06.25.10
Posted in Elections, Good Stuff, Presidential Election at 7:27 pm by dembones
As a member of the temporary rules committee, I was present at the meeting R. G Ratliff describes in today’s Houston Chronicle.
The hybrid system of awarding some presidential convention delegates through a primary vote and others through a series of caucuses held on primary night became contentious in the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Clinton won the primary vote, but Obama outmaneuvered her in the caucuses and walked away with the most pledged Texas delegates to the national nominating convention: 99-94. The state fight over those delegates continued from the March primary until a week before the 2008 state convention when Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama.
In some ways, the fight reignited Thursday morning during a pre-convention meeting in Corpus Christi in a sometimes-heated discussion over whether to keep the system or start allocating presidential delegates based only on primary results.
The temporary rules committee voted unanimously to recommend the adoption of the West Commission report, which keeps the allocations of national delegates’ presidential preferences based up on the combined results of the primary and caucuses. In the interests of full disclosure, this reporter served on the Temporary Rules Committee and authored a supplement to our report on the issue.
Now the work passes to the permanent Rules committee in the morning, where I believe the committee will vote to allow the full convention an opportunity to vote on a simple question: “Should Presidential Delegates’ presidential preference be determined exclusively by Primary election results?” If the full convention agrees with me and the rest of the Temporary Rules Committee, then the answer to this question will be no.
The concerns of those who would prefer we changed to a conventional primary are currently being addressed by the Texas Democratic Party. With improved and secured record-keeping, participant credentialing, improved training and certification, the scenes of chaos that made the national news in 2008 won’t be repeated. We can retain the precinct conventions as a party-building exercise in the long Presidential nomination process, honoring the tradition of the Texas Democratic party, and keep our unique process. It is going to take work.
My hope is that the convention will commit to completing this task and saving this critical organizing tool for future presidential elections.
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Posted in Commentary, Elections, Energy at 6:00 am by PECmember
The Pedernales Electric Cooperative held its annual meeting on Saturday, June 19, 2010 in Johnson City. The annual meeting culminated in the announcement of Board of Director elections. The two newly elected Directors will replace Directors R.B. Felps and O.C. Harmon, the last two holdovers from the regime of former General Manager Bennie Fuelberg. Fuelberg is currently under indictment for misapplication of fiduciary property in excess of $200,000, theft of property in excess of $200,000, and money laundering between $100,000 and $200,000. The PEC Board is now comprised of entirely democratically elected Directors. Members also voted to approve a Member Bill of Rights which guarantees their right to open meetings and open records.
New District 4 Director member of Special Interest Group
Chris Perry, 57, a resident of Dripping Springs, won the District 4 election. He was one of two candidates endorsed by special interest groups “PEC4U” and the Texas Clean Water Action. (You can read the Clean Water endorsement at http://www.cleanwateraction.org/feature/finish-reforming-pedernales-electric-co-op) In their press release, Clean Water Action takes credit for playing a role in the reforms at PEC and claims to have “endorsed and assisted” the PEC Board, which oversees electrical distribution and service to its members, but not their water supply. Perry, was on the 2009 PEC4U steering committee which helped to elect Directors Larry Landaker and Cristi Clement. Perry will now be the fifth elected director out of seven to be endorsed by one special interest group.
Both PEC4U and Texas Clean Water have angered members for stacking the PEC Board with their candidates thanks to the at-large voting system. Members have voiced their desire for single member district voting, which allows residents of a district to only vote for their representative, to an at-large elected Board which increasingly becomes deaf to member and employee concerns. All four PEC4U/Texas Clean Water endorsed Directors have voted against single member district voting despite prior claims to support it. District 2 Director Patrick Cox, Associate Director at the Center for American History at the University of Texas and Chair of the Governance and Bylaws Committee, had promised the PEC Board and membership that single member district voting would be carried out in 2009. Instead he successfully buried the proposal in committee for “further study” and then left it out of proposed bylaws revisions, causing that critical document to fail to garner the full support of the Board.
Independent Candidate Elected for District 5
Ross Fischer, 36, a resident of Kendalia, won the District 5 election. He was an independent candidate who beat out the PEC4U/Clean Water candidate Steve Carriker. Carriker is a former Texas State Legislator (D, Roby) voted the #1 Worst Legislator by colleagues in 1993 (list available at: http://www.texasmonthly.com/magazine/bestworst#1993). In his acceptance speech Fischer stated he is “independent with no ties to any special faction.” An attorney, Fischer was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to the Texas Ethics Commission. His Bio states that he is “a lawyer in private practice, specializing in local government law, including open records, open meetings, and ethical standards for public officials.”
Interim General Manager Appointed
Luis Garcia, currently the cooperative’s General Counsel, was appointed by the Board to be the Interim General Manager. Departing GM Juan Garza was terminated at the Board’s regular June 14, 2010 board meeting. A sizeable number of employees attended the annual meeting to protest the termination of Garza’s contract. Board President Larry Landaker, in his speech to the attendees, cited the need for new leadership in order to keep the cooperative healthy and progressive. “All of you may have read about the recent woes of Austin Energy,” said Landaker. “They are deep in the red—in the millions. Their General Manager recently said, ‘We need a new business model or we go bankrupt.’ Because they overspent and deferred critical decisions for years, they will have to raise consumer rates 6.5% in 2012, with more to come.” Garza was, until 2008, the General Manager of the now struggling Austin Energy.
