Houston elections wrap-up 2019

December 16, 2019

Well that wasn’t fun, for some.

The Winners
Mayor Sylvester Turner
Chris Brown Controller

Amy Peck District A
(Delayed) District B
Abbie Kamin District C
Carolyn Evans-Shabazz District D
Dave Martin District E
Tiffany Thomas District F
Greg Davis District G
Karla Cisneros(*) District H
Robert Gallegos District I
Ed Pollard District J
Martha Castex-Tatum District K

Mike Knox At Large 1
David Robinson At Large 2
Mike Kubosh At Large 3
Leticia Plummer At Large 4
Sallie Alcorn At Large 5

The Losers
Tony Buzbee.

Overall
Buzbee lost and that was good for the city. Up till the day of the election Buzbee clearly showed he had no idea of how the City works or how to govern. To him is was about money, his money, and how he could buy a seat. He lost $13 Million. We won. District B is in the courts and will be decided at a later date. Two women joined the members of the At Large delegation. 8, maybe 9 out of 16 members of Council are women. Chris Brown returns as Controller.

Media Bias
Back in 1995 Wayne Dolcefino was an investigative reporter (sic) for KTRK-TV. He had a boner for Sylvester Turner when Turner first ran for Mayor. Dolcefino was eventually sued and lost for a story about insurance fraud and a jury awarded $5.5 Million. 

We ought to have an award for those in the media who chased stories that left them with egg on their faces. Fox26 would easily be in the running. They are becoming the FoxNews of Houston. This isn’t good. I used to work with a reporter at Fox26. He was fair and asked the tough questions. That was all I wanted or expected. Professional. Respectable. This is lacking at Fox26 now. 

Don’t be a a Dick law.
Eric Dick’s racist mailer cannot go unchallenged. He needs to suffer what ever consequences there may be. Unfortunately the Texas Ethics Commission does not have a rapid response process that would put Dick on notice. Instead a complaint takes months to resolve. We need a “Dont be a Dick” law.

Ed Pollard
Ed can be in the same boat as Dick. Claiming an elected official is endorsing you is dishonest and he should pay some consequences. I hope he does better as an elected official.

Before you run for office
Do yourself and us a favor, think before you jump into a race you know nothing about. We had way too many candidates who could not, would not, raise money and who have no business running for office. This isn’t a game.

Self Financing
There ought to be restrictions on self financing Buzbee put in $13 Million of his own money. Eric Dick put in $300,000. Money Mayes Middleton put in $2.5 Million for a House Race. The list can go on and on. This has to stop.

On to the primaries!


Tony Buzbee. $13 Million down the sewer

December 15, 2019
Tony Buzbee got his rich, politically ignorant ass kicked in the race for Houston Mayor and for good reason.

Tony Buzbee attempted to run as an independent, not as a Republican or Democrat, even though city elections are considered non partisan. But instead of reaching out to both parties and trying to find common ground he tried, unsuccessfully, to play both sides and he failed spectacularly.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Tony Busby is a Republican and it was no clearer than the last two days of the campaign. He  sent out out an anti-LGBTQ mailer and Donald Trump endorsed him via a text. Some Republican party leaders even volunteered to send worthless robocalls. That pretty much solidified his stand in the Republican Party.


But we all knew this when he entered the race. On one hand, Busby donated over $1 million to Trump then went to his inauguration ball. He sought the endorsement of an anti-LGBTQ organization led by the homophobic poo-bah himself, Steve Hotze.  He would said anything to anyone to get anything. For the republicans it didn’t work so well. They refused to endorse him even though they endorsed two of the absolute worst candidates to run for office, Dolcefino and Dick.


On the other hand, he attempted to also play the Democrats by donating to the Harris County Democratic Party. For his $180,000 contribution he got boo-ed and ran out of and Executive Meeting by hundreds of precinct chairs who gladly took and spent his money to wipe out all the republican judges in Harris County. That didn’t work out so well for Busby either.gy

So as Tony Buzbee said, he fights with both hands and drinks with both hands but in the end he had to beat off both parties with both hands. And it got sticky.

Ew. Ewwwwww!


