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Texas Leftist 2016 Endorsements

For those interested, here are the Texas Leftist endorsements for 2016.

Texas Leftist has chosen to endorse candidates because they have demonstrated a commitment to advancing public policies that will improve the lives of Texans.  Though each person’s individual positions vary, they are generally candidates that stand for equality, social justice, healthcare expansion, living wage and economic prosperity.

Election Day 2016 is Tuesday November 8th, and Early Voting runs from October 24th through November 4th.  For Houston area voters, here’s early voting information for Harris CountyFort Bend County, Brazoria County, Montgomery County, and Galveston County.  For other areas, visit the Texas Secretary of State’s Elections Page for your county information.

 

 

Federal Races

U.S. President:                                                 Hillary Rodham Clinton (D)

U.S. Rep. District 2:                                       Pat Bryan (D)

U.S. Rep. District 7:                                      James Cargas (D)

U.S. Rep. District 9:                                       Al Green (D)

U.S. Rep. District 18:                                    Sheila Jackson Lee (D)

U.S. Rep. District 22:                                    Mark Gibson (D)

 

State Races

Railroad Commissioner:                             Mark Miller (L)  [TLCQ 2016]

State Board of Education, 6:                     R. Dakota Carter (D)

Justice, Supreme Court Place 3:            Mike Westergren (D)

Justice, Supreme Court Place 5:            Dori Contreras Garza (D)

Justice, Supreme Court Place 9:            Eva Guzman (R)

Court of Criminal Appeals Place 2:      Lawrence “Larry” Meyers (D)

Court of Criminal Appeals Place 5:      Betsy Johnson (D)

Court of Criminal Appeals Place 6:      Robert Burns (D)

 

State Senator, District 13:                            Borris Miles (D)

State Rep. District 126:                                 Joy Dawson- Thomas (D)

State Rep. District 127:                                 Joseph McElligott (G)

State Rep. District 134:                                 Ben Rose (D)

State Rep. District 135:                                 Jesse A. Ybanez (D)

State Rep. District 137:                                 Gene Wu (D)

State Rep. District 147:                                   Garnet Coleman (D)

State Rep. District 149:                                  Hubert Vo (D)

State Rep. District 150:                                  Michael Shawn Kelly (D)

 

District Races

Chief Justice, 1st Court of Appeals:          Jim Peacock (D)

1st Court of Appeals, Place 4:                       Barbara Gardner (D)

14th Court of Appeals, Place 2:                   Candance White (D)

14th Court of Appeals, Place 9:                   Peter M. Kelly (D)

11th Judicial District:                                         Kristen Hawkins (D)

61st Judicial District:                                          Fredericka Phillips (D)

80th Judicial District:                                         Larry Welman (D)

125th Judicial District:                                      Kyle Carter (D)

127th Judicial District:                                      R.K. Sandill (D)

129th Judicial District:                                      Michael Gomez (D)

133rd Judicial District:                                      Jaclanel McFarland (D)

151st Judicial District:                                       Mike Engelhart (D)

152nd Judicial District:                                      Robert K. Schaffer (D)

164th Judicial District:                                      Alexandra Smoots-Hogan

165th Judicial District:                                      Ursula A. Hall (D)

174th Judicial District:                                      Hazel B. Jones (D)

176th Judicial District:                                      Nikita “Niki” Harmon (D)

177th Judicial District:                                      Robert Johnson (D)

178th Judicial District:                                       Kelli Johnson (D)

179th Judicial District:                                       Randy Roll (D)

215th Judicial District:                                       Fred Shucart (R)

333rd Judicial District:                                       Daryl Moore (D)

334th Judicial District:                                       Steven Kirkland (D)

337th Judicial District:                                       Herb Ritchie (D)

 

Harris County Races

District Attorney:                                                 Kim Ogg (D)

Sheriff:                                                                         Ed Gonzalez (D)

County Attorney:                                                  Vince Ryan (D)

County Clerk:                                                          Ann Harris- Bennett (D)

