Monthly Archives: November 2011

Run-Offs on the Radio, Part I

Posted on November 22, 2011 | Comments Off

Well, if you missed this week’s edition of This Week With Sylvia Garcia, you missed the first two candidate forums featuring City of Houston Run-Off candidates. It was a good, productive discussion about city and district issues.

In District B, it was Alvin Byrd and Jerry Davis. Both are good candidates, in my opinion, offering different skill sets. Byrd offers a wealth of experience “on the inside” having worked for current council member, while Davis offers up experience in the small business sector and the community. There was hardly anything controversial in the discussion, although there could be a couple of opportunities on which to “strike” that probably don’t have much to do with “city issues.” Perhaps they’ll keep it on the ground, instead of over the radiowaves, but the two were gentlemanly and impressive in their efforts today.

In District A, only incumbent Council Member Brenda Stardig participated, and she devoted most of her time speaking about her record. Whether it was her efforts at bringing more businesses to District A utilizing 380 Agreements, to boasting about the fact that District A has a high-level of participation in neighborhood recycling efforts, to the fact that there are tens of millions of dollars in CIP monies in the pipeline for District A, she spoke frankly about the need to continue these efforts with her in office.

I think my favorite question to Stardig came when I announced that I may just be moving into the city (finally) and that I expect my future council member to be a cheerleader for their district. I must say that I was practically sold by her “sales job,” until the host of the show (The Commish) later made her pitch about moving to Lindale. Even Byrd and Davis made some pretty strong pitches, and all talked about the various improvements and new developments that have been cropping up in their districts.

I had not met CM Stardig until today, but she certainly is friendly, open to discussion, and someone that has and is willing to continue promoting a cooperative City Council to achieve what is best for her district. At least, that’s what I got from the discussion.

And being a blogger, I decided to “go there” and ask about the revelations of controversial comments made by her opponent, Helena Brown. But Stardig kept it “candidate classy,” and preferred talking about her record and accomplishments. And that’s exactly what the voters needed to hear.

The show repeats on UCTCRadio.com on Friday morning at 8AM and then at 5PM. So, while you’re eating leftovers, give it a listen–twice!

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Posted in City of Houston, Houston Politica, HoustonVotes '11, LatinoVote '11, Redistricting '11

Kingwood Students “Love” Their Teacher

Posted on November 21, 2011 | Comments Off

After being disrespected by a student at Kingwood High School, long-time substitute teacher, Mr. Love, needed to find out exactly how much he was loved by the students at KHS.

Here’s the heartwarming story from my camarada Egberto Willies.

And here’s how the students feted Mr. Love (video by Egberto Willies).

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Posted in Kingwood Stuff

This Just In: Fonseca Will Not Seek Recount in HISD3

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

That’s the latest from Texas Watchdog Reporter Mike Cronin on his FB:

‎Ramiro Fonseca, who lost to incumbent Houston Independent School District Trustee Manuel Rodriguez last week by 25 votes, has told Texas Watchdog, he will not seek a recount. Fonseca’s statment: “After examining the official election results, I have decided that a recount is not an option that would change the outcome of this election. I congratulate Mr. Rodriguez on his re-election. I am honored to have worked with the many supporters and volunteers in my campaign for HISD Trustee. I thank everyone that stood behind me throughout this time. I am very proud of our campaign team and I hope that we have set an example for our next generation of leaders on how a campaign should be executed.”

Well, with the campaign officially over, the campaign to remove Manuel Rodriguez from the HISD Board continues. I just saw a new website taking shape explaining all that went on during the last last days of the HISD-3 race up to the protest at the HISD Board meeting in which community leaders and students called out Rodriguez publicly. HISDBully.org is the site, so, check it out.

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Posted in Chicano Politics, Houston Politica, HoustonVotes '11, K-12 Education

Interim County Map Released…Looks OK

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

Greg reported yesterday on Judge Gilmore’s release of Harris County’s interim County Commissioner’s map for the 2012 elections.

Courtesy- Greg's Opinion

The changes the Commissioner’s Court avoided seem to have come into play as precincts in Atascocita have now been placed back into Precinct 4, as requested by so many folks. According to Greg, the demographics in Precinct 2 have basically been returned to previous levels; in other words, the Judge avoided retrogression, as she said she would, and even beat the base line by a point or so. As Kuff states, Pct. 2 still remains a 50-50 precinct in the interim, so, one wonders how much more can be gained after arguments in the impending court case over the final map.

At least for my friends in Atascocita, this means they get to vote in the 2012 special election to decide who completes Jerry Eversole’s term. As time barrels along toward the Nov 28 – Dec 15 filing period, there is still no sense about who is running for that seat on the Democratic side.