A video of the PEC Annual Meeting can be viewed at: http://pec.iqm2.com/Citizens/VIdeomain.aspx?MeetingID=1008
The complete 2010 PEC Election Results can be viewed at: http://www.pec.coop/CorpProfile/Election2010.aspx
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06.12.10
Posted in Election 2010, Elections, Local Elections at 9:50 am by wcnews
PLEASE VOTE TODAY 7am -7pm FOR DEMOCRAT VIC VILLAREAL, running for ACC TRUSTEE. It’s a non-partisan race, so just remember “VOTE FOR VIC!!” He has excellent credentials and endorsements. I’ve met him a few times and seems genuine and very nice. He won 40% of the vote in the primary, his opponent got 25%, but since Vic didn’t have a majority, it goes to a run-off. Go to:
wilco.org and click on elections. Find your precinct number to see where your polling location is. Please urge everyone you know to vote today for Vic Villareal. If they live in the Austin school district, the RR school district or the Leander school district you can Vote for Vic!! If you want more info about him, here is his website, you can also google him:
http://www.vicforacc.com/
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05.13.10
Posted in Commentary, Elections, Energy, Local Elections, Uncategorized at 6:22 am by PECmember
Ballots for electing two new directors to the Pedernales Electric Cooperative are now arriving in mailboxes. Once again, there is a crowded field of hopefuls wanting to sit on the Board of the nation’s largest electric utility cooperative. The position comes with approximately $40,000 a year in retainer and meeting fees, access to potentially lucrative and sensitive industry information, the ability to control what members pay for electricity, and how excess revenue is allocated.
Despite member protests for single member district voting, at large voting is still used in the PEC Board election, meaning all members can vote for candidates regardless of their district. There are eight candidates for District 4 and five candidates for District 5. The entire list of candidates can be viewed at: 2010 Board Election
Candidate’s qualifications run the gamut from concerned members to utility professionals to experienced politicians. Candidate campaign speeches, recorded at a PEC election forum, can be viewed online HERE.
Special Interest Group Makes Dubious Choice in Endorsements
Read the rest of this entry �
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02.17.10
Posted in 2010 Primary, Elections, Williamson County at 1:14 pm by wcnews
1,583 voted early,[ PDF] ( 1,291 in person, and 292 voted by mail), yesterday on the first day of early voting. For comparison Compared to 472 showed up in 2006.
[UPDATE]: Via Wilco.org:
On the first day of early voting on February 16, 1,583 voters cast their ballots for the March 2, 2010 Primary Election. A total of 1,045 voted in person in the Republican primary and 283 voted by mail; and a total of 246 voted in person in the Democratic primary and 9 voted by mail.
|
2006 |
2010 |
| Day |
R |
D |
Total |
R |
D |
Total |
| Tuesday |
403 |
69 |
472 |
1328 |
255 |
1,583 |
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12.14.09
Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Election 2010, Elections, Redistricting at 5:54 pm by wcnews
Kinky drops run for Governor, will run for Agriculture Commissioner….as a Democrat. Hank Gilbert welcomes him to the race:
Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Candidate Hank Gilbert (D-Whitehouse) on Monday welcomed Kinky Friedman as a late entry into the race for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.
“Here we have a candidate who is running for office-any office-solely because he wants to promote his books and personal appearances,” Gilbert said. “Kinky is no Democrat. If he was, he never would have stayed in the 2006 race running as an independent and denied our party’s nominee a real chance at the governor’s office,” Gilbert continued.
The good news is when Hank beats Kinky we won’t have Kinky to kick around anymore.
Ross Ramsey’s take on who will draw the maps in Texas in 2011, Mapmaker, Mapmaker.
The Democrats are stirring, but haven’t surfaced a well-financed team that’s focused on the prize in a mapping year: The seats on the Legislative Redistricting Board. If the Legislature locks up and can’t agree on maps, that board gets to decide what should happen. And at the moment, everyone on the five-member panel is a Republican: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Joe Straus, Attorney General Greg Abbott, Comptroller Susan Combs, and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson.
It’s a strong group, politically. Dewhurst is the wealthiest guy in state politics; he’ll always have enough money to fend off challengers — he won’t get beat for financial reasons. Abbott is both well financed and ambitious; Houston Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who lost to Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2006, is challenging him. That’s an uphill race, both financially and politically. To win the speaker seat, you have to win a majority in the House, and that’s where the Farabee-Hopson changes undermine the effort. The House might turn out to be Democratic when the election year is over, but that’s not the way to bet.
That leaves Patterson and Combs. Some Democrats are circling, but so far, nobody has popped up with the combination of money and charisma (or fame) to make it work. If they can’t get the LRB, their last hope will be the courts and the Obama Administration’s Justice Department, which has to sign off on the maps under the terms of the Voting Rights Act. Democrats are putting a lot of faith there; redistricting has never been done with a Democratic administration in power (working backwards: George W. Bush in 2001, George H. W. Bush in 1991; Ronald Reagan in 1981; Richard Nixon in 1971).
