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Looks like Secessionist Rick Perry barely avoiding a runoff with Kay Bailey Hutchinson in Texas Gubernatorial Republican Primary. He leads 52-31 Deborah Medina, the Tea Party preferred candidate, is at 17 %.
Bill White cruising to victory on the Democratic Side.
Ralph Hall (TX-04), who is older than Methuselah, seems like he will squeak by a Tea Party challenge at 57%.
I don't see anything else particularly interesting right now.
Despite repeated campaign promises to always be in the District on weekends, Pete Sessions is working overtime today to kill health care reform.
His latest outburst on the House floor drew "a burst of chatter" in the room, kind of like it does in bi-partisan settings here at home when Sessions gets stuck for an answer and says the first thing that comes to mind, usually a tangent about "socialism" or "Nancy Pelosi."
In his latest gaffe, Pete Sessions defended the insurance industry's practice of charging higher rates to women, comparing the practice to charging higher rates for smokers. Transcript over the jump...
So, besides being batshit crazy, what does Pete Sessions have to do with Michele Bachmann?
Pete Sessions is chair of the NRCC, and he's raised a lot of money for Michele Bachmann. And he's not going to stop there--his goal is to pack Congress with more batshit crazies just like them.
Want to stop him? Support his Democratic Party opponent, Grier Raggio. Read more about Grier over the jump...
Seriously God Bless America. Not Just God Bless Texas anymore. Next week we will have to endure Tom DeLay doing the Foxtrot or Charleston or some other dance they only do on ABC. I promise I will not post any more footage. I'm crossing my fingers though because if Hot Tub Tom slips and falls that might just be too funny for the world to not see.
Here was some of my tweeting tonight concerning Mr. DeLay. Oh and one Miley Cyrus tweet just for good measure
i just saw DeLay eerily caressing Cheryl Burke's back - i really am glad I don't have TiVo
okay grab the barf bag - Tom DeLay back next week - who honestly wants to watch that again?
@mommanissel @baxterblogs @sherriwilson - i need more Tom DeLay jokes for next week - he will be back unless behind Bars
why couldn't Miley Cyrus just sing a rendition of achy breaky heart with her dad and be done?
Go Simba Go Mame Mr. DeLay #DWTS
I cannot accept the things I cannot change when it involves Tom DeLay on Dancing With the Stars again
Tom DeLay appears on Dancing with the Stars tonight. I'm hoping he will take a little stumble. The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) produced a video to commemorate the occasion: Dancing with Tom DeLay and Mrs. Gerry Mandering
If Texas does secede and form its own less than perfect union, based on this story I hate to see what would be in store.
Right out of Sarah Palin's, "Rightwing Nutjob I love that Dick Cheney Loves Rush Limbaugh Playbook" here comes a tale of where a Houston Rape victim gets billed for evidence that the state has money available to pay.
The Houston Police Department made one payment toward the single mother's hospital bill, but when she submitted the $1,847 worth of remaining bills to the Crime Victims' Compensation Fund, she received a denial letter, telling her that law enforcement should have paid.
"She's getting the run-around," said Young at the rape crisis center, which was not involved in her case.
"There may be lots of survivors who have this happen and we don't know because they don't know that they shouldn't be getting the bills," she said.
Okay but we are in a recession so maybe no money is available. Wrong according to what was also discovered.
Texas State Comptroller's office figures show the fund has tens of millions of dollars left over at the end of each year.
In September 2006, the balance was $67,058,646 and one year later, the balance was $57,669,432.
In 2008, that figure was up again to $66,572,261 that was left unspent in the fund.
Attorney General's spokesman Jerry Strickland said the crime victim fund is enforcing strict guidelines imposed by the legislature as to which bills are paid and which victims are sent a denial notice.
Otherwise, he said that fund could become "insolvent."
He said state law is clear that crime victims must exhaust all other potential funding sources, such as local police or their own health insurance.
"The legislature set it up that way," said Strickland.
But the fund has more money than it did in 2006. A government official being worried about being insolvent, now that's a first. I could understand if you had maybe a couple hundred thousand in the account. Seriously, even if you spent a million of that money for rape victims you would still have a lot of money left. And I doubt that the bills for all the rape victims in the State in a year would even come close to a million. Probably at the most a couple hundred thousand.
I'm sure that the AG's office really doesn't want their expenditures audited though so maybe this will get them to start paying these evidence bills. Not to mention that it's just wrong for a rape victim to get a bill and psychologically reopen wounds months and perhaps years later.
