Filing Begins: Starting tomorrow (Wednesday), candidates may begin filing for offices on the May 6 uniform election date ballot. We have a list of those offices for the state’s 100 largest municipalities available here.
Campaign Finance: January semiannual campaign finance reports were due today (Tuesday) for all state and legislative officeholders and candidates with active campaign accounts. These reports include all contributions received and expenditures made since either just before the November election or July 1. Most of these reports will not be available online until tomorrow (Wednesday). Some notables we’ve seen so far:
- GOV: Gov. Greg Abbott previously announced raising $9M and having $34.4M on hand.
- LTGOV: The Dan Patrick campaign raised $5M since July 1, $2.6M of which he raised since October 29, and has $13.7M on hand.
- AG: Attorney General Ken Paxton previously announced raising $1.8M since July and having $4.6M on hand.
- RRC: Chair Christi Craddick raised $727K during the last six months of 2016 and has $1.9M on hand. She has not announced whether she will seek re-election in 2018.
- SD5: Sen. Charles Schwertner’s (R-Georgetown) campaign raised $650K since July 1 and has $1.7M on hand.
- SD10: Sen. Konni Burton’s (R-Colleyville) campaign raised $151K since July 1 and has $205K on hand.
Federal year-end campaign finance reports are not due until January 31. We will update our Crib Sheets in the next few days.
HD46: Travis Co. District Attorney Margaret Moore was present in a grand jury room for up to two hours today (Tuesday) but had no comment on the case presented by prosecutors against Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin), according to various Twitter accounts.
CD30: The Dallas Morning News’s Gromer Jeffers Jr. discusses several potential successors if U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Dallas) declines to seek re-election. Sen. Royce West’s (D-Dallas) district largely aligns with Johnson’s, and West said he would “look at” the race if the seat were opened. Jeffers also lists Reps. Yvonne Davis (D-Dallas), Helen Giddings (D-DeSoto) and Eric Johnson (D-Dallas); District Judge Tonya Parker; former DeSoto Mayor Carl Sherman; and former Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway (D-Dallas), who has run for the seat three times, as potential candidates. West’s seat would also be appealing to other Dallas Co. Democrats. Johnson has not announced any plans for 2018, and she has previously sent signals she would retire only to seek re-election. Johnson is serving her 13th term. She is tied with U.S. Rep. Gene Green (D-Houston) as the most senior Democrat in the Texas delegation.
San Antonio: According to semiannual campaign finance reports filed with the city secretary, Mayor Ivy Taylor raised $326K and council member Ron Nirenberg raised $144K during the last six months of 2016. Bexar Co. Democratic Chair Manuel Medina raised just $6K, but that support came from 531 donors. Medina has said he would loan his campaign $250K.
