Texas, Texas Politics

GOALS: Beto O’Rourke Visits all 254 Texas Counties

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Texans are known for having quite a bit of pride in their state.  Most are quick to site the myriad of ways in which Texas is bigger and/or better than other areas.

While most of us know that the Lone Star State is BIG, very few of us can say that we’ve experienced the true size of Texas

But as David Yaffe-Bellany of the Texas Tribune reports, one politician just made some impressive news, and fulfilled an impressive campaign promise at the same time…

After tens of thousands of miles on the road, hundreds of town hall meetings and innumerable cups of coffee, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke made the final stop on his much-ballyhooed tour of all 254 Texas counties on Saturday, visiting Gainesville in his continuing bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz this fall.

Over the last 15 months, O’Rourke’s county-by-county driving tour has taken him all over the state, from his hometown of El Paso on the Mexican border to Cooke County in the north, where he held a town hall on Saturday afternoon.

“Here we are in Gainesville, which, as the crow flies, might be the farthest point you can get from El Paso,” he said to laughter from a packed house in the historic Santa Fe train depot.

The tour represents more than just an expansive retail campaign across the largest state in mainland America. It also marks a dramatic deviation from the political playbook employed by the majority of Texas Democrats over the last two decades.

Running a true statewide campaign is a promise Beto O’Rourke made early on during the campaign, and as of this weekend, it is a promise kept.  The trek also marks an historic accomplishment for a statewide candidate.  Though O’Rourke and his team are not the first to have visited every Texas county during a statewide campaign, it is still a rather rare feat.  So as the first known campaign to complete such a feat in the 21st century and with copious social media documentation.

As the Tribune says, Beto’s strategy is a far cry from previous Democratic (or Republican) candidates.  Most Democrats have run their statewide campaigns by sticking to the “urban triangle” of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston with rarely a stop elsewhere.  As a result, the Democratic party has basically retreated to only these areas of the state.

But whatever the result come November, Beto O’Rourke has laid a new course which all Democrats, centrists and Progressives should be watching.  The only way to turn Texas’ political tide is to be competitive in every single county, and you can’t be competitive if you don’t show up.

Let’s hope the originality continues.

Hey Beto!!  Thanks for showing up.

Houston Politics, Texas

Texoblogosphere: Week of April 9th

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The Texas Progressive Alliance is neither the subject nor the target of an investigation, but it is bringing you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff noted that Texas lost another federal lawsuit about voting rights.

Socratic Gadfly, seeing the latest anti-Palestinian violence by Israelis, looks at myth vs reality in a major piece of Jewish history.

Stace writes about Tex-Mex music Grammy winners Los Texmaniacs’ new album, Cruzando Borders, which will touch on border and Mexican American themes. It’s quite timely during this era of Trumpismo.

After more than a generation of one-party dominance, it’s tough for any Texas Democrat to predict what a winning statewide campaign would actually look like. But if Texas Leftist had to take guess, it would come pretty close to the Beto O’ Rourke campaign thus far. After a massive fundraising haul, Beto is showing that he means business in this race. And speaking of winning, more great news for Texas’ Classical Music community as the Houston Chamber Choir receives a very prestigious National honor.

Neil at All People Have Value attended, as he does each week, the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Stan Spinner, Lindy McGee, and Julie Boom urge Texans to not politicize vaccinations.

Better Texas Blog explains why a property-tax-for-sales-tax swap is a bad idea.

Elise Hu remembers her first mentor and his warning about Sinclair Broadcasting.

Deborah Beck urges elected leaders to have in-person meetings with constituents.

Therese Odell grapples with the politics of Roseanne.

United States

The FIRST: Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth Gives Birth To Second Daughter

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If you take ten seconds, and do a quick Google search of the term “An American Original”, the results that pull up first in some ways quite extraordinary.  Walt Disney was certainly so as a business magnate and visionary.  Few Americans could certainly compare to the genius of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.