County Commissioner, Pct. 3:                      Jenifer Rene Pool (D)

County School Trustee Pos. 2:                      Sherrie L. Matula (D)

County School Trustee Pos. 4:                      Marilyn Burgess (D)

Constable, Precinct 1:                                        Alan Rosen (D)

Constable, Precinct 6:                                        Silvia Trevino (D)

Justice of the Peace, Pct. 5, Place 1:          William “Bill” McLeod (D)

HISD Proposition 1:                                            AGAINST

 

The following resources were consulted for the 2016 Texas Leftist endorsements:  Project Vote SmartHouston Association of Women Attorneys, The Texas Tribune, The Houston Chronicle Endorsements, The Dallas Morning News, Houston GLBT Caucus, Off The Kuff, and Ballotpedia.

 

2016

 

 

‘Shared Sacrifice’: Houston City Council Passes Budget

If a budget is truly a statement of beliefs, then the City of Houston has just learned a lot about its new Chief Executive.

Delivering on a promise made just a months earlier, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has shepherded a 2016 municipal budget through City Council, and its been done in what appears to be record time.  The goal was to send a strong message to citizens, the business community and credit agencies that Houston is ‘taking care of business’.  After the difficulties of last year’s election with the defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, this message is definitely needed.

Here’s more on the news from Mike Morris of the Houston Chronicle

Mayor Sylvester Turner achieved his goal of securing unanimous passage of his first general fund budget Wednesday morning, a month ahead of the typical schedule and after an unusually brief and uncontentious discussion of council members’ proposed changes.

The $2.3 billion general fund budget, which pays for most basic city services with revenues from taxes and fees, represents only the second budget cut for Houston in two decades. The first came after the 2008 nationwide financial crisis.

“It’s not my budget, it’s our budget,” Turner told City Council. “There are fewer than 20 amendments today, which I think speaks to the collaborative nature of the partnership we have. I want to thank you for the trust you’ve placed in me.”

Formerly a long and arduous process under previous administrations, the City Council’s annual budget meeting even ended in time for lunch.  For comparison, last year’s budget meeting (fueled by in part election year politics) took about 14 hours.

But just because the work was fast doesn’t mean it was easy.  If the budget is truly a set of beliefs, then it is clear Mayor Sylvester Turner believes in the principle of shared sacrifice.  Every area of city services will experience fun reductions, including City Council offices and the Mayor’s administration.  There are also approximately 40 planned layoffs, attrition and cuts to other positions.  The resultant savings of all of this difficulty?  An estimated $82 million.

Thankfully for Houstonians, these cuts are not the end of the story.  As promised, Mayor Turner and city leaders have also been working overtime to find creative solutions for the city’s needs.  Infrastructure investment will continue thanks to unused funds from METRO which will now be allocated for district street repairs.  In the wake of devastating floods which could have easily derailed any budget plan, the Mayor created the Greater Houston Storm Relief Fund to help create resources for those affected.   Turner has even went further than ever before to engage and connect the business community to Houston’s greatest resource through the Hire Houston Youth program.   All this has been accomplished with less than 6 months in office for the new administration.

Let’s hope this spirit of cooperation and good governance can continue.  If so, Houston will get through the lean times, and hopefully have great things ahead.

Turner2

 

As Off The Kuff points out, this truly was “an easy budget” compared to next year.  Turner’s next great task lies in trying to solve the city’s pension woes.

TLCQ 2015 Responses

For information purposes only, here are all of the TLCQ 2015 Respondents.  Hopefully this will serve to increase the available information for Houstonians as we head into Early Voting next week.

Endorsements soon to follow.

Houston Mayor

 

Houston City Council

 

At Large Position 1

At Large Position 2

At Large Position 3

At Large Position 4

At Large Position 5

 

District B

District C

District G

District H

 

If you live in the city of Houston, this election matters.  Houston is a growing city that will face many challenges over the coming decades.  It is the next Mayor and City Council which will decide how we handle them.  Get informed, and V-O-T-E!!

