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April 2009
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Political Blogroll
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April 2008 ArchivesA Houston grand jury has indicted Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina's wife on arson charges. The indictment alleges she burned down the home she shared with Justice Medina in Spring. This is the second time Francisca Medina's been indicted. In January, a grand jury indicted Francisca AND her husband, but then-DA Chuck Rosenthal dismissed the charges. See the link above for the full H-Chron story. ...As expected, Governor Rick Perry has tapped his former chief-of-staff, Deidre Delisi, to chair the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TXDOT. She replaces Ric Williamson, who had planned to step down before dying recently of a heart attack. Delisi was picked for the commission along with William Meadows of Fort Worth. Their terms expire Feb.1, 2013. Perry's statement: "Texas faces serious challenges in providing a transportation infrastructure that will sustain our state's rapid pace of population and trade growth," s... Less than half a percent of registered voters in Travis County cast a ballot in Monday's first day of early voting for Austin's municipal elections. AISD school bonds and three city council seats are among the items on the ballot. Election day is May 10th, which is Mother's Day weekend, which may dampen turnout even more. A total of 1765 Austinites voted early yesterday, and that includes 131 mali-in ballots received by the Travis County clerk. The Randalls at Research and Braker saw the highest first-day turnout, at 165 voters. Meanwhile, poll workers at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center ... By a 6-3 vote, the high court upholds voter ID laws in Indiana, which experts expect will fuel stronger voter ID movements in other states. Last session, eleven Democratic state senators in Texas blocked a voter ID requirement from becoming law. You might recall that, since State Senator Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, had to come back from liver transplant recovery in order to vote against it. This is new, so there's not a whole lot on it yet, but here's Indiana's WRTV-TV: WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can requi... Democratic political flack (hack?) Harold Cook told me last week he started a blog. But he told me over beverages at The Belmont, so that information clearly didn't make it anywhere until now. Welcome to the club, Cook. ...Wonder how HRC, Obama or John McCain did in Palo Pinto County, Texas? Or perhaps Ochiltree County? Or your own county? Google has a new module that shows you the county-by-county vote breakdown in each state in the presidential primaries. Click on this link for a much bigger version. Then, just click on each county on the map for the breakdown.... Well, as you might have read, the Democratic blog Burnt Orange Report turned five years old. I can't believe it's only been around that long, actually. It feels like much longer. Just kidding.
Each member of the Austin City Council gets a budget of about $260,000 a year, most of it for the member's salary and salaries of his/her staff. The rest goes for office expenditures like notepads, city-related travel, etc. A 2007 review by the Austin American-Statesman showed that Jennifer Kim spent more on non-payroll expenditures than every other member. But what exactly did she buy? Kim's expenditures, obtained from a TPIA request, show that she is a big fan of The Sharper Image. And traveling. And the self-help book, >> Continue reading: Councilmember Kim Loves The Sharper Image We've blogged about Mindy Montford quite frequently, as she made a expensive run for Travis County District Attorney. But lately, attention is being shifted back to her father, former legislator and current AT&T exec John Montford. The SAXN reported Governor Perry threw out Montford's name as a good candidate for UT chancellor. Some bloggers have suggested that it would serve Perry politically to give Montford something... HRC stays alive with a ten point win in Pennsylvania, the same margin by which she won Ohio. The delegate experts estimate she'll net about 12-16 delegates out of the Keystone state, so she closes the gap in the delegate race a little. But unless she seriously pounds Barack Obama in Indiana and NC, she's still going to have to count on the superdelegates to come through. You have all the >> Continue reading: Penn-less Clinton Carries Pennsylvania Wow. The last time actual voters cast actual ballots in the presidential race was in Texas and Ohio on March 4th, which in campaign time feels like nine months ago. The WaPo has an overview of the Pennsylvania contest. Who is the Rocky Balboa character in this race? Clinton has already compared herself Rocky, while St. Edwards University political scientist Brian Smith has argued that >> Continue reading: Pennsylvania Votes, Finally We stopped by the House Public Education committee hearing today, where members were taking testimony about teacher retention. During the lunch break, I said hello to State Rep Scott Hochberg, D-Houston. When I asked what was going on, part of his reply was this: "Well, I don't own any apartment complexes." (Referring to a recent spate of stories about his fellow Houston lawmaker, Hubert Vo, who's been dubbed >> Continue reading: Quotable Hochberg
