Bay Area Houston

End of Session Summary 
Our State elected officials meet for about 5 months every two years. This year, the 89th Legislative session, ended on June 2 with little to show for property owners in the Bay Area. There were only a handful of bills that would have affected our insurance. Only two passed and are waiting for the Governors signature. 

Our Representative’s  Denial of Service Bill

Representative Dennis Paul and our Senator Mayes Middleton filed joint bills that requires an insurance company to send you a letter if they deny or cancel your policy.  It also requires this data to be provided to the Insurance Commission. That’s all it does. In the end I have no idea how this bill will help us. Our premiums have skyrocketed. We were in need of help. This bill does not help.

Other Bills

You can read the entire list of insurance related bill here. Below is a summary of the ones I thought were important.

SB1644. Passed. Relating to the use of a consumer’s credit score in the underwriting or rating of certain personal lines property and casualty insurance policies. (Does NOT prohibit the use of credit scoring)

HB2741. Failed. Relating to prohibiting the use of credit scoring in certain lines of personal insurance.

SB1082. Failed. Relating to declination and nonrenewal of residential and personal automobile insurance policies based on previous claims.

HB854. Failed. Relating to payment of the replacement cost of lost or damaged property under a homeowner’s, renter’s, or condominium owner’s insurance policy.

HB2515. Failed. Relating to prohibiting insurers from requiring the bundling of personal automobile or residential property insurance policies.

HB1576. Failed. Relating to a grant program for hurricane and windstorm loss mitigation for single-family residential property. (Fashioned like Alabama’s Fortify program)

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.