House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year. [. . .]
Instead of picking Harman or Hastings, Pelosi will look for a compromise candidate, probably Rep. Silvestre Reyes (Tex.), but possibly Rep. Norman D. Dicks (Wash.), a hawkish member of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, or Rep. Sanford Bishop (Ga.), a conservative African American with experience on the intelligence committee.
As Kuff has pointed out, having Reyes as committee chair would help Texas crawl a little bit out of the seniority hole that Tom DeLay dug for us during redistricting.
Ed. note: This is a first in a series done by BOR examining how Democrats made significant gains in the Texas House this election cycle.
Ellen Cohen's victory on Tuesday was a sweet one for the GLBT community in Houston. For those of you who don't know Houston, Montrose is a progressive, urban neighborhood in Houston with a large GLBT community. Gentrification has changed the neighborhood somewhat over the past decade, but it's still the part of Houston that "looks like Austin", with bustling smoke filled cafes, funky thrift shops, and home of people with purple hair and leather boots. In 2003, re-districting split the neighborhood into two districts to dilute its voting power, with the eastern half going to Rep. Garnet Coleman and the western half going to Rep. Debra Danburg, who was defeated by Martha Wong, in part because she postured herself as a social moderate in 2002. But in the lege Wong voted against protecting GLBT youth in public schools, against same-sex marriage in committee and abstaining on the floor of the Texas House.
Houston's GLBT community was ready for change, and Ellen Cohen's race was an unprecedented campaign for the Houston GLBT Political Caucus (HGLBTPC). In no other race in Texas has the GLBT community ever involved itself as deeply in a campaign as it did in this race. Our field campaign included:
Starting blockwalking at the beginning of August, twice a week, every week, up until the election. Targeting the five precincts that make up West Montrose, we knocked over 4,300 doors for Ellen Cohen. The HGLBTPC is an all-volunteer organization, and yet our blockwalking made up one-fifth of Cohen's field campaign.
Distributing over 2,500 voter registration cards in Montrose, dropping 1,200 voter registration cards at the homes of unregistered voters and mailing 1,300 voter registraion cards to progressive and GLBT people we had identified at gay bars and the Pride Parade who weren't registered to vote.
Raising over $15,000 for the Cohen campaign ($7,000 from Houston's GLBT community, $3,000 from Equality Texas, and $5,000 from Human Rights Campaign).
Sending three pieces of direct mail (our endorsement card twice and this piece on Wong) to the 9,100 GLBT and progressive voters we had identified in HD-134. That last part was the outcome of over three years of work in HD-134. During last year's campaign against Texas' marriage amendment, we were thinking long-term about our work in a fight we knew we would likely lose. The Houston GLBT Political Caucus vigorously blockwalked in Montrose identifying voters who were opposed to the marriage amendment.
Staffing the five precincts in Montrose with volunteers for the twelve hours the polls were open.
What's the signifigance of this election for the GLBT community?
Texas Democrats have flipped party control of four districts in the Texas House: Ellen Cohen in Houston, Valinda Bolton in Austin, Paula Hightower Pierson in Arlington, and Allen Vaught in Dallas (Results here).
As of 2:40 a.m., with eight precincts yet to report, Juan Garcia was down by 250 votes in his race to unseat incumbent Rep. Gene Seaman in Corpus Christi and surrounding counties. However, reports are that the one remaining precinct is heavily Democrat, and that without about 1/3 of those ballots counted, Garcia is leading (and expected to hold). Though not official yet, Democrats might have picked up a net of five seats.
Every incumbent House Democrat won, as well. Reps. Hopson and Cook held onto their rural seats, as did Reps. McReynolds, Homer, and Farabee. Rep. Vo held off Talmadge Heflin in Houston -- a tremendous protection for Democrats. And in our two open seats, Joe Heflin held onto Speaker Laney's seat in a race many prognosticators had written off as a loss for Democrats. Heflin held on to defeat Landtroop, and Farias held Rep. Uresti's seat in San Antonio.
