Bay Area Houston

Eric Dick, who chairs the Harris County Department of Education, is whining about “deceptive media content”. This is laughable. Truly laughable.

Dick has a preliminary hearing scheduled at the end of this month in front of the Texas Ethic Commission for his deceptive media content. As you might remember Dick paid for a mailer to the African American community during the 2019 City Council runoff. This mailer did not have the required “Political ad paid for by…” statement. It also looked like prominent Black elected officials such as former President Barack Obama, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and others were endorsing his run for Houston City Council. 

Not only did they not endorse Dick or any candidates on the mailer, some of the candidates specifically asked NOT be be included in the mailer. It was deceiving, dishonest, and illegal. So for Dick to be whining about a number of articles from the Southeast Texas Record, a publication focusing on the legal community, is just rich. According to Dick:

But what about the second form of deceptive media content: erroneous and biased reporting? This solution could come from ordinary people like you and me. News agencies like Southeast Texas Record and David Yates that publish false, dishonest, and biased stories can be called out. Furthermore, we may assess our involvement in spreading misleading information on social media and take serious steps to prevent it.

That really is rich coming from Dick who will be facing the Ethics Commission next month.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who is behind the republican butt kissers for Texas Attorney General.

Bush raised $2,264,137 from 1114 donations. 73%, $1,650,000, came from 78 donations of $10,000 or more. 99% came from 299 donations of $1000 or more leaving only 1% of all his donations coming from donations of $500 or less. $300,000 came from 3 different donors, Trevor Rees-Jones, Arnulfo Eduardo Trevino Garza, and HH Tripp Wommack III.

Paxton raised $1,819,468 from 503 donations. 86%, $1,572,000, came from 46 donations of $10,000 or more. 99% came from 125 donations of $1000 or more leaving only 1%, $23,536 of all his donations coming from donations of $1000 or more. $500,000 can from 2 donors, $250,000 from Douglas Scharbauer, and $250,000 from the Republican Attorney General Association. Darwin Reason and Kenny Troult each donated $100,000.

Eva Guzman raised $1,051,723 from 234 donations. 85%, $892,500, came from 24 donors of $10,000 or more. 98%, $1,027,700, came from 75 donors of $1000 or more. Texans for Lawsuit Reform donated $200,000.

This shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The Party of Q led by right wing extremist Allen West, received $5,452,396 in donations in 2020. The breakdown is pretty interesting.

Of the $5,452,396 total:

$97,504 (1.7%) came from 798 donors contributing less than $1000, averaging $221 each.

$5,355,891 (98.3%) came from 249 donors contributing more than $1000, averaging $21,509 each.

$4.994,300 (91.5%) came from 119 donors contributing more than $10,000, averaging $41,968 each.

The biggest donors include Chief Justice Nathan Hecht for $750,000, Brett Busby for Supreme Court $800,000, Justice Jane Bland for $400,000 and Richard Weekley for $125,000. Here is a list of the top donors:

Lacey Hull won a close raise in Texas House District 138. According to Living Blue in Texas her husband filed for divorce the same day she won alleging “Respondent has committed adultery.” According to her campaign finance reports Hull is carrying on other affairs with special interest groups.

Prior to her 30 day out report, Hull had only raised $122,000, a very poor fundraising total for a competitive race. Within a month she had raised over $1.6 Million, most from in-kind donations. $1,027,448 came from special interest groups. These affairs includes Texas for Lawsuit Reform for $645,000, Republican State Leadership for $292,000, Association Republicans of Texas for $191,000. Greg Abbott threw in $17,000 ask $25,000 came from Republican Texas Leadership. Various PACs including home schoolers contributed over $37,000.

Hull won in a very tight race so she really needed the $1.6 Million to pull this off. If her husband had filed for divorce, alleging an affair, prior to the election she would have easily won. Republicans in Texas count adultery as a plus in their world. 

Watch for a primary candidate in 2022.

Trump lovers are not happy!

70 Republican Congressmen refused to sign on to a longshot lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to invalidate election decisions in several key states in hopes of overturning Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump. That suit was quickly rejected leaving Trump as a loser. Again.

70 Republicans refused to support Trump. They refused to sign on to an attempt to appoint a dictator. They refused to go against the Constitution while 126 of their colleagues did including 13 from Texas. 

The 70 Republicans will most probably have a primary candidate in 2022 and will feel the rage of the MAGAts of Trump.

No one said the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, was a smart criminal.

It’s written all over his face. He is looking for a preemptive pardon from Trump for his many violations of federal law, one currently in court, and another possible charge or charges involved with bribery and retaliation against the whistleblowers who turned him in. In return Paxton has filed a frivolous suit to stop millions of “illegal” votes from being counted. From The Texas Tribune:

Trump isn’t new to getting something in return for a pardon. Recently it was reported the Department of Justice was investigating a presidential pardon scheme. This isn’t rocket science folks. Paxton knows if he can suck up to trump he could get a preemptive pardon. 

Paxton has just a about 45 days left to get his bribe to trump in order to get his freedom. Watch for it.

Mike Schofield raised a lot of money. Sort of.

