Posts Tagged ‘Texas’
GOP strategists say Texas House safe from Democratic takeover; implications for redistricting
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:40 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 16 September 2010 12:46
By: Todd J. Gillman
Dallas Morning News
Redistricting is on the horizon, and as savvy political insiders are acutely aware, the most effective method to pad a party’s congressional ranks is by controlling the way district boundaries are drawn every 10 years. That’s why Tom DeLay , Gov Rick Perry and their allies fought so hard to force a rare mid-decade remap in Texas – the one that forced out a half-dozen senior Democratic incumbents.
The lever is the Legislature. Democrats have been fighting to regain control of the Texas House ahead of the next remap but top GOP strategists declared today that the fight is over, and they won.
Even worse for Democrats, the Republican State Leadership Committee, a soft money-backed outfit created to maximize state-level gains, is predicting that Republicans will retake a half-dozen state legislative chambers across the country, and probably 11 others.
“The fact is, we could end up adding more, given the dynamic on the ground,” said RSLC chairman Ed Gillespie, the former George W. Bush adviser and national GOP chairman. He and vice chairman Tom Reynolds , former head of the party’s House campaign arm (Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions is that committee’s current chairman) released a status report this morning on their Redistricting Majority Project (or REDMAP).
As for the Texas House, that was one of four chambers across the country that Democrats had hoped to win back this November, and REDMAP strategists say the Democrats’ no longer have that within reach.
REDMAP executive director Chris Jankowski ticked off four chambers viewed at risk earlier this year – the state Houses in Texas and Tennessee, and the Senates in Michigan and Kentucky. “We are firmly convinced… that those four state chambers that are Republican controlled — that were the only four that could arguably have been said to be in play this spring — are safe Republican,” he said on a conference call with reporters.
Unless Texas Democrats can retake the House — or oust Gov. Rick Perry — they’re likely to enjoy minimal spoils in redistricting. Texas will gain three or four U.S. House seats starting in 2012, thanks to population growth. Republicans currently hold a 20-12 edge in the delegation, and two incumbent Democrats are in tough reelection fights.
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Tags: Texas | Posted under Blog | No Comments
TX: GOP Leads Attorney General and Lt. Governor Races
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 10:41 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 15 September 2010 01:43
From mySAnews.com:
While the governor’s contest has had numerous polls, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey is the first to look down the ballot. The results of the Sept. 3-8 poll:
Lieutenant Governor: GOP incumbent David Dewhurst, 41 percent; Democrat Linda Chavez-Thompson, 26 percent; Libertarian Scott Jameson, 5 percent; Green Party candidate Herb Gonzales Jr., 1 percent.
Attorney General: Incumbent Republican Greg Abbott, 43 percent; Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky, 26 percent; Libertarian Jon Roland, 5 percent.
Tags: Texas | Posted under Attorney General News, Lieutenant Governor News | No Comments
Texas GOP Questions Democrat Leaders Residency
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:24 Written by rslcpol Friday, 27 August 2010 12:44
From Dallas Morning News:
State Republican Chairman Steve Munisteri says House Democratic leader Jim Dunnam “has actively deceived the voters” of Central Texas about where he lives. State GOP spokesman Bryan Preston goes further, saying Dunnam “has made himself ineligible” by living outside his district for the past eight years.
Dunnam, though, says Republicans are beating a dead horse. He says although he maintains two houses — to keep kids in schools he says the GOP tried to rip his family from, in a remap after the 2000 census — he has been and still is a legal candidate. And he insists he’s more than happy to take the matter to the voters on Nov. 2.
Munisteri raised it at a press conference today in Waco. He insisted that Dunnam doesn’t live in District 57, the district he’s represented since 1996, but in the adjoining district of Rep. Doc Anderson, R-Waco, or District 56. The latter lies entirely within McLennan County. Since the 2001 redistricting, Dunnam’s District 57 has rambled from part of Waco across three other rural counties to Madisonville.
Tags: Texas | Posted under Dems Behaving Badly, State Legislature News | No Comments
Texas Lt. Governor Says Health Care Will Bust Budget
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:47 Written by rslcpol Friday, 30 July 2010 09:42
From dallasnews.com:
WASHINGTON – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst warned Wednesday that new federal health care legislation will bust Texas’ budget, saddling state taxpayers with $27 billion in extra costs over the next decade.
“That’s an astounding number for us,” Dewhurst told the Texas State Society at a breakfast that included a half-dozen members of Congress. “We’re on the hook for all those folks we’ve been trying to get to sign up for Medicaid.”
Democrats disputed Dewhurst’s estimate.
He said that doubling the state’s Medicaid rolls will mean that health care will claim an ever-bigger share of the state budget. And that segment has already grown from one-quarter of the budget to one-third in the last seven years.
