Bay Area Houston

Money Mayes Middleton and Tony Buzbee should be so proud.

Gary Gates put over $1.5 Million of his own money into a special election to win a seat at the table. From a previous post:

Gary Gates is one of those guys who runs for office, over, and over, and over again. He is also very wealthy, wealthy like Texas Representative Money Mayes Middleton, Kathaleen Wall, or Tony Buzbee. 

It hasn’t worked for Gates in the past. In 2005 he began loaning himself money and spending from his own pocket in a race for State Senator District 18. He lost. In 2014 he ran again, this time loaning himself $1.7 Million. He lost. In 2016 be ran for Railroad Commissioner loaning himself about $4.5 Million. He lost. 

So he finally won with money left over. He did what Tony Buzbee couldn’t do. Next up, Kathleen Walls should spend about $6 million in her attempt to win in CD22. 

I heard rumors about Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards considering a run for US Senate so I googled her resume. It is impressive. From her bio on the City of Houston website:

Amanda’s connection to service is evidenced through her early endeavors. Amanda attended Eisenhower High School in Aldine ISD. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Emory University, where she served as president of the undergraduate student body and was later inducted into the Emory University Hall of Fame. While in Atlanta, Amanda gained valuable community building and public policy experience working in community development corporations as a Community Building and Social Change Fellow and in the Georgia State Legislature. Amanda’s experiences broadened her perspective about how to effect change through urban policy and collaboration. Soon thereafter, Amanda worked for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in Washington, D.C. before earning her degree from Harvard Law School. 

Texas Congressman William Hurd CD 23 seems to have forgotten that under the Obama administration Iran agreed to stop enrichment of nuclear material. 

According to the joint statement in Switzerland, the P5+1 countries and Iran agreed on a framework for a deal. According to this framework, Iran would redesign, convert, and reduce its nuclear facilities and accept the Additional Protocol (with provisional application) in order to lift all nuclear-related economic sanctions, freeing up tens of billions of dollars in oil revenue and frozen assets.

Trump, with Hurd’s backing, pulled the United States out of the deal without having negotiating a new one. Now Hurd is complaining that Iran is, once again, starting up their nuclear development. Duh! This is a problem Trump created, once again. He has no idea or capability to make any kind of international deal. Instead of having an international agreement we have nothing. And nothing is better than anything Trump can negotiate. Literally.

Hurd can’t hear the laughter of the international community. Or us.

In 2018 Joanna Cattanach ran in Texas House District 108, in the Dallas area. She lost by only 200 votes. She immediately declared she intended to run again. And she should.  

So why in the world would someone roll out of bed and decide to challenge her in the Democratic Primary? That is a question that voters in HD108 should be asking Shawn Terry. According to the Dallas Morning News Terry has entered the race and claims to have a great start to fundraising:

AUSTIN — A new Democratic challenger to Dallas Rep. Morgan Meyer says he’s raised $235,000 in the past five months, setting up a potentially well-funded effort against the three-term GOP incumbent.

On Monday, Shawn Terry, an investment banker from Uptown, announced his campaign for House District 108, which is anchored in the Park Cities and also includes downtown, the Arts District and East Dallas.

Terry would be only the 2nd openly gay legislator if elected. His voting record will be looked at closely as well as his campaign finance reports due July 15. It just bothers the shit out of me that someone would jump into a race when we had a very successful and promising campaign in 2018 with a promising candidate. Why pick this race? Why make the candidate raise and spend money in a primary instead of supporting the Democrat in the general?

Ego and possibly republican backing might be the reason.

Texas State Representative Johnathon Stickland has read the writing on the wall. He can see the Blue Tsunami coming for him in November and has the dogs nipping at his heals. So like the coward he is he has decided to run. Away. He will not seek another term for the Texas State House.

But, don’t cry for Stickland. For his 8 years of doing the “Lord’s work”, part-time at that, he will receive a hefty $23,000 pension per year starting at the age of 60. A Texas teacher making $50,000/year must work 20 full time years to receive the exact same amount.

For his 8 years of accomplishing very little, sitting on his fat ass, passing a bill allowing gun nuts to carry loaded assault weapons in the street, and killing a bill that would ban chaining of dogs in the hot sun, Stickland will be receiving almost $2000/month for the rest of his fat life.

May the dogs hound you for the rest of your fat fucking life.

Texas Congressional District 36 was created to keep a Republican in power. And it worked. Prior to redistricting in 2008 CD 22 elected Tom DeLay for many years then Congressman Nick Lampson, and then elected Pete Olson. A few years later Olson moved to Sugar Land leaving a newly created district, 22, for another republican to have, that being Steve Stockman. Brian Babin followed Steve.

The district is Babin’s too keep until he retires, dies, or ends up in jail. It doesn’t matter what kind of lies Babin will tell his constituents, or how racist he may seem he will remain in office. His district is a 70/30 split giving a well financed Democrat about a 30% or less of the vote, every time. 2018 was no different. 

This split allows for people like Tom DeLay to remain in power. DeLay was later convicted of money laundering. It later allowed for Steve Stockman to win the seat. Stockman was convicted on 23 felonies, including fraud and money laundering and is spending the next 10 years in prison. As with Stockman, Babin could be caught with a goat and will still be voted in. He could care less what his district thinks. He can spew as many lies as Trump does. He can carry water for Trump, and has. He can be as much of an asshole as he wants, just like Stockman and Trump. I can only imagine how much Stockman has missed the opportunity to be an asshole alongside of Trump.

This is who the district was created for. That is the power of gerrymandering.