Three House Democrats allied with Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick have each received $50,000 contributions for their re-election campaigns from a political action committee funded by Mr. Craddick and other prominent GOP donors.
The Democrats, all House committee chairmen who supported Mr. Craddick for speaker in the past, are Kevin Bailey of Houston, Kino Flores of Palmview and Aaron Pena of Edinburg. All are being challenged in the March 4 Democratic primary.
The $150,000 in donations represented nearly half of the $332,500 that the PAC raised in January, with Mr. Craddick putting up $250,000 of that amount through his Midland-based Tom Craddick Campaign Fund. Three other contributors, including Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, each donated $25,000 to the PAC.
Just got an URGEHNT e-mail from Tarrant Dem. Chair Art Brender:
ATTENTION SENATE DISTRICT 10 DEMOCRATS!
CHALLENGE TO SEN. DIST. 10 CANDIDATE
The Tarrant County Democratic Party has just received a challenge to the eligibility of Ms. Wendy Davis to be a candidate for State Senate District 10.
We need a good Democrat to consider running for State Senate District 10!
This challenge has been forwarded to the Texas Secretary of State for a determination as required by law. If this challenge to Ms. Davis' candidacy were successful, Democrats would be left without a candidate to challenge Republican Kim Brimer, who has been a "yes" man for the wealthy special interests.
The Tarrant County Democratic Party is asking a good Democrat to file as a candidate for State Senate District 10, at least until this challenge is resolved. The filing deadline is January 2, 2008 at the Tarrant County Democratic Party Headquarters at 3004 W. Lancaster, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. For more information, call the Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair, Art Brender, at (817) 335-8683.
Does anyone know what's going on? Is this fatal to Davis' run?
Toxic Ethics: Coats Reaffirms Polluter's Agenda
Dallas Mayoral Candidate and TXI Board Member Sam
Coats Refuses to Cut Ties To DFW's Largest Industrial Air Polluter - Even as the Company Fights City Hall
(Dallas)-A local clean air group is deriding Dallas mayoral candidate Sam Coats decision not to quit his membership on the board of cement giant TXI, or even pledge to distance himself from the company's campaign to defeat air quality measures backed by current Mayor Laura Miller and Dallas City Hall.
"He doesn't seem to understand the meaning of conflict-of-interest," said Jim Schermbeck, staff organizer of DFW-based Downwinders At Risk."
Downwinders, the 12-year old group that has made the nation's largest concentration of cement plants in Midlothian its central focus, met privately with Coats after his membership on TXI's board was revealed earlier in the month. This is the first time the group has spoken out about the results of that meeting, because, representatives say, they wanted to give Coats an opportunity to differentiate himself from the company's policies that put it at odds with cleaner air in DFW.