 

 

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HERO Opponents Beg Texas Supreme Court For Repetitive Action

Apparently the opponents of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance cannot take “yes” for an answer.  Even after Mayor Annise Parker already agreed that HERO will not be enforced until all matters are settled in court, the anti-equality group is not satisfied in the least.  Here’s the Houston Chronicle’s Mike Morris with more…

Opponents of Houston’s equal rights ordinance have asked the Texas Supreme Court to force the city secretary to certify the signatures on a petition they submitted seeking to trigger a repeal referendum on the law.

Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals denied a similar request on Aug. 15, ruling that the emergency writ of mandamus would have the same result as a favorable ruling in the pending lawsuit opponents filed against the city earlier this month. The plaintiffs, the judges wrote, could appeal after a ruling comes down at the trial court level.

Trial in that case is set for Jan. 19.

The new filing with the Supreme Court, turned in late Tuesday, is similar to the group of conservative pastors and activists’ previous requests. It seeks to have the court force the city to suspend enforcement of the ordinance, to put the ordinance to another vote of the City Council and, if the council does not repeal it, to put the issue before voters.

The case already scheduled for January is seeking a writ of mandamus— a court-ordered directive for the signatures to be certified, and therefore require a referendum.  But the filing to the Texas Supreme Court asks for virtually the same thing, though both sides know the January trial is already pending.

Some may wonder… if the Mayor and the City are already giving HERO haters what they want by suspending enforcement of the ordinance, why is it necessary to keep crying for a court-ordered suspension?  It’s proving to be not only a waste of time for our court system, but as Off the Kuff points out, is surely costing a mountain in legal fees.

The simple answer?  Because politics.

For one thing, the recently ousted Jared Woodfill needs something to do, or else he risks losing all relevance with the political elite.  Parker’s decision to preemptively suspend the law is a special thorn in the opponent’s side because it denies them any possible political win.  If the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance is not in effect, they don’t get to shout from the rooftops that their court order was able to suspend it.  So instead they’re trying for the next best thing… a milk-toast version of victory via paper.  In order to give their cause any hope, they are desperate for something to cling to.

It’s true that anything could happen with the Texas Supreme Court.  They may choose to take the case and push HERO to a referendum.  But even in that event, supporters are the law are ready for the fight… whether it takes place today, in January or years down the line.

See Texpatriate for more analysis on this, including a better explanation of the actual legalese.

Houston City Council Passes Budget

In a marathon meeting that beat out the recent HERO fest (but not by much), Houston City Council passed $5.2 Billion dollar budget for the city’s next fiscal year  It got done, but few would call it an easy process.  Here’s more from Mike Morris of the Houston Chronicle

The budget was approved in a 14-3 vote that followed council members slogging through 63 amendments they and their colleagues had proposed to Parker’s spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Council members interested in new programs bested those interested in controlling spending, despite ample discussion of the deficits looming in the coming years.

Parker said council’s decisions concern her, given the warnings of trouble ahead, and said some “naivete” exists around the table on budgeting.

“Council members were clearly in a mood to spend rather than save,” she said. “They see the economy, they see things are picking up. They also see a lot of needs and they want to respond to those needs, and it’s very hard to say, ‘But we have a rainy day down the road, you need to put some money aside for that.'”

The coming challenges are driven by soaring pension and debt costs and the impact of a decade-old, voter-imposed cap on city revenues that is expected to force a cut in the property tax rate next year. Houston next summer is expected to face a nearly $150 million gap between revenues and expenses in its general fund, which is fed mainly by property and sales taxes and funds basic services. That exceeds the gap during the economic recession, when Parker laid off 776 workers.

Of particular interest to see will be how District Council Members choose to use their additional $1 million dollar allotments.  The funds won’t go very far if Council Members try to tackle broken streets, but may be better applied through police patrols, better lighting and increased city services.

With everyone so worried about limited funds for next year, it’s unfortunate, but not exactly a surprise that issues like the complete mess over at HPD didn’t get addressed in a substantive manner.  As to whether more funding for HPD could come with a vote on the city’s revenue cap, only time will tell.

