Bay Area Houston

From The Wall Street Journal

It’s sad that in this time and age Republicans have to tell their colleagues how to win elections as Congressman Will Hurd did in the Wall Street Journal:

“This is how you win suburban women: Actually talk to them. Talk to their kids. Do things to make sure their kids are ready for the future. Don’t be a racist, and don’t be a misogynist.”

To recap: Don’t be a racist because racism is bad. Real bad. And don’t be a misogynist pig because that is bad too. Here are a few other things Hurd should tell his party members on how to win elections:

Don’t send dick pics to your mistress. Ask former Congressman Joe Barton or soon to be former Senator Charles Schwertner of Texas. Both were caught sending dick pics. Barton sent it to his mistress. He was forced to resign. 

Don’t send dick pics to college students. According to Schwertner someone other than himself sent a dick pic to a college student. Schwertner claims it wasn’t his dick. He has since asked Lt Gov Patrick not to assign him to the chairman of his committee. Sounds like he knows something.

Don’t call women the C word. It should go without saying that an elected official should never use the C word especially towards women but when you have to tell grown men to not send dick pics you probably have to tell grown me to act like grown men,

Don’t steal your donors money. Congressman Duncan Hunter was caught and charged with multiple felonies of stealing his donors money. He has since blamed it on his wife. He was re-elected.

Don’t deal in inside trading. Congressman Chris Collins of New York was charged with multiple felonies of insider trading. Sitting on the board of a biotech company based in Australia Collins shared inside information to select individuals before the stock crashed. He was  also re-elected.

Also, get rid of that (R) behind your name. Its as popular as herpes at a hot tub party.

It really isn’t hard to apologize after calling an elected official a MFer like The Honorable Rashida Tlaib did when referring to the President of the United States. We all, at one point in our life, have had to make sincere apologies for some of our classless actions. We are taught as young children that apologies are expected and demanded when warranted. How many times have our parents said to us “Tell him your sorry”?. Apologizing is something we must do at times and Congresswoman Tlaib should do it at this time. Here is an example of a perfectly good apology:

“Last week I made a very unfortunate comment referring to the President of the United States that I deeply regret. I want to apologize to Speaker Pelosi for causing this distraction to passing our progressive agenda and to my constituents and the members of the Democratic Party for this vulgar language.”

She doesn’t owe an apology to Trump for calling him what he is but she does owe it to the Speaker, the Party, and to those who gave her the title “The Honorable”. Calling an elected official a MFer or calling anyone an MFer is conduct unbecoming of someone with “The Honorable” in front of their title. It is disrespectful. It is vulgar. It is low class. It is a sure fire way to be minimized.

The President is a low class, vulgar, racist, politically ignorant, rotten asshole of a human being who calls people school yard names, and has used horrible language in the past but that does not give us the right to condone one of our own when they do the same. We are not the republican party. We are not Trump. We are suppose to be better.

Running for office and serving is not a game. The Honorable elected officials, at times, must send our kids to war. They pass legislation that means life or death for many. This isn’t a high school name calling session. This is very serious work that requires The Honorable to be honorable. If we condone Tlaib’s dishonorable act of calling elected officials vulgar names then we have lost our right to condemn Louie Gohmert when he calls Speaker Pelosi a stupid b****.

We are better than this.

The University of Texas has completed a review of the facts concerning Texas Senator Charles Schwertner sending sexually explicit texts to a student including a dick pic. From the Dallas Morning News:

AUSTIN — The University of Texas completed its investigation on Tuesday into whether State Sen. Charles Schwertner sent sexually explicit messages — including photos of his genitals — to a student, issuing a report that neither fully incriminates nor clears the Georgetown Republican of wrongdoing.

According to Schwertner he shared a device with an anonymous individual and provided this person with the password to his Hushed account that allows for encrypted texts. That individual, not Schwertner, sent the messages. If a dick pic was sent this would be a fairly easy investigation. Line up Schwertner and his anonymous buddy and have them drop their linens.

Unfortunately Schwertner has been uncooperative, will not disclose the individual, and will probably refuse to drop his linens. His wife has declined cooperation also.

The university reported it could not prove Schwertner sent the offensive messages, and a forensic investigation found that they did not come from his phone. However, the messages did come from Schwertner’s Hushed account, a privacy app that allows people to send messages from separate phone numbers, and his LinkedIn account.
The UT investigation also described Schwertner as uncooperative and unwilling to be interviewed or answer questions about whether he had other electronic devices where the messages could have originated.