Little Baby Briscoe has a primary opponent

December 13, 2019

Little Baby Briscoe is a Texas State Representative from Deer Park, House District 128. He is well known for making threats and fondling of his little gun in public. He now has a challenger and it seems like he is a real conservative.

Robert Hoskins has filed to challenge Briscoe Cain for House District 128, a deep, deep, red district. Hoskins seems to be a talented individual currently sitting on the Baytown City Council with experience in the private sector, and President of the Goose Creek School Board. On the surface he seems to be a true Conservative Republican as opposed to the white wing wacko Briscoe Cain.

Cain might have a challenge on his hand. Hoskins has a long list of endorsements from Mayors, City Council Members, and members of the community. Cain probably has the endorsement of the various gun nut groups, tea baggers, and other white wing wackos. This will be a true test of the Republican Party. Do they want to be Conservatives or continue to be a bag of dicks?

The HD 128 race also has a Democrat, Josh Markle. Markle has recently outraised Cain.


A Trojan Horse in the race for Harris County Sheriff

December 11, 2019

UPDATE: Gonzales has withdrawn from the Democratic Primary for Sheriff less than 24 hours after he signed up.

This is what the Republican Party has become.

Monday a last minute candidate came forward to run in the Democratic Primary against Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. His name is Oscar Gonzales, with an “s”, and he isn’t a Democrat. According to Oscar’s voting record he is a triple R, voting in not only the last 3 Republican Party primaries, but every republican primary for the last 10 years.

Maybe he was encouraged by the Harris County Republican Party to run against a real Democrat with a similar last name. I’ve seen this tactic before with Dave Wilson poising as a Democrat and distributing misleading information much like Eric Dick has done. It’s a cheap trick to possibly confuse voters in the Democratic Primary and split the vote.

It’s dishonest. It’s so republican. It’s what they have become.


Why are you running?

December 10, 2019

It just bothers the hell out of me.

The filing deadline for the Democratic Primary ended last night and we have a couple of Democratic elected officials with primary challengers. It begs the question, why? What has the current elected official done, or not done, that demands a candidate to challenge for the position? It’s a question that must be asked.

There are a couple of races that demand a challenge, based upon performance in office, but so far they are few and far between. I can name at least one Judge (Elaine Palmer) that should be challenged based upon their record and evaluation provided by the Houston Bar Association but most are doing a fine job.

There are some candidates that do not deserve a challenge such as Judge Steven Kirkland and Judge Leslie Briones. Judge Briones was appointed to the bench after Judge Bill McLeod resigned after 2 months on the bench to run for the Texas Supreme Court. According to law the act of filing for Supreme Court, after being on the job for 2 months, automatically caused the resignation. Instead of challenging a Judge that needs to be challenged he has decided to run against a Judge that has been doing a great job.

So candidates running against incumbents in the primary should be prepared to answer the question. Why?


Republican Precinct Chairs call for Party Chair's resignation

December 8, 2019

The calls for the resignation of the chair of the Galveston County Republican Party continue except from the official party itself. Instead, after being silenced by their own party, precinct chairs, independent of the party, has written a statement calling for the Chair’s resignation.

A Facebook post from one of the chairs explains. (see below)

“The following statement is made on behalf of the individual precinct chairs signed below and is not an official statement or resolution made on behalf of the Galveston County Republican Party Executive Committee as a whole.”

“We strongly condemn intolerance, bigotry, or racism in any manner.” (except for Mexicans, Muslims, Blacks, Asian Americans, and anyone that isn’t white, but other than that they will not tolerate racism!)

This is a statement from the Galveston County Republican Party Precinct Chairs regarding the actions of the County Chair Yolanda Waters:

Many of us precinct chairs had hoped to formally address the matter regarding the County Chair’s inappropriate text communications through an official party meeting. Previous attempts to address our concerns were met with equivocation and defiance. The County Chair chose to squash the latest effort through an opinion from GCRP Attorney Tom Dickens that called the meeting call “defective and therefore void.” The opinion further suggested she “file suit and ask the Court to enter a Temporary Restraining Order” against the Precinct Chairs who called for the meeting.

