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The filings I'm still looking for
Today is Filing Deadline Day. By the end of today, we'll know who is and isn't running for what. While we wait for that, let's review the filings that have not yet happened, to see what mysteries may remain.
Congress: Most of the potentially competitive districts have Democratic candidates in them. The ones that remain are CDs 22, 26, 31, and 38, though I have been told there is a candidate lined up for that latter slot. Of the rest, CD22 would be the biggest miss if no one files. I have to think someone will, but we'll know soon enough.
For open seats, CD15 has five candidates so far, none of whom are familiar to me. CD30 has six candidates, with State Rep. Jasmine Crockett receiving the endorsement of outgoing Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. CD34 has six, with current CD15 Rep. Vicente Gonzalez the presumed favorite. CD35 has three serious contenders – Austin City Council member Greg Casar, former San Antonio City Council Member Rebecca Viagran, and State Rep. Eddie Rodrigues – and one person you've not heard of. CD37 has Rep. Lloyd Doggett and former CD31 candidate Donna Imam, in addition to a couple of low-profile hopefuls, but it will not have former CD25 candidate Julie Oliver, who has said she will not run.
Democratic incumbents who have primary challengers include Rep. Lizzie Fletcher in CD07 (I'm still waiting to see if Centrell Reed makes some kind of announcement); Rep. Veronica Escobar in CD16 (I don't get the sense her challenger is a serious one); and Rep. Henry Cuellar in CD28, who gets a rematch with Jessica Cisneros, who came close to beating him last year. The Svitek spreadsheet lists some dude as a potential challenger in CD18 against Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, but so far no filing. Reps. Al Green, Joaquin Castro, Sylvia Garcia, Colin Allred, and Marc Veasey do not appear to have any challengers as of this morning.
Statewide: Pretty much everyone who has said they are a candidate has filed. Frequent candidate Michael Cooper and someone named Innocencio Barrientez have filed for Governor, making it a four-candidate field. Two Harris County district court judges, Julia Maldonado and Robert Johnson, have filed for slots on the Supreme Court and CCA, respectively. The Svitek spreadsheet lists potential but not yet filed contenders for two other Supreme Court positions but has no listings for CCA. The one potential candidate who has not yet taken action is Carla Brailey, who may or may not file for Lt. Governor.
SBOE: As this is a post-redistricting year, all SBOE seats are on the ballot, as are all State Senate seats. Dems have four reasonable challenge opportunities: Michelle Palmer is running again in SBOE6, Jonathan Cocks switched from the Land Commissioner race to file in SBOE8, Alex Cornwallis is in SBOE12, and then there's whatever is happening in SBOE11. The good news is that DC Caldwell has company in the primary, if he is actually allowed to run in it, as Luis Sifuentes is also running. I would advise voting for Sifuentes.
There are two open Democratic seats, plus one that I'm not sure about. Ruben Cortez in SBOE2 and Lawrence Allen in SBOE4 are running for HDs 37 and 26, respectively. There are two candidates in 2 and three candidates in 4, so far. Georgina Perez is the incumbent in SBOE1 but as yet has not filed. If she has announced that she's not running, I have not seen it. There is a candidate named Melissa Ortega in the race.
In SBOE5, the district that was flipped by Rebecca Bell-Metereau in 2020 and was subsequently made more Democratic in redistricting, we have the one primary challenge to an incumbent so far, as a candidate named Juan Juarez has filed against Bell-Metereau. I'm old enough to remember Marisa Perez coming out of nowhere to oust Michael Soto in 2012, so anything can happen here. The aforementioned Perez (now Marisa Perez-Diaz) and Aicha Davis are unopposed so far.
Senate: Nothing much here that you don't already know. Every incumbent except Eddie Lucio has filed for re-election, and none of them have primary opponents so far. Lucio's SD27 has the three challengers we knew about, Sara Stapleton-Barrera, State Rep. Alex Dominguez, and Morgan LaMantia. A candidate named Misty Bishop had filed for SD07, was rejected, and has since re-filed for SD04; I'm going to guess that residency issues were at play. There are Dem challengers in SD09 (Gwenn Burud, who has run for this office before) and SD17 (Miguel Gonzalez), but no one yet for SDs 07 or 08.
House: Here's the list of potentially competitive districts, for some value of the word "competitive". Now here's a list of districts on that list that do not yet have a filed candidate:
I'm told there's someone lined up for HD133. We'll see about the rest.
All of the open seats have at least one candidate in them so far except for HD22, the seat now held by Joe Deshotel. There's a name listed on the Svitek spreadsheet, so I assume that will be sorted by the end of the day.
Reps. Ron Reynolds (HD27), Ana-Maria Ramos (HD102), and Carl Sherman (HD109) are incumbents who have not yet filed. No one else has filed yet in those districts as well. Svitek has a note saying that Rep. Ramos has confirmed she will file; there are no notes for the other two. There is the possibility of a last-minute retirement, with a possibly preferred successor coming in at the same time.
Here is a complete list of Democratic House incumbents who face a primary challenge: Rep. Richard Raymond (HD42) and Rep. Alma Allen (HD131). Both have faced and turned away such opponents in the past. If there was supposed to be a wave of primary opponents to incumbents who came back early from Washington, they have not shown up yet.
Rep. James Talarico has moved from HD52 to the open HD50 after HD52 was made into a lean-Republican district. Rep. Claudia Ordaz-Perez, the incumbent in HD76, will run in HD79 against Rep. Art Fierro after HD76 was relocated from El Paso to Fort Bend.
Harris County: Again, nothing new here. Erica Davis has not yet filed for County Judge. County Clerk Teneshia Hudpseth is the only non-judicial incumbent without a primary opponent so far.
Far as I can tell, all of the county judicial slots have at least one filing in them, except for a couple of Justice of the Peace positions. George Risner, the JP in Precinct 2, Place 2 (all JP Place 2 slots are on the ballot this year) has not yet filed, amid rumors that he is mulling a challenge to Commissioner Adrian Garcia. Incumbent Angela Rodriguez in JP precinct 6 has not yet filed. No Dem challengers yet in precincts 4 or 8.
Other judicial races: Sorry, I don't have the bandwidth for this right now. I'll review it after today.
And that's all I've got. See you on the other side. As always, leave your hot gossip in the comments.
Precinct analysis: The new State House map
Like it or not, we have new State House districts. We may as well acquaint ourselves with them. The coverage we've had so far has focused on the 2020 election numbers to say whether a district will be red or blue or (in a limited number of cases) purple. I think that we need to see more data than that to get a full picture. I've spent a bunch of time on this site looking at how districts changed over the course of the past decade. This post will do the same for the new State House districts. I may do the same for the other types of districts – we'll see how busy things get once filing season opens – but for now let's look at how things are here.