Last night I met a gal named Rachel, who, as it turns out, is a fellow political blogger here in Austin. And, as it turns out, her Texas license plates say "Obama". You gotta be pretty quick to go ahead and sign up for those plates before Austin's Ian Davis (head of grass roots "Te... KVUE is an ABC affiliate. As you might know, ABC hosted a high-rated presidential debate Wednesday night. The first hour of the debate featured no issues; rather, questions about candidate gaffes and associates and other assorted campaign back-and-forths. It's resulted in a pretty big backlash --an online petition and a call for a boycott of ABC, and some emails like this to me: >> Continue reading: ABC Backlash Spills Onto Us SCENE: At work, almost nodding off to sleep after a lunch of chili cheese dogs at my favorite Austin hot dog place, Dog Almighty Suddenly, a blast from The Quorum Report: PERRY TELLS MORNING NEWS HE WILL SEEK RE-ELECTION IN 2010 (Everything from QR comes in all-caps, so I feel like Harvey is yelling at me at all times. Kind of like listening to the sound of Cantonese.) DMN's story is here, Star-Telegram's >> Continue reading: Again in '10? The Responses Hey, look! State Rep. Borris Miles turned himself in on misdemeanor deadly conduct charges last night. Not a bad mugshot:
8:56pm: And with that, this night of low key sparring is over. It's been real. Over and out. 8:52pm: Obama goes with his standard "this is a defining moment, we need a new kind of politics" argument. Talks about the record numbers of people he's pulled in who haven't participated before. "If we're going to deliver...on healthcare, on jobs, on education... it's absolutely vital we form a new political coalition in this country. That's what I've been doing in this campaign, that's what I'm going to do as President." 8:50pm:For the closing arg... If you are a new reader, The Purge is a meandering series on open government -- on state government email retention policies, in particular. I haven't updated The Purge since January, so here's a brief recap: The Purge started in the early days of this blog, when I read that Missouri Governor Matt Blunt took a bunch of heat for his office's policy of deleting emails every two weeks. Which led me to start a journey on this platform, asking questions about the Texas retention policy. What did we learn? Texas state agencies each get to set their own retention policies, so long as they follow the >> Continue reading: The Purge, Part 12 After the Houston Chronicle's series of reports on State Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, and the numerous dilapidated apartment complexes he owns, the conservative group Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (Michael Quinn Sullivan's group) has created its very own parody of the Vo situation called "Mr. Vo's Neighborhood", with Vo starring as a very bad Mr. Rogers. Last week I covered City Council, and it reminded me you can pass the time and convey your feelings about council meetings with simple haikus. For example: Please no new business But a consultant for Austin City Council candidate Randi Shade proved that haikus aren't just for city council meetings. They can be used to reach out to press, as well. Here's his poem for Shade: Election Day nears It's been so long since the Democratic presidential candidates debated! Some of us thought the Ohio debate on February 26th might be the last one in the primary cycle, but no. I guess this will be the fourth time that Obama and Clinton face off without other candidates on stage. The 90 minute debate is set in Philadelphia but will be on ABC tonight, starting at 7pm Texas time. Here's a preview. UPDATE 10:56am: The Texans for Obama grass roots group is going to >> Continue reading: Philadelphia Fight Night The re-election bid of US Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, won't be cash-strapped. His first quarter fundraising is at $2.2 million, and $1.6 million of it came since the March 4th primary which decided his Democratic opponent (State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston). Individual donors? 7,121 Average donation this cycle? About $309. Cash-on-hand? $8.7 million "We're grateful to the thousands of Texans who are coming forward and showing support for Sen. Cornyn and his positive message for Texas," campaign Manager Rob Jesmer said. ...State Rep. Borris MIles, D-Houston, lost his seat last month to the man he had replaced for one term, Al Edwards. Now, he's been indicted on charges of deadly conduct for the whole gun-toting, another-man's-wife-kissing incident that reportedly happened last Christmas. Here's the Houston Chronicle: Texas state Rep. Borris Miles was indicted today on two counts of deadly conduct stemming from a night of alleged bizarre behavior l... Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday, and you're not feelin' real well, does anyone ever say to you, 'Sounds like someone has a case of the Monday's? Lawrence: No. No, man. [Expletive] no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man. -Office SpaceThings have slowed considerably in the world of Texas politics now that the primary and runoffs are finished. We've got the state conventions to look forward to in June, but I'm not sure how to get through May. Anyway, if you find you... My good friend and fellow state political reporter, Mike Rosen of Austin's Fox 7, is headed to flackdom. Rosen confirms he's headed to the office of US Rep Michael McCaul, R-Austin, to be his communications chief.
"Some days you don't get the juicy stuff. You get city council." -Photog friend JL Watkins Our esteemed city hall reporter Kevin Peters recently left for the bright lights and odd smell of Houston (he's working for sister station KHOU-TV). Which means I'm helping fill in occassionally at Austin City Hall. Today was my first city council meeting. I briefly considered going up on the dais and sitting in Jennifer Kim's seat to see whether anyo... This blog's occassional guest character Matt Stiles uncovered some really nasty apartments owned by State Rep Hubert Vo, who says he's going to clean them up, fast.
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