Ad, Endorsement and Poll News for October 4

Early voting by personal appearance begins in 20 days. As of yesterday (Mon.), a little over 3K absentee ballots have been returned to counties reporting numbers this far out from election day. The deadline to register to vote is one week from today, Tuesday Oct. 11....

Record-smashing Early Voting Sets Stage for Tuesday

Early voting for the November 3 general election has concluded in Texas. At least 9M Texans voted early through yesterday (Thursday) with an uptick in turnout expected on the final day. Coming into today (Friday), 53.3% of registered voters had already cast ballots....

More Observations on 8-day-out Reports

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...

Endorsement News for October 16

Early voting in person begins one week from tomorrow (Monday, October 24). SC: The Houston Chronicle endorsed incumbent Justices Debra Lehrmann (SC3) and Eva Guzman (SC9) and challenger Dori Contreras Garza (SC5). SD12: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsed Sen. Jane...

Dark Money, Endorsements and Ads for October 13

Dark Money: By a unanimous vote, the Texas Ethics Commission dismissed complaints against Texans for Fiscal Responsibility/Empower Texans’ Michael Quinn Sullivan. The earliest complaints were filed in 2012 by Rep. Jim Keffer (R-Eastland) and former Rep. Vicki Truitt...

Other Campaign Finance Highlights

We previously covered the 30-day-out reports for most competitive and potentially competitive House races. Since we published it, we became aware of a mistake with HD144. We erroneously used Rep. Gilbert Peña’s (R-Pasadena) July semiannual report in our...

Record Registrations and Campaign News for September 21

Voter Registration: More than 14.8 million voters are registered in Texas, up about 600K since March and around 1.2 million since the 2012 presidential election. It is the highest number of registered voters in state history, and the Secretary of State believes that...

Campaign News for September 19

Voter ID: U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos sided with the Voter ID suit plaintiffs who argued that state election officials were misleading voters about court-ordered remedies to the Voter ID law. She ordered the state to accurately describe the procedures a...