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Buzz By Date September 5, 2008 5:10 PMWHAT A SURPRISE! ROY MINTON IS REPRESENTING STEALTH REPUBLICAN STEPHANIE SIMMONS IN HOUSTON SPECIAL ELECTIONAustin's highest priced defense attorney representing faux Democrat in Houston special Senate election court challengeLet the dirty tricks begin Yesterday we reported that the Chris Bell campaign had filed suit challenging the residency of the only other "Democrat" to file in the special election to replace the now retired Republican Senator Kyle Janek.
The Bell Campaign was speculating that Ms. Simmons was a Republican recruited candidate intended to divide the Democratic vote and drive the special Senate election to a runoff which would theoretically work to the advantage of the Republican.
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September 5, 2008 4:55 PMFEDS WARN THAT HIGHWAY TRUST FUND SHORTFALL IS IMMINENTFeds plan to pro-rate reimbursement money sent to states for construction projects; immediate scalebacks in current projects in Texas not contemplated.For a while now, folks in the transportation community have warned that the federal highway trust fund was about to go "under water," that the trust fund's revenue was about to be outstripped by demands on the fund. Well, the word out of the U.S. Department of Transportation today is that moment has now arrived. Fuel tax revenue has lagged behind expectations for the past few months and that means that the trust fund is projecting a shortfall between revenue received and states' construction reimbursement requests of approximately $1.7 billion in September. To deal with the shortfall, the federal government will change the way it reimburses the states. Instead of reimbursing states on a daily basis, the Federal Highway Administration will send checks to the states weekly. More importantly, the reimbursements will now be based on the ability of the highway fund to meet the weekly total of funding requests.
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September 5, 2008 4:43 PMCAN THE TEACHERS AND THE STATE COME TOGETHER ON INCENTIVE PAY?Rep. Lois Kolkhorst urges harmony on the divisive issue.The lead lawmaker on House education appropriations urged the Texas Education Agency to make peace with teacher groups before the upcoming legislative session to avoid an active campaign to de-fund the state’s teacher incentive pay program.
The state’s large pot of teacher incentive pay – touted as the largest program of its kind in the nation – clearly is a work in progress. The state has had three different programs – two substantially the same – and the reviews from the field have been mixed. And, to date, TEA has yet to pull significant data together to prove whether the concept of pay-for-performance presents promise to recruit and retain teachers.
At a hearing on incentive pay this week in the House Appropriations subcommittee on education, Chair Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) urged Commissioner Robert Scott to meet with the various education groups before and during the upcoming session to come to some resolution on the direction of incentive pay.
Funding in the current incentive program does run out with at the end of the biennium, and Kolkhorst said she would like to see a unified voice on the issue before the upcoming session and, presumably, before additional funding is added.
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September 5, 2008 1:13 PMED SILLS: GOP GUFFAWS OVER ‘COMMUNITY ORGANIZING’ DISPLAY IGNORANCECommunity organizing by evangelicals helped propel Bush to White House The GOP
convention speeches by vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Masschusetts Gov. Mitt Romney threw in snarky references to Barack Obama’s career as a community organizer. “I guess
a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you
have actual responsibilities,” Palin said in a planned laugh line. Giuliani
pretended he had no idea what a community organizer does, though he sat across
the table from many of them at City Hall. He rolled his eyes and elicited
roaring laughter from delegates. Most of
what’s said at conventions falls into the “in one ear, out the other” category in
which listeners are fed the lines they want to hear, a collection of current
best-sellers, golden oldies and greatest hits. The convention speechwriters have
offered a good summary of the 10 or 12 micro-issues that Rush Limbaugh has beaten to death in the last six months. Those who
see the backdrop of Obama’s speech in Denver as a linchpin of this campaign – if
anything, it ought to draw plagiarism complaints from the folks who designed the
one George W. Bush used in 2004 – are
too far gone for rational discussion at this point anyway. But the
sight and sound of the delegates laughing at “community organizing” betrayed a
tone-deafness that may come back to haunt the Republicans in November. For the rest of Ed Sills column, check today's R&D Department.
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September 5, 2008 10:08 AMFIRST TWO POLLS REPORT GENERALLY POSITIVE RESPONSE TO PALIN ROLLOUTGallup shows improved numbers among white Republican women, Rasmussen reports Palin a point higher than either McCain or ObamaTwo recent polls offer encouragement to both sides over John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as Vice-President. The Gallup Poll reports consolidation of white Republican women behind their ticket but also indicates migration fence-sitting Democrats and independents to Obama-Biden Rasmussen says that Palin has a 58% approval and, "Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%. Of course these are first snapshots.
