UPDATE: Peace Bond Hearing for La Marque City Council Member

July 24, 2025

Update: Lowry was a no show at the hearing. It will be rescheduled.

Today is another peace bond hearing for La Marque City Council Member Joseph Lowry.

Back in 2018 Hi-Tech Concrete Pumping Services applied for a Peace Bond against Joseph Lowry, Case No 25-NTM03-1457 | The State of Texas vs. Joseph Lowry. The records are buried in the Court system under the type “Non-Traffic Misdemeanor” instead of simply a “Peace Bond”. You can read the original complaint here. I had to look up the definition of a peace bond. From Texas Law Help:

According to the document filed with the court, which is in public record, Hi-Tech stated “Lowry threatens to shoot at Hi-Tech trucks and plots to cause severe damage to Hi-Tech Property”. These threats were disclosed by two witnesses, a former employee who worked out at the gym owned by Lowry and the General Manager of Hi-Tech. The judge issued a $10,000 peace bond which Lowry paid. After a year this money was returned to Lowry.

That was back in 2018. Today Lowry is in court again for another Peace Bond Hearing. The bond is being requested by Hayley Winkelmann. Hayley started the Recall Lowry petition which came up short by 6 signatures but she has refiled. Hayley is obviously concerned about her safety. Lowry seems to enjoy targeting her on his now deleted Lowry News Network. Details of why she is asking for a peace bond are not available at this time.

You can read the witness statements here and here. They are disturbing.

Screenshot

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Posted by johncoby

Texas sucks for retirees.

July 23, 2025

Thank god for Louisiana!

Bankrate issued their annual report on the America’s Best States to Retire in 2025 and as expected Texas brings up the bottom, ranked #49 just above Louisiana. Besides the lack of health care services, the weather, and the environment Texas has some of the highest rates of home insurance in the nation. Our electricity grid is fragile. Our streets are flooded with guns. And our elected officials don’t really give a shit about the citizens, instead they cater to the business community only.

You can see our ranking below and check out Texas by the Numbers (it ain’t pretty). Texas isn’t on the bottom of the list in every category. We are #1 in school shootings, lack of rural health care services, and #1 in total rapes but we have jobs. Lots and lots of jobs especially for retirees that they could apply for to pay their electricity bills. This is Greg Abbott’s Texas miracle! It’s a miracle any old fat would want to sit their sweaty fat retired ass here in Texas.

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Posted by johncoby

La Marque update: City Councilman Goes Dark.

July 23, 2025
City Councilman Joseph Lowry

This is pretty strange.

The city of La Marque has added yet another controversy. Over the last few weeks the City Manager has resigned and has been charged with two misdemeanors and a felony. The Chief of Police is under scrutiny for the information he provided on his application for his job. And City Council Member Joseph Lowry, the drama queen of La Marque, is under scrutiny for a number of issues. Today yet another wrinkle involving Lowry has unfolded.

Last Monday during the La Marque City Council Meeting Harvey Freebird stated that the Facebook news network for La Marque has gone dark. Lowry News Network, run by Council Member Joseph Lowry, has been removed from Facebook. Lowry was famous (in his own mind) for his weekly “Facebook live, Facebook live” broadcasts. Facebook Live is about as popular as herpes at a hot tub party. No one watches Facebook Live, most have no idea what it is, or wants to know what it is, but for some it is their life. And now it’s dead. According to Lowry himself Facebook deleted his account. I’ve never heard of Facebook removing an account or accounts.

Lowry’s other personal Facebook pages and user IDs are also gone. His recently created account, JoJo Lowry, is gone. What happened that required his pages to be removed is not known but Lowry has been neutered. He has lost his voice. Maybe his attorney told him to remove everything since he is being sued by multiple people in Galveston County case # 24-CV-2218. Or maybe the City has recommended that he removes his pages due to legal issues against the city. Or maybe Facebook was subpoenaed by the various lawyers suing Lowry.

Or maybe Facebook has just had enough of his shit. Regardless. Facebook Live is Dead.

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The Political Playbook Behind Texas City Recall Efforts

July 22, 2025
Mainland Tool & Supply

Move over La Marque!

