Tag: Texas primaries

With the Daily Digest turning a year old (and starting to get pretty portly on a regular basis), we thought we’d experiment with splitting it into two parts. This may not happen every day, just on an as-needed basis. But with the campaign season really heating up, we may need to do this a lot! Without further ado:

NY-Gov: Gov. David Paterson’s free-fall is so spectacular that it’s actually interfering with AG Andrew Cuomo’s investigation of Paterson’s alleged interference in the abuse case against his top aide. Apparently, aides are so eager to brandish their knives in the press that various accounts are coming out publicly before Cuomo’s team can conduct proper interviews, making it hard to get the straight story. Talk about perverse luck for Paterson – though I’m sure it won’t make a difference in the long run.

AL-02: State Board of Education member Stephanie Bell has officially entered the Republican primary for Alabama’s 2nd CD. She’ll face off against NRCC Young Gun Martha Roby and teabagging businessman Rick “The Barber” Barber.

GA-07: As expected, state Rep. Clay Cox has jumped into the race to succeed John Linder. Cox says he’s a teabagger, loud and proud. Since most ‘baggers tend to be of the Some Dude variety (at best), this has to count as a pretty good get for the tea partiers. (TheUnknown has further updates on the race and the downballot implications.)

NY-24: Mike Arcuri has decided to employ the John Kerry strategy: Even though he already voted for healthcare the first time around, now he’s saying he might vote against it. What a profile in courage. Arcuri’s complaints sound like a laundry-list of right-wing talking points. Who’s advising this guy, Lanny Davis and Al From?

NY-29: “Shotgun” Randy Kuhl, the man Eric Massa beat in 2008, says he is weighing a comeback. Ex-Corning Mayor Tom Reed has been in the race for a while, but hasn’t raised much and is probably considered shoveable-asidable by bigger players. Some other names in the mix for the GOP include Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, state Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, and state Sens. Cathy Young and George Winner (R). (Remember the last time we ran against the Assembly minority leader in upstate NY?)

The Dem bench, as Crisitunity noted, is hella thin in these parts, but apparently Assemblyman David Koon is putting out feelers. Hornell (pop. 9K) Mayor Shawn Hogan has also been mentioned as a possibility.

Also of note, several outfits now report that Massa informed Steny Hoyer about the sexual harassment allegations against him a few weeks ago. Yet before anyone jumps to conclusions, this is no Mark Foley scandal. Hoyer told Massa to report himself to the Ethics Committee, and Massa did just that.

Minnesota: In order to comply with a new federal law mandating that overseas voters have sufficient time to mail in their ballots, Gov. Tim Pawlenty finally signed a bill into law which changes MN’s primary from Sep. 14 to Aug. 10. This makes Minnesota the first state with a late primary to resolve this problem – quite a few others will likely need to make similar arrangements.

Texas: Get a load of this: Former GOP state Rep. Rick Green was ousted by Dem Patrick Rose in 2002. Four years later, he punched Rose in the face at a polling location. Now, this bag of dicks is in a run-off for the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court. Kath Haenschen wants to know: “If Rick Green loses the run-off, will he punch Debra Lehrmann in the face?”

Given the absurd number of races on the ballot in Texas, I’m sure Green wasn’t the only maniac to do well last night. In fact, Dems have at least one problem of their own: Kesha Rogers, a LaRouchie who won the nomination in TX-22 (Nick Lampson’s old seat) on a platform of impeaching President Obama. Says Rogers’ website:

The victory in the 22nd Congressional District yesterday by LaRouche Democrat Kesha Rogers sent an unmistakable message to the White House, and its British imperial controllers: Your days are numbered.

Fortunately, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party said, “LaRouche members are not Democrats. I guarantee her campaign will not receive a single dollar from anyone on our staff.” Or pounds sterling.

1:25am (J): Team SSP is signing off for the night. Feel free to keep the flame going in the comments, though.

12:43am (J): Ugh, the AP has called the TX-22 Dem nomination for LaRouchite nutcase Kesha Rogers. Check out these pics that we pulled from her campaign website.

12:36am: Man, check out that Land Commissioner race: Austin attorney Hector Uribe leads east Texas realtor Bill Burton by 236,921 to 236,634. That’s less than 300 votes.

12:20am: Ultra-geezer Ralph Hall is winning with just 58%. A united front could surely unseat him in 2012 – if he doesn’t retire. His weakness perhaps suggests his district might also be on the chopping block come redistricting. Despite his extraordinarily advanced age, he just doesn’t have that much seniority in the GOP caucus, since he only switched in 2004.

