Bay Area Houston

After former League City Council Member, Justin Hicks, resigned, Seabrook was poised to take over the news concerning the chaos of League City but after 4 of the 5 Save Seabrook candidates lost, the chaos city was left in limbo. Enter the City of La Marque.

On Friday an individual has filed a recall petition concerning City Council Member Joseph Lowry. (pictured) According to the petition Lowry has been harassing council members as well as citizens. There has been a number of discussions about his alleged criminal record in Washington State as well as his legal rights to serve on the Council. All of this was put to rest at the last Council meeting. You can watch the meeting here starting at 2:21:38.

Lowry has had his share of the news. According to ABC News he is being sued for $43,000 in back taxes by the county and others. The Galveston Daily News reported he was censured, twice by City Council, for making derogatory statements about residents.

Those attacks include claims that Clint Yancy Sr. — pastor of New Vision Church, 2311 24th St. in Dickinson — has fathered children out of wedlock, which is false, Kimberley Yancy said.

“I didn’t make allegations of her husband having kids out of wedlock,” Lowry said in a statement. ”Other women have alleged that, not me.”

The GDN continues with an article about an expletive filled video by Lowry. From the GDN:

Some on city council say Councilman Joseph Lowry failed to embody the spirit of his constituents Monday night when he was caught on camera hurling insults, obscene gestures and threatening to fight a man who was recording police at a crash scene.

Lowry has a particular beef with City Council Member Kimberley Yancy as reported by The Defender:

Additionally, the person Yancy and other area elected officials identify as the “ringleader” of the harassment efforts, fellow city council member Joseph Lowry, according to her, has raised the stakes in his “assault.”

A recall election will require gathering signatures to put the recall to a vote. If successful then a special election would have to be held to replace the Council Member. Film at 11.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to understand this. Take a minute to read.

Texas is divided into 150 House Districts with about 193,000 citizens in each. The districts are created or modified every ten years after the census. There is one Representative per House District. Texas also has 31 Senate Districts. We can cover that later.

House District 129 (HD129) covers the Bay Area between Friendswood and Seabrook up to the border of Galveston County and extending upwards to almost Beltway 8. HD129 is mostly in Harris County and covers parts of Pearland, League City and Friendswood. Take a look at the map below. You can see the pdf version here and the street by street version here.

HD129 is considered a “gerrymandered” district. It was created in such a way that a Republican candidate will always win by 17 points or more. As an example in 2008 a Democrat raised over $450,000, knocked on over 20,000 doors, and made over 25,000 phone calls and was running against a relatively unknown and unethical incumbent. She still lost by 17 points. Other candidates since then have tried but have also failed. That’s what gerrymandering does. If you think that is bad, wait till I talk about Congressional District 36. It’s a 70/30 district!

Currently the district is represented by Dennis Paul, although I use “represented” loosely. Paul is considered “Furniture” by Texas Monthly. It means he does little except being in the way, like furniture. When you stub your little toe in the dark of night on a piece of furniture your spouse moved, that is Dennis Paul. He is now running for Texas Senate District 11, our district. Former CCISD Trustee, Scott Bowen, after a humiliating loss in his reelection bid, is now running to replace Paul. Bowen has a history of recruiting horrible candidates to run for CCISD. 4 out of 6 failed ending his goal of taking over the CCISD Board.

If you haven’t been concerned about HD129 you might want to start. After over 20 years of complete Republican rule of the Governorship, the House, the Senate, and every State wide race, HD129 is on the verge of losing NASA to Elon Musk. We have the highest homeowner insurance in the State. Our electricity grid is still fragile. Our public schools have been used and abused for decades and both of our elected officials cosponsored the voucher bills.

The Texas House has a super majority with the Republican Party in charge. We, in HD129, can afford to take a stand, make a statement, and lose just one seat. For your wallet, for your schools, and to stick it to the man, you might want to consider doing something different in November of 2026.

I grew up in San Antonio. Thomas Jefferson ’74. I moved to the Bay Area in 1981 but still love my hometown.

Greg Abbott is attempting a takeover of the city of San Antonio by financing his Mexican MAGAt, Rolando Pablos, for Mayor. Pablos is running against Gina Ortiz Jones. This is a non partisan race but it is pretty clear which side Pablos is on. He is firmly embedded in the MAGA side of the Republic Party and as Ortiz has said, will do the bidding of Greg Abbott, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. Count on it. Pablos served as Secretary of State for just two years before stepping down in 2018.