Stay connected.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Thoughts on Viernes…11182011

Posted on November 18, 2011 | 2 Comments

Thoughts on the Maps

Kuff has his thoughts here, but I think he hit it on the head with this:

Before I get too into this, the invaluable Texas Redistricting reminds us that the parties in the lawsuit will be able to make objections and comments to the proposed maps today at noon. Meaning, there may yet be some tweaks to come.

 I was asked by a couple of candidates and candidate minions if our long redistricting nightmare had finally ended. Well, while I see the PR machine on the Dem side going full-throttle in celebration, there may be tweaks, there may be changes, and with Republicans whining about it, there could be more frivolous lawsuits from them. But it’s good to see judges siding with the future, rather than with a deep, dark history of voter suppression.

We Need Voters

And looks like an effort by CM James Rodriguez and Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project is set for lift-off with a forum held earlier this week. There’s no doubt that we need more voters to, basically, increase the base, and every little bit helps. Let’s get new voters registered, those that have moved apartment to apartment out of the suspense files, etc. I doubt this will be the only game in town, especially the GOTV part of it. But 2012 is an important year in so many ways. So, let’s keep our eyes on the prize.

Bobcats Say Adios to the FCS

It’s the reason Southwest Texas State University became “Texas State.” It’s the reason TXST is spending $32,000,000 to expand Bobcat Stadium to 30,000 seats. And…OK, I forget the third reason. But the Bobcats finish up what was a non-conference season against Sam Houston, closing another chapter on Bobcat Football and starting a new one in the FBS – Western Athletic Conference.

2012 is going to be one tough season for the ‘Cats as they play Texas Tech, Houston, Wyoming, and other big, established big football programs. But the new stadium sure will be nice. I just hope that with looming budget cuts in 2012 we don’t have to add duties to professors, like mowing the grass, cleaning the seats after a game, etc. (Snark)

KUDOS to NUESTRA PALABRA’S LIANA LOPEZ

One of my favorite programs on KPFT is Nuestra Palabra, and my good friend Liana Lopez is the producer for that program. Well, Liana also produced the recent Pacifica Women’s Day national radio segment on Immigration and Women’s Rights, which includes:

Interviews with iconic immigrant’s rights activists Maria Jimenez and Houston resident Aurelia Suchlit detained for more than two months TWICE in ICE facilities due to mistakes in bureaucratic paperwork.

So, give it a listen at this link.  Congrats to Liana!

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Posted in Thoughts on Viernes

The HD-127 Edition of the TX House/Senate ReDraw

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

Well, for the best view of the Federal Court’s edition of the House and Senate, go to Texas’ redistricting map site, and then seek maps from the category named Perez, Et Al and find plans H298 and S163. I know, it’s a bit complicated, but you can play with it enough to find if your house has been placed in the “right” district. Check it out.

For my neck of the woods, it looks like HD-127 has changed again, bringing some of the past together with the future. It will continue with Kingwood, Atascocita, parts of Humble north of Will Clayton Road (excluding the central part of the town), East to Huffman and down to Crosby, just north of Hwy. 90. Added beyond the new parts of Humble are the Deerbrook Mall area and on to the west, and north along 1960, to include some of the older suburban areas by the airport, and a swath along Cypresswood. So, while the area is a little different, the demographics aren’t much different. But with Humble comes some new opportunities based on diversity.

Lost from HD-127 were some strong Dem areas in south of Crosby (Barrett Station) and further south to Channelview, which now end up under the care of State Rep. Ana Hernandez-Luna. And I do mean care because this area was oft-neglected by Joe Crabb, and now, Dan Huberty. Huberty, though, will now have more voices in the district whose children attend Humble ISD schools, so there is a lot of organizing opportunity here.

Thankfully, one of the good guys is already laying a foundation for a run against Huberty in HD-127, Cody Pogue. An educator committed to what is right, Cody has been trekking the district, making the necessary calls, and contacting the right people. I’m looking forward to his run.

From  his FB site:

Hi, I am Cody and I want to be your state representative. I am not a politician or a businessman. I am a teacher. I dedicate every day of my life to teaching Texas and US History and government to young people in our area. It’s a passion I have held for many years.

A 7th generation Texan, I was raised in Northeast Harris County. My family didn’t have much money, but I learned the value of hard work, nature, community, and loving my neighbor from a young age.

If elected, I will make sure that education is a top priority in our state. We need to adequately fund our schools and then give teachers the authority to actually teach and not be burdened down with meaningless tests. I will also stand up to protect the forests, lakes, and rivers we use for hunting, fishing, and sustaining life. I will stand up for locally owned small businesses and I will always put the people of Texas far ahead of special interests.

