the month to run the campaign.
If you live in the Irving or west Dallas County area and would like to get involved in what promises to be an extremely exciting campaign, or if you would like to learn more about Loretta Haldenwang, visit her website at www.VoteLoretta.com.
(A perspective from a former front-pager. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
I've worked in and around the Democratic Party since I graduated from college in 2005. I've been an active volunteer and activist going back years before that. Those of you who've been active in the party for sometime know what things were like in 2005. The state party was, according to one magazine, "the worst in the nation." Less than unresponsive, it lacked the basic infrastructure needed to support our candidates.
It was obvious change was needed, and in 2006 delegates to the state convention voted for that change. Boyd Richie, who as a member of the SDEC worked with former Chair Charles Soechting as the party began to hire a new staff and reorganize, was elected Chair of the Texas Democratic Party.
The delegates made a wise decision. In the two years since Chair Richie was elected, the Texas Democratic Party has been rejuvenated. The majority of the Texas House of Representatives is within our reach. Dallas County is now blue. What a difference a strong leader and two years have made.
Democrat Joel Burns is well ahead in the early vote returns in the special election for Fort Worth City Council District 9. Burns is running to complete the unexpired term of Wendy Davis, who is likely to be the Democratic candidate against state Senator Kim Brimer in 2008.
In a crowded field of six candidates, Burns almost came out of early vote strong enough to not need a run-off. Perhaps election day voting will drive his numbers north of 50. Republican political consultant Chris Turner trails in distant third place, as of early voting.
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards handidly won the Texas Democratic Party's ePoll, which was conducted over the past week. Edwards took 3,050 votes in the final tally -- more than all votes cast in the Tarrant County Republican Straw Poll over labor day weekend -- for 37.6 percent.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton trailed with 21.4% and 20.4% respectively.
Over the weekend, non-Texas and spam votes were removed, causing a slight drop in a couple of candidates' support.
For a complete breakdown on the poll's results, click here.
At yesterday's final session of the 2007 Young Democrats of America convention, David Hardt, formerly Texas's male member of the YDA national committee, formerly Dallas County's Young Democrats President, was elected president of the national organization.
The final vote was 1,995 votes for David to 107 votes for his opponent from New Mexico, with a few abstentions. In what may be the largest victory in any contested YDA election ever, David took 93% of the vote.
David ran on a campaign platform of expanding YDA's innovative field operations, improving relations between the national organization and the local chapters and increasing YDA's fundraising goals. A far cry from the 2005 convention, which saw two competing slates splitting states across the country, David won strong support from key leaders in every region early on in the race.
David Hardt is the first openly gay president of the Young Democrats of America, the first Texan president in many years, and will serve as president through the 2008 election cycle, leaving office in July 2009.
As I said in a response to the election night thread, "Ed Oakley was better than his campaign" is a comment I've heard from many people over the last few days. In fact, I’d go a bit farther -- Ed Oakley was much better than his campaign, because his campaign was something he is not… very Republican. Looking at the results from Saturday’s election, Oakley lost because his campaign failed to turn out a strong enough vote from the city’s Democratic region. A few possible reasons for this appear obvious:
The Texas Lyceum Poll, which earlier this week released a poll on vouchers that seemed to run contradictory to other data in the field, has a new poll detailed in USA Today showing Hillary Clinton tied with Rudy Giuliani and John McCain in Texas.
Where once Dallas Democrats (and Dallasites as a whole) had a wealth (read: overload) of candidates from which to choose to be our next mayor, now we're down to just one. City Councilman Ed Oakley is the only Democrat in the run-off for mayor, and every Democrat in Dallas should cast their vote for him.
Municipal politics is weird. Even the best candidates often have contradictory positions. In Dallas, council lines don't even follow precinct boundaries. It's just a mess, and it gives me a headache. But for all the mess that city politics is, it's not a disaster...
Arch-conservative and deft point-of-order tosser Rep. Robert Talton is considering a run in CD-22 against Nick Lampson.
Paul Burka has a write up here. The original Politico.com piece can be found here.
There was a great deal of talk about Talton's congressional aspirations during the session, particularly given his chafing under Speaker Craddick. Talton cycled a lot of his staff this session, which was rumored to be in preparation for a run at a different office.
Progressive activists won't miss Talton's hard work against their causes, but he was a useful thorn in Craddick's side throughout much of the 80th.
Will Talton's challenge to the Speaker hurt his chances of getting the GOP nod to go up against Lampson? How does he fare as a potential challenger to the present congressman? And what would the absence of Talton mean in the 81st Legislative session?