It ultimately goes to court (and the congressional maps could be drawn from scratch there). There’s no rule that requires it, but the courts have a tendency to adjust the maps that come to them rather than starting over. If the Republicans control both legislative chambers and all of the LRB seats (and many of the federal courts, if you look), they’ll have the tools to preserve their majorities in Austin for the next decade.
The most likely bodies to draw the state’s maps? The LRB and the federal courts.
There’s an incentive for Texas Republicans to keep the Congressional lines fair, to keep them out of the courts. But without three Democrats on the LRB there’s no incentive for Republicans to draw fair lines in the legislature.
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11.20.09
Posted in Around The State, Blogging, Commentary, Elections, Gambling, Judicial Races, Money In Politics, Transportation, Uncategorized at 5:00 pm by wcnews
As Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus writes to the members of the Texas House in the cover letter to the interim charges he laid out yesterday, “..these charges and the recommendations you develop will form the basis for major legislation we will consider next session”. The letter also made clear that some things were left out, “In the coming weeks, I intend to propose several additional items of statewide importance for the House to study.”
The interim charges include everything from efforts to manage feral hogs (which is a big problem), to whether blogs should be considered “political advertising”. All of the items from the Appropriations, Energy Resources, Environmental Regulations, Higher Education, Human Services, Natural Resources, Public Education and Redistricting Committees should be read in full.
But here are a few that caught my eye (EOW comments are in italics):
House Committee on Corrections
1. Examine implementation of the diversion pilot programs, juvenile case management system, and other policy and funding initiatives to determine whether the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and the Texas Youth Commission have adhered to legislative directive in implementing these programs, and the impact of these programs on commitments at the Texas Youth Commission.
[...]
House Committee on Elections
3. Examine the prevalence of fraud in Texas elections. Study new laws in other states regarding voter identification and recommend statutory changes necessary to ensure that only eligible voters can vote in Texas elections. (This is Voter ID. Read BOR’s take on this issue. Suffice it to say that Straus is unable to tell the right wing to give up on this.)
4. Review the Texas campaign finance law in judicial races in light of the recent United States Supreme Court decision Caperton v. Massey. (This case involves preventing a judge from hearing a case involving a person who has made campaign contributions to benefit the judge.)
[...]
House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics
2. Review the definition of “political advertising” and determine whether the definition should be expanded to include content contained in blogs and other types of Internet communications. (These links give some background on what this may be about, FTC’s New Rules for Bloggers: A Quick Guide, FTC idiocy, and The FTC & Bloggers: New Rules.)
[...]
House Committee on Land and Resource Management
2. Examine unresolved issues relating to eminent domain legislation introduced during the 81st Legislative Session. Monitor any pending litigation. (Still on the agenda even after passage of the Constitutional Amendment earlier this month.)
[...]
House Committee on Transportation
1. Monitor the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to ensure the agency is implementing recommended legislative, sunset, and Grant Thornton management audit changes.
2. Review the organization and operation of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). Consider the relationship between MPOs and TxDOT regarding transportation planning and programming.
3. Study the practices and procedures used in the development of toll roads and make recommendations as necessary. (Toll roads are still on the agenda. Nothing here on the gas tax or transportation financing. Hopefully we will hear about that in the coming weeks.)
One interesting item is that there is nothing in the charges about gambling, gaming, slot machines, horse racing, and the like. The charges should be at least scanned for items of particular interest. Because as Straus wrote, they are the basis for the next legislative session in 2011. No matter who is Speaker, or who wins the statewide races next year, the effort and research put in on these issues, and those in the Senate when Lt. Gov. Dewhurst releases the charges for the Senate, are the frame which the 82nd Legislature will begin it’s work.
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11.04.09
Posted in Around The State, Elections, Hutto, Williamson County at 11:15 am by wcnews
Statewide all 11 propositions passed. Statewide turnout was 8.07% with a little over 1 million voters turning out. Propositions 1 (55%) and 4 (57%) passed by the slimmest margins.
In Williamson County from the Unofficial Final Election Day Summary Report 19,473 voters turned out for a 8.58% turnout. Two statewide propositions failed in Williamson County Propositions 1 (45-55) and 4 (42-58) both failed.
In Hutto all three city charter amendments passed. One of the four bond measures on the ballot failed, that being proposition 3, it went down by a 44-56 margin. Prop. 3 – Aims to lure sports tourney - was the least needed and worthy of going into debt for, in EOW’s opinion.
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11.03.09
Posted in Around The State, Elections, Williamson County at 10:52 pm by wcnews
Williamson County results are here.
Statewide results are here.
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Posted in Around The State, Elections, Williamson County at 1:29 am by wcnews
It’s Election Day!! Get out and vote!
Check out the Williamson County Elections page where you can find polling locations and can look at sample ballots. Only those that live in the city of Hutto will have something other than the 11 statewide propositions to vote for in Williamson County. Those are the four propositions mentioned above.
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