Early Voting begins tomorrow (Monday) in jurisdictions holding June 3 runoff elections. Most cities and other local jurisdictions have set June 10 runoffs, so early voting in those jurisdictions begins a week later.

Voter ID: The House set Senate Bill 5, the Voter ID law fix, on the emergency calendar for Tuesday, the last day the House can consider non-local Senate bills on second reading. As an emergency item, it jumps ahead of other business to be considered on that day.

Dallas Co.: Federal prosecutors will not re-try Dallas Co. Comm. John Wiley Price on the felony counts that resulted in a hung jury. Price was acquitted of most counts by a jury last month.

Fort Worth: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reiterated its endorsement of Carlos Flores for city council D2. The paper previously endorsed Flores for the May 6 uniform election.

Mechler Resigns: Tom Mechler, chair of the Republican Party of Texas, has resigned. The State Republican Executive Committee will elect an interim chair at its June 3 quarterly meeting. Whoever the committee chooses will serve out the remainder of Mechler’s term, which expires next year. Mechler was selected by SREC to succeed Steve Munisteri in March 2015, and he was re-elected by delegates to the state convention in 2016, defeating former Harris Co. party chair Jared Woodfill. Several candidates are expected to vie for the job, including Travis Co. party chair James Dickey; Rick Figueora, a party activist from Brenham who is considered an ally of Mechler; and Mark Ramsey, an SREC member from Spring and chief of staff to Rep. Valoree Swanson (R-Spring).

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