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April 2009
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July 2008 ArchivesAt the Capitol Grill, a.k.a. the cafeteria in the Texas Capitol basement, you can enjoy all-you-can-eat toppings on your frozen yogurt one day a week. I never know which day it is, so it's always a pleasant surprise when "Unlimited Toppings Day" comes along. Up until recently, I also looked forward to "Chicken Fried Steak Day". And since the Capitol is a place where acronyms run wild, from here on out I will call it "CFS Day".
The Obama campaign picked San Antonian Juan Sepúlveda as its Texas State Director. "Our priority is expanding our strong grassroots movement for change across the state so we can help Democrats up and down the ticket and win the White House in November," said Sepúlveda. Sepúlveda is President and Founder of The Common Enterprise (TCE). Sepúlveda is a member of Obama's National Latino Leadership Council and served as a senior advisor for Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign. He will take a leave from TCE starting today to serve as State Director. ...House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Patrick Marsteller, a Dallas travel company owner, have settled the lawsuit and countersuits they filed against each other. Marsteller first sued the speaker and lobbyist Bill Messer last May, accusing Craddick of abusing his power in demanding a refund for a five thousand dollar fishing trip that didn't happen. Craddick sued back for his refund. The deposition got a little tense, >> Continue reading: Speaker Unhooked from Fishing Lawsuit Republican presidential nominee John McCain is expected to meet up with Austin-based cyclist/cancer-fighter Lance Armstrong in Ohio today. I asked Armstrong who he might endorse for president back in March. He said he'd rather stay out of it so he can have more influence in his anti-cancer activism.
But the l... Governor Rick Perry and U.S. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, are today getting a bird's-eye view of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Dolly's damage. The storm came ashore Wednesday afternoon packing 100 mph winds, officials said. The Governor and Senator will leave from Weslaco, and take a blackhawk on the same path that the storm took. Emergency management officials are expected to brief Perry and Cornyn in Weslaco before they hold an afternoon press conference at the Mid-Valley airport. ...Did House Speaker Tom Craddick pull a "Jennifer Kim"? The former Austin City Councilmember ruffled some feathers when she tried to use her position to get through security without going through screening. This morning, one of our KVUE photographers, who is on personal business, caught Craddick and his wife Nadine cut in front of 50-60 people in a line of hundreds at Austin-Bergstrom.
I don't know how it happened after my haiku shenanigans, but my producers are letting me go to Austin City Hall again. The new City Manager, Mark Ott, is presenting his first budget, and it comes in the face of a $20 million shortfall. "Expect talk of library closures," said City Council Mike Martinez. We chatted briefly at my stop at the East Austin Block Party hosted by the Travis County Coordinated Campaign. My time to catch-up is short, so I thought crowd-sourcing could help. What should we be watchi... My counterpart at the ABC affiliate in Houston, Miya Shay, scored some video of President Bush in Houston for a fundraiser this past weekend. Check it out. Bush says: [The economy] is unce... Capitol Hill paper Roll Call is reporting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's field operation, which was surprisingly successful in 2006, will target 17 states this election year. Texas is not one of them. There is a US Senate race here in the fall, but it appears the campaign arm of the Senate Democrats has decided to invest its millions in competitive races in other states. The 17 Targeted States An email between U.S. Senator John Cornyn's staffers and subsequently forwarded to supporters says that the Netroots Nation convention in Austin has helped bring in about $10,000 in the past two days. The subject line is "Nutroots": "According to finance team, the fact that Dean and Pelosi came in to shill for Noreiga really fired up our supporters the last 24 hours. We have raised well over 10K and I think we could another 10k," writes Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin. He adds, "Our guys at the convention told us Noreiga and his out-of-state buddies spent the morning attacking Senator Cornyn." >> Continue reading: "Nutroots" Helps Cornyn Raise Thousands General Wesley Clark is bouncing all over Texas with Democratic US Senate candidate Rick Noreiga. He started at a Dallas fundraiser on Wednesday. Then he came down to Austin to deliver the keynote at last night's opening of Netroots Nation. Afterwards, Texas bloggers hosted him at the Netroots Nation kickoff party. I stopped by long enough to take an out-of-focus picture and listen to some speeches.
Choose your own adventure in Austin today. The PUC meets, ostensibly it will choose a scenario to connect West Texas wind farms to the big city Texas markets that need it. The build-out could cost anywhere between three billion to 6.4 billion, depending on which plan is approved. The SBOE meets in committee, and could take up a recent AG opinion regarding the Bible course curriculum in Texas schools. >> Continue reading: Overbooked I hope internet connections don't slow down around the convention center this weekend. 3,000 or so left-leaning bloggers are headed to Austin for Netroots Nation (formerly YearlyKos). Kos himself (Markos Moulitsas Zuniga) is already in town and going to do some community radio this afternoon. Kos, who founded Daily Kos and continues to be its principal writer, will talk internet activism and the 2008 elections on KOOP 91.7 this afternoon. The show airs between 2:30pm and 3:00pm. If you aren't in Austin but would like to hear what Kos has to say, the show will stream live at www.koop.org. ...State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, is getting in early for a U.S. Senate run. U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is widely expected to make a run for governor in 2010, and if not, her senate term is up in 2012. Shapiro has formed a committee to explore a run in 2012 "or sooner", and it's headed by former Cowboys QB Roger Staubach. "Florence Shapiro's passion and commitment to public service is unsurpassed. Should the opportunity arise, I am confident Florence's proven leadership on the local and state legislative government levels have prepared her well to be a great United States Senator for Texas," Sta... It's the 2nd quarter fundraising reporting deadline! Senator John Cornyn walloped his challenger, Rick Noriega in 2nd quarter fundraising. As for cash-on-hand, Cornyn's stash is ten times the size of Noriega's, which is going to come in really handy as people start paying attention to this race after Labor Day. A look at the top lines: CORNYN NORIEGA Thoughts? ...Who can blame Barack Obama for loving him some Austin? After all, Travis County voters went with Obama two-to-one in the March primary. And while he was here in the much cooler months of February and March, he got a good enough taste of Austin to realize he liked it more than he expected. That's according to the New York Times, anyway: Senator Barack Obama marveled at the view here in Big Sky Country. He discovered that the gumbo in New Orleans was far tastier than in Chicago. And he was pleasantly surp... This feels like the Texas Capitol Press Corps equivalent of The Beatles breaking up. The four-man Fort Worth Star Telegram Austin bureau is soon becoming a one-man shop.
It was almost too perfect. Four cool dudes with alliterative names? One had to know it... We got a photo from the trip! And a reeeeally long press release from former Capitol Press Tribe member, Mike Rosen*. So I'll just post the photo:
Texas Congressmen Michael McCaul, Gene Green and Henry Cuellar just got back from their official trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. McCaul's office says he talked about the need for more military resources... We've been gathering string on this story all day long, but it's taken me awhile to dump it all on the blog. Here's where we're at. The kid bloggers* over at Burnt Orange Report discovered that their prolific pro-Cornyn commenter, Buck Smith, was none other than Dave Beckwith, longtime Cornyn staffer, former aide to Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Vice President Dan Quayle. >> Continue reading: Cornyn's Anonymous Online Cheerleader |
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Elise Hu is KVUE's Political Reporter and your dedicated blogger. There's too much politics in Texas to fit into a newscast, so the fun continues here. Email your ideas and feedback to ehu@kvue.com.
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