We now have a full set of election data for the new districts. All of the data for the new State House districts can be found here. I am using election data for these years in this post: 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020
If you want to remind yourself of what the map looks like, use the district viewer, which allows you to zoom in all the way to street level. What would have happened in the last decade if we had had this map in place following the 2011 session?
2012 – 59 seats won by Obama
2014 – 51 seats won by Davis
2016 – 64 seats won by Clinton
2018 – 66 seats won by Beto
2020 – 65 seats won by Biden
This shows a couple of things. One is just how bad a year 2014 was. Two, how effective the 2011/2013 map was for the conditions that existed at the time. Note that with this map, the big shift towards the Democrats happened in 2016, not 2018. I have to wonder how things might have played out in 2018 and 2020 if that had been our experience. After that, it gets a lot more static. I'll tell you which districts were won by Beto but not Clinton, and which district was won by Beto but not Biden, later in this post.
Enough setup. You're ready for some numbers, right? I know you are. I've broken this down more or less by region, and am including districts that are within 20 points in the 2020 results.
Dist  Obama  Romney Obama%Romney%    Biden   Trump Biden% Trump%
014  14,134  29,676  31.5%  66.1%   30,840  38,146  43.5%  53.8%
Call this the "Central" region – HD14 is Brazos County, HDs 20 and 52 are Williamson, HD45 is Hays, HDs 54 and 55 are the infamous "donut" districts of Bell County, and the other three are Bexar. Couple things to note, as these themes will recur. One is that if there's a district you think might belong but which isn't listed, it's probably because it just doesn't qualify as a "swing" district any more. A great example is HD47 in Travis County, which was a 52-47 district for Mitt Romney in 2012. In 2020, however, it was won by Joe Biden by a 61-36 margin. HD45 is more or less the same, but I included it here as a borderline case.
Looking at the shifts, it's not too hard to imagine the two Williamson districts moving into (back into, in the case of HD52) the Dem column, in a future election if not this year. Note also that HD118 was once a red district. It's one of the two that Beto flipped and which Biden held. Sure, it's accurately described in all of the coverage of the special election runoff as being more Republican than the current HD118, but one should be aware of the direction that it has traveled. I won't be surprised if it outperforms the 2020 number for Dems in 2022. (No, the result of this special election runoff doesn't change my thinking on that. It's not the first time that Republicans have won a special election in HD118.)
Not all districts moved so dramatically – that parsing of Bell County looks like it will be durable for the GOP, at least at this time. The other two Bexar districts were a lot more Democratic at the Presidential level than they were downballot, so one has to wonder if the splits we see here are entirely about Trump, or if they will be the leading edge for Dems as the 2016 Trump numbers were in places like CD07 and all of the Dallas House districts that Republicans once held.
035  19,519   5,678  76.7%  22.3%   22,629  16,478  57.3%  41.7%
Here we have South Texas and the Valley, where things are not so good for the Dems. Again, the districts you don't see here are the ones that are not swing districts; check out the linked numbers to see for yourself. HD41 was pretty stable, and I will note that the current version of HD74 was carried by Trump, so the new map is a bit friendlier to the Dems, at least for now. HD80 is the Beto district that Biden lost, and as with every other Latino district we're just going to have to see how it performs in a non-Trump year. If State Rep. Alex Dominguez, the incumbent in HD37, does indeed primary Sen. Eddie Lucio, that puts another Dem seat squarely in the danger zone. (Modulo the pending litigation, of course.)
So much action in the Multiplex. HD33 is Rockwall and a piece of Collin. HDs 61 and 70 are Collin, HD57 is Denton. I have lumped HD84 in here as well, even though it's Lubbock and it remains on the fringe, but I don't care. We will make a race out of that district yet! HDs 108 and 112 in Dallas are also much more Republican downballot than they were at the top, and while I think they will eventually fall, it's unlikely to be in 2022. HD70, by the way, is the other district that flipped Dem in 2018.
Everywhere else I look, I see districts that are about as competitive as the formerly Republican-held districts of Dallas County were circa 2012. (Note how none of them have made an appearance in this post.) Look at how huge those splits were a decade ago. A decade in the future, either we're going to be grimly hailing the evil genius of this gerrymander, or we're going to be chuckling about Republican hubris and how if they'd maybe thrown another district or two to the Dems they could have saved themselves a bucketful of losses.
Finally, the Houston area. HDs 25 and 29 are Brazoria County, HDs 26 and 28 are Fort Bend. The now-in-Fort-Bend HD76 slides in here as another former swing district, going from 51-48 for Romney to 61-38 for Biden. I threw HD134 in here even though it's obviously not a swing district by any reasonable measure in part because it was once the epitome of a swing district, and because damn, just look at how far that district shifted towards Dems. The open HD133 is unfortunately another one of those redder-downballot districts, so even though it's an open seat don't get your hopes up too much for this cycle. Maybe later on, we'll see.
I'm fascinated by HD144, which like HD74 is now slightly more Dem than it was under the existing map. I guess Republicans had other priorities in the area. As for HD148, it's a little jarring to see it as a genuine swing district from 2012, though it barely qualifies as of 2020. Rep. Penny Morales Shaw has complained about the changes made to her district, not just geographically but also by reducing that Latino CVAP by almost ten points. Finally, I will note that while the GOP shored up HD138, it's another district that used to be a lot redder than it is now. Again, we'll just have to see how resilient that is. That "genius/hubris" divide will largely come down to places like that.
I hope this helped shed some light on what these districts may be going forward. As always, let me know what you think.
Precinct analysis: State House district changes by county
Congressional districts
State Rep districts
Commissioners Court/JP precincts
Comparing 2012 and 2016
Statewide judicial
Other jurisdictions
Appellate courts, Part 1
Judicial averages
HCDE
Fort Bend, part 1
Harris County State Senate comparisons
State Senate districts 2020
State Senate district comparisons
State House districts 2020, part 1
Median districts
State House district changes by demography
One more look at how state house districts have changed over the decade. For this exercise, I'm going to look at some key counties and the State Rep districts within them.