Given these efforts to silence the Precinct Chairs, we instead chose to informally dine together at the previously chosen location. A consensus emerged from those Precinct Chairs in attendance to sign on to the following letter regarding the text communications of our County Chair. The short version is that it calls for the resignation of the County Chair; the full text is below:

“The following statement is made on behalf of the individual precinct chairs signed below and is not an official statement or resolution made on behalf of the Galveston County Republican Party Executive Committee as a whole.

We the undersigned Galveston County Republican Party Precinct Chairs strongly advocate for the opportunity for all Texans and Americans to participate in the political process. We strongly condemn intolerance, bigotry, or racism in any manner. It recently became known that The Galveston County Republican Party Chair, Dr. Yolanda Waters, used a racial slur in a text message. We condemn this message and hereby call for the immediate resignation of Galveston County Republican Party Chair Yolanda Waters.”

It was signed by 16 Precinct Chairs in attendance, and others have since indicated their desire to sign.

The Galveston Daily News just published an article about this issue. We submitted a copy of this letter to the Daily News, and we have informed them there will be more signatures to add as we contact those who did not have the opportunity to meet us for lunch today.


Another Texas Republican asked to resign over racist text

December 7, 2019

There is more to this.

Back in March the Chair of the Galveston County Republican Party referred to a Black activist as a “Typical Nig”. Today, a full 8 months later, she has been asked to resign by the Governor and the GOP. 8 months later.

So the question has to be be asked, when did they know it, and when did they decide to just ignore the racist text by a republican party official? Not only is the text worthy of resignation by the Chair, but also those who knew about it and did nothing about it. If nothing else they should have stood up and immediately condemned her text and asked her to step down.

The Texas Republican Party has had a problem reaching out to the non-white voters. Putting Latino children in cages, making racist comments about Asian Americans, and referring to a Black activist as a “typical nig” is just typical of the party of trump.

And the response from the Chair:


Raising/Spending campaign cash: COH Runoff elections

December 7, 2019

Buzbee put another $2.3 Million of his wealth into his campaign for a total of $12.3 Million.

Dolcefino raised $19,215 with $14,500 coming from PACs and 2 other donors. Kubosh still has a $276,000 loan. Plummer has a $21,900 outstanding loan, and Eric Dick has a $75,000 loan with another $65,205 spent out of his own pocket for this period.

CANDIDATE COH Raised Spent Loans
MAYOR
Sylvester Turner (inc) $597,624 $1,741,906 $1,722,625 $0
Tony Buzbee $524,420 $0 $3,076,360 $2,300,000
Position 1
Mike Knox (inc) $16,073 $69,710 $50 $0
Raj Salhotra $64,150 $128,672 $121,736 $0
Position 2
David Robinson (inc) $189,649 $111,280 $199,791 $0
Willie Davis $19,816 $127,725 $10,367 $0
Position 3
Michael Kubosh (inc) $113,500 $72,215 $69,164 $276,000
Janaeya Carmouche $5,812 $17,570 $11,757 $0
Position 4
Anthony Dolcefino $6,478 $19,215 $17,482 $0
Letitia Plummer $12,443 $41,915 $44,501 $21,900
Position 5
Sallie Alcorn $49,463 $195,105 $154,757 $0
Eric Dick $2,545 $720 $65,205 $75,000

#DishonestDick strikes again.

December 6, 2019


Eric Dick is a republican and he is representing the party very well, just like Buzbee.

Once again Eric Dick has sent another round of his misleading campaign mailer. As with the last one, it features pictures of President Obama, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Ann Bennett, and other local Black elected officials. On the back is a list of endorsements from a group called “Harris County Black Democratic News” a group, if it exists, is not associated with the Harris County Democratic Party.

The mailer implies Eric Dick is being endorsed by these Black elected officials. They have not. And these mailers are being sent to the Black community. If it isn’t illegal, it is extremely dishonest.

The mailer has a new return address of 17484 Northwest Freeway, which is assigned to Minuteman Press. The previous mailer used the address of 1918 Freeman Houston Texas 77009 and owned by Philip Bryant, a personal friend and client of Eric Dick.