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September 4, 2008 5:48 PMHK: CAN McCAIN AND PALIN REPAIR THE BROKEN REPUBLICAN BRAND?Does Palin rejuvenate turnout enough to impact down-ballot Texas races?Matthew Dowd, former pollster for President George W. Bush frequently notes on a national level that, “the Republican brand is broken.” The litany of grievances, real and imagined is long. The culture wars, recently re-ignited by the Sarah Palin pick for vice-president divides moderate and conservative Republicans. Along with the perennial hot-button of abortion, issues like Intelligent design taught as science, opposition to embryonic stem cell research and the Terry Schiavo escapade have all, to some degree, fractured that piece of the coalition. Nor have hard positions disputing climate change produced many new votes for the GOP and may have actually eroded the numbers.
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September 4, 2008 4:44 PMTRCC WRESTLES WITH SUNSET STAFF REPORT AT MEETING TODAYConsidering responses and methods to improve performanceMembers of the Texas Residential Construction Commission grappled today with ways to avert the termination of the agency, a course of action recommended in a recent staff report from the Sunset Advisory Commission. The TRCC’s twofold strategy includes disputing the criticisms of the agency in the Sunset report while proposing an alternative set of reforms. In a draft version of the agency’s response to the Sunset staff report, the TRCC portrayed itself as a low-cost alternative to litigation for homeowners to remedy disputes with a homebuilder. They also said that the agency, created in 2003, provides needed oversight of the homebuilding industry. “Accepting the Sunset’s staff recommendations would free nearly 28,000 builders from any state regulatory oversight,” the draft report said. “More than 600,000 homes have been registered since the Commission’s inception. These Texas families will be left to fend for themselves if an issue arises with new houses. Abolishing the TRCC would mean the end of the regulation of the residential construction industry in Texas.”
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September 4, 2008 3:06 PMMISSED IN OUR NEWSCLIPS-- CQ: PALIN AND OBAMA HAVE PUSHED SIMILAR PLANS TO RAISE OIL TAXESPushed through Alaskan oil tax as GOP Congress was fighting it.From the story: "As oil prices rose, two prominent politicians proposed strikingly similar initiatives to raise taxes on the oil industry and send money to struggling consumers. Now, both are running for national office — on opposite tickets. "As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin pushed a proposal through the state legislature that mirrors what Barack Obama is proposing on a national scale. "Palin’s past position doesn’t seem likely to change John McCain’s views against higher taxes on oil companies. But it might pose a problem for Republican lawmakers, who have been arguing for two years against Democratic attempts to raise taxes on the oil and gas industry, even blocking renewable-energy tax breaks they support because they were attached to objectionable oil provisions. "The congressional Republican argument was clear and grounded in sound economic principles: If you tax something, you get less of it. Therefore, higher taxes on domestic oil production would yield less production and higher prices, according to the argument. "But that position stands in stark contrast to the actions of Palin, now the party’s vice presidential candidate. While her GOP colleagues in the U.S. Senate were fighting tax increases on the oil industry, Palin was pushing an oil tax increase through the state legislature. This year, she used some of the proceeds to provide a $1,200 rebate to residents as energy prices rose. "Now, she and Republican surrogates are touting the episode as evidence of her ability to stand up to powerful interests and her compatibility with McCain...."
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September 4, 2008 3:04 PMBELL FILES SUIT CHALLENGING RESIDENCY OF SECOND DEMOCRAT IN SPECIAL ELECTION RACEAccuses Simmons of being stalking horse for RepublicansIn a sharply worded press release today, the Chris Bell campaign announced it had filed suit to challenge the residency of Stephanie Simmons, the only other candidate to file as a Democrat in the SD17 election to replace the retired Kyle Janek. According to the Bell Campaign, Ms Simmons filed “at the last possible second on the deadline last Friday.”
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September 3, 2008 4:06 PMODDS & ENDSKBH off the podium, TAB trial set and more deets on a Garcia-Hunter candidate forum.With everyone’s eyes on St. Paul this evening, we collect some items driving the conversations locally:
-- Our friends at the Houston Chronicle are reporting that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is giving up her speaking slot tonight at the Republican National Convention.
-- Meanwhile, Laylan Copelin at the Statesman writes that Judge Mike Lynch has set a Nov. 10 trial date for the Texas Association of Business. By our reckoning, that’s six days after Election Day.
-- Speaking of closely watched legal proceedings, oral arguments in the well-scrutinized Entergy v. Summers case have been set. The Supreme Court will hear arguments Oct. 16 at the SMU law school in Dallas.
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September 3, 2008 3:19 PMDEWHURST RESPONDS TO TPJ COMPLAINT ON TRUST DISCLOSURESThe Lieutenant Governor says he has fully complied with the letter and spirit of the law.We reprint the following statement from the Lieutenant Governor's Office: "The people of Texas deserve to know whether elected officials are performing their duties with integrity and in the people's best interest," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. "Since I was first elected to public office, for the past 10 years I have consistently followed the advice of my expert legal counsel in filling out and filing my political financial statement to fully comply with the letter and spirit of the law, and it is a fact I do not know the assets in my trust from which I have received in excess of $500."
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September 3, 2008 11:31 AMTPJ FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST DEWHURST ON QUESTIONABLE TRUST DISCLOSURESKeying off a story by Jay Root of AP, Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint with the Travis County Attorney's office. TPJ's release says: "Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint today with Travis County Attorney David Escamilla. The complaint urges the prosecutor to determine if Lt. Governor David Dewhurst violated state disclosure laws by failing to publicly disclose assets held in the David Dewhurst Trust. "Under Texas law public officials with non-blind trusts have certain disclosure obligations. Namely, they must list in their personal financial statement every asset in the trust that earns more than $500 a year. TPJ believes that Dewhurst’s trust, which is a non-blind trust earning more than $25,000 per year, likely contains assets that are earning more than the disclosure threshold of $500 per year. “The Dewhurst Trust is blind to the public but not to the Lt. Governor,” said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice. “The Lt. Governor should fulfill his disclosure obligations under the law. One of the most powerful state officials should not be allowed to hide his assets from the public. When you’re the Lt. Governor, the public has an absolute right to know how many cattle or other assets you own. It’s time for Lt. Governor Dewhurst to drive his cattle out of the shadows and into the sunlight.” We left a message at the Lt. Governor's press office seeking comment. The original investigative piece by Root can be found here.
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September 2, 2008 5:38 PMCHARGES FLYING IN CORPUS DEBATE CONTROVERSYGarcia says Hunter is ducking debate, Hunter says deal was never doneThe Juan García campaign today accused Republican challenger Todd Hunter of ducking a Sept. 22 debate on the campus of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Hunter’s campaign countered that the forum’s format had never been finalized so it was incorrect to say that the challenger had withdrawn. In a sharply worded release today, the García campaign noted that Hunter hasn’t appeared at a joint forum since the May 21 Leadership Corpus Christi Candidate Forum. The release also quotes Gilbert Morales, a TAMUCC student and an organizer of the event, as saying, “It is a shame that Todd Hunter is withdrawing from this debate … This is no way to get more young people involved in the electoral process.” Hunter campaign consultant Steve Ray said that the campaign had discussed the candidate’s possible participation with the campus chapter of the College Republicans, one of the debate’s sponsors. Ray said that he told the CR chapter president that Hunter would take part if that group and the campus Democrat organization, the Islander Democrats, could agree on ground rules for the debate.
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September 2, 2008 4:27 PMILLEGAL ACCUSED OF MURDER AT REP. FLORES RANCHState rep says he didn't know accused was illegalThe story as posted in the McAllen Monitor.
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September 2, 2008 4:19 PMWATSON PROMISES MATCHING $$$ IN DEMOCRATIC HOUSE FUNDRAISING EFFORTState senator seeks to promote contributions from districts without competitve racesLooks like Democratic House candidates have a new friend in the fundraising game: state Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin). About the middle of last week, Watson set up a page on his campaign Web site called “Adopt A House Candidate.” He tells QR today that he did it as a way “to do my part in helping create some excitement around some races.” The 26 candidates are all in hotly contested battleground races as identified by other Democratic-affiliated groups like the Lone Star Project or the Texas 20/20 PAC. Watson said that his site allows Democratic supporters in parts of the state that don’t have contested statehouse races to get involved. Unlike the more famous Democratic online campaign contribution site, ActBlue, Watson’s page won’t collect money for specific candidates. Watson said that contributions would instead be made directly through the candidate. In other words, with no political action committee established in connection with this effort, Watson presumably doesn’t need to disclose the contributions raised through “Adopt A House Candidate.”
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