The Houston Chronicle has an editorial today about negative advertising, including Rick Perry's beer commercial parodies and Martha Wong's "Blame Canada!" TV ad.
Coming out of Texas, though, the ads from Gov. Rick Perry and state Rep. Martha Wong say a little too much about the values to which they're pandering. It's not enough that they look silly themselves. They also manage to make Texans look like ignorant xenophobes.
Wong's offering is a TV cartoon sequence purporting to depict Democratic rival Ellen Cohen. It features a male voiceover with a faux Canadian accent intoning, "Hello. I'm Ellen Cohen, the tax-increase lady. And I moved here from Canada, the land of big government and big taxes."
As Chronicle columnist Rick Casey notes, Cohen, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, did in fact move here from Canada — about 30 years ago. But then, many Houstonians, including Wong's family, came from elsewhere. So it's a little odd to attribute the Ellen Cohen of the mid-1960s with responsibility for Canada's tax code and system of government.
It goes on to say that Wong's ad (among others) "reflect the familiar contempt of politicians and their campaign managers for the voters' intelligence and powers of discernment." You sure know how to end a campaign, Martha!
As Kuff reported earlier today, Carole Strayhorn's office recently released an audit of Accenture, the company the newly elected GOP-majority in 2003 tasked to manage enrollments for the Children's Health Insurance Program. The way the contract is set up, Accenture gets to profit from making mistakes on applications. From the comptroller's report:
Accenture is paid when applications are completed and ready for the state’s final determination. Accenture also is paid, however, when applications “time out” because clients have not submitted sufficient information for processing. These applications are sent to the state for denial, and Accenture is paid the same rate as for completed applications. This payment structure does not provide Accenture with any incentive to seek necessary information from clients before their applications time out.
Accenture, incidentaly, is currently profiting by more than twenty million dollars than their contract limits state. State Representative Garnet Coleman had some tough words about the report:
"They're being paid for their mistakes, and our children are the ones footing the bill," Rep. Coleman said. "It's disgusting. It's outrageous. It's unacceptable."
Accenture's mistakes do verge on downright criminal, but it's important to note, as Kuff points out, Accenture isn't the cause of CHIP enrollment bungling since 2003; it's the effect of policies the governor and legislature passed. And the first step towards fixing the screw-ups of 2003 is to make sure we have a legislature and governor next year for whom children's health insurance is a priority.
It's important everyone understands the facts: Governor Perry and Republicans made enrolling children in CHIP more difficult, the HHSC reported that the main reason children are dropping off the CHIP rolls is because of the difficulty of the enrollment process, and Accenture profits from every re-submittal of CHIP applications.
CHIP is a major issue this election cycle. In North Texas, this television ad from the SEIU puts a face on the CHIP crisis:
A Spanish-language version of the video can be viewed below.
Mother Jones has a great profile of the race between Ellen Cohen and Martha Wong going on in Houston right now. It's a good article and you should read the whole thing, but this graf pretty much says it all about Martha Wong:
As Wong climbed the rungs of power at the state Capitol, however, she seemed to cast aside many groups that define her district. For example, environmentalists have been drawing attention to extraordinarily high ozone levels in the part of Houston that Wong represents, yet Wong voted against five separate clean air measures. Schools are a big issue in the highly educated district, yet Wong, a former elementary school principal, opposed a bipartisan proposal to raise teacher salaries. Wong acknowledges that voters in her district are independent-minded yet in an interview couldn’t cite a single instance in which she’d voted against her party.
No amount of red tape is going to cover up Martha Wong's record.