And once again, there is no required “Political ad paid for by” disclaimer, a clear violation of the Texas Ethics Commission laws. The fine could be as high as $4000. According to Title 15 Section 255.001:

A person may not knowingly use, cause or permit to be used, or continue to use any published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising containing express advocacy that the person knows does not include the disclosure required by Subsection (a).


Unfortunately complaints to the Texas Ethics Commission, the DAs office, the County Attorney’s office, or the Texas Bar will not stop Dishonest Dick’s mailers until months after the election. By then the damage has been done.

There ought to be a law.


Yet another lie by Toni Buzbee

December 5, 2019


He really is just like Trump. He just can’t stop lying.

In a recent push card claiming to support the Houston Fire Fighters Buzbee claims “The mayor ignored voters and sued the firefighters”. This is not true. According to Houston Public Media:

The Houston Police Officers’ Union (HPOU) has filed a lawsuit against both the City of Houston and the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, in an effort to block implementation of a charter amendment granting firefighters pay parity with police officers of equivalent rank. Houston voters approved the amendment, also known as Proposition B, earlier this month.

The Police Dept wanted the Proposition to be ruled unconstitutional, and it was. According to the Texas Constitution the pay increases must follow certain procedures and not simply putting a pay increase on the ballot without allocating funding for it. (Talk to your City Council Member about this. I did.)

The article goes on to say 

Earlier this week, Houston City Council voted to hire the law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright, as a first step in filing its own suit to block the charter amendment.

This is the city, not the Mayor as Tony wants you to believe. Do yourself a favor. Ask your elected officials how the city could pay for a 29% increase in Fire Fighters pay. Most will be honest about the lack of funds but the desire to increase pay in a sustainable manner.

Buzbee on the other hand will probably just lie to you. It worked for trump.


More on Dick and the Harris County Democratic News

December 1, 2019

OK. I’m officially obsessed.

Recently an organization called the Harris County Democratic News released a mailer with pictures of Black elected officials such as President Obama, State Representative Senfronia Thompson, and others with the back endorsing people of color except for one, Eric Dick. Some have wondered who paid for this mailer and maybe I found out that it is only one person, the white one.

According to the City of Houston website, there is only 1 contributor to the Harris County Democratic News and that is Eric Dick for a total of $8500. The address of this news is 1918 Freeman Houston Texas 77009 and owned by Philip Bryant. The HCDN is not registered with the Texas Ethics Commission.

This is definitely strange since there is no political disclaimer so filing an ethics complaint will be challenging.


Paying for endorsements: Eric Dick

November 30, 2019

More Dick for Saturday.

The Conservative Review is run by Gary Polland, the former chair of the Harris County Republican Party. Recently he issued his “endorsements” for the upcoming city runoffs. Eric Dick paid $25,000 to Pollard and Buzbee gave $35,000 and both were endorsed. Mike Knox gave $5,000.

In 2015, Bill King donated $150,000. Dick gave $12,000 in 2013 and former City Councilman Costello gave $120,000. Mike Knox gave $20,000 in 2015.

Buzbee was real proud of not seeking endorsements except from Hotze or the sloppy seconds from the Fire Fighters Union but he had no problem paying $35,000 and recieving the endorsement for Mayor from Polland.

Along with paying The Conservative Review $25,000, Dick also paid some group called the Harris County Black Democratic News $8500 and received their endorsement also. Dick just can’t get endorsements. It looks like Dick is having a hard time.

Giggidy.


Who paid for the misleading ads from Harris County Black Democratic News?

November 30, 2019
Dick.
Eric Dick donated $8,500 to the “Harris County Democratic News” located at 1918 Freeman Houston Texas 77009. Recently a flyer was distributed with endorsements from the HCDN on one side, which includes Eric Dick, and pictures of prominent elected officials including President Obama, and State Representative Senfronia Thompson as if they have endorsed him. This misleading mailer prompted a statement from Representative Thompson:

“Let me set the record straight. In this upcoming Run-off Election, I have only endorsed Mayor Sylvester Turner, Dr. Letitia Plummer, Sallie Alcorn and Rhonda Skillern-Jones,” said an outraged State Representative Senfronia Thompson. “I have never been contacted by the Harris County Black Democratic News nor am I sure that they are a legitimate news or community organization. I did not consent to being included in the Harris County Black Democratic News and am appalled that a group would go to this extent to mislead voters. Other black elected officials are experiencing the same shock as to the gall of the group to use their name and photo to mislead the voters.”