Bexar:
Dist  12-16R  12-16D  16-20R  16-20D  12-20R  12-20D Dem net
122   -1,304  10,628  12,204  21,091  10,900  31,719  20,819
121   -4,020   6,534   6,059  15,078   2,039  21,612  19,573
116     -583   6,014   3,546  10,281   2,963  16,295  13,332
117    4,532   8,828  14,927  22,921  19,459  31,749  12,290
123   -1,427   5,225   3,742   9,272   2,315  14,497  12,182
124      330   5,077   5,877  11,756   6,207  16,833  10,626
120     -184     863   4,503  10,856   4,319  11,719   7,400
119    1,062   3,428   6,041  10,507   7,103  13,935   6,832
118    1,391   3,719   6,633   7,790   8,024  11,509   3,485
Bexar County doesn't get the props it deserves for contributing to the Democratic cause. Each of its ten districts became more Democratic in each of the two Presidential cycles. Where Bexar had gone 51.56% to 47.04% in 2012 for Obama, it went 58.20% to 40.05% for Biden. Obama had a net 23K votes in Bexar, while it was +140K votes for Biden. The two districts that shifted the most heavily towards Dems are the two Republican districts (HD117 went Republican in 2014, then flipped back in 2016), with Biden carrying HD121 as Beto had done in 2018, and HD122 coming into focus as a potential long-term pickup (modulo redistricting, of course). Both HDs 121 and 122 were over 60% for Romney, with HD122 at almost 68% for him. Both can and surely will be shored up in the next round of mapmaking, but the long term trends don't look good for the Republicans holding them both.
Tarrant:
094   -3,344   2,238   2,655  10,231    -689  12,469  13,158
101     -734   3,487   4,523   9,808   3,789  13,295   9,506
093    2,751   5,180   9,984  15,697  12,735  20,877   8,142
091      401   2,489   5,437   8,897   5,838  11,386   5,548
090     -180   2,391   3,170   5,496   2,990   7,887   4,897
095     -613  -2,745   2,727   7,752   2,114   5,007   2,893
I know everyone sees Tarrant County as a disappointment in 2020. Beto broke through in 2018, we had a bunch of close districts to target, and the Republicans held them all even as Biden also carried Tarrant. The point here is that Democrats made progress in every district, in each cycle (the dip in predominantly Black and heavily Democratic HD95 in 2016 notwithstanding). That includes the strong Republican districts (HDs 91, 98, and 99), the strong D districts (HDs 90, 95, and 101), and the five swing districts. Tarrant will be another challenge for Republicans in redistricting because like in Harris they have mostly lost their deep red reserves. HD98 went from being a 75% Romney district to a 62% Trump district last year. They can spread things out a bit, but remember what happened in Dallas County in the 2010s when they got too aggressive. I'm not saying that's what will happen in Tarrant, but you can see where the numbers are.
Collin:
089    1,038   6,667   9,980  17,338  11,018  24,005  12,987
033    4,656   8,268  18,234  20,233  22,890  28,501   5,611
Denton:
106    8,757  11,138  21,190  29,280  29,947  40,418  10,471
I'm grouping these two together because they have a lot in common. Both shifted hugely Democratic over the decade, in each case across all their districts. Both contain a district that was added to their county in the 2011 redistricting. HDs 33 (72-26 for Romney in 2012, 60-38 for Trump in 2020) and 106 (68-31 for Romney in 2012, 54-45 for Trump in 2020) were supposed to be super-red, but didn't stay that way. I might have thought that the southernmost districts in each county – i.e., the ones closest to Dallas and Tarrant – would be the bluest, but that is not quite the case. HD65 is in southeast Denton, where it is almost entirely adjacent to HD115, but HD63 is the reddest district in Denton (61-37 Trump) and it is the other district on Denton's south border, though it aligns almost perfectly with HD98, the reddest district in Tarrant. HD64 is the next most Dem district in Denton, and it's in the northwest quadrant, catty-corner to HD65. I have to assume this is a function of development more than who its closest neighbors are; I'm sure someone who knows Denton better than I can comment on that.
In Collin, HDs 66 and 67 are on the southern end of that county, but so is HD89, where it abuts Rockwall County more than it does Dallas. HD70 is north of 67 and 89, and HD33 (which contains all of Rockwall County) is the outer edge of the county to the west, north, and east, dipping down into Rockwall from there. Both counties continue their massive growth, and I expect them to have at least one more district in them next decade. Republicans have more room to slosh voters around, but as above, the trends are not in their favor.
There are of course other counties that are growing a lot and not in a way that favors Republicans. Here are two more of them.
Williamson:
136       52  10,901   7,842  22,330   7,894  33,231  25,337
020    7,373   2,895  20,820  14,926  28,193  17,821 -10,372
Fort Bend:
HD20 also includes Milam and Burnet counties, and I suspect that's where most of the Republican growth is. HD85 also includes Jackson and Wharton counties. The previous version of HD52 had flipped Dem in 2008, the first such incursion into the formerly all-red suburbs, before flipping back in 2010, but neither it (55-42 for Romney) nor the newcomer HD136 (55-41 Romney) were ever all that red. There were some maps drawn in the 2011 redistricting process (not by Republicans, of course) that carved HD26 out as a heavily Asian swing district (it went 63-36 for Romney as drawn), but it just needed time for the "swing" part to happen. Of the various targets from 2018 and 2020, it's one that I feel got away, and I wish I understood that better.
Brazoria:
029      496   8,084  10,828  15,387  11,324  23,471  12,147
025    1,759     215   8,293   3,874  10,052   4,089  -5,963
024    2,403   3,959  13,045   8,928  15,448  12,887  -2,561
023    3,847     346  11,123   7,296  14,970   7,642  -7,328
Montgomery:
015   -1,563   7,905  13,226  15,512  11,663  23,417  11,754
016    7,437   2,437  16,088   7,160  23,525   9,597 -13,928
003    7,758   1,807  17,456   8,286  25,214  10,093 -15,121
We've looked at these counties before, this is just a more fine-grained approach. Note that HD03 includes all of Waller County, HD25 includes all of Matagorda County, and HD23 includes all of Chambers County. HD23 was already Republican in 2012 when Craig Eiland still held it (Romney carried it 54.6 to 44.2) and while it has gotten more so since then (Trump won it 57.5 to 41.0), that has mostly been fueled by the Republican growth in Chambers. I did a quick calculation on the data from the Galveston County election results page, and Biden carried the Galveston part of HD23 by a slim margin, 29,019 to 28,896. (Republican rep Mayes Middleton won that part of the district 29,497 to 27,632, so this tracks.) The rest of Galveston, the northern part that's all Houston suburb, is much more Republican, but like with these other two counties one can see a path forward from here. What to do about the likes of Chambers County, that's another question.
HD29 in Brazoria should have been a target in 2018 but the Dem who won the primary dropped out of the race, and there was no traction that I could see there in 2020. I expect that district to get a little redder, but the same story as elsewhere applies in that the geographic trends are a force that won't be stopped by boundary lines. As for Montgomery, there are your signs of progress right there. HD15 is still very red, but as I've said before, the first goal is to bend the curve, and we're on the right track there. HD15 is basically the Woodlands and Shenandoah, just north of HD150, while HD03 wraps around it and HD16 is the north end of the county.