According to the Federal Election Commission the Brand New Congress PAC spent $773,837 in 2017-2018. As I have said before concerning the record of BNC:

Out of 31 candidates recruited, only 1 won in a deep blue district. Here are the results of Sander’s Brand New Congress campaign:

31 candidates in the Brand New Congress

• 20 lost in the primaries

• 11 advanced to the general election

• 8 were Democrats

• 2 were Socialists

• 1 was an Independent

• 10 lost in the general

• 1 won in the general (Ocasio -Socialist)

 The majority of the spending was for “Strategic Consulting” to the Brand New Congress LLC for $466,000. $105,000 for “Wages and Salaries”, About $60,000 for an unknown category, and $70,000 for “Payroll fees”, leaving about $50,000 for all other expenditures.

Not much else to say about this. It looks like a jobs program for Sander’s followers. According to Wikipedia:

Brand New Congress is a volunteer-led American political organization that intends to run hundreds of campaigns for United States Congress with candidates of the organization’s choosing[7] by the 2018 midterm elections, regardless of party affiliation.[8] The organization plans to make staffing and fundraising decisions for all its candidates at once.[9]

Justice Democrats is a Bernie Sanders organization for far left candidates including Alexandria Cortez-Ocasio. As I said before:

Justice Democrats didn’t perform very well. According to Justice Democrats they elected 7 of their endorsed candidates to Congress. 2 were incumbents in deep blue districts. 1 was unopposed.  4 were all in very blue districts wiping out their general election opponents. It’s not like they were endorsing in tough competitive states like Texas, although those they did lost. All of them. One raised over a $1 Million and lost 70-30 in the primary.

Looking at their spending for the last two years, Justice Democrats spent about $2,250,000. $633,000 on wages ranging from $71,000 to $32,000 for ab out 13 employees. $217,000 on Payroll taxes, $270,000 on fundraising, and $88,000 on Credit Card fees.

They also spent $605,000 on “Strategic Consulting” paid to the Brand New Congress, another Bernie Sanders organization. This leaves about $526,000 for overhead expenses, rent, legal fees, etc but nothing was spent for donations to individuals candidates. I’m not quite sure what Justice Democrats accomplished besides raising and spending money but not on individual candidates.

Maybe looking at Brand New Congress spending will give more insight.

I’ve written before about Texas Senator Konni Burton:

So Konni Burton raises 89% of her million dollars from 4 PACs including one that advocates for “Fiscal Responsibility”. Yeah right. Its like taking money from a condom manufacturer for abstinence only policies. There is nothing fiscally responsible about funding your campaign with PAC money.

In her 8 day report Burton claims to have raised $503,328 but 80% comes from just 9 PACs and individuals. Texans for Lawsuit Reform donated $60,000, Dan Patrick $113,000, $116,000 from Greg Abbott and $10,000 from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility PAC. $485,000 came from donations of $1000 or more. 

Only $15,000 of her $503,000 came from citizen donations.

This is sad.

The clown of the Republican Party, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has reported only $13,500 for his re-election campaign according to his last financial report. The $13,500 from just 4 individuals and 1 PAC. The Koch PAC gave him $5000 and a cattle ranch gave him another $2500. Three others gave him $1000, $2500, and $2500. Miller still has a $159,000 loan he is responsible for.

His opponent, Kim Olson has raised $68,000 from 755 individuals without accepting PAC money.

Miller hasn’t received any major endorsements. Even the Texas Farm Bureau has refused to endorse him.

David Mayes Middleton running for State Representative in Galveston continues to raise money, from his own pocket. As I have said before:

According to his latest report Middleton has raised over $1.7 Million with $1.5 coming from his own pocket, 87% of his entire fundraising efforts. He paid $1.7Million to win in the Republican primary.

In his latest report Middleton claims he raised $86,000 but $52,500 came from his own pocket or maybe from a family member also named David Middleton.  The majority of his contributions come from various PACs. When all is said and done, Middleton is on course to spend over $2 million of his own money to win a State Representative seat in Austin.

His spending is off the charts. It’s as if he is running in a highly competitive district. Even if he was in a competitive district spending $2.5 million is about 5 times more than what a competitive race should cost. Maybe he thinks all of his donations to himself are tax deductible. Or he is just laundering money. (kidding) Or he thinks it is charity to his buddies who perform consulting work.

