Jul 18, 2017 | breaking-news, Campaign Finance
July semiannual campaign reports indicate most senators up for re-election in 2018 have formidable cash on hand totals, but a couple of incumbents could soon feel heat from well-financed opponents. Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), the Dean of the Senate, once again...
Jul 18, 2017 | breaking-news, Campaign Finance
The seven non-judicial statewide elected officials on the 2018 ballot collectively have more than $72M on hand, nearly triple the amount from the corresponding elected officials in 2010, the last year the slate of statewide officers ran for re-election. Leading the...
Jul 10, 2017 | breaking-news, Legislation
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation calling a special session of the Legislature to convene at 10 a.m. on July 18 to extend the expiration dates of several healthcare occupational licensing agencies. He also published “an unsigned working draft” of a “supplemental...
May 27, 2017 | breaking-news, Legislation
Updated. The conference committee on Senate Bill 5, the Voter ID fix, largely kept to the Senate’s version and rejected House language calling for a voter turnout strategic plan and a report on voter education expenditures. The conference committee report (pdf) was...
Mar 10, 2017 | breaking-news, Campaign News
A panel of federal district judges has ruled that three South/West Texas Congressional districts must be redrawn and invalidated more than one Dallas/Fort Worth area district because they violate the federal Voting Rights Act. In a 2-1 decision, the panel found that...
Nov 1, 2016 | breaking-news, Campaign Finance
Eight-day-out campaign finance reports were due yesterday for state and legislative candidates (and some local candidates) with general election opponents. The reports cover contributions received and expenditures made between September 29 and October 29. From this...
Oct 13, 2016 | breaking-news, Campaign Finance
Yesterday, we provided a summary of the 30-day-out campaign finance reports for key Texas House races and other races which we found interesting, although probably not competitive. Several reports were not available online yesterday but have since been filed. HD26:...
Jul 16, 2016 | breaking-news, Campaign News
Rep. Borris Miles (D-Houston) has been selected to replace Sen. Rodney Ellis on the November general election ballot by the Democratic precinct chairs residing in SD13. Miles prevailed, 49-30, over Rep. Senfronia Thompson by a standing division vote. Former Houston...
Jun 15, 2016 | breaking-news, Campaign News
Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) announced the public endorsements of a majority of Democratic precinct chairs who are eligible to vote for a replacement nominee for Harris Co. Commissioner Precinct 1. Democratic precinct chairs are scheduled to meet on June 25 to select...
Mar 10, 2016 | breaking-news, Campaign News
Today we received the final counties’ outstanding provisional ballot counts, and it looked like Red Brown had finished 1 vote ahead of Rep. David Simpson for a runoff spot against Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola). However, new information from Camp Co. suggests...
Mar 8, 2016 | breaking-news, Campaign News
As of 6 p.m., Smith Co. has counted 228 provisional and overseas ballots impacting the SD1 race. Red Brown, who finished third behind Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) by 13 votes on Election Day, has netted 27 votes over Simpson. If this holds, it could conceivably put...
Mar 1, 2016 | breaking-news, Political Climate
Storyline we’ll be watching tonight: Cruz’s Margin. Every recent poll but one has shown U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz with a lead over Donald Trump that is at least at the upper end of the margin of error, and Marco Rubio finishing third by double digits. We’ve noted that the...