Diversity on Houston City Council

It’s been quite interesting to see what amounts to a ‘minor freak out’ going on in the blogosphere right now. Suddenly, people are starting to realize that the Houston City Council isn’t as diverse as they expected it to be? And, particularly from a gender perspective, will be even less so in 2014. The Council, which currently has four women holding office, will be down to two in the new year.

My response to this… where was the concern before??

The truth of the matter? Houston City Council isn’t “diverse” right now… it’s still no where near parity to our actual city’s population. Four women on council is better than two, but still admittedly short of the 8 needed to be fully reflective of an even gender split. For a city that is over 40 percent Hispanic, Council is very much under-represented in that regard with just two Hispanic members. Not only will Council be losing 2 women in 2014, but it will also be flipping back to ‘majority white’ for the first time in nearly a decade. In a true reflection of the city’s racial makeup, the largest representative group should be Hispanic.

Those are just snapshot observations, but to truly understand the make-up of council requires a broader understanding. Given his expertise on all things Houston politics, I asked Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff for some history on the subject.

Basically, Districts B, D, H, I, and K have been people of color barring anything strange. That’s five of eleven, or four of nine pre-redistricting. If District F is a non-Anglo, that will give you six of eleven (or five of nine), so you then need only two At Large members to be people of color to have parity.

Since 2003, District F has been represented by MJ Khan, Al Hoang, and now Richard Nguyen. During that time, there have been at least two minority At Large members every term except one, in 2005, when Ronald Green was it. So that was the last election that Houston had a majority Anglo Council. And [technically] Addie Wiseman, who served in District E from 2001 through 2007, was half Hispanic, though she never really identified as Latina.

In 2001, District F was represented by Mark Ellis, so three minority At Large members were needed, but there were only – Gordon Quan and Carroll Robinson. Annise Parker was also an At Large member, if that helps. However, Sylvia Garcia was Controller, and of course Lee Brown was Mayor, so I’d give 2001 a pass. In 1999 there were three minority At Large members – Quan, Robinson, and Orlando Sanchez, plus Parker, Garcia, and Brown. In 1997 there was Sanchez and Robinson At Large, but Martha Wong represented District C, so once again parity was achieved.

Interestingly, 2005… the last time City Council was majority white, was also the only term that it was majority female… 8 women to 6 men served. So by both measurements of race and gender, 2014 will be an anomaly as the most majority male and majority white Council in the 21st century.

That’s the data. But it’s important to frame all of this as an anomaly… simply a result of how the 2013 elections turned out. There were a fairly diverse group of candidates on the ballot, and certainly there is no reason to believe that the decision of voters had anything to do with race or gender. Nor does the lack of diversity serve as any indication that these Council Members will not serve the people of Houston fairly. But perhaps it should cause the city’s political community to take another look down the pipeline to make sure that people from all backgrounds remain interested and motivated in city government. That’s the only way to really ensure that the decision-makers in government truly reflect their constituents in as many ways as possible.

And one more point…

Before you go away and decide that local government is suffering from a loss of diversity, don’t forget that District I set an historic milestone in 2013. Council Member-elect Robert Gallegos will be the first openly gay Latino male to be elected in the city of Houston, and one of a handful of GLBT elected officials statewide. Here’s more from Lone Star Q

Gallegos’ victory makes him the only openly gay Latino city council member in Texas. It also gives Houston two out council members, in addition to lesbian Mayor Annise Parker. Out Councilman Mike Laster was elected to a second term in November. Together Gallegos and Laster are two of only four openly gay city council members statewide — along with Joel Burns in Fort Worth and Scott Sherman in Pearland, according to the Victory Fund.

So even in a very odd election year, Houston City Council still finds ways to make progress.

Election Results

“As we build our city, let us think that we are building forever… ” …for a couple of years, enjoying and abusing for a few decades, leaving to rot without a smidge of maintenance and upkeep for a decade, then bulldozing to the ground to make way for ANOTHER hot, crusty gargantuan parking lot (as if there aren’t enough here already).