He’s the real deal.

SD4

The changes in  SD-4 have Orange County and Liberty County cut out, but now we have more of Montgomery County. Obviously, I reside in the same northeast corner of Harris County that has been in SD-4 for a while now. When it comes to “Democratic” competition, it hasn’t been too friendly as most of the more “D”-heavy Jefferson County has been in it. Given the competitiveness within our convention caucus room, the JeffCo coalition (with Orange and Chambers) has come out the winner, and then largely ignores all of the other counties–seldom to SDEC members visit our neck of the woods.

Anyway, if I’m still residing in SD-4 by next summer, I will definitely look forward to Convention in Houston. It is time for some real coalition building.

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Posted in Uncategorized

TPA Round-Up…

Posted on November 17, 2011 | Comments Off

The Texas Progrogressive Alliance is beginning to think fond thoughts of cranberry dressing, pumpkin pie, and, um, something else it can’t quite recall – oops! – as it brings you this week’s blog roundup.

Off the Kuff took a tour of Houston elections from the 1990s to see how they compared to more modern matchups.

Following Rick Perry’s latest gaffes, Letters From Texas explains why Perry has become such a hopeless band nerd that the crazy girl who can’t get a prom date pities him.

Darth Politico commemorates Veterans Day with a discussion about the history of Red Tape and veterans benefits. Emphasis on Red.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that Republicans in Texas are boxed-in. They know know taxes must be raised to run our state’s government, but can’t bring themselves to say it, Texas GOP’s cowardice.

On the same night Houston Mayor Annise Parker celebrated barely being re-elected, a few blocks away the HPD arrested seven Occupy Houstonians for refusing to move a tarp which the police called a tent. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs doesn’t think that’s a great way to start a second term … unless she plans on again representing the 1%, that is.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees another disappointing campaign season. Inundated with Republican this and Tea Party that, BossKitty is embarrassed by what we are hearing.Republican Whack A Mole Misses the Point. Some economic guru is writing the script for each candidate to spout as the Only way to get back on track, because it is always Obama’s fault. We all know it was Obama’s fault even before he was born. But some of the solutions totally miss the big picture.

Bay Area Houston is remembering on Veterans Day on how we have continue to screw our Veterans.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that BP wants the government to hide data while celebrating the end of its cleanup responsibility. This week: crony capitalists 2; regular citizens 0.

Lightseeker at TexasKaos gives a brief summary of the GOP voter suppression campaign gearing up for 2012. Check it out: Voter Suppression Update 2011.

Neil at Texas Liberal attended an Occupy Houston press conference about OH participants arrested by Houston police for covering up electrical equipment with a tarp during a rainstorm. If only Occupy efforts across the nation had the same First Amendment protections as large anonymous corporate political donations enjoy under the Citizens United case.

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Posted in TPA Stuff

DOJ Refuses to Grant Pre-Clearance to TX Photo ID

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

According to a report from Talking Points Memo, the Department of Justice has decided that it cannot grant preclearance to the Texas Voter ID Law because the State of Texas has failed to provide enough information.

Texas provided “incomplete” information that does not enable federal officials to determine whether their proposed voter ID law would be discriminatory, the Justice Department said in a letter Wednesday.

Essentially, the letter from DOJ Civil Rights Division Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren Jr. restarts the clock on when the Department has to make a decision about whether the law signed by Gov. Rick Perry complies with the Voting Rights Act. They have 60 days from when Texas sends them complete information.

Herren writes that Texas did not provide any of the required data on race. Texas said that the voter registration process does not require an applicant to state his or her race, but they are trying to compile the information from Department of Public Safety information as quickly as possible.

Secretary of State Hope Andrade could have used various ways to measure the number of Hispanics who would be affected by the Voter ID Law; instead, they chose the Rick Perry tactic of delay-delay-delay (along with hoping that no one is looking while they violate the VRA). Well, they’ve earned this delay. Unfortunately, it is the people of Texas who are footing the bill for all of these political games.

More to come, I’m sure.

Update:  Rebecca Acuña from the Texas Democratic Party released this quote:

“The Republican Party has fabricated this voter impersonation myth to implement policies meant to disenfranchise specific voters.

The Republican voter suppression legislation was unquestionably created to keep certain people from voting. In fact, the limited data that the state has furnished shows that Hispanic voters would be disproportionately disenfranchised. It’s clear that the DOJ’s patience is running out.”

Kudos to the folks at Texas Democratic Party for fighting the good fight on this one.