12:12am (D): TX-17 and TX-23 Republican primaries will go to runoffs, between Flores/Curnock and Canseco/Hurd respectively. Meanwhile, over in TX-22, some f*cking LaRouchie is leading the Dem field with 53% of the vote. Hard to believe Nick Lampson was our nominee here less than two years ago.

11:59pm: Looking at the Board of Eduaction again… Over in the ominously-named District 9, “moderate” Republican Tom Ratliff is ahead of lunatic Republican Don McLeroy by just under 2000 votes with most of the votes counted.

10:59pm (J): The AP has called the Ag Commish race for Hank Gilbert. Kinky Friedman will have to find some other way into this show.

10:56pm: TX-18: Sheila Jackson Lee has been declared the victor. Jarvis Johnson got into the race too late.

10:37pm (J): Despite the snoozefest at the top of the ballot, there are some pretty suspenseful elections for the TX Board of Education — especially in District 9. Darth Jeff has the details.

10:32pm: Looks like her wish came true: KBH just called Rick Perry to concede. Presumably her brain trust ran the numbers and found he’d stay over 50% no matter what.

10:27pm: The saddest thing is that KBH is up in her hotel suite praying that Rick Perry doesn’t fall below 50%.

10:12pm: The TX-23 Dem primary has been called for Ciro Rodriguez – no surprise there. The GOP side is a bit more interesting, with Quico leading Hurd 37-31. Still three quarters of the vote to count, so maybe Quico will lose again. UPDATE: Of course, there’s still the little matter of the run-off….

10:10pm (D): Check out the race for Land Commissioner – the two Dems are literally tied at 50% apiece.

10:09pm (J): 18% in, and Perry sits at 52.2%.

9:59pm (David): 13% and Perry’s at 52.5%. I’m not optimistic.

9:36pm: With 6.9% in, Perry’s take has nudged down to 52.6%.

9:24pm: Wowza. Incumbent Republican Railroad Commissioner Victor G. Carrillo is losing his primary to newcomer David Porter by 19 points. That’s a shockingly huge spread to me, but I wasn’t giving that race any attention at all. Can any local commenters fill in the gaps on this one?

9:17pm: Let’s look at some House races! With 8.3% in, TX-04 fossil Ralph Hall is checking in at under 57%. In TX-17, Bill Flores leads ’08 candidate Rob Curnock by 36-27. And in TX-23, Quico Canseco leads Will Hurd by 36-30.

9:08pm: The AP calls it for White, which was expected, but still good news. Perry’s at 52.9% with just 2.8% of precincts reporting.

9:04pm: Just looking further down the totem poll here… Surprisingly (to me, at least), Kinky Friedman is down by about 8 points to Hank Gilbert in the Ag Commissioner race. Linda Chavez-Thompson has a bigger lead on Ronnie Earle for the Lt-Governor nod, but there are still tons of votes left to count.

8:47pm (James): Wow. It looks like Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn just barely retained the swingy VA-HD41 seat by a margin of 42 votes. I’d expect a recount!

8:31pm: While the Texas results trickle in, that VA House race is super-close. However, Johnny thinks the remaining precincts probably favor the Dem.

8:15pm: Some early numbers (less than 1% reporting) show White just crushing while Perry is over 50%.

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Polls have just closed in most of Texas (though they are still open another hour in the El Paso area). We’ll be bringing you returns as they come in. If you have any other good sites for results links, please let us know.

Results: Politico | Associated Press | Secretary of State

Primary season continues tomorrow in Texas, which is the second state in the nation (after Illinois) to conduct its primaries. Texas also has a top-two run-off (scheduled for April 13th) for any races where the leading candidate fails to clear 50% in the first round. (For a complete primary & run-off calendar, click here.) Below is a roundup of some of the key races to watch for:

• TX-Gov (R): A race that started out with so much potential for wingnut-on-wingnut violence has turned into an utter disappointment. Generally disliked incumbent Gov. Rick Perry has found a way to make the teabaggers love him, and the once-formidable Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison already looks defeated. The only question at this point is recently ex-truther Debra Medina combines with KBH to take enough of the vote to force a run-off. For maximum possible damage, root for Medina to finish second.
• TX-Gov (D): Former Houston Mayor Bill White ought to be able to clean up without a problem here. His opponent, hair-care impresario Farouk Shami, has proven to be an utter embarrassment, dabbling (much like Medina) in trutherism. An ideal outcome for Dems would be White clearing 50% while Republicans have to slug it out in a second round.
• TX-04 (R): Rep. Ralph Hall has drawn about as many primary challengers as he has years in his bones – a trillion. And some of them have real money. Telecom exec and teabagger Steve Clark, who nearly duelled Hall in 2004 before he switched to the GOP, has dumped in $300K of his own gold bullion. Some Dude Jerry Ray Hall (no relation) had also promised to toss in a similar sum, but he’s never clocked in on the FEC website. Will all this money sloshing around lead to a split vote, or will the unimaginably crusty Hall get toppled? He was a lousy Dem when he was one, but I still wouldn’t mind seeing this turncoat get turned out.
• TX-18 (D): Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee faces a primary challenge from Houston city councilman Jarvis Johnson, but it’s hard to see Johnson as much of a threat – he filed at the last minute and raised less than $30K, while Jackson Lee has half a mil in the bank. (Another candidate, attorney Sean Roberts, never seemed to even file with the FEC.) SJL got the cistomary endorsement from President Obama, which Charles Kuffner interprets as a sign of strength – why would Obama stick his neck out if she were unlikely to cruise? In any event, once this primary is over, Rep. Jackson Lee needs to make a sizable contribution to the DCCC.
• TX-23 (D): We put Rep. Ciro Rodriguez on our House Open Seat Watch because he lost a primary as a sitting representative once before, and he drew a challenge this year once again, from lawyer & Iraq vet Miguel Ortiz. However, Ortiz has raised little money, and his FEC reports are a mess.
• TX-23 (R): Ciro Rodriguez may not exactly be a formidable force in politics – but neither, it seems is, Francisco “Quico” Canseco. Canseco, a wealthy businessman, spent almost a million of his own money on the GOP primary in 2008, yet lost in an upset to former Bexar Co. Comm’r Lyle Larson (who in turn lost to Rodriguez in the general). Nonetheless, Canseco is back for another shot, and yet again, he’s facing an upstart – this time former CIA agent William Hurd. Canseco is spending far less of his own money; he’s chipped in about $57K while raising only $220K overall. Hurd has pulled in $152K. Canseco may have “loser” stamped on him (he lost a 2004 GOP primary in TX-28 as well), but Ciro may prefer to face off against Hurd rather than Quico’s millions.

Other races of interest include the Dem primaries for Lieut. Gov. (former Travis Co. DA Ronnie Earle vs. union leader Linda Chavez-Thompson) and Ag. Comm’r (2006 nominee Hank Gilbert vs. permanent pain-in-the-ass Kinky Friedman). There are also several Republican primaries for seats on the Texas Board of Education (the all-important curriculum-setter and textbook-buyer) between lunatics and moderates. And though we’ve highlighted only one such race, 11 out of 20 TX GOP House incumbents have drawn primary challenges, so keep an eye out for any unusually weak results.

UPDATE: Two other GOP House primaries you might want to keep an eye on: in TX-32, Pete Sessions faces David Smith, an accountant who was one of the first anywhere to announce a Tea Party-powered challenge to a Republican incumbent. Smith’s fundraising never really caught up with his initial splash, though. And in TX-17, there’s a primary for the unenviable task of taking on Chet Edwards. Bill Flores is the guy with the money; Rob Curnock is the guy with the grassroots, and he was the 2008 candidate so he can claim dibsies.

As always, if you know of any other interesting races, please let us know in comments.

UPDATE: Trowaman tells Texas Dems to REPRESENT:

REMINDER TO TEXANS: ATTEND YOUR PRECINCT CONVENTION!

Remember in 2008 how we had a primary and a caucus? Well it happens again tomorrow. Your precinct convention (aka caucus) has no bearing on the election results but it does help determine who will go to the state convention as a delegate. I made it to Austin 2 years ago and intend to go to Corpus Christi this year. If you want to go to the state convention, you must get selected as a delegate at your precinct convention and then be selected as a delegate again at your county convention to be held on Sat., March 20th.

State Convention will be June 25-26, 2010.

IF YOU WANT TO BE A DELEGATE, SHOW UP AT YOUR PRECINCT ELECTION DAY VOTING LOCATION AT 7:15 P.M. ON ELECTION DAY MARCH 2ND.

More details here.