Dolph Tillotson wrote an interesting opinion piece in the Galveston County News titled “Texas City voters should be skeptical about recall effort” and he is right. Take a moment to read it. Recall efforts for elected officials are time consuming, requires hard work, are very expensive, and are rarely successful. Some recalls are justified such as the recall effort against La Marque City Council Member Joseph Lowry who have been mired in self destruction with multiple censures by City Council, lawsuits, police reports, censures, back taxes, and allegations about fudging an application to receive $50,000 in COVID money. Whew! But then there is the recall effort against Texas City Mayor Derrick Johnson.

It seems like there is a pattern with some of these recall efforts, much like a playbook:

  • Make unsubstantiated claims against an elected official with words like “corrupt”, “cabal”, and “illegal”. You don’t need to provide any evidence, just say it. Over and over again.
  • Find a 2 bit blogger (like me) or a self proclaimed “journalist” to repeat the allegations, over and over again.
  • Post to social media all the articles and videos from these self proclaimed journalists over and over again.
  • Get a local company to soil their name with some of the local voters and promote the recall effort
  • Hire block walkers to obtain recall signatures

The recall effort against Johnson seems to have all of the above working against him. I’m surprised that a company that relies on business from the community would offer their name for the recall effort. I’m not surprised that a blogger or self proclaimed journalist is involved. That is what they do. And then there is Texas Hometown Solutions. From Tillotson’s opinion piece:

Texas Hometown Solutions is a paid political canvassing company that, under the name Texas Hometown Strategies, has been involved in three other change efforts in the county over the past few years — a mayoral recall and tax rollback in La Marque and a mayoral recall in Dickinson, said Bryan Rivera, president of operations.

You can see who has donated to this organization below. The recall requires over 1200 verified signatures. Updates will be coming.

Jetton ,Jacey R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,26,250.00
Jetton ,Jacey R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,26,250.00
The Charles Butt Public Education Political Action Texas Hometown Strategies ,24,000.00
24,000.00
Middleton ,David M.Texas Hometown Strategies ,20,511.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,18,000.00
Middleton ,David M.Texas Hometown Strategies ,17,250.00
C Club ,Texas Hometown Strategies ,15,400.00
Houston Region Business Coalition ,Texas Hometown Strategies ,15,400.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,12,000.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,6,000.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,6,000.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,6,000.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,4,000.00
Galveston County Connects PAC (INACTIVE) Texas Hometown Strategies, LLC ,2,050.00
Caughey ,Jennifer V.Texas Hometown Strategies ,2,000.00
Longoria ,Abel R.Texas Hometown Strategies ,1,165.00
Caughey ,Jennifer V.Texas Hometown Strategies ,1,000.00
Caughey ,Jennifer V.Texas Hometown Strategies ,1,000.00
Caughey ,Jennifer V.Texas Hometown Strategies ,410.00

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Posted by johncoby

La Marque to Review Council Member’s Application for COVID Money

July 22, 2025
City Council Member Joseph Lowry

The drama continues.

On Monday there will be a joint meeting with City Council and the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to discuss the process used to distribute about $1 Million in COVID related funds. Over the last few months there has been an emphasis on being truthful when filling out applications for work or to receive funds from the city. When posted, the agenda and other files can be found here.

The City Manager has been accused of not providing truthful information in his application for his job. He has since resigned and has been charged with two misdemeanors. The Chief of Police might have some explaining to do concerning his application for employment. If the same standard is applied he might also lose his job. And now Council Member Joseph Lowry is under scrutiny for an application he submitted to the EDC in order to receive $50,000 in COVID relief money. COVID wreaked havoc on the entire world. Businesses were trying to stay afloat. People died, needlessly. The Federal Government gave grants to cities to help ease this impact until a vaccination could be developed.

According to the requirements to receive these funds a business must be within the city of La Marque, must not be a home business, must have 50 or less employees, and must pay taxes to the City. The EDC has the right to demand repayment of these funds if they find incorrect information was provided to the city. So the question is “Did Council Member Lowry provide factual information to receive the funds?”.