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Posted in Bigots and Liars, Chicano Politics, Houston Dems '12, Houston Politica, LatinoVote '12, Republinutiness, TDP Convention 2012, Texas Dems 2012, U.S. Ethnic Relations

DSCC Takes Anti-Fence Stance?

Posted on November 16, 2011 | Comments Off

It only took five years.

Remember when the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee ran some anti-immigrant ads to help some of their more right-wing Senate candidates? This was back in 2006. It incensed many of us; and after some wavering, the video was removed.

Color me surprised to find an ad on my Facebook page in which the DSCC asks folks to denounce Herman Cain’s electric fence by filling out a petition on the  matter.

Kudos to the DSCC for the fact that this is only a petition and not a request for cash. At least not initially. Obviously, it is going to take money to help those Senators who support the DREAM Act and CIR get re-elected. Hopefully, the data collected will be used to recruit supporters to get out the Latino vote.

But the DSCC also needs to remember that five (5) of the Senators who benefited from the anti-immigrant video will be crawling back for help. I would say they need to be the first to sign this petition before they get any big checks.

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Posted in Chicano Politics, DREAM Act, Houston Dems '12, Houston Politica, Immigration, LatinoVote '12, Texas Dems 2012

Harris County Redistricting Heads to Court–UPDATED

Posted on November 15, 2011 | 1 Comment

Kuff had a post yesterday about Harris County Commissioners Court attempting to mediate with Latino activist plaintiffs regarding an interim map for the 2012 elections. Indeed, it was in the Sunday morning news, along with news that the County Commissioner’s Court would be meeting on Monday to discuss options.

Today, the Chron reported that mediation did not effect an interim map and the parties were headed to court–and only to work on the interim map; not on arguments for or against the original maps. Obviously, with the 2012 primaries looming, there is a bit of uneasiness as the political parties must deal with candidate filing deadlines, residency requirements, and the overall prep for the primary. Equally important is the fact that precinct boundaries must be drawn, as well.

It is safe to say there is cautious optimism with the outcome of at least the interim map.

Dunn said the map could be drawn to add black voters to Precinct 1 and Latino voters to Precinct 2.

“The judge has made clear that any interim map she might adopt cannot be retrogressive to African-Americans or Latinos and it has to fairly distribute the population in the county,” Dunn said.

The County’s media folks were working overtime in putting it out there that they were willing to mediate and negotiate this weekend, and Pct. 2′s Jack Morman wasted no time in playing his own brand of spin:

“After the mediation Thursday it just seems like the other side is almost not negotiating in good faith, like anything they propose they know would be unacceptable” to the county, Morman said Monday.

Bottom line, mediation is where both sides come together and put it all out there. There’s little doubt that a bone of contention on the Latino activist side is the huge swath of Northeast Harris County (Atascocita) that is proposed to be a part of Precinct 2–more than likely the source of retrogression. Did the county offer to cut that out of the maps? Not likely, since their game appears to be incumbent protection.

Meanwhile, we await a decision from the Department of Justice to see if the proposed map even passes muster and the Voting Rights Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice also is reviewing the county’s adopted map and is expected to rule on whether it conforms to the Voting Rights Act by mid-December.

Given the fact that Texas Republican-created maps have been ruled improper lately, I’m hoping the DOJ continues that trend so that we may correct the improprieties.

Stay connected as decisions, maps and opinions will be flying about in the next days and weeks.

UPDATE 11-15 @ 9:25PM :  Testimony in case is complete!

Interesting

Assistant county attorney Doug Ray said Gilmore will hire demographer and redistricting consultant Jerry Wood (who assisted the City of Houston with its redistricting plan earlier this year) to help her draw the map.

Francisco Pedraza, professor of political science at Texas A&M University, and local political consultant Robert Jara testified for the plaintiffs (who are led by Houston City councilmen James Rodriguez and Ed Gonzalez and represented by Chad Dunn, general counsel for the Texas Democratic Party).

University of Houston political science professor Richard Murray (who helped the county draft its plan) and Ray testified on Harris County’s behalf.

Ray said his testimony focused mainly on the administrative difficulties that would be created by a radically redrawn map, given the many deadlines coming up related to the March 6 primaries.

Ray said he also is worried that a federal court in San Antonio that is hearing a challenge to the state’s redistricting map for state and congressional offices could create more severe administrative headaches.

A headache from correcting a map with so many Republican improprieties? Oh my! By all means, let’s not give the county more work to do after they messed it up the first time!

Anyway, the interim map could be completed this week, so, stay connected!

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Posted in Chicano Politics, Houston Dems '12, Houston Politica, HoustonVotes '11, LatinoVote '11, LatinoVote '12, Redistricting '11