This is NOT the first time Eric Dick has done this. When he first ran for City Council he sent a mailer with pictures he took with various elected officials implying they endorsed him. 10 years later he is doing it again. There is very little information available at this organization except Whois. This organization is registered to Phillip Bryant of the Island of Hope Church at 1918 Freeman. 832-267-9936. Here is the Whois entry. The website is nothing more than a sign in sheet for their “news” with a picture of President Obama.




Texas GOP. Like Trump they need to cheat to win.

November 27, 2019

The Texas Republican Party has adopted the Trump campaign strategy: Lie. Cheat. Steal

How many times do we hear so-called independents (embarrassed republicans) say we need civility, and truth in politics, and “Both parties do it”. Well they must be really pissed now that the Texas Republican Party has leaked their 2020 campaign strategy…. to the Democratic Party. 

From the leaked memo, emailed to the Democrats, the Party will create a disinformation campaign, just like Russia did in 2016, buying website domains that look like a Democrat’s website and load it with negative information. I would expect this disinformation campaign to be staged on social media, buying ads on Facebook.

They intend to reach out to minorities with ads showcasing minorities that are probably paid actors or stock photos. That has been done before. And according to the Houston Chronicle:

According to the leaked memo, the Republican Party of Texas plans to create “microsites for negative hits” against a dozen Democratic candidates who defeated Republican incumbents in the 2018 elections. The party would work to juice sites’ appearances on search engines and buy Democratic candidate website domain names still available and reroute clicks to those domains to the microsites.

They intend to use their money to do what Trump does best, cheat. Instead of debating the issues they intend to just simply cheat. Instead of defending their positions on health care, immigration, taxes, they will defend their cheating. 

At least, in the leaked memo, the Texas GOP finally agrees that Trump is toxic. It only took them 4 years to figure that out but then again, Trump has always been a great representation of the Texas GOP. He is a liar. A cheater. A crook. A racist. A rotten human being.

This is who they are.


Galveston County Tax Assessor Cheryl Johnson. What's she hiding?

November 25, 2019

Galveston County Tax Assessor Cheryl Johnson, the tea party darling of Galveston County, has a primary challenger. Cheryl has become a career politician, the kind of politician tea party folks do not like. She has been in office since 2004. So maybe a challenge is necessary.

The tea party people believe in transparency, open government, yada yada until it comes to Cheryl. Galveston County does not require candidates or elected officials to post, for all to see, their campaign reports. Cheryl is one of the few who opted to require someone, like me, to go to the Galveston County office to review her reports. According to the Galveston County website:

So it looks like a trip to Galveston is necessary. Lunch anyone?


Anthony Dolcefino saving faces.

November 25, 2019

I do not like Anthony Dolcefino. I didn’t like his father’s investigation against then State Representative Sylvester Turner back in 2014 which a jury hit him for $5.5 million. Anthony is probably one of the worst candidates for City Council since Helena Brown who lasted only 2 years on Council.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that he voted in the Democratic Primary in 2016. Oh wait….that IS surprising! WTF? Make no mistake about Dolcefino. Like Buzbee, he is not a Democrat. He does not share our principals. Maybe, like Buzbee, he is playing both sides, and like Buzbee, it aint working.

Dolcefino screened with the extreme, far right, anti-gay community, U.S. Pastor Council. As expected he told them what they wanted to hear in his questionnaire:

The marriage issue, a legal issue not a religious one, has been decided by the United States Supreme Court and protection for our LGBTQ community makes sense as well as cents. It is just plain stupid and mean to be attacking our neighbors, friends, and family members.

But that is who the Republican Party has endorsed. That is what they believe. Like father. Like Buzbee.


What else will Tony Buzbee lie about? Glad you asked….