According to his application (see below) he claimed his address for his concrete pumping business as his home. His physical business is in San Leon. It seems like a pretty simple issue to resolve. Maybe there is an explanation for why Lowry used his home address for his business. Maybe there is a reason the EDC approved this. Or maybe the EDC made a mistake and should have rejected the application.

Monday’s meeting ought to clear this up for everyone involved.

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Posted by johncoby

Raising Campaign Cash: HISD Candidate Bridget Wade

July 21, 2025

And now the rest of the story.

The Houston Chronicle wrote about Bridget Wade fundraising totals. Wade is seeking her second term on the Houston Independent School Board and is probably in lock step with the State appointed and very unpopular superintendent. The Chronicle didn’t get into the details of her report but I will.

Wade raised $75,115. 61% of her total funds, $45,832, was donated by 9 individuals. You can see the list below. $14,000 came from 14 individuals donating $1000 leaving $15,832 donated by those giving less than $1000.

At least she hasn’t received money from the two Texas billionaires or from Patriot Mobile. I remember when running for a school board position required a few thousand dollars, a few signs, and some push cards. Voters usually had a choice between two or more well qualified candidates. It was always a win for the school district. Now it has become a partisan shit show with money pouring in from white wing MAGAts, billionaires, and PACs. It’s sad and has resulted in controversies such as Keller ISD, CCISD, Katy ISD, and others.

BTW CCISD is now back to normal after voters ousted the individual responsible for the chaos.

DonorAmount
Cherie and James Flores$10,000 
Peter Flour$5,208 
Alice Harcrow$5,208 
Melinda Hildebrand$5,000 
Thomas Lile$5,208 
Tom Smith$5,208 
Lynda Underwood$5,000 
Peter Wareing$5,000 
$45,832 

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Posted by johncoby

Raising Campaign Cash: Harris County Judge and Candidates

July 17, 2025

As of today there are 3 candidates who have filed to challenge Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. The first campaign finance reports dropped yesterday. You can find the reports here. The County doesn’t make it easy to review the filings. I have summarized the numbers below.

Judge Lina Hidalgo
Hidalgo raised $30,339, spent $141,460, has an outstanding loan balance of $51,400 and has a Cash On Hand (COH) total of $600,492. The COH includes a refund from various legal organizations of over $650,000. Most of her donations are small with a few at $5000.

Former Mayor Annise Parker (Democrat)
Annise Parker has one of the best resumes of the bunch. She was Mayor of Houston for two terms, Controller, and a City Council Member. She has raised $96,105, spent $9,793, and has a COH of $92,755 with no outstanding loans. $40,000 came from 3 donors.

City Council Member Leticia Plummer
Plummer has not filed a report for this period.

Mayor of Piney Point Aliza Dutt (Republican)
Dutt is the Mayor of Piney Point Village, population 3128. She raised $132,500, spent $2337, and has a COH of $246,662 which includes a personal loan of $118,200. She has quite a number of large donations with $60,000 coming from 6 donors of $10,000 each. The Chronicle has more details.

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Posted by johncoby

La Marque Council Fireworks. (Lowry related)

July 16, 2025

OMG this is bad and sad.

The video of public comments at the July 14th La Marque City Council meeting begins at 1:45:00. Comments made by some of the speakers were disturbing and most were directed at Councilman Lowry.

The first speaker identified himself as a disabled veteran, fighting cancer, and was walking with a cane. He said Councilman Joseph Lowry had posted disparaging remarks online as well as threatened him to “Whip my butt”. He then challenged Lowry to meet him outside. He warned the Council that if the threats do not stop he could take action against the city.

After he spoke Lowry called for a Point of Information and then proceeded to deny the allegations. According to Roberts Rules of Order any point of order or point of information must be acknowledged by the Chair before the speaker speaks. A point of information is used to request information not to make a statement. A point of order is a challenge to the rules or the conduct of the Council, not to make a statement.

Other speakers included former Council Member James Ross, and Kayley Winkleman. Winkleman gave an update on the recall petition she submitted as well as questioning whether the Chief of Police had an active law enforcement license when he applied. Others demanded a return to civility specifically calling out Lowry.

You can see the comment sections starting at 1:45:00.