Tags: Texas | Posted under Lieutenant Governor News | No Comments
RSLC State Race Spotlight: Texas 101st House District
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 11:56 Written by rslcpol Monday, 19 July 2010 11:47
Ben Cannatti, RSLC Political Director co-authors the first RSLC State Race Spotlight on Townhall.com:
Every decade the U.S. Congress plays musical chairs to the tune of the Census population counts – only in this re-apportionment version, the number of chairs stays the same, they just move to different states. By the time the counting (but not the arguing) is done in 2011, Texas looks to gain at least 3 additional seats in its Congressional delegation, thanks to strong population growth that has held up even as the recession has slowed growth in other formerly booming states. While Texas’ population growth seems to be concentrated in areas that tend to support Republicans, as pointed out by Josh Goodman at Governing.com, it’s how the district lines are drawn that ultimately determines the partisan composition of the new districts.
In the Texas statehouse, the stakes are even higher, as the district boundaries will shift to reflect the growth at the suburban edges of Texas’ major cities. This will not be a quiet debate, as several rural incumbents could find themselves in a showdown with another incumbent for a consolidated district, while incumbents in the booming areas could find themselves living outside of their districts.
Tags: Texas | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
Texas AG Says Obama needs “to step up” on Immigration
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 12:11 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 6 July 2010 09:07
From Fox News:
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is calling on President Obama to secure the border between Texas and Mexico, following a Tuesday incident where shots in Juarez, Mexico crossed the border into El Paso and struck City Hall. Speaking Sunday on Fox News, Abbott said the U.S. – Mexico border, two-thirds of which lies in Texas, is a “very violent place” and that he’s been “underwhelmed by the show of force” coming from the Obama administration.
Abbott was unimpressed by the President’s immigration speech at American University earlier this week, which called for a full review of illegal immigration, in addition to a review of legal immigration procedures in the United States. In that speech, President Obama said the U.S. “has the right and obligation to control its borders and set laws for residency and citizenship. And no matter how decent they are, no matter their reasons, the 11 million who broke these laws should be held accountable.” The strong rhetoric didn’t impress Abbott, who remains “disappointed” in the President, adding Obama “doesn’t get” or is “purposefully trying to mislead the American people” when it comes to the gravity of our national security along the border.
Tags: Texas | Posted under Attorney General News | No Comments
TX: Lt. Governor Announces Appointments to Redistricting Committee
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 12:14 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 1 July 2010 01:35
From The Citizen:
On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced appointments to the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting.
State Sen. Mario Gallegos was named vice chair of the Select Committee. Gallegos’ district includes most of northern Pasadena and all of South Houston.
“I am honored that the lieutenant governor has appointed me to serve as vice chair for this important select committee. This is an influential, strong leadership position that I take very seriously,” Gallegos said. “I am looking forward to working with my esteemed colleagues on redrawing maps to reflect the population growth that has occurred in Texas over the last ten years. Texas is a diverse state and the political lines must be redrawn to account for recent demographic trends to effectively establish proper representation.”
Tags: Texas | Posted under Lieutenant Governor News | No Comments
Texas Republican Wins State Senate Seat
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 12:30 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 23 June 2010 01:29
From News8Austin.com:
The McLennan County Election Office in Waco was relatively quiet Tuesday.
Only phone calls disrupted the silence at their office, located in the basement level of the County Records Building. But it was a different story last week during early voting.
“This year has been a very busy year for us. We’ve had an election every month, and so we’re ready to get on to the November election,” Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe said.
The special runoff election decided who would serve out the remainder of State Sen. Kip Averitt’s term as state senator for District 22.
Voters had to choose between Brian Birdwell and David Sibley, both Republicans.
They beat out Democrat Gayle Avant and Republican Darren Yancy during the special election in May.
Tags: Texas | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
Texas Democrat in Federal Custody
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 12:31 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 23 June 2010 12:51
From ValleyCentral.com
Texas State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra is in federal custody this morning after being charged in a Medicaid fraud case involving a McAllen oral surgeon.
Federal court records show that Ybarra (D-South Padre Island) was scheduled to appear for an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio in Brownsville at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Court records show that Ybarra is listed as a defendant in a Medicaid fraud case filed against McAllen oral surgeon Gary Morgan Schwarz and six other people.
Tags: Texas | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
Texas: Former State Rep Reports to Federal Prison
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 12:33 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 22 June 2010 01:49
From DallasMorningNews.com:
“I have yet to have my real say about it, sweetheart,” Hodge told a Dallas Morning News reporter when reached Monday evening. She was preparing for a 13-hour drive to a federal women’s prison in Kentucky. Her deadline to report to prison is 2 p.m. today.
Hodge adamantly denied that the approximately $32,000 in rent, utility payments and carpet were actually bribes that she accepted from affordable housing developers Brian and Cheryl Potashnik.
“I never ever took a bribe,” Hodge said. “Whatever the Potashniks did, or why they did it, you’d have to ask them.”
Tags: Texas | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments