Owner: Capitol Annex URL:http://www.capitolannex.com Join Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:21:55 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Capitol Annex is one of Texas most popular political blogs, covering state and national-level politics from a liberal, progressive viewpoint. Site statistics:Click here
Looking At State Agency Spending On Advertising & Public Relations 2007-11-04 01:17:26
The San Antonio Express-News has an interesting story up on state agency spending on advertising and public relations–a topic that’s been in the news a good bit already:
Paxton said when he learned of the TxDOT campaign, estimated to cost $7 million to $9 million in highway funds, “I thought, ‘Wow, I wonder how many other agencies are doing this, and how much of our taxpayer money is being spent on it?’”
That question can be difficult to answer because state records don’t precisely track such efforts, but the tally for advertising, publications and promotional items is easily close to $100 million or more in state and federal funds just for fiscal year 2008. Some agencies with such budgets for this fiscal year include:
The tourism section of Gov. Rick Perry’s office, which has a $40 million advertising budget.
The Texas Lottery Commission, which spends $31 million on advertising.
TxDOT, which has budgeted $18.4 million for advertisin Read more:State
, Spending
, Advertising
, Public
, Relations
TX HD 78: Is A ‘Crippled Housekeeper’ Just An Excuse 2007-11-03 15:55:00
I am always amused at what Republican politicians have to say when they are trying to weave and dodge questions about changing their residency to run for public office.
Dee Margo (R-El Paso), who ran an unsuccessful race against State Sen. Elliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) last year, had earlier said he wasn’t going to challenge State Rep. Pat Haggerty (R-El Paso) in the GOP Primary this year and that he wasn’t going to move.
Now, however, he’s changing his tune, at least on the latter:
Dee Margo, CEO and chairman of JDW Insurance, said today he is looking at building a new, one-level home in the Upper Valley.
Buying a home there soon would put him inside state Rep. Pat Haggerty’s district and make him eligible to challenge Haggerty in the March Republican Primary.
[…]
But Margo said he hasn’t bought anything yet. He’s just talking with architects and builders. The reason for the move, he added, has nothing to do with politics.
“It’s Read more:lsquo
, Crippled
, Excuse
HD 130: As New Candidates Crop Up, So Do Their Problems 2007-11-03 12:35:14
It’s been only a couple of days since we reported on Allen Fletcher (R-Tomball), the Dan Patrick-and-Debbie Riddle-recruited opponent for Corbin Van Arsdale, and already there is buzz down in HD 130 that Fletcher has some problems.
A tipster emails us alleging that Fletcher doesn’t actually have a residence in Tomball:
…his entire claim to residency is having co-signed a mortgage for his daughter in the district. He does not actually live there.
Capitol Annex has been unable, using Harris County voting records, been able to determine Fletcher’s voter registration status.
Red Ink: Texas reports that Fletcher has another problem, related to the Tomball Chamber of Commerce’s website being hosted on the servers of the North Harris Montgomery Community College District:
It would appear that the Tomball Chamber of Commerce is ALSO utilizing college district servers to host their website.
Clearly, it’s a little odd–and possibly illegal–for a Read more:Candidates
New TCEQ Commissioner ‘Skeptical’ About Global Warming 2007-11-02 19:04:52
Governor Perry’s new Commissioner
for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has turned out to be one of the anti-global warming crowd. Evidently, Dr. Brian Shaw doesn’t believe that anything humans do has anything to do with global warming:
On climate change, he said there is “cause for some skepticism of human activities influencing global warming.”
“It’s an issue that needs to be debated more,” he said.
Hum. God must be responsible for global warming. Either way, Governor Perry is standing by his new man and his thoughts–which fly in the face of known scientific fact:
“Under his leadership, Texas will continue developing policies and making decisions based on solid science that protects our natural resources while helping to meet the challenges of a rapidly growing state.”
Oh, jeez.
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How Does Capitol Annex Look To You? 2007-11-02 12:37:46 Over the last several days, we here at Capitol
Annex have been making some modifications to the site in the hopes of trying to fix some viewing issues in Internet Explorer and Opera browsers. As far as we can tell, everything looks fine in Firefox, but there were issues with IE and Opera. To the best of our knowledge, we’ve got all of the known issues fixed.
Please use this as an “open thread” to tell us if you are having any viewing or readability issues.
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EXCLUSIVE: Poll Numbers Show Sen. Mike Jackson In Serious Trouble 2007-11-02 10:23:31
Capitol Annex has learned this morning from political insiders that a new poll taken in the Senate District 11 race shows State Senator Mike Jackson
(R-LaPorte) all but assured of losing a 2008 general election match-up against Joe Jaworski (D-Galveston), a longtime Galveston City Councilman.
One campaign insider called the results of the poll, which have not yet been disclosed to the public, the worst re-elect numbers seen for a Republican Senator in nearly two decades–basically the worst ever.
Now would be a great time to toss some support to Jaworski via his Act Blue page. Jaworski is the grandson of famed Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski. He served three terms on the Galveston City Council, including a stint as Mayor Pro-Tem, stepping down in May 2006 under the city’s term limits law. In 2005, Joe helped lead the city of Galveston’s team that faced Hurricane Rita.
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Tags: Joe Jaworski, Senator Mike Jackson Read more:Numbers
, Trouble
Voting Records Of Texas Republicans Show A Propensity To Screw The Middle Class 2007-11-01 21:23:39
What do Congressmen John Culberson (R-Houston), Sam Johnson (R-Plano) and Randy Neugebauer (R-Lubbock) have in common? If screwing the middle class was a Congressional sex scandal, they’d all have some mighty wide stances. Both have scores of “zero” when it comes to supporting pro-middle class legislation, according to the Drum Major Institute’s latest ratings published on their snazzy new website, TheMiddleClass.org.
Evidently, screwing the middle class is a pretty good romp, because most TexasRepublicans
can’t seem to stop doing it. Not a single Texas Republican in Congress had a score you could even consider “decent.” So turn down the lights, put on some soft music, pour yourself a nice glass of wine, and let’s see who’s been screwing the middle class.
Junior Senator John Cornyn scored a whopping 33 percent, meaning he screwed the middle class a full two thirds of the time. Must be exhausting.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was Read more:Voting
, Records
, Screw
TX HDs 130 & 55: Candidates Announce For Seats Of Delisi, Van Arsdale 2007-11-01 18:44:36
With the opening of the filing period for the March primary about a month away, candidate announcements are coming every day. Today, two candidates formally announced they were entering state house races in two different parts of the state.
First, Corbin Van Arsdale has drawn a challenger in HD 130. It is unclear at present, however, if Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman Allen Fletcher is the candidate recruited by Reps. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) and State Sen. Dan Patrick to go after Van Arsdale, though.
And, financial management company head John Alaniz has announced a run for the seat of retiring Rep. Dianne Delisi (R-Temple).
–John Alaniz has been telling people for more than a month that he intends to run for the House seat held by outgoing Rep. Dianne White Delisi (R-Temple). Last week, he took a step toward firming up his commitment by telling QR that he has named a campaign treasurer. Alaniz, who sits on the board of the Texas Association of Business, is Read more:Candidates
, Seats
TX SEN: Help Make Rick Noriega DFA’s First 2008 Senate Endorsement 2007-11-01 15:24:16
The folks over at Democracy for America are asking whether or not Rick Noriega should be their first endorsed national candidate for the 2008 U.S. Senate
races.
Of course, to those of us in Texas, we know the answer is a resounding, “yes!” So, we encourage you to head over to DFA and show your support for Rick Noriega, Texas’ own people-powered Netroots candidate!
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A&M Professor Set To Be Appointed TCEQ Commissioner 2007-11-01 12:49:44
Capitol Annex has learned that Texas Governor Rick Perry is set to appoint Dr. Bryan Shaw, an Associate Professor and member of the Center for Agricultural Air Quality Engineering and Science in the Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, as Commissioner
of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Shaw received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Agricultural Engineering from Texas A&M University and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He teaches and conducts air quality research on topics including development of accurate emission factors for feed and grain handling, emissions from cattle feed yards, development of air pollution dispersion models, and fugitive dust emissions from field operations.
According to information Capitol Annex has received, Shaw recently spent one year working with USDANRCS as Special Assistant to the Chief under an Interagency P
Ambassador Garza To Be Named Distinguished Alumni Of SMU 2007-11-01 10:00:20 Via Overheard, the blog at Park Cities People, U.S. Ambassador
to Mexico and former Texas Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza
will be named a Distinguished Alumnus of Southern Methodist University:
International and civic leaders, a former athlete turned dentist and an emerging Broadway star will receive the Southern Methodist University Distinguished Alumni
Award, the highest honor the university bestows upon its graduates.
The 2007 recipients include Linda Pitts Custard, James B. Gardner, the Honorable Antonio O. Garza Jr. and Rick Herrscher. Nathan H. Allen will receive the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes an outstanding alumnus or alumna who has graduated within the last 15 years. The Distinguished Alumni Award banquet and ceremony is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8, at the Fairmont Hotel, 1717 N. Akard St.
I expect the Garza announcement will be somewhat controversial, for various reasons–including but not limited to Bush’s obvious Garza ties and the ongoing Bush L
Eltife Says TV Station Took His Condom Comments Out Of Context 2007-11-01 09:00:06 A new Tyler-based blog is reporting that comments by State Senator Kevin Eltife (R-Tyler) about condom distribution by the University of Texas at Tyler’s University Health Clinic were taken out of context by ultra-conservative television station KLTV last month.
Blogger Ramsey Williams reports this following a call from Eltife after Williams earlier published a post about the story:
Well an interesting thing happened after I posted the blog links about the recent story that KLTV ran concerning condoms at UT Tyler; I got a call from none other than State Senator Kevin Eltife. We had a good conversation, apparently he has a google alert set up to let him know when his name goes out over the wire (actually that sounds like a neat feature I’ll have to check it out now) he saw my posts and that I lived here in Tyler and made it a point to call me and tell his side.
Essentially, KLTV took his statements out of context, and edited the interview to play up the controversy angle. Basi Read more:Station
, Condom
, Comments
, Context
Texas Prosecutors Halt Executions In Anticipation Of SCOTUS Decision 2007-11-01 01:15:30 This is indeed interesting news:
Two prosecutors in Texas
, the nation’s leader in executions, said Wednesday they will wait for a Supreme Court decision on lethal injection procedures before asking judges to set execution dates for death row inmates.
Roe Wilson, who handles death penalty appeals for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in the Houston area, said she also plans to ask a judge to withdraw the Feb. 26 execution date for a man convicted of killing a woman and her 2-year-old son.
Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza said he asked a judge to cancel a Jan. 24 execution for the same reason. “It just seemed to me that the writing was very apparent,” Garza said. “Now we’ll let them rule and we can come back in and act accordingly.”
In Texas, dates for executions are set by trial judges, typically at the request of local prosecutors. Twenty-six of the nation’s 42 executions this year have taken place in Texas. No other Read more:Anticipation
Making Some Tweaks 2007-10-31 23:38:23 We’re making some tweaks to our template here at Capitol Annex. We’ve noticed some odd behavior in Internet Explorer and Opera, and we’re trying to fix that. So, if things look odd for a bit, please pardon our dust.
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Hutchison Admits: War Is GOP’s Biggest Problem 2007-11-08 08:15:35 A brief snippit we found worth noting in the much-touted Kay Bailey Hutchison interview in Texas Monthly:
And there’s the war. You’ve got boots on the ground, troops in harm’s way. That’s the biggest problem for Republicans.
Any further comment on that statement would simply be superfluous.
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TML Presents Awards To Watson, Eltife 2007-11-07 23:54:34
The Texas Municipal League has honored two Texas senators with awards for their legislative work.
State Sen. Kirk watson (D-Austin) received a TML Distinguished Legislative Service Award, and State Sen. Kevin Eltife (R-Tyler) was named the organization’s Legislator of the Year in the Texas Senate.
Both are former mayors. Watson
served as the mayor of Austin while Eltife is the former Mayor of Tyler.
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Tags: Kirk, Watson,, Kevin, Eltife
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, Presents
TX-SEN: Wes Clark Endorses Rick Noriega 2007-11-07 21:36:50 Recognizing America’s need for leaders who possess the necessary experience to protect national security while preserving the rights of citizens, one of the most highly-decorated military officers since General Dwight D. Eisenhower today endorsed Rick Noriega for U.S. Senate.
General Wesley K. Clark
noted State Representative Noriega’s military experience and legislative accomplishments as grounds for his support.
“At a time when we are facing increasingly serious foreign policy and national security challenges, while needing to repair this Administration’s assault on the Constitution, Lieutenant Colonel Noriega’s leadership and knowledge will be of paramount importance,” Clark said. “I am excited that Rick Noriega has, once again, answered the call to serve.”
Rick Noriega is a state Representative from Houston and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas National Guard who served a tour of duty in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He joined the Army in 1979 in re
White 2010 Bandwagon Already Underway 2007-11-07 10:01:46 It seems as though the mainstream media is ready to anoint Houston Mayor Bill White
as the Democratic Party’s 2010 gubernatorial nominee:
Houston voters overwhelmingly re-elected Mayor Bill White on Tuesday, sending him back to City Hall for two more years and setting the stage for what some see as a larger political future.
With about slightly more than half the vote counted, White was breezing to a third term, proving he still is widely popular despite the public’s concern about crime and recent criticism over property taxes.
White touted his last four years, saying the city had worked to reduce traffic congestion and violent crime, but also promised to fight air polluters and spend $200 million on drainage projects before he leaves office.
“I’m so proud that we’ve tackled the toughest problems that we have at the city,” he told supporters at the Rice Hotel on Tuesday night. “Even where we make modest strides, I’ll tell you what, it Read more:Bandwagon
, Underway
SCOTX: Criss Encourages Yanez To Pursue Another Race 2007-11-07 09:12:17
State District Judge Susan Criss
(D-Galveston), running for Place 8 on the Texas Supreme Court, is publicly encouraging appellate justice Linda Yanez–who is currently poised for a primary race against Criss–to pursue another seat on the state’s highest court, according to a press release from Legislative Media:
But Criss says that after she announced her plans last spring to run against Republican Johnson, Yañez said several months later that she would run against Criss in the March 4 Democratic Party primary for the right to face Johnson.
“It doesn’t make sense for two Democrats to be running against each other to face one Republican when there are two other seats on the Texas Supreme Court, also held by Republicans, that will be on the ballot in next year’s presidential election,” said Criss.
“Justice Yañez says she wants to make history by becoming the first Latina on the Texas Supreme Court. If she really wants to make history,
Voting Rights Lawsuit Challenges Single Member Districts In Irving 2007-11-07 08:20:41 A voting rights lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to strike down single member districts in the north Texas city of Irving on the ground that the present at-large voting system for city council elections denies representation to the city’s Hispanic population.
From The Dallas Morning News:
The lawsuit requests that a U.S. District Court declare that the at-large method violates the VotingRights
Act of 1965. It also asks that the city be ordered to disband at-large voting and develop a new system of electing council members.
The lawsuit mirrors a successful 1988 suit that challenged Dallas’ at-large elections, claiming they hurt the ability of minorities to get elected. That landmark case eventually led to Dallas’ current and sometimes controversial 14 single-member districts and at-large mayoral post.
It comes as no surprise that the city’s large Hispanic population is seeking better representation on the city council:
The suit comes at a time when Irving official Read more:Lawsuit
, Member
, Districts
Look For Court Challenges To Little Elm Sex Offender Ordinances 2007-11-07 00:05:41 The Little Elm Town Council has approved two ordinances restricting where sex offenders can live and gather.
It sounds like something straight out of last week’s Boston Legal episode:
Council members voted 3-2 to restrict registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of places where children commonly gather, including schools, parks, libraries, day care centers and video arcades.
The council also passed an ordinance 5-0 that prohibits registered sex offenders - regardless of where they live - from going within 1,000 feet of places where children commonly gather. Town officials say they know of no other municipality that bans all sex offenders outright from certain areas.
The key phrase is that the Collin County town’s officials are unaware of any other municipality banning sex offenders from certain areas.
Both of these ordinances are ripe for legal challenges. Though anyone is loath to defend the actions of a sex offender, such ordinances are highly controversia Read more:Court
, Offender
, Sex Offender
2007 Elections: Largest Of School Bonds Pass 2007-11-06 23:54:16 Of the nearly 60 independent school district bonds before voters across the state Tuesday, the vast majority of the 17 largest were given a thumbs-up by voters.
The largest bond, an $807 million dollar proposal in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD near Houston, passed.
A spreadsheet with the results is below the jump.
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2007 Elections: Brazos County Jail Bond Passes 2007-11-06 22:27:54 Via the Bryan-College Station Eagle:
Brazos County
’s $55 million jail bond proposal (100% reported) For: 63.49% (3969) Against: 36.51% (2282)
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Tags: Brazos County Jail Bond
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, Passes
2007 Election: Smith County Jail Bond Fails For Second Time 2007-11-06 22:05:58 As the SmithCounty
Jail Bond for $125 million failed tonight 69 percent to 31 percent, County Judge Joel Baker has ruled out issuing certificates of obligation, which don’t require taxpayer approval, to fund a new jail. Smith County is presently housing inmates in counties across East Texas due to overcrowding.
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, Second
2007 Elections: Trinity River Toll Road Will Proceed 2007-11-06 22:02:40 Via the Dallas Morning News:
With all but a handful of Dallas precincts counted late Tuesday, a ballot measure to kill the high-speed highway inside the TrinityRiver
levees was losing by a 53-47 margin.
The vote means the city’s Trinity River project, an ambitious plan to transform the barren river corridor, will proceed as planned. In addition to the higwhway, the project includes increased flood protection, a downtown park and other recreational amenities.
Proposition 1 would have forbidden construction of any road inside the river levees unless that road were four or fewer lanes, had a speed limit of 35 mph or less, and provided direct access to the riverside park.
That was probably the biggest issue on the Metroplex ballot.
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, Toll Road
2007 Elections, HD 97: Barrett Holds Lead; Capitol Annex Predicts Runoff 2007-11-06 21:33:31 With 51.11 percent of precincts reporting (24 of 45), Democrat Dan Barrett
holds a 10 point lead over his closest opponent. Capitol
Annex predicts a runoff, but it’s too early to tell whether it will be against Shelton or former State Rep. Bob Leonard. Results after the jump:
Shelton: 22.20
Humber: 5.62
Hatch: 3.03
Leonard: 18.72
Barrett: 32.44
Schull: 2.21
23 of 45 precincts reporting; 51.11 percent reporting
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