In the 21st Century, those true American Original stories continue.  And thankfully for the rest of us, the great people of Illinois have sent a TRUE American Original to Washington in United States Senator Tammy Duckworth.  As if her incredible journey from serving our country in Iraq, to injury in combat as a double amputee, to being elected to the Senate isn’t inspiring enough, Duckworth never seems to be satisfied with her long list of historic accomplishments.  As Daniella Diaz and Sunlen Serfaty of CNN report, this trailblazer is far from done rewriting the rules of Washington or the history books…

(CNN) Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth gave birth to a baby girl Monday, her office announced, the first US senator to do so while in office.

“Bryan, Abigail and I couldn’t be happier to welcome little Maile Pearl as the newest addition to our family and we’re deeply honored that our good friend Senator (Daniel) Akaka was able to bless her name for us — his help in naming both of our daughters means he will always be with us,” Duckworth said in her office’s statement.
Duckworth had her first child in 2014, when she was serving in the House of Representatives.
An aide close to Duckworth told CNN she’s doing well and taking 12 weeks to bond with her new daughter and take care of her family. She’s staying in Washington, DC, for her maternity leave and is available to vote as needed.
When she gave birth to her first daughter, she took her maternity leave at her home in Chicago, but this time she and her and her husband decided that she would give birth in the DC area in case she needs to vote, the aide said.
Akaka — a Democrat from Hawaii who served in Congress for more than three decades — died Friday at age 93. He was also responsible for giving Duckworth’s first daughter, Abigail, her middle name of O’kalani. They worked together on veterans’ issues dating back to when she was a patient at Walter Reed and he asked her to testify before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee when he was chairman.
The juxtaposition of seeing someone like the Senator, who works overtime to do her job, raise her family, and address the needs of her constituents, against the constant circus that is the Trump Administration.  Thankfully for the rest of us, Duckworth herself has been quick to call the President out on his lies and inability to do his job for the American People.  She even gave Donald Trump the nickname Cadet Bone Spurs.
Sure it’s way to early to even consider 2020, at least officially.  But if Democrats want to take back the White House, I hope they’re paying attention to the folks that can truly get that job done, like Senator Tammy Duckworth.
Congratulations to the Senator and her family!!

 

 

Music Musings

Houston Chamber Choir Receives Prestigious National Honor

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Some very big news for one of Houston’s most prominent classical music organizations.  Here’s the story from the Houston Chamber Choir’s Press Release (via the Broadway World Newsdesk)…

Houston Chamber Choir has received the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from Chorus America, the advocacy, research and leadership development organization that advances the choral field. The award will be presented at Chorus America’s 2018 Conference in Chicago June 20-23.

The Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence honors the memory of Margaret Hillis, founder of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, for her more than 40 years of professional achievement and outstanding contributions to the choral field. The award is presented annually to a member chorus that demonstrates artistic excellence, a strong organizational structure and a commitment to outreach, education, and/or culturally diverse activities.

In its description of this honor, Chorus America noted that “the Houston Chamber Choirhas excelled in presenting a daring breadth of repertoire at the highest level throughout its 22-year history, from historically-informed performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor to rich celebrations of Mexico’s choral heritage to collaborations with jazz musicians Christian McBride and Dave Brubeck. Through commitments to commissioning new works and partnerships with guest conductors, the ensemble maintains a fresh approach to its art, while achieving steady organizational growth. In addition, the Chamber Choir’s educational efforts in the Houston community have brought music back to three of the district’s most disadvantaged schools and established an annual choral festival that is in its 19th year.”

“The Chorus America Margaret Hillis Award is one of the highest accolades an American choir can receive,” says Houston Chamber Choir Artistic Director Robert Simpson. “I am thrilled that the extraordinary work of our musicians, staff and board has been recognized in this way.”

Awarded to a Professional Choir once every three years, the Houston Chamber Choir joins some elite company as the 2018 winner.  Internationally acclaimed groups such as VocalEssence, Cantus, Chanticleer and Conspirare have won the award in recent years.  After Conspirare, the Houston Chamber Choir is only the 2nd Texas ensemble to receive the honor.