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Posted by johncoby

Raising Campaign Cash: State Senator “Money” Mayes Middleton (running for AG)

July 16, 2025

(You can find Campaign Finance Reports at the Texas Ethics Commission’s website.)

This is getting old. He bought his House seat. He bought his Senate seat. Now he is trying to buy the Attorney General seat. He is the Oligarch of Texas politics.

Bay Area’s Senator Money Mayes Middleton is running for Texas Attorney General and he is doing exactly what he did to win his State Representative seat and his State Senate seat, self funding his campaign. According to his report Middleton has a $10 MILLION loan to himself along with a meager fundraising total of $166,308.

When he ran for his Senate seat he raised $1,685,523 with $1.6 MILLION coming from Money Mayes himself leaving just over $35,000 coming from political suckers or those who are trying to suck up to Mayes for favors. When he ran for the House he raised $3.2 MILLION, with $2.4 MILLION coming from his own pocket. He won 56-43. His opponent raised $4000. Now he vowed to use $10 MILLION of his money to buy the AGs office.

$140,662 of the remainder of his fundraising totaling $166,308 came from 15 individuals/PACs giving $5000 or more. You can see the list below.

And you wonder why I call him “Money”?

Contributor NameAmount
0.00
Elswick ,Roger20,000.00
Hankamer ,Emerson10,331.00
McGill ,John10,331.00
Del Papa ,Larry10,000.00
Gore ,Rex10,000.00
Gore ,Rex10,000.00
Hock ,Stacy10,000.00
Lonsdale ,Joe10,000.00
Popolo ,Joe10,000.00
Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC10,000.00
Gulf States Toyota Inc State PAC10,000.00
Eltife Campaig ,Kevin5,000.00
HARDEMAN ,Joy5,000.00
Von Schmidt ,Charles5,000.00
Weekley ,Richard5,000.00

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Posted by johncoby

Raising Campaign Cash: Dennis Paul of Clear Lake

July 15, 2025

After 10 years sitting on the Insurance Committee in the Texas House Dennis Paul is moving on to run for the Texas Senate. Like his fundraising for State Representative his fundraising for State Senate isn’t impressive. His acceptance of $5000 from the PAC of Independent Insurance Agents of TX is troubling.

During this last period Paul raised $132,300, most of it coming from out of the district. 92% of all his donations, $121,750, came from out of the district including $12,000 from California, Washington DC and Georgia leaving only 8% coming from his constituents. 58% of his donations, $76,250, came from PACs. His largest contribution, $25,000, came from the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC which works to limit the rights of consumers. The complete list of donors are below:

Texans for Lawsuit Reform25,000.00
Richard Weekley12,500.00
Elswick ,Roger11,000.00
Granite Construction Employees PAC10,000.00
Alvia ,Steven  D.10,000.00
Texas Association of Health Plans5,000.00
TALHI Life Insurance PAC5,000.00
PAC of Indepedent Insurance Agents of TX5,000.00
Galveston Pilots for Good Government5,000.00
Tomlinson ,Richard5,000.00
Texans United for a Conservative Majority5,000.00
James B Frank Campaign5,000.00
Capital Leadership Fund2,500.00
The Beer Alliance of Texas PAC2,500.00
Wilson ,Kirk2,500.00
Centerpoint Energy PAC2,500.00
Briggs ,Mark2,000.00
Thomas ,Suchmor2,000.00
Howard ,Jay1,500.00
Wholesale Beer Distributors PAC1,500.00
Bristol Myers Squibb PAC1,000.00
Troutman Pepper Locke1,000.00
Longbow Partners1,000.00
HOMEPAC of Texas1,000.00
ACEC Consulting Engineering PAC1,000.00
Insuring Texas PAC1,000.00
Delisi Communications PAC1,000.00
HILLCO PAC1,000.00
Wong ,Daniel1,000.00
Gunderson ,Samuel1,000.00
Bowen ,Scott500.00
Holzheauser ,Craig300.00
Moak Casey PAC250.00
Grace & McEwan Consulting LLC250.00
Casselberry ,Craig200.00
Dixon ,Lee Anne200.00
Kerkhoff ,Craig50.00
Russo ,Christopher50.00

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Posted by johncoby

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