Lubbock:
084     -474     873   4,124   6,975   3,650   7,848   4,198
083    3,359     242  12,224   5,141  15,583   5,383 -10,200
Smith:
006       67     938   6,922   6,208   6,989   7,146     157
005    4,565  -1,293   9,646   2,832  14,211   1,539 -12,672
These two districts, on opposite ends of the state, may seem odd to be paired together, but they have a couple of things in common. Both contain one district that is entirely within its borders (HD06 in Smith, HD84 in Lubbock) and one district that contains the rest of their population plus several smaller neighboring counties (HD05 also contains Wood and Rains counties, while HD83 contains six other counties). Both have a city that is the bulk of of its population (the city of Lubbock has over 90% of the population of Lubbock County, while a bit less than half of Smith County is in the city of Tyler). And both provide a bit of evidence for my oft-stated thesis that these smaller cities in Texas, which are often in otherwise fairly rural and very Republican areas, provide the same kind of growth opportunity for Democrats that the bigger cities have provided.
Both HDs 06 and 84 were less red than Smith and Lubbock counties overall: Smith County was 69-30 for Trump, HD06 was 68-32 for Matt Schaefer; Lubbock County was 65-33 for Trump, and HD84 was 61-39 for John Frullo. I didn't go into the precinct details to calculate the Trump/Biden numbers in those districts, but given everything we've seen I'd say we could add another point or two into the Dem column for each. HD84 shows a clear Democratic trend while HD06 is more of a mixed bag, but it's still a slight net positive over the decade and a damn sight better than HD05. HD06 is not close to being competitive while HD84 is on the far outer fringes, but that's not the main point. It's the potential for Democratic growth, for which we will need every little contribution we can get, that I want to shout from the rooftops. The big cities and big growing suburbs are our top tier, but we'd be fools to ignore the places like Lubbock and Tyler.
Precinct analysis: Brazoria County
Once more around the block, this time in Brazoria County. Let's just dive in:
Dist    Trump    Biden     Lib     Grn
CD14   44,480   19,715     823     160
CD22   45,953   42,513   1,037     257
HD25   38,939   16,277     727     132
HD29   51,494   45,951   1,133     285
CC1    19,383    8,439     407      72
CC2    22,456   17,024     494     106
Dist   Cornyn    Hegar     Lib     Grn
CC1    19,080    7,985     687     182
Dist   Wright    Casta     Lib     Grn
HD29   51,097   42,256   2,165   1,063
CD14   68.24%   30.25%   1.26%   0.25%
HD25   69.44%   29.03%   1.30%   0.24%
CC1    68.49%   29.82%   1.44%   0.25%
As an extra point of comparison, here are the numbers from the four district races:
Weber     45,245  70.76%
Bell      18,700  29.24%
Nehls     44,332  50.51%
Kulkarni  38,962  44.39%
LeBlanc    4,477   5.10%
Vasut     38,936  71.38%
Henry     15,613  28.62%
Thompson  54,594  56.69%
Boldt     41,712  43.31%
Not really a whole lot to remark upon. Brazoria County has slowly shifted blue since 2012, but not by that much. There's still a lot of work to be done there, and in the short term the most likely place where any effect would be felt is in the appellate courts. HD29 was a dark horse swing district following the 2018 election, but as you can see Rep. Ed Thompson punches above his weight, so it's going to take more than some demography to seriously challenge him, and that's assuming the Republicans don't touch up his district a bit later on this year. I have no idea what Congressional districts will have a piece of Brazoria County going forward, but I'd bet that at least at the beginning they're all some shade of red.
The main opportunity for Dems here is at the local level, where Commissioners Court Precinct 4 is pretty close to even. None of the county offices – Commissioners Court, Constable, Justice of the Peace – were challenged in 2020, so there's the starting point to improve things on the ground and begin construction on a bench. That may change with redistricting as well, of course, but county elections can see change happen quickly under the right circumstances. My wish for Brazoria County is for there to be more activity at this level, starting next year.
30 Day 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 2
Continuing to look at the 30-day campaign finance reports. A lot of candidates have been reporting big hauls, especially in the hot State Rep races. As before, I will split these into four parts. Part one, with statewide, SBOE, and State Senate, is here. Part two is State House races from the Houston area, which is this post. Part three will be State House races from elsewhere in the state, and part four will be for Democratic incumbents that may be targeted. I'm not going to be doing every race of course, just the ones of interest. January reports for Harris County State House races are here, and the July reports for these candidates are here.
Martin Shupp, HD03
Cecil Bell, HD03
Lorena McGill, HD15
Steve Toth, HD15
Jeff Antonelli, HD23
Mayes Middleton, HD23
Brian Rogers, HD24
Greg Bonnen, HD24
Patrick Henry, HD25
Cody Vasut, HD25
Sarah DeMerchant, HD26
Jacey Jetton, HD26
Eliz Markowitz, HD28
Gary Gates, HD28
Travis Boldt, HD29
Ed Thompson, HD29
Joe Cardenas, HD85
Phil Stephenson, HD85
Natali Hurtado, HD126
Sam Harless, HD126
Kayla Alix, HD129
Dennis Paul, HD129
Gina Calanni, HD132
Mike Schofield, HD132
Sandra Moore, HD133
Jim Murphy, HD133
Ann Johnson, HD134
Sarah Davis, HD134
Jon Rosenthal, HD135
Justin Ray, HD135
Akilah Bacy, HD138
Lacey Hull, HD138
Dist   Candidate       Raised     Spent       Loan     On Hand
HD03   Shupp              305       618          0         305
HD03   Bell            12,400    14,708     82,140      16,924
HD15   McGill          27,474    23,342          0      12,161
HD15   Toth            38,615    18,138          0      40,889
HD23   Antonelli       10,889     5,393          0       5,495
HD23   Middleton      318,855    85,129    500,000     317,001
HD24   Rogers             455       240          0       1,170
HD24   Bonnen          47,466    70,626    450,000     541,745
HD25   Henry            3,010     5,355          0       1,775
HD25   Vasut           37,245    23,251      1,600       1,865
HD26   DeMerchant     322,433    94,227          0      90,146
HD26   Jetton         295,526    26,240     25,000      91,922
HD28   Markowitz      108,038    55,813          0      68,241
HD28   Gates          374,629   371,476  1,736,100      67,328
HD29   Boldt           59,421    18,253          0      40,635
HD29   Thompson       106,896   148,176          0     344,974
HD85   Cardenas        14,731     7,872      5,027       2,830
HD85   Stephenson      12,375    22,403     29,791      24,691
HD126  Hurtado        311,139   107,738          0     210,474
HD126  Harless        449,290    53,893     20,000     290,216
HD129  Alix            43,480     7,991          0      35,568
HD129  Paul            72,400    45,052    156,000      45,875
HD132  Calanni        308,292    75,081          0     235,006
HD132  Schofield      252,100    65,647          0      98,339
HD133  Moore           10,976    11,207          0       9,593
HD133  Murphy         140,000    89,105          0     586,798
HD134  Johnson        481,430   292,265          0     314,593
HD134  Davis          597,463    93,842          0     299,564
HD135  Rosenthal      206,564   111,248          0     110,589
HD135  Ray            418,811   126,810          0      52,800
HD138  Bacy           630,565    99,967          0     353,811
HD138  Hull           277,421    45,612          0      84,768
First things first, I had the wrong Republican listed for HD26 last time. Just a goof on my part, which is now corrected.