Greg Abbott has $60 Million in his campaign account and by law can donated as much money as he wants to a third party that can do what republicans do best, lie. This is what Abbott will do because he knows lying works. Like Trump he can lie and get away with it.

Recently the San Antonio Express endorsed Pablos claiming he would be better for business. Don’t be fooled. Again. Remember many voters believed Trump would be better for business, jobs, and your retirement account. Then just 4 months later they got screwed as did everyone else.

This election is about taking control away from the citizens of San Antonio. Pablos will be Greg Abbott’s bitch. (my apologies to bitches) He will do what Greg and Donald wants. He will bring chaos to the city. This is what they do. As his opponent said “Rolando’s plan is to do whatever Greg Abbott tells him to do.” (short video here)

Don’t fall for it. Again.

I had heard rumors he was retiring. Unfortunately I was wrong.

After spending 12 years in the Texas House, accomplishing little if anything substantial, State Representative Dennis Paul will be running for the Senate seat being vacated by Money Mayes Middleton.

For the politically ignorant, Texas has 31 Senate districts. Senate District 11 (SD11) is composed of most of Galveston County, and parts of Brazoria and Harris County. The Texas House has 150 House Districts. Dennis Paul represents House District 129 (HD129) covering the area from Seabrook to Friendswood.

Dennis Paul has served for 10 part time years as a House Member and will run for Money Mayes Middleton’s seat. Middleton has decided to run for Texas Attorney General using $20 million of his own money. Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging Senator John Cornyn and is expected to kiss Trump’s ass better than John.

Paul is leaving the House District in shambles. He has sat on the House Insurance Committee for 10 years yet property insurance is out the roof. Our electricity grid is still unstable. He voted in favor of passing the cost of upgrades to his constituents. NASA is poised to be gutted in 2026 leaving many without jobs. Paul has never publicly addressed his constituents. His local office is closed most of the time. He never responds to his constituents or even answers the phone. He has been invited to discuss the rising cost of insurance and has refused. He supported gutting our public schools with vouchers. He supported easy access to guns even after one of his own members of the State Republican Executive Committee was senselessly gunned down and 19 children were gunned down in Uvalde. Paul can’t raise money. After 12 years he still has an outstanding balance of $25,000 on a $150,000 personal loan that he used to initially win the seat. He has just $49,000 Cash on Hand.

In 2023 Paul was listed as “Furniture” by Texas Monthly, accomplishing little if anything and just getting in the way. In his comment to The Texas Tribune Paul ignored the very people he is suppose to represent, his constituents:

If elected to the Senate, Paul said, “I will faithfully represent those values which make Texas the greatest state to live, work and raise a family: faith in God; love for family and liberty.”

With Paul running for SD11 his buddy, CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen, will probably run for his seat. Like Paul, Scott can’t raise money. In his latest run for re-election Scott spent $20,000 of his own money. He lost. Like Paul, Bowen supported vouchers, cuts to public education, and unlimited access to guns.

HD129 is a safe gerrymandered district for any republican candidate. An opposing, well qualified, candidate could raise $500,000, knock on over 25,000 doors, make over 20,000 phone calls and they will still lose.

I know. It happened in 2008.

The darling of the Texas Republic Party needs an elected position.

After his crushing defeat in the CCISD election Scott Bowen will be looking for another office to run for. Hopefully this time he will run for a partisan position, one that allows him to run as a Republican because that is what he is, a MAGAt Republican. He has a couple of options and I expect him to continue his political career that started at Texas A&M where he served on the Senate along with a couple of extreme right wingers. You can read about them here. From a previous post:

• He has personal relationships (Served on the Texas A&M Senate) with the Director of Texans for Strong Borders who was seen chauffeuring [Nick] Fuentes
• He has personal relationship with Cary Cheshire, (Served on the Texas A&M Senate) the executive director of Texans For Strong Borders and a longtime employee of Defend Texas Liberty

Defend Texas Liberty was eventually disbanded after The Texas Tribune caught their leadership meeting with a known white supremacist, Nick Fuentes. But I digress. Bowen needs a position. Here are his possibilities. According to his voter registration he has some options:

For Congress
This might be a good place for him. Congressional District 36 is one of the most gerrymandered district in the United States. A republican can win this seat by 40 points just by putting their name on the ballot. A republican could be caught with a goat in the back of a 57 Chevy and still win. Our current congressman, Brian Babin, has been missing in action for the last 10 years. He has never communicated with his constituents because he doesn’t need to. Babin is old, frail, is worthless to the community, and should resign. Bowen would be free to run for his seat if he does.