November 24, 2019

I’ve said it before. Tony Buzbee is just like trump. 

Buzbee is a politically ignorant, wealthy, “tell it like it is”, not a politician, lawyer who intends to self finance a run for Mayor of Houston, a political office. Sound familiar? It should. Buzbee is the Donald Trump of Houston.

And like trump, he lies. Every. Fuckin. Day. He has lied about crime statistics. He has lied about so called “corruption”. He has lied, and was caught on camera, about his endorsement from the extreme right wing group led by Steve Hotze. And now he is lying to the residents of Meyerland and once again, has been fact checked. 

Buzbee has plastered Meyerland with the following poorly designed flyer. Click on the pic below to read the fact checks by a Meyerland resident. Thanks to Art!



Buzbee is just like trump. He just can’t stop lying. If he lies to your face on TV he is going to lie to your face in person. 


Anyone else getting Dicked via text msg?

November 22, 2019

I do not like Dick.

I met Eric Dick when he first ran for Houston City Council. I didn’t like him then. I don’t like him now. He is the kind of guy that would suck up to anyone and say anything to get a vote. Ask the Houston Fire Fighters Union. He probably told them he would vote for their 29% increase in pay even though he has no idea how to pay for it.

Dick has had a drama filled few years on the Harris County Dept of Education calling his republican buddy, Mike Wolfe, a “pervert” and asking for an investigation into his hiring process. The investigation resulted in Dick being put in time out and a recommended that Dick should not serve on a committee with Wolfe.

So, it bothers me when I and others get unsolicited text messages from “Char”, a volunteer with Better Streets Hou, a group I cannot find on the net. Needless to say someone had a snappy response.

If there was a way to file a complaint on Dick, I would. He truly is a dick.


Texas Gov Greg Abbott is truly crippled

November 19, 2019

As they say “When he tells you who he is, believe him.”

I would have written another one of my “Why do you have to be a dick about everything?” post, joining the ranks of Sid Miller, Louie Gohmert, the Harris County Republican Party, the Young Republicans of Galveston, and others, but Abbott deserves worse or better. Being a dick about everything seems to be par for Abbott. 

This weekend Chick-Fil-A announced it would discontinue donations to anti-gay organizations. According to Fox News:

Chick-fil-A has announced it will focus on donating to initiatives that further its “mission of nourishing the potential in every child” in 2020 — and that it will no longer be giving to two organizations that it had previously received backlash for donating to in previous years: the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and The Salvation Army.

Salvation Army? Really? 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott had to be a dick in a tweet issued shortly after the announcement.

Abbott is expected to represent all Texans. He may not like all Texans but he is expected to represent them. This stupid tweet was not necessary but it clearly shows who Greg Abbott is. Abbott is  truly  crippled. Morally.




Buzbee secures 2nd place endorsement from Fire Fighters

November 15, 2019

The Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association has endorsed Tony Buzbee for Mayor. From the Houston Chronicle:

“Our firefighters deserve a raise but one that the city can afford,” said Sue Davis, communications director for Turner’s campaign. “Oh, and what happened to not seeking endorsements and not being beholden to anyone?”

As you recall the HPFFA endorsed Dwight Boykins days after he entered the race. Most had expected Buzbee to receive their endorsement even though Buzbee hasn’t sought endorsements from anyone except from Steven Hotze the extreme far right anti-gay community, so called “Christian”. Boykins told the Fire Fighters what they wanted to hear even though he knows the city can not afford the 29% increase they are seeking. Buzbee has promised the same even though he has no clue about what the city can or cannot afford.

The HPFFA’s recent endorsements are disappointing to say the least. Anthony Dolcefino has absolutely no experience what so ever in city policies or business dealings with the city in even in the city. No experience what so ever but he received their endorsement. As did Eric Dick who again will tell anyone anything to get anywhere. Buzbee did the same.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Buzbee got the 2nd place participation trophy. He told them what they wanted to hear even though he has absolutely no idea how he would pay for it. The math just doesn’t add up. 

Even the Harris County Republican Party has passed on Buzbee’s endorsement. It’s not rocket science folks.