Also, as a reminder, when there's a big disparity between the money raised and spent, and the cash on hand, look for a significant amount of in kind donations. A lot of the contributions to Mike Schofield, Justin Ray (nearly $300K in his case), and Lacey Hull are expenditures on their behalf by PACs like Associated Republicans on Texas. Some of this spending is quite visible – I've seen many ads for Hull and Ray (mostly Hull) on cable, mostly during sporting events. Some of that is wasted since I don't live anywhere near either of their districts, but I'm sure people in those district did see them.
The main action outside of Harris County is in HD26, where both Sarah DeMerchant and Jacey Jetton. Both of them also had large in kind totals – $107K for deMerchant, mostly from the HDCC, and $170K for Jetton, again mostly from the ART. Eliz Markowitz raised a decent amount, and I give Lorena McGill and A for effort in her deep red district. The one candidate I wish had done better is Travis Boldt. HD29 is not a must-have to win the House, but it's in a part of Brazoria County that's been trending blue, and I feel like it's worth the investment. Maybe something will happen in the 8 day reporting period. On the Republican side, Phil Stephenson has it in cruise control, and so far his anti-Abbott apostasy hasn't been particularly lucrative yet for Steve Toth.
Natali Hurtado has another strong report, putting her a the top of the class among Democratic challengers to incumbents. Sam Harless is taking that challenge seriously. None of the longer-shot candidates have raised enough to change perceptions.
Gina Calanni and Jon Rosenthal have done well, though Rosenthal was outgunned by the PAC money that boosted Justin Ray. Sarah Davis bounced back from her unimpressive July report but still trails Ann Johnson in cash on hand. Akilah Bacy ($212K in kind) had the big report of the period. I have seen one pro-Bacy ad so far – I mostly watch sports on live TV, so maybe she's got some running on other channels, who knows – and at least one anti-Bacy attack ad to go along with the Lacey Hull ads. I've seen a few Rosenthal ads as well, not as many as the Ray ads, but not too far behind. I've not seen any ads for Johnson or Davis, though I'm closer to HD134 than either 135 or 138. Maybe better targeting, or they're not doing TV, or just not advertising where I'm watching. Have you seen any ads for any of these races?
More races from around the state coming next. Let me know what you think.
July 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 2
Let's move on to finance reports from the State House, which I will break up into two parts. Today's look is on the various races in the greater Houston area, and after that I'll look at the other races of interest from around the state. Part One of my look at the July reports for state races is here. January reports for Harris County State House races are here, January reports for other area State House races are here.
Matt Morgan, HD26
HD03   Shupp              430         0          0         430
HD03   Bell             8,750    24,449     82,140      19,327
HD15   McGill          11,010    12,791          0       3,437
HD23   Antonelli        2,104         0          0       2,104
HD23   Middleton        9,782   271,170    500,000      87,325
HD24   Rogers             970         0          0       1,445
HD25   Vasut           48,486    68,549        100      28,176
HD26   DeMerchant      12,998     5,138        975       6,178
HD26   Morgan          25,702    44,030     29,615       3,998
HD28   Markowitz      287,618   243,837          0      48,119
HD29   Boldt           16,531     7,228          0      15,682
HD29   Thompson        59,521    72,807          0     412,652
HD85   Cardenas         9,298     4,542          0       1,800
HD126  Hurtado        121,203    30,604          0      66,783
HD126  Harless         28,914     2,965     20,000     124,052
HD129  Alix            33,836     3,868          0         898
HD132  Calanni         92,315    33,941          0      99,500
HD132  Schofield       63,290   134,658          0      53,016
HD133  Moore            4,025     2,352          0       3,862
HD133  Murphy          60,100    27,894          0     514,779
HD135  Rosenthal      129,685    61,548          0      87,108
HD135  Ray             64,170    53,847          0      60,774
HD138  Bacy            76,135    38,924          0      48,944
HD138  Hull            25,638    49,438          0      20,518
The first thing to keep in mind is that the time period covered by these reports varies. Candidates who did not have a primary opponent did not have to file eight-day reports for March, so those lucky folks' reports cover the entire six months from January 1 through June 30. Those who had a March primary and emerged victorious did have to file an eight-day report for March, so their reports cover February 23 through June 30. And those who had to endure the runoff election also had to file an eight-day report for that race as well, so their reports cover February 23 through July 6. Got it? Check the individual report links themselves if you're not sure what applied for a given candidate.
For obvious reasons, candidates who had contested primaries and/or runoffs may have raised and spent more than someone who could have cruised through that period. Looking at these numbers, it's not actually all that obvious who was running in a real race during this period and who wasn't, but that was a factor. Also, remember that the runoff for the special election in HD28 was in January, so much of the fundraising and spending for Eliz Markowitz and Gary Gates includes that.
So with all that, a few things to note. Ed Thompson (HD29) and Jim Murphy (HD133) have clearly followed the well-trod path of multiple-term incumbents, building up a decent campaign treasury for the year when it may be needed. Remember how I once suggested that Jim Murphy could make sense as a candidate for Houston Mayor in 2023? The strategy of building up a campaign war chest while a member of the Legislature worked pretty well for Mayor Turner. I'm just saying. First term Democratic incumbents Jon Rosenthal and Gina Calanni, neither of whom were big fundraisers in their successful 2018 campaigns, have done all right for themselves so far. They're not going to scare anyone off with their bank accounts, but they're not starting from scratch, either.
Nobody in the hot races in HD26 or HD138 has a lot of money right now, but I don't expect that to last. I figure the 30-day reports will tell more of the story there, and of course there will be a ton of PAC money at play. Eliz Markowitz will have a larger network of donors from her special election to tap into, but will be operating in a much more competitive environment, and as before will be running against a guy who prints his own money. Natali Hurtado has some catching up to do in HD126, but she's off to a roaring start. No one in the lower-profile races has done anything to raise their profiles.
By the way, when you see a puzzling disparity between raised/spent and cash on hand, the answer is almost always because the amount raised includes a significant "in kind" share. Kayla Alix in HD129, for example, raised $33K, but $26K of it was an in-kind donation for office rental. It's a real contribution, but it doesn't manifest as cash on hand.
The two oddest reports to me are those belonging to Sarah Davis and Mayes Middleton. What in the world was Middleton, a first-term incumbent with no primary opponent, spending $271K on? About $78K on advertising, and at least that much on six or seven paid staff, in monthly installments. Why does he have so many people on monthly retainers? You'd have to ask him. As for Davis, I have no idea how it is that she doesn't have $500K or so in the bank. She's been an incumbent for as long as Murphy has (they both were elected in 2010; Murphy had served a term before that and was defeated in 2008 but came back the following cycle), her last serious Democratic challenger was in 2012 (Ann Johnson again), and like Murphy she represents a wealthy district with plenty of well-heeled constituents. I recognize that this is a tough cycle for her, by most reckoning one in which she is likely to lose, so I can understand how Johnson is outperforming her now. What I don't understand is why she didn't have more socked away for exactly this circumstance. Not complaining, you understand, just marveling.
Runoff roundup
Here, as best as I can determine, are the runoffs of interest for May:
US Senate – MJ Hegar versus Royce West
CD02 – Sima Ladjevardian versus Elisa Cardnell
CD03 – Lulu Seikaly versus Sean McCaffity
CD10 – Mike Siegel versus Pritesh Gandhi
CD17 – Rick Kennedy versus David Jaramillo (D), Pete Sessions versus Renee Swann (R)
CD22 – Troy Nehls versus Kathaleen Wall (R)
CD23 – Tony Gonzales versus Raul Reyes (R)
CD24 – Kim Olson versus Candace Valenzuela
CD31 – Christine Eady Mann versus Donna Imam
Note that Wendy Davis (CD21), Sri Kulkarni (CD22), Gina Ortiz Jones (CD23), and on the Republican side Wesley Hunt (CD07) all won outright. I skipped a couple of Republican runoffs in safe D districts, because life is short.
Railroad Commissioner – Chrysta Castaneda versus Roberto Alonzo
SBOE5 – Robert Morrow versus Lani Popp (R, wackadoo versus what passes for normal)
SBOE6 – Michelle Palmer versus Kimberley McLeod
SD19 – Xochil Peña Rodriguez versus Roland Gutierrez
SD27 – Eddie Lucio versus Sara Stapleton-Barrera
Didn't mention this yesterday, but Susan Criss prevailed in SD11.
HD02 – Dan Flynn versus Bryan Slaton (R)
HD25 – Ro'Vin Garrett versus Cody Vasut (R, this is Dennis Bonnen's old seat)
HD26 – Suleman Lalani versus Sarah DeMerchant (D), Matt Morgan versus Jacey Jetton (R)
HD45 – Carrie Isaac versus Kent Wymore (R)
HD47 – Jennifer Fleck versus Don Zimmerman (R)
HD59 – Shelby Slawson versus JD Sheffield (R)
HD60 – Jon Francis versus Glenn Rogers (R)
HD67 – Tom Adair versus Lorenzo Sanchez
HD100 – Lorraine Birabil versus Jasmine Crockett
HD119 – Liz Campos versus Jennifer Ramos
HD138 – Akilah Bacy versus Jenifer Pool
HD142 – Harold Dutton versus Jerry Davis
HD148 – Anna Eastman versus Penny Shaw
Note that in that HD47 primary, one (1) vote separates second and third place, according to the Travis County Clerk. I assume there will be a recount, and even before then late-arriving mail ballots could change this. In the event of an actual tie, there will be a coin flip to determine who goes to the runoff. I'm rooting so hard for that outcome, you guys.
In the HD67 primary, 63 votes separate Lorenzo Sanchez and Rocio Gosewehr Hernandez, or 0.3 percentage points. I would expect a recount there as well, but with a far lesser chance of affecting the outcome.
Lorraine Birabil was the winner of the special election in HD100 to fill out the unexpired term of Eric Johnson, who is now Mayor of Dallas. Anna Eastman was the winner of the special election in HD148 to succeed Jessica Farrar.
14th Court of Appeals, Place 7 – Tamika Craft versus Cheri Thomas
164th District Court – Cheryl Elliott Thornton versus Alex Smoots-Thomas
339th Criminal Court – Te'iva Bell versus Candance White
County Commissioner, Precinct 3 – Diana Martinez Alexander versus Michael Moore
Moore was leading most of the night, but Alexander caught and passed him as final results came in. I don't care to go through the various Constable and JP races, but the good Jerry Garcia was leading problematic incumbent Chris Diaz going into the Precinct 2 Constable runoff.
Whatever turnout there will be in the runoffs will be driven primarily by the Dem Senate race and the Congressional races on both sides. Won't be much, but it ought to be a bit more than usual, and surely more on the D side if there were no Senate runoff.
January 2020 campaign finance reports: State House part 2
Here's Part 2 of my look at the finance reports from State House races. Part 1 was here, Harris County offices were here, and statewide races were here. You may also want to refer to this Trib story and this Reform Austin post for more about the finance reports in the top tier House races.
Lorena Perez McGill, HD15
Lawrence Allen, HD26
Sarah DeMerchant
Rish Oberoi, HD26
Suleman Lalani, HD26
Ron Reynolds, HD27
Byron Ross, HD27
Joey Cardenas, HD85
Candidate     Raised     Spent     Loan     On Hand
Shupp            450       230        0         450
Antonelli        200       750        0         200
Rogers         1,225       750        0         475
Henry          1,750     1,019        0       1,750
Allen         20,712     8,733        0       4,994
DeMerchant     6,543    10,250        0         169
Oberoi        27,750    39,159   20,000      55,222
Lalani        40,996    29,092   90,000      91,210
Reynolds      21,654    27,511    5,100       3,741
Markowitz    244,460   240,034        0     118,308
Boldt         10,445     2,991        0       7,378
Cardenas         250       805    2,000         250
I skipped the Republicans this time, because life is short and I didn't feel like it. Ron Reynolds did pick up a primary opponent, at the last minute, but now that he's served his sentence and has no other clouds over his head that I know of, it's harder to see the motivation to knock him out. The only other primary of interest is in HD26, which will likely go to a runoff. As with the other top-tier races for Dems, there will be plenty of PAC money coming in, but it's always useful if the candidate can do some of that heavy lifting. No one stands out on that score yet but there's time.
Of course the marquee event is Eliz Markowitz and the special election runoff in HD28, which continues to draw national interest. If Markowitz falls short it won't be from lack of effort – there's been a concerted door-knocking effort going on for weeks, and Beto O'Rourke appears to have taken up residence in HD28 for that effort, if my Twitter feed is any indication. It's important to remember that this race is just for the remainder of John Zerwas' term. Markowitz will have to win in November, again against Gary Gates, to be a part of the next Legislature. There will be plenty of Narrative about this election, but in the end November is the real prize. Don't lose sight of that.
I'll have SBOE and State Senate next, and will do Congress when those reports are available. As always, let me know what you think.
After-deadline filing review: Houston area
There's a lot to digest following Monday's filing deadline, and as I've said I'm going to take some time and go over it in as much obsessive detail as you've probably come to expect from me. As a reminder, the filing info can be found here, with the caveat that it may not be fully complete. Only two Dem filers in CD03 are listed, for example, while the not-listed Tanner Do sure seems to have filed. This will all get fixed over the next couple of days, but let's do keep that in mind.
Congress: Sima Ladjevardian's entry into the CD02 primary was the main news here. She doesn't have much online presence as a candidate yet, just a Twitter account with three tweets. I hope to have the chance to interview her, and if I do I'll ask about this, but I get the sense this wasn't just a late filing, but a late decision to run. That process is always fascinating to me. Anyone who runs against Dan Crenshaw is going to have to raise a lot of money, because he has a lot of money. She strikes me as the kind of candidate who is capable of that, which makes me wonder why not get started sooner? I understand, people have their own reasons for that, I'm just curious. She has three weeks till the next reporting deadline, we'll see how she does.
Elsewhere, CD10 stayed at three candidates but CD22 now has five, as Chris Fernandez (mentioned in passing in this story and someone named Carmine Petricco whom neither Google nor Facebook can find entered. CD08 has two candidates, Laura Jones, who we knew about a month ago, and Elizabeth Hernandez, whom I cannot identify. If you know anything about any of these folks, please leave a comment.
As noted before, Rep. Al Green has an opponent in CD09, and Sheila Jackson Lee has six – count 'em, six – opponents in CD18. Three of them – Marc Flores, Bimal Patel, and Stevens Orozco – have been around campaigning for awhile, the other three are more recent entrants. And while it's not a contested primary, I feel compelled to note that Rashad Lewis, who became the youngest person elected to Jasper City Council as a write-in candidate in 2017, then ran for Mayor earlier this year but fell short, is in for CD36. I'm going to want to interview him for November.
Legislative: SBOE6 has three candidates as before; I'll be publishing interviews with them next week. In the Senate, as noted before Sen. Borris Miles has two opponents in SD13. Former Galveston judge Susan Criss and 2018 CD22 primary candidate Margarita Ruiz Johnson are competing in SD11. Carol Alvarado has SD06 to herself, while Jay Stittleburg (SD04) and Michael Antalan have clear paths to November.
The big news for the State House is that the HD148 primary is now a five candidate race: Anna Eastman, Penny Shaw, Emily Wolf, Adrian P. Garcia, and Cynthia Reyes-Revilla. Garcia was in the HD148 special election, and Reyes-Revilla finished out of the money in District H. I think it's safe to say there will be a runoff in the primary, as there was in the special election. HD126 is a rerun from 2018, as Undrai Fizer and Natali Hurtado square off again. HD128, which was uncontested in 2018 (and is the reddest district in the county) has Josh Markle, who recently got a boost from Beto, and Mary E. Williams, whom I cannot find. HD134 has the three candidates you know, and HD138 has the two you know plus a repeat engagement from Jenifer Pool. HD129 (Kayla Alix), HD130 (Bryan Henry), HD133 (Sandra Moore, who ran in the 2018 primary), and HD150 (Michael Robert Walsh, whom I cannot conclusively identify) are all uncontested for March.
Among the Harris County incumbents, Reps. Alma Allen (HD131) and Harold Dutton (HD142) have four challengers, with CM Jerry Davis in HD142 being the biggest threat to either of them. Reps. Garnet Coleman (HD147) and Hubert Vo (HD149) each have two opponents, Reps. Jarvis Johnson, Senfronia Thompson, and Shawn Thierry have one, and Reps. Gina Calanni, Jon Rosenthal, Gene Wu, Armando Walle, Ana Hernandez, Mary Ann Perez, and Christina Morales are unopposed. Thierry's opponent, as noted before, is Ashton Woods, who had run in At Large #5.
Elsewhere, Rep. Ron Reynolds (HD27) did pick up a primary opponent. I've been hard on Reynolds since his misdemeanor conviction, and I stand by everything I said. He's now served his sentence, and I'm not aware of any further legal issues. I'm not quite ready yet, but assuming nothing else happens we are going to need to consider extending him the same grace we're willing to give others who have served their sentences and deserve a clean slate, at least as far as voting and holding office is concerned. The infamously now-open HD26 has the four candidates we already knew of. Eliz Markowitz remains the candidate in HD28, and there are solo Dems running in HD03 (Martin Shupp), HD15 (Lorena McGill, the 2018 candidate), HD23 (Jeff Antonelli), HD24 (former Chron reporter Brian Rogers), HD25 (Patrick Henry), HD29 (Travis Boldt), and HD85 (Friend-of-Dos-Centavos Joey Cardenas).
Harris County: The main races – DA, County Attorney, Sheriff, Tax Assessor – you know about and nothing new has happened. There's plenty of action in the two HCDE At Large races – Position 5 now has two candidates (Erica Davis, Paul Ovalle) and Position 7 has four (David Brown and Andrea Duhon, the two we knew about originally, and Bill Morris and Obes Nwabara). Also, too, I have not seen anything to indicate that Josh Flynn has resigned his spot as he runs for HD138 on the GOP side, so there's that. Willie D is now listed in the primary for Commissioners Court Precinct 1, which doesn't make sense but maybe something changed. If so, that's a three-candidate race. There are six candidates for Precinct 3, the four you've heard of (Michael Moore, Diana Alexander, Kristi Thibaut, Morris Overstreet) and two you haven't (Zaher Eisa and Erik Hassan, who is now calling himself Erik "Beto" Hassan, which, no). Alan Rosen did indeed file for Constable in Precinct 1.
That's all I have the energy for now. I'll keep going with this tomorrow.
Filing period preview: SBOE, Senate, House
Previously: Congress, and Statewide. As before, I am using the Patrick Svitek spreadsheet as my primary reference.
Buckle up, there's a lot to talk about here. I'm going to limit my discussion of State House races to the greater Houston area.