For State Senate
Our Senator Money Mayes Middleton is running for Texas Attorney General. Bowen can’t run for that office because he does not live in his district but he could run in Senate District 6 and get his ass handed to him by Senator Carol Alvarado. This is a no go for Scott.

For State Representative
Rumor has it State Representative Dennis Paul is going to retire after 10 years with little, if any, accomplishments to his name. Paul will leave with a $25,000 pension and state provided healthcare for him and his wife for the rest of his life. This would be a good step for Bowen since the district is gerrymandered enough to give any goat loving republican an easy win but unlike Congress it pays little.

For Commissioner
He could challenge Commissioner Adrian Garcia but like Alvarado he would get his ass kicked. Again. The Precinct respects Garcia. He has performed well and other challengers have been unsuccessful in ousting him.

If Brian Babin steps down look to Scott to follow in his footsteps and continue kissing Donald Trump’s big ass.

In the words of Hank Hill: “Where you at?”

BTW. I have contact with a number of journalists and greatly appreciate what they do but their outlet needs to do better. The CCISD area has a couple of local media outlets including Community Impact, The Houston Chronicle, The Galveston Daily News, and the The Southbelt Leader. None of these media outlets have ever dug deep into the candidates for CCISD trustees. I can give a pass to Community Impact because that isn’t what they do although maybe they should reconsider. The 2025 election was a great example of our local media being missing in action.

No media outlet dug deep into the candidates past, abilities, or fundraising for the position. Trustee Scott Bowen has a history (documented by videos) of supporting school vouchers and advocating against public schools in Austin. He has a history of associating with extreme organizations and people. There is enough background on him to fill up a post titled “A Threat to CCISD Education” and yet no local media reported on it. Joe Machol, Bowen’s recruit, was probably the worst candidate in CCISD history to run for the Board and yet the media was silent. He had no money, no background in education, no campaign, and no business running for Trustee.

These positions are important to the community especially parents of school kids. The information about these candidates should be researched and provided to the community so they can make informed decisions. They should know their past, their qualifications, and their source of funding no matter how disturbing it may be. Over the last few years school districts across the country have been infested with extremists funded by white wing organizations like Patriot Mobile and Defend Texas Liberty and yet there was little if any coverage of this.

It’s disappointing that my small blog, Bay Area Houston, has to do the heavy lifting. All the information is public or available via a google search but I don’t have the coverage of the media in the Bay Area. I don’t have the audience to make an impact. I’m not an educated journalist. I’m just a loud mouth blogger. The community needs this information. They need our media outlets.

Do better. We need you.

With all the noise coming out of Seabrook I didn’t expect this.

The candidates of the Save Seabrook (SS) Squad were enjoying spicy crawfish at The Barge on election night, at least for a little while. In the end all but one lost. Angela Cervantes is the only SS candidate that won her seat on City Council. Jackie Rasco lost. J.P. Byers lost. Kyra Burton lost. Chris Hues lost. I really didn’t see this coming and I bet they didn’t appreciate the guy in the corner playing WOMP WOMP on his trombone.

As a side note former Seabrook City Councilman and former NFL referee, Joe Machol, was ejected from the game with a crushing defeat for CCISD school board. That was a win-win for both Seabrook and CCISD.

Mayoral candidate, Jim Sweeney, beat Rasco by only 13 votes out of a total of 1539. There will be a recount and possibly legal action by Rasco with wild claims of voter fraud, ballot harvesting, and other unsubstantiated claims that have never been proven across the county and country. If Harris County had handled this election there would be a paper trail that can be recounted and verified. I’m not sure what type of voting machines Seabrook uses so it might not be an easy recount and candidates could claim the machine switched votes. We shall see.

Otherwise Seabrook has elected an incredibly talented Mayor and great members of City Council. You might want to review Sweeneys resume here. Maybe the citizens were not ready to be the center of attention for local media and nosy bloggers. Congratulations to Jim Sweeney, Jared Sessum, Summer Sanford, Tyler Kubena, and Angela Cervantes.

JFK! WTF is wrong with you people?

Wasn’t Justin Hicks enough for League City? Aren’t you tired of chaos, corruption, and cruelty? Aren’t you tired of the veiled threats by the extreme MAGAts of the Republic Party? Aren’t you starving for civility and elected leaders just doing their damn jobs? If so why in the living heck would you put Scott Higginbotham on Council?

His latest Hicks move is a recent mailer he sent with his opponents home address. That is unnecessary. The opponent he attacked has responded. Voters should respond to.