Schofield is running for Texas House District 132 challenging State Representative Gina Calanni who beat him in 2018. Calanni has served honorably receiving the endorsement of the Houston Chronicle. Schofield has since resorted to a campaign of lies resulting in a cease and desist letter from the Calanni campaign. Schofield is using the trump method of trying to win.

One look at Schofield’s ethics reports shows he raised over $1 Million. Another look shows how padded his report is. Out of the $1 Million raised, $850,000 is from in-kind donations. This includes $488,000 from a Washington DC PAC called the Republican State Leadership Committee. $83,000 came from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, $93,000 from Greg Abbott, and $123,000 from Republicans of Texas Fund.

Of the $176,000 he raised from individuals and PACs, $120,000 came from PACs. Only $56,000 came from human beings. 

There is so much money coming from special interest groups into Mike Schofield’s campaign it is not clear if he can even answer the question “Who’s your daddy?”.

Paul isn’t real good at fundraising except from PACs.

In his 30 day out report Paul raised $72,400 with at least $29,500 coming from PACs, $5000 from the Texas Asian Republican Club, $7500 from the Bay Area Republican Women, and $5000 from James Dannenbaum who seems to be the sugar daddy of the Texas Republican Party.

Paul also has an outstanding loan from his company for $156,000. The $7500 from the Bay Area Republican Women seems to have wiped out their bank account. Their July report has a $0 COH balance and they have yet to file their 30 day out report. 

After spending $7.5 Million Kathaleen Wall has lost. Again. Maybe she needs to try challenging Brian Babin in CD36. Her racist bullhorns might work there.

Tony Nehls only raised $517,000 and has only $29,000 cash on hand. This total includes about $120,000 since April 2020. For a Congressional candidate this is a very poor showing. He is lucky that this seat is a target for the Republican Party otherwise he would be on his own with no avenues of fundraising. This used to be a safe seat. That was the way it was drawn during re-districting. Now the party has to fight to keep it after Congressman Pete Olson cut and ran and left the seat open. They are also stuck with a Trump loyalist.

During that same time, April – July, Sri Preston Kulkarni raised almost $1 Million. He has raised $2.5 Million in total and has $1.2 Million cash on hand. He is clearly in the lead in money and enthusiasm.

Nehls is another Wall without the money. He supports Trump’s racist behavior but will distance himself from him as if he was a baby in a poopy diaper at a pool party. He will have a hard time trying to wipe Trump’s stink off of him over the next couple of months.

You would think the owners of Bucee’s would be left of center in their political views. After all it seems like they pay well, provide health insurance, and generally treat their employees well. (seems like it!) But looking at the owner’s campaign contributions might say something else.

According to the Texas Ethics Commission Donald Wasek and Arch Beaver Aplin have donated a total of about $1.5 Million to republicans. One third of Wasek’s donations, $150,000 went to Texas Attorney General. $117,500 went to the Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen. $51,000 went to Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. He also donated $56,000 to John Cornyn’s PAC and $45,000 to the Republican Party.

Aplin’s biggest donations went to Greg Abbott for $575,000 and Dan Patrick for $250,000.

So the next time you stop at Bucee’s to stuff your face with Beaver nuts remember where your money is going.

Tony Nehls is a Sheriff in Fort Bend County. Like his opponent he loves Trump, the racist president. Unlike his opponent, who has sort of raised $7.5 Million, (all donations came from her own pocket) Nehls has raised a very tepid $490,000. That amount is about as exciting as getting an upgrade to a Big Gulp of diet cherry coke. Maybe he wasn’t trying very hard. Or maybe he just can’t raise money or interest.

Other republicans like, Pierce Bush, was able to raise $1.3 Million but he didn’t meet the criteria of a new republican and did not make the runoff. $490,000 is an amount needed to run a State House race if it is competitive. It’s not enough for a Congressional race.

Maybe he is like Trump and doesn’t really want to win anymore. So much winning.

This is strange.

Mary E Williams won in the Democratic primary for House District 128. That is Little Baby Briscoe Cain’s district. She beat Josh Markle 73/27 with about 4700 votes to 1767. That isn’t a squeaker. That was a huge beat down. So why is this strange?

According to William’s campaign finance reports she didn’t raise any money. She didn’t spend any money yet she won by nearly 40 points. Every report she filed was filled with zeros. She had no loans, no donations, no out of pocket expenses and no in-kind donations. Nothing. She has no presence on the internet. No webpage. No Democratic voting record and yet she wins decisively.

Josh on the other hand raised $69,000 but only spent about $5000 and has about $64,000 left to donate to a charity, a campaign, or a club. That too is strange.

Not quite sure how anyone but a right wing, gun nut, ahole, can win in HD129, but one did in the republican primary over a well qualified real republican. Little Baby Briscoe received over 11,000 votes to Hoskin’s 3,000. 

Also not quite sure how someone who didn’t raise or spend any money can win. Along with Chris Diaz, and Eman Afshar, this is strange. 

In 2018 Kathaleen Wall, a heavy donor to Greg Abbott, spent $6 Million of her own money in her race for Congress to replace Ted Poe. She lost coming in a distant 3rd place missing the runoff. Now she is spending over $3 Million of her own money to try for CD22, a district she doesn’t live in.