 
If you don’t get the reference, this is the centerpiece sculpture of Main Street Square in Downtown Houston. Despite many pre-election polls to the contrary, Harris County residents displayed their true colors last night, and voted against the proposal to save the Astrodome through raising taxes. The bond measure failed by a decisive 53 percent of the vote. As disappointed as preservationists may be about this decision, I think it’s important to realize that voters had very valid concerns with the proposal. 217 million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a plan that was not thoroughly marketed or well understood. Perhaps a rejection will now serve as motivation for the private sector to step up and save the iconic landmark, as Houston Mayor Annise Parker suggested at a recent press conference. But voters did narrowly pass the measure to build a city-county joint processing center, which is a good thing. All Texas state constitutional amendments passed. 
And now for the interesting municipal election news… 
 == Houston Mayor Annise D. Parker was reelected to a third term. It was a decisive victory, with Parker obtaining 57 percent of the vote against 8 challengers. Lead contender Ben Hall, for all of his money and exposure, only garnered 27 percent. This was truly a great night for the Parker campaign, and should be an example worth study for other aspiring Texas politicos. 
 == City Controller Ronald Green was reelected in a close race to challenger Bill Frazer. 
 == Some really interesting lessons to learn from the City Council races… 
 -Of course Council Members Ellen Cohen (C), Dave Martin (E), Ed Gonzalez (H), Mike Laster (J), and Larry Green (K) were all reelected as unopposed candidates. It’s tough to imagine how good a feeling it is to not have to stress out about the rigors of campaigning. Must be nice. District A ultimately turned out as expected, with Council Member Helena Brown being forced into a run-off with former Council Member Brenda Stardig. As promising as challengers like Amy Peck and Ron Hale seemed, they were unable to garner much traction with the voters. Prepare for a bitter runoff fight here. Council Member Jerry Davis won a decisive victory in District B. For the District D race, Dwight Boykins’ well-financed and well-organized campaign earned him the top finisher in the race, far out-pacing the other candidates. But it wasn’t enough to avoid a runoff, where he will face challenger Georgia Provost. Richard Nguyen defeated incumbent Council Member Al Hoang in the District F race. Most political analysts were not expecting that. Some have to wonder if voters were more approving of Nguyen, or if they were just expressing dissatisfaction with Hoang. In District G, Council Member Oliver Pennington was reelected as expected. But District I, on the other hand, was a total fight to the finish. Graci Garces finished slightly ahead of the pack, and a mere 20 votes nudged Robert Gallegos into the runoff over 3rd place Ben Mendez. That’s a razor-thin margin if I’ve ever heard of one.  
In At Large races, Council Members Stephen Costello (1), C.O. Bradford (4) and Jack Christie (5) each handily won reelection, garnering enough votes to comfortably avoid a runoff. But in At Large 2, Council Member Andrew Burks was not so lucky, finishing three percentage points below challenger David W. Robinson. Expect a fierce battle here for the runoff. Perhaps most implicative was the At Large 3 race, where strong Jenifer Pool and Rogene Calvert split the Progressive vote down the middle. This gave just enough room for the race’s top two finishers to be Conservatives Michael Kubosh and Roy Morales. Losing Council Member Melissa Noriega’s seat to a Conservative will be a true blow to Houston Progressives, though thankfully with Parker at the healm, it shouldn’t do too much substantive damage. 
I sincerely hope that At Large 3 teaches an important lesson to Houstonians, and Texans as a whole. If Democrats hope to ever gain a foothold in this state, we cannot afford to “Tea Party” our ticket like what was witnessed here. The second that we do, the Republicans will come up and swallow us whole. Even in an assumed “Blue dot” like Houston, we must never forget the red surrounds us on all sides, especially in a light turnout election. Races like this one should serve as even more motivation to the Left that voter registration and turnout has to be job number one. Otherwise, we better just enjoy being a Red State forever. 
More analysis will follow soon.