We are nearing the end of our wrap ups. While we are having fun, we are glad we won't have to do this for each state until 2010. So we think anyways.
Texas
I don't think anyone had any illusions that Obama would win Texas. If you really thought that then I have some oceanfront property in Arizona that I would like to sell you.
Obama got a lot more votes than Kerry - What about 800k more?
The Senate race - Noriega lost by almost a million votes and 12 points. At times during the race, Noriega looked like he was running a great race. At other times the campaign look disheveled. From the outside looking it, it looked like Noriega had trouble raising money.
Cornyn was going to be real tough to beat regardless of the competition. As goofy as Cornyn looked during the campaign (The Big Bad John Video), none of that made a difference.
The Noriega and Obama maps look pretty similar.
House Races - There are 32 House Seats in Texas and only two were in single digits. The wrangling of the State Legislature is a big issue in Texas and I'm not quite sure how it turned out.
Most pundits and polls knew that Nick Lampson was in trouble. Polls showed him as losing by double digits. Well he lost by seven points and the Dems lost an incumbent.
The only other race within single digits was TX-17 where Chet Edwards disposed of Rob Curnock.
Texas took center stage tonight. And it had nothing to do with politics. Three days away from the election and college football rules the roost tonight.
My team Alabama should be #1 after drubbing Arkansas State and seeing Texas Tech hold on for a thrilling victory over current #1 Texas.
I'm sure some will call for Penn State or Texas Tech to move to the top spot, but for a week it should be Alabama.
Alabama faces a tough test in LSU next week at Baton Rouge. But by then the election will be over and we can all really focus on college football.
(Thanks Glenn. We know you have been working very hard. - promoted by admin)
Time and time again Ralph Hall tells voters that American soldiers will have to "fight a war and take some energy away from someone." Does this represent your values? It doesn't represent mine. I believe it's time to stop talking about stealing and to start investing in America.
My campaign has produced a short video using Hall's own words to expose his values. Please circulate it to your family and friends.
We have twelve days left to spread the word and fight for change in Texas. Donate today and help put this commercial on the air: https://secure.actblue.com/con...
We are big college football fans here at the Progressive Electorate. And if you are a college football fan, like me I know you heard of the big upsets including
#1 Okalahoma loses to #5 Texas
# 3 Missouri loses to #17 Oklahoma State
#4 LSU loses to #11 Florida
#2 Alabama beats the bye week
So that means Alabama or Texas should most likely be #1. I would think that Penn State gets some votes as well with their trouncing of Wisconsin and looking dominate.
One thing is clear. In this topsy-turvey season of college football we could see any of number of teams in the BCS championship game.
But Alabama, Texas and Penn State all in the top five surely makes you remember years past especially with Joe Pa remarkably still roaming the sidelines at College Station.
(Please donate to Glenn Melancon - He has a plethora of ideas about how to govern more effectively. - promoted by admin)
The wizards of Wall Street are threatening the survival of our republic and the free market. They want Congress to surrender budgetary authority to the President just like it surrendered War Powers during the debate over Iraq. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now. We must have accountability and transparency.
Our Founding Fathers wisely limited each branch of government and assigned each part specific responsibilities. The Constitution is clear-Congress, not the President nor the Federal Reserve, is the "decider." Congress decides how much to spend and what to spend it on. George Bush's request for a blank check to bail out Wall Street strikes at the very heart of our Constitution. If our Representatives write the check without protections for the taxpayers, then the American experiment of limited government will be over.
Cornyn is only leading by a 47% to 37% margin. Cornyn was leading 48 to 35% last month.
The most promising part of this data is that Noriega is gaining support from Democrats and Cornyn is losing support amongst Republicans.
I believe that the focus over the last month on wind energy, with T. Boone Pickens plan in the media spotlight, may be a major factor in Noriega's move.
Rasmussen found
that most Texan voters (54%) are in favor of the state spending $5 billion on new power lines running between wind farms and major cities. Just 14% do not agree with this idea.
Conclusion: This is the closest this race has been since May when Cornyn and Noriega were separated by 4 points. With 14% of undecided voters at this point, we believe that Noriega will continue to narrow the gap. How much and how fast he will close is the key.
If Noriega is properly funded, this race should be a toss up on election day. That means that he will have to show that he can raise the money as well as the DSCC coming into the vast and expensive media Texas market.
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