Thoughts on Viernes – 10132023

Feliz Friday the 13th!

The No Browns Debate

As there was nothing on TV, I did watch the KPRC/League of Women Voters/Other Groups debate the other night. I was going to boycott it because of the silly rule of 400 donors that left out CM Robert Gallegos, but there was nothing on TV. I must say that if the debate was about connecting with voters (and voters had to call-in like in the stupid brain draining TV talent shows), I think Annie Garcia would have been the winner.

Yes, she is pretty committed to the Houston ISD thing and used this platform for it, but she did a great job of taking down John Whitmire for his support of the law that allowed the takeover of HISD. All Whitmire could do was blame everyone else who voted for it. That strategy left Sheila Jackson Lee enough room to do her thing and actually debate policy. If it was about talking policy, then SJL was the winner. But I won’t leave Lee Kaplan out of connecting and doing some straight talk.

When the question about asylum seekers (who should be allowed entry to the US by law) came about, Jackson Lee’s answer about the city have open arms really hit, though, Annie Garcia’s “come one come all” was more to my liking. Kaplan’s openness was a surprise, but welcome. And Whitmire’s answer turned into a talk about guest worker programs, which have nothing to do with asylum seekers.

When it comes down to it, the average voter is concerned about constituent services, police/fire/ems response times, potholes, and things they can see. The challenges the city faces are much broader, yet constituents just respond with “fix it!” to those big things, too. Jackson Lee and Whitmire who have experience with constituent services did a good job with their answers. Kaplan wasn’t bad either.

I’m hoping other debates are televised, or at least livestreamed, so that voters can gauge and compare responses. Some stay consistent, others switch around depending to whom they speak at events most of us will never attend. As voters, we need to keep the candidates accountable.

Vouchers

The Texas Senate is walking lock-(and goose-) step toward approving Greg Abbott’s vouchers, as expected. It will be slightly tougher in the Texas House, where rural republicans don’t want their schools to have money taken from them for some private school kid. That said, there are some state reps who may need some prodding to not support Abbott’s vouchers:

Van Deaver (District 1-Texarkana); Keith Bell (District 4-Athens); Travis Clardy (District 11-Nacogdoches); Angelia Orr (District 13-Hillsboro); Frederick Frazier (District 61-Frisco); and Ken King (Distict 88-Abernathy).

One can find their contact info here.

Thanks to my buddy Joe for the insight.

Greg Abbott’s Giveaways

ABC-13 ran a report on Greg Abbott’s money giveaway to bus migrants away from Texas. Abbott paid one company $75 million for the privilege.

Abbott must be running out of cash because there is a new Special Session bill that will allow arrests and charging of migrants at the border on trespassing misdemeanors, which will bolster his kangaroo courts and migrant warehousing in empty prisons–or overwhelm courts and jails that deal with other actual crimes on a daily basis. It’s already close to heading out of the Senate. Texas sucks!