In a year that has seen the Houston Symphony claim its first ever Grammy Award, the accolades keep coming for Houston’s classical music and arts scene.  Glad to see that the hard work in H Town is getting noticed.

Check out this special video of the choir, in the midst of recording their next big CD project, the choral music of Maurice Durufle…

 

Texas, Texas Politics

Texoblogosphere: Week of April 2nd

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The Texas Progressive Alliance believes that everyone counts and everyone should be counted as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff takes two more looks at precinct data in Harris County from the primary races.

Socratic Gadfly offers some updates on what now clearly appears to be a weird triangle in Marlin between Houston real estate “flippers,” a former VA hospital building, and the General Land Office and P. Bush.

Neil at All People Have Value again made the point that there is authoritarian/Constitutional crisis on the way.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Luke Amphlett criticizes the San Antonio ISD handbook on SB4, the so-called “sanctuary cities” law.

Therese Odell sees a chance for the Roseanne reboot to open a national dialogue on important issues, but fears it will take the easy way out.

Durrel Douglas unveils a project aimed at placing more Black people on government/NGO Boards and Commissions.

The Texas Living Waters Project reminds us that urban wildlife and people need healthy creeks and streams, not channelized ditches.

Amy Pearl asks who “walkability” is for.

BeyondBones explores the origins of timekeeping.

Guest Texan Aviva Shen examines the primary ouster of McLennan County DA Abel Reyna.

Texas Politics

Oh, SNAP!! Beto O’Rourke Posts Massive Fundraising Haul

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For Texas Democrats running statewide, what does winning even look like??

No one in contemporary Texas politics knows the answer.  It’s an experience so elusive that you have to go back more than a generation to even ask someone who held statewide office as a Democrat.  That one living person??  Former Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, and he served during the 1980s.

1994 was the last time Texans sent a statewide elected Democrat to Austin, with Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock.  So if anyone else tells you they know beyond a doubt how Democrats can win statewide, they’ve probably been out in to pasture a bit too long.

But if we can take our best guess at what that win might look like, I’m going to bet that the Beto O’Rourke campaign is off to a pretty good start on that path.  Here’s the big news O’Rourke’s campaign released today, via Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune…

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, raised over $6.7 million for his U.S. Senate bid in the first quarter of 2018, according to his campaign, a staggering number that poses a new category of threat to Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.

The haul is easily O’Rourke’s biggest fundraising quarter yet, more than double his next-closest total for a three-month period. It also is more than any Democratic Senate candidate nationwide took in last quarter, O’Rourke’s campaign said.

Cruz has not released his first-quarter fundraising numbers yet, but O’Rourke’s $6.7 million total is on a different level than his previous hauls, which ranged from $1.7 million to $2.4 million. Those alone were good enough to outraise Cruz for three of the last four reporting periods.

Furthermore, the $6.7 million total came from more than 141,000 contributions — another record-busting number for O’Rourke.

The big money totals are important, but just as crucial is the huge number of individual contributions from people across the state, and other areas of the country.  But most of that money, 70 percent per the El Paso Times, came from folks in the Lone Star State, with NO contributions from any PACs (Political Action Committees) or corporations.  In other words, Beto is not for sale.

After a year on the road, the Congressman has already visited 228 counties and held hundreds of Town Halls with Texans, while simultaneously meeting his responsibilities to the Texans he represents in El Paso.  He’s had over 90 town halls with his constituents!

For Ted Cruz, whom officially launched his reelection campaign Monday in Beaumont, let’s just say the time spent with his constituents has been, well, a little less frequent.  Though if you can manage to drudge up some national news media, you might have a chance of getting him to show up.

Which is why the O’Rourke campaign had an interesting present for Beaumont area voters to welcome Cruz yesterday… a specially-designed Snapchat filter for the big event…

It’s good to see the Democratic challenger putting that campaign cash to use.