Martha Wong has been a good deal of coverage in Houston local television for some misleading direct mail she's been sending to voters in her district. As Kuff has already reported, Wong got into some trouble last week after sending out a piece of mail that erroneously implied she had been endorsed by Houston ISD superintendent Abe Saavedra. From KTRK:
More recently, Wong sent out a mailer listing a number of bills regarding crime. Trouble is, she didn't sponsor or author any of the bills; also, not a single House member voted against the bills for which Wong is taking credit. From KPRC:
Wong has been claiming in TV ads that she has worked to improve CHIP, despite her votes to cut CHIP in previous legislative sessions. Taken all together, these stories look like signs of a campaign getting desperate.
It's an election year, and something we're never short of in an election year is a stock of campaign policy stunts. One of Martha Wong's new "policy ideas" is to raise the maximum age at which children can remain on their parents' health insurance plan, from twenty-four to thirty-five. So while thousands of low-income families are struggling to wade through red tape to get their kids health care (something Martha figuratively and literally knows about), slackers sitting on their parents' couches watching "Dr. Who" re-runs can stay in a state of arrested development a little longer.
At a debate last month, it was pretty clear that the "Slacker Law" is a campaign year stunt, as the audience burst into laughter when Wong proposed it:
Martha Wong voted to cut the Children's Health Insurance Program, and Ellen Cohen supports fully funding it. Let's make sure Ellen can work to make that a reality in 2007.
Third Thursday PAC starts running this ad today in a Houston cable market against beleaguered incumbent Martha Wong:
This is one of the most creative ads I've seen this cycle: no talking and no images, just text on a screen against sound effects and a piano score. It's also one of the best ads I've seen this cycle, and judging by how the past week has treated Martha Wong, she can't be too happy about getting called on her record.
As we've reported recently, Martha Wong has gotten into a bit of trouble lately covering up the word "Republican" on her yard signs with a piece of red tape. Wong had this to say last week when asked why she was taping up her signs:
"We use one campaign sign when we're running in the primary, and we use another sign when we're running in the general," said Wong. "It's that simple."
The following photo was taken last Thursday of Martha Wong's campaign headquarters:
I can't think of any primaries Martha Wong is running for right now, can you?
KTRK, the local ABC affiliate in Houston, picks up on Martha Wong's yard sign "Republican cover-up":
Remember, Martha was one of only twenty House members to vote against three clean air amendments, earning her a spot among "the Toxic Twenty." Martha voted to require abortion providers to tell women that abortion causes breast cancer, even though the American Cancer Society has said there's no scientific evidence that suggests the two are connected. Martha even tried to get a street in Austin named after Ronald Reagan last year.
And now she insinuates (after the primary, she says) she isn't a right-wing Republican?
Martha's in for a tough fight over the next six weeks. Her district is urban, narrowly divided, and well-educated; two-thirds of district residents have a bachelor's degree or better. It's the kind of district that's too smart to fall for fear mongering about abortion or thinly veiled contempt for our environment. Martha knows that; that's why she's running away from her party ID and the policies she's promoted the past four years.
Gary Polland and Peter Roussel both essentially say in the interview that if Martha comes across as a right-wing Republican, she will lose. At this point, Martha's record and values are pretty clear, and no amount of red tape can cover them up.
Martha Wong is currently engaged in the fight of her political life against Democrat Ellen Cohen. Apparently, she's realized that in an urban, socially progressive district in Houston, her right-wing Republican record isn't going to fly, as she's been putting up yard signs with pieces of red tape over the word "Republican."
Remember Martha Wong's record:
Martha Wong voted to send last year's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage out of committee and abstained on the vote on the floor, despite the fact that she represents Montrose, an area with a large GLBT population. Martha's district was one of only a handful to vote against last year's marriage amendment.
Martha Wong voted to require abortion providers to tell women that abortion causes breast cancer, despite substantial scientific evidence to the contrary.
Martha Wong voted for HB 2292, which cut hundreds of thousands of children off the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Martha Wong blocked funding for a stem cell research facility in Houston's medical center.
