Bay Area Houston

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.