Well, damn. Not that I would have been able to vote for him, but I was looking forward to helping JosH Darr with his independent campaign for Congress. He sent the following message via email to some Greenfolk and others, and he posted it on Facebook: My 2018 campaign for US Congress is effectively D.O.A., over, done before it got started. As easy as it might be for the paranoid mind to suspect chicanery from one of the corporate parties, this is example of that occasional important document that the Postal Service does not deliver in a timely manner.
On Facebook I replied to JosH, "FWIW, you can still be Green this year." The Declaration of Intent is what the Texas Election Code requires independent candidates to file, disavowing their affiliation with any political party, whether or not that party has ballot access. For non-statewide offices, these candidates can then get on the ballot after submitting a petition with 500 signatures collected from within their respective districts. The declaration bars independent candidates from participating in any party's caucuses or conventions in 2018. They would still be allowed to attend party meetings, but without voting privileges. Shortly after the statewide filing deadline on 14 December, I posted a semi-celebratory item about Harris County Democrats showing up to run in more State House races in 2018 than in recent elections. It was only semi-celebratory because, while I like and admire some of the local Democratic luminaries, I'm no fan of the Democratic Party as a whole at the state or national level.
This blog has been mostly dormant for the past two weeks, apart from when I woke it and pressed it into service last Thursday because of an article that inspired way more thoughts than a Facebook status could comfortably hold. Over Winter Break, I haven't been surfing my usual waves of bloggage either. This Off the Kuff item from last Wednesday, however, got me thinking that I should post a follow-up to the piece about State House races. Democrats went 36 for 36 statewide in recruiting at least one candidate for Congressional races. Compare recent even-year elections: The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone reading this has a happy, healthy, prosperous, and very progressive 2018. (No substitutes or pretend-progressives will be accepted.) DBC reminds those of you who actually still write checks/cheques to start writing "2018" instead of "2017" in the appropriate blank.
PDiddie at Brains and Eggs picked his Texan of the Year, and unlike the Dallas News, neither Joe Straus nor white supremacist Richard Spencer were ever in contention. SocraticGadfly riffed on the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas and found 12 jobs even better than knitting for Hillary Clinton. In its own state news roundup, Texas Standard wants you to know that the Parks and Wildlife Department is hosting more than 75 hikes in state parks across Texas today. Texas is leading the nation in flu cases, reports the San Antonio Current. Grits for Breakfast has Brennan Center data that shows murder rates were down in the largest Texas cities in 2017, but violent crime was up slightly. Save Buffalo Bayou asks more questions about Houston's "flood czar," Steve Costello. A poll graphed by jobsanger indicates that the American public wants action on gun safety legislation in 2018. A poll reported in the Dallas Observer shows Mark Cuban leading Trump in Texas. The poll, conducted by PPP, has the billionaire investor listed as a Democrat, but Cuban has said that if he runs for president in 2020, he will do so as a Republican. (There's a point about shitty polls or dumbass Texas Democrats—or both—to be made here, but I'll save it for later.) Jeremy Wallace in the SAEN's Austin bureau sees Texas Democrats in a quandary as to whether to embrace the Bernie Sanders/Our Revolution progressive movement...or not. The article details the awkward fence-straddling of presumptive Senate front-runner Bob "Beto" O'Rourke, who got another puff piece in Texas Monthly's latest issue. Neil at All People Have Value thinks Democrats running for office at every level of government in 2018 should be asked how they will respond to the threat of authoritarian government in the US. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com. Down With Tyranny was first with the news about gubernatorial candidate Tom Wakely, who will be rocking out in South Texas in late February as part of a Latin@ GOTV effort. There will be six free concerts—in six cities in six days—by Comba, led by Jorge Guevara, the former lead singer with Elefante, and past and current members of Maná, a Gualdalajara rock band who own 4 Grammys and 8 Latin Grammys. Blogging El Paso Democratic politics (not new but rediscovered, and added to the right-side column) is Jaime Abeytia's Lion Star blog, while Off the Kuff took a closer look at Democratic Congressional candidates around the state. DBC Green blog has some thoughts on killing one's inner Trump, and Zachery Taylor has a long and righteous rant about Trump's unqualified judicial appointees. Michael Agresta at the Texas Observer writes about photographer David Taylor's exhibit (at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, through January 28) documenting the monuments marking the true Texas-Mexico border, and the pictures tell their own story of how the line between the two countries has shifted through the years. The Texas Tribune passes along the details about a South Texas bureaucrat who became a multi-millionaire when the federal government ordered construction of sixty miles of border fencing ten years ago. And as crude oil climbs back to a profitable range for drillers, frackers, and refiners—the Permian Basin shattered production records going back to 1973--Texas Monthly's Energy Report prefaces Lawrence Wright's long piece in the New Yorker about the resource's long Texas history and influence on everything in the state. |
Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
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