Martha's clearly out of step with the district, and the polls are beginning to reflect that. A poll the governor's office ran showed her down by six points; I've heard from some very reliable sources Martha's own internal polling shows her down by eight points. It's time for Martha Wong to go, and luckily we have a great candidate in Ellen Cohen, who supports same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, and stem cell research, to replace her.
UPDATE: As always, Pink Dome brings the funny.
UPDATE 2: By the way, the red-tape isn't the work of a supporter ashamed of the Republicans; it's the work of the Wong campaign. When I visited the Wong campaign office last week to pick up signed debate terms for the debate Rice University is hosting October 12, there was a big stack of yard-signs-with-red-tape in the corner. Full sized photos of the offending sign here and here.
Clay Robison has a good story out today on the statistical and real life squeeze tuition deregulation has put on Texas families:
Elliott Jempty, 23, a sophomore art major at Texas State University in San Marcos, said he is paying about $2,700 in tuition and fees for 13 credit hours.
He and his classmates are paying, on average, about $800 more than their predecessors three years ago.
"It (my bill) came out to be more than I thought it would be. I didn't know why, but I guess I do now," he said.
About seventy percent of the increased student costs have come from tuition deregulation, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Kinky Friedman plays fast and loose with the facts in his campaign speeches:
In most of his speeches, Kinky Friedman takes aim at Texas being 50th in education "with Guam and Samoa sneaking up," lottery money never reaching the classroom and the last teacher pay raise amounting to "a court-ordered crumb." His lament appears heartfelt.
There's only one problem: None of it's true.
To note (in reference to a long debate we've had in the comments with a Harvard grad who's got a lot of time on his hands), as the San Antonio Express News reported:
Houston police have reported that 59 of the 262 Houston murders between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26 involved Katrina evacuees, either as victims or suspects.
To begin with, the 20% increase Friedman supporters so often talk about have to do with homicides, and not all crime (as Friedman's campaign has so often claimed). Hopefully, when Friedman continues to push the much-needed increase in law enforcement in Houston, he'll manage to remember that distinction. Also, as many editorials have noted across the state, it's tough to shape public policy while saying Katrina evacuees that remain are "crackheads and thugs," as the Friedman camp has done.
A recent progress report on Rick Perry's tenure as governor includes caps on damages for personal injury lawsuits, starting work on the TransTexas Corridor, and forcing massive budget cuts in future legislative sessions.
"My intention is to stay positive and make this race about the future, about qualifications and about vision. I hope my opponent does the same. Just yesterday he sent over a nice spinach salad."
In response to media coverage of Kinky Friedman's remarks about "a negro talking to himself," one blogger has suggested that the incident has been taken "out of context." Just as a reminder, here's what Friedman said:
Friedman himself provided the context for the comment in an interview with Garnder Selby on April 7 (scroll down for the article):
This week, Friedman called the line "a poetic way of describing a junkie. I mean, you could say a heroin addict walking down the street. But if you're writing prose, you might say a Negro talking to himself."
Kinky also confirmed that he meant "Negro" as an interchangable term for "drug addict" in an interview with Clay Robison just a few weeks ago:
Asked last week what the Negro comment was all about, Friedman said he first used it years ago in one of his mystery novels to describe a junkie on a New York City street.
"(But) if you stay politically correct, you can't write a novel, or at least you can't write a very entertaining one."
Many in Houston, particularly those working to help Katrina evacuees get back on their feet, don't find Kinky's remarks too entertaining. Looking at the context, Kinky's comment is almost definitionally racist; to Kinky Friedman, "Negro" and "street walking drug addict" are the exact same thing. There is no way one can spin this to suggest that Kinky Friedman doesn't hold negative stereotypes about African Americans. There just isn't.
The story has hit the AP, so dozens of newspapers will be covering it tomorrow. It's about time that the media realized what kind of candidate Friedman really is.
Now you have your context. Somehow I don't think it makes Kinky Friedman look better.
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