Whatever it is, it is strange. And wrong. And legal. As I said to a reporter who asked “But..isn’t this still legal?”, a married elected official running on family values can legally go to Las Vegas and have sex with a hooker.

But it still isn’t right.

In the word of Donald Trump: SAD!

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is begging for donations and for good reason. He has an outstanding loan of $195,000 and he has no credible fundraising capability. From a former post:

Miller only has 13 donors and 2 pledges of $15,000 including $10,000 from Drayton McClane, former owner of the Houston Astros. His total loans dating back to 2012 $750,000 came from 3 individuals,

Miller has a problem. First, he is a Texas sized jackass. Even the Texas Farm Bureau will not endorse him for fear of getting kicked in the what nots by their wives. Like Ted Cruz nobody likes Sid Miller and nobody is giving him money except for his 13 buddies. It’s obviously drying up so he is begging for dollars.

The reality of the situation is expensive. If Miller loses his bid for re-election it will be very hard to have a fundraiser to pay off his debts. If he loses he will be as popular as herpes at a hot tub party. No one will go to his fundraiser. No one will give him money. He will be stuck with a $195,000 loan.

This is what happens when you are a Texas sized jackass.

This is getting to be a pattern for republicans in Texas.

Much like Kathleen Wall’s failed $6 Million attempt at buying a seat in Congress and David Mays Middleton’s $2 million attempt to buy a seat in Austin, State Representative Patrick Fallon is trying his hand at spending his own money to win a Senate seat.

In his report filed before the primary Fallon has raised a whooping $2 Million but, once again, looking a bit closer that included $1.8 Million from his own pocket. He started with $217,000 and the only raised $2800. He currently still owes $1Million on his personal loan and has $135,000 cash on hand.

90% of all the money Fallon has raised has come from his own fortunes. Fallon, like trump, is rich and will use his money to get what he wants. He is also running on the same racist platform as trump. Fallon claims to be a “fiscal” conservative ready to spend his own money to buy his own seat at our table.

Maybe that is the only way republicans can win any more. Like Sid Miller maybe Texans don’t want to give to people who are racists or who support racists.

Konni Burton is in a good competitive fight for her seat in the Texas Senate. That is probably why the big guns have come out in her fundraising defense.

According to her latest financial reports Burton raised an impressive $1,055,000 over the last 3 months but look closer. $938,000 came from just 1 individual and 4 PACs. Dan Patrick contributed $40,000. Texans for Lawsuit Deform donated $333,000. Empower Texas $250,000. $40,000 from Texas Realtor PAC. And here is the kicker: $250,000 from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility PAC.

So Konni Burton raises 89% of her million dollars from 4 PACs including one that advocates for “Fiscal Responsibility”. Yeah right. Its like taking money from a condom manufacturer for abstinence only policies. There is nothing fiscally responsible about funding your campaign with PAC money.

$1,036,400 comes from donations of $1000 or more, 98% of her entire fundraising. She also has an outstanding loan from her husband for a total of $240,000. Her loan totals $295,000.

Not much to see here folks.

Stan Stanart the Harris County Clerk is the guy who can’t seem to do the one job he was assigned, that is to run the elections in the 3rd largest county in the country efficiently. He can’t seem to raise money either.

In his last report he has raised about $26,000 from 17 individuals, but $17,000 came from just 5 individuals who are out of the county. This includes $5000 from Colorado and another $5000 from Kathleen Wall, the lady who spent $6 Million of her own money in a losing effort to win a seat in Congress.

And that is it. Not a lot to be smiling about. #FireStanStanart

Looks like Ruben Villarreal running for State Representative in House District 144 has been abandoned by Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

Villarreal’s financial report for the last reporting period isn’t very impressive. As stated in my last post:

$22,500 out of the $24,850 raised came from 3 PACS, $20,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform a front group for businesses in Texas, $1500 from the Hispanic Republican PAC, and $1000 from the State Farm PAC. Only $2350 came from individuals.

This time around he has only raised $4475 from 5 individuals and one builder PAC for $1500. TLR didn’t contribute. Neither did the Republican Hispanic organization. It looks like they are cutting their losses. He still has a $13,000 outstanding loan and he has only $6200 cash on hand.