And make no mistake, the one thing Ted Cruz does well is campaigning.  Just because he lost to Donald Trump in his bid for President doesn’t mean he’s going to roll over without a fight.  The whole strategy behind emphasizing his work to help Texans recover from Hurricane Harvey is incredibly smart, mostly because he knows that O’Rourke, from El Paso, didn’t and couldn’t play a central role in that situation. But as Cruz runs around highlighting the ONE TIME he managed to actually do his job after a natural disaster, smart Texas voters should be able to see through the smoke screen to reveal a Senator who’s overall record in responding to and working for his constituents has been abysmal.

Whatever lies ahead, it looks like Texans are going to see a real competitive campaign for Senate in 2018, fights and all.  And if we do know anything about Texas politics, we know that you can’t be a winner without first being a fighter.

Kudos to Beto for taking some shots.

 

Houston

TRIED It: How Chicago’s Bean War Will Backfire in Houston’s Favor

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So apparently, Chicago has some beef with Houston.

Wait, not beef, but another protein which is essential to a regular diet.  This proxy war is not erupting over beef, but beans.

UGH– Here’s the scoop, from Drew Schwartz of Vice News…

Earlier this week, Houston unveiled a 21,000-pound, stainless-steel Goliath of a sculpture outside its Museum of Fine Arts called the “Cloud Column,” made by Anish Kapoor—the same artist who brought Chicago “Cloud Gate,” better known as the Bean.

But seeing as there’s been some tension simmering between the two cities for a while—Houston’s on track to outstrip Chicago as America’s third-largest metropolis, which is a sore spot—things are really heating up now that they both have big-ass metal beans.

On Tuesday, Chicago Tribune columnist Kim Janssen fired the first shot in the battle of the beans with a scalding hit piece: “Unoriginal 4th place Houston gets its own bean sculpture… whatever.” After a kind of lackluster diss about Houston’s bean being “uptight” (because it’s upright) and Chicago’s being “chill” (it’s horizontal), Janssen took out the claws.

“If being surrounded by a cultureless abyss insufficiently communicates to confused tourists that they are in Houston, the bean’s verticality will therefore act as an additional reminder of their poor life choices,” he wrote.

Yep, he definitely TRIED it.

Of course Houstonians could not let such ridiculous shots go unanswered.  You can read the back and forth between Janssen and the Houston Chronicle’s Lisa Gray for further bean drama.

But instead of fanning the flames, Texas Leftist would instead like to thank Mr. Janssen for the robust opportunity.  Instead of bringing us down, the attacks on Houston have yielded the opposite effect, by pouring worldwide attention on to our new sculpture, and the cultural oasis which surrounds it.

Thanks for giving Houstonians the opportunity to highlight our world-class arts institutions, like the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Menil Collection and Children’s Museum of Houston, all mere blocks away from our illustrious new bean.

Of course you may run into a crowd while doing so, as Houston’s Museums are some of the most well-attended in the United States.  In fact, with nearly 2.3 million visitors in 2015, the Houston Museum of Natural Science even outranked Chicago’s famous institutions for that year, and has been growing in numbers since.

It’s no secret that the city of Houston is a king of sprawl, with a land mass nearly 3 times the size of Chicago.  But even with this being the case, some parts of Houston can offer a lot of excitement even for visitors used to more urban, dense environments.  And thankfully, the new bean is at the heart of some of Houston’s most exciting attractions.  Far from the “cultureless abyss” suggested by Janssen, Houston’s offers a ton of world-class attractions, be it music, sports or urban exploration.

So there you have it.  If Chicagoans really want to start a war over the beans, they are welcome.  But in the end, they may end up helping Houston’s ultimate goal.  Houstonians, get your selfie sticks ready.

 

UPDATE:  Point of Order for Houston… Does this sculpture really look like a bean?? Why should we let Chicago name our new thing. Instead of the ‘Houston Bean’ we should call it the Houston Space Pod.  Thoughts??? Put ‘em in the comments.

A Voice for the Rest of Texas