SBOE: There are three SBOE seats on the ballot that were carried by Beto in 2018. Winning all three would give Democrats am 8-7 majority on this famously flaky board. One of these seats in within Harris County, and that's SBOE6, where Michelle Palmer and Debra Kerner have been in for some time.
State Senate: Unlike 2018, there's really only one competitive district on the ballot, and that's SD19, the seat Dems fumbled away in the special election. State Rep. Roland Gutierrez and Xochil Peña Rodriguez, daughter of former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, are in. Despite the self-own in 2018, the district is basically 55-45 Dem, with a bit of variance on either end. Beto took it by 15 points, but even Lupe Valdez cleared fifty percent. A return to normal partisan behavior should make Pete Flores a temporary Senator.
Democratic incumbents Carol Alvarado (SD06) and Borris Miles (SD13) do not have primary opponents as yet. I tend to think someone will run against Miles after those harassment allegations against him were reported, but if so it will likely be a newcomer. One other Dem who both needs and has primary opponents is Eddie Lucio; I discussed Ruben Cortez and Sara Stapleton-Barrera, his known opponents, here. SD29 in El Paso is open following the retirement of Jose Rodriguez, with State Rep. Cesar Blanco the only contender to succeed him so far.
The two Republican-held seats in the Houston area have Dem challengers. For SD04, mostly in Montgomery County, there's Jay Stittleburg, who ran for Montgomery County Judge in 2018. Griffin Winkworth is listed in the spreadsheet as having filed a designation of Treasurer. SD11 has two contenders: Margarita Ruiz Johnson, who was a candidate for CD22 in 2018 but did not advance to the runoff, and Susan Criss, former District Court judge in Galveston County and candidate for HD23 in 2014. Neither district is particularly competitive – Beto got 41.5% in SD11, but most Republicans carried it by 20 or more.
State House: Let's start with the districts that don't have Dem challengers yet. As noted, this is limited to the greater Houston area. You can peruse the spreadsheet at your leisure for other districts.
HD03 (Montgomery/Waller)
HD15 (Montgomery)
HD18 (Liberty)
HD23 (Galveston)
HD29 (Brazoria)
HD85 (Fort Bend/Wharton/Jackson)
HD127 (Harris)
HDs 29 (which originally had a Dem who later withdrew) and 127 were the only ones in 2018 that went unchallenged. HD29 in particular is a district of interest, as it was a 47% Beto district in 2018.
Now for Republican-held districts that do have Dem challengers, at least according to the spreadsheet.
HD25 (Brazoria, the now-open Dennis Bonnen seat) – Someone named J. Patrick Henry, whom I cannot conclusively identify.
HD26 (Fort Bend) – Sarah DeMerchant, the 2018 candidate; Rish Oberoi; Suleman Lalani.
HD28 (Fort Bend) – We all know about Eliz Markowitz, right?
HD126 (Harris) – Natali Hurtado, the 2018 candidate.
HD128 (Harris) – Josh Markle, who got a nice fundraising boost from Beto after his little tiff with incumbent Briscoe Cain over automatic weapons.
HD130 (Harris) – Bryan Henry.
HD134 (Harris) – Ann Johnson, the 2012 candidate; Ruby Powers; Lanny Bose, the most recent entrant.
HD138 (Harris) – Akilah Bacy; Josh Wallenstein, who was a candidate in the primary for HCDE at large in 2018.
Two Democratic incumbents so far have primary opponents, Alma Allen in HD131 (Carey Lashley) and Garnet Coleman in HD147 (Aurelia Wagner). Both always seem to draw primary opponents, for whatever the reason. Ron Reynolds in HD26 usually draws one as well, for reasons that are more clear. I note that the spreadsheet lists Richard Bonton as a Republican opponent for Harold Dutton in HD142. Bonton ran against Dutton in the Dem primary in 2018.
We can't end this conversation without bringing up HD148. I fully expect Anna Eastman to win the special election runoff, which is most likely be on December 14, the same day as the city of Houston runoffs. It doesn't have to be on the 14th – Greg Abbott sets the runoff date, and he has some discretion. The last time we had a special election for a State Rep seat in an odd year was 2005 with the election in HD143, and that runoff was held on the same date as the city runoffs. Not a guarantee, but a data point. In any event, whatever happens in that race, there's no reason to believe that some other candidates won't file for the primary in HD148 as well. Any of the runners up may conclude that this was a wonky election, and that maybe they lost some votes to not-that-Adrian-Garcia. For sure, the primary will have a very different electorate, and Anna Eastman will not be very well known to them. I will be a little surprised if Eastman has the primary to herself.
Last but not least in this series: county races. I don't get to lean on the spreadsheet for that one.
No charges against Bonnen
No surprise.
Rep. Dennis Bonnen
Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen will not be criminally prosecuted for the things he said during a secretly recorded June meeting with a hardline conservative activist, the district attorney in his hometown announced Thursday.
"As repugnant as Speaker Bonnen's actions and statements are," Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne said in a statement, "I do not believe there is sufficient evidence from the June 12, 2019 meeting to warrant a criminal prosecution of Speaker Bonnen for Bribery or Solicitation of a Gift by a Public Servant, therefore no criminal charges will be brought."
A spokesperson for Bonnen said Yenne's decision "deflates Michael Quinn Sullivan's entire reason for going public three months ago — that, according to him, the Speaker solicited a bribe and broke the law."
"Unfortunately, we now live in a political climate where one is guilty until proven innocent, and not only has that thrown the ability of Republicans to hold onto our House majority into jeopardy, it sets a dangerous precedent moving forward," Cait Meisenheimer, the speaker's press secretary, said in a statement. "While justice prevailed today, unfortunately, the damage has been done."
See here, here, and here for the background. This was the conclusion of the Texas Rangers investigation – their report was submitted to DA Yenne earlier this week, according to the story. There wasn't anything in the tape to suggest criminal activity, just deep stupidity, for which Bonnen will leave the Legislature and Yenne chewed him out. All things considered, I've got no gripes about how this turned out.
Bye bye, Bonnen
First-term Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen on Tuesday announced he will not seek reelection to the lower chamber in 2020 — completing a stunning fall for the Angleton Republican who enjoyed near unanimous support in the House just months earlier.
"After much prayer, consultation, and thoughtful consideration with my family, it is clear that I can no longer seek re-election as State Representative of District 25, and subsequently, as Speaker of the House," Bonnen said in a statement, which included a list of 43 House Republicans — a majority of the House GOP Caucus — that the speaker said "have made clear that it is in the best interest of both myself and the House to move on." (Bonnen's own brother, Greg Bonnen of Friendswood, was among those on the list.)
Bonnen's decision not to seek reelection means his seat in House District 25 will be open for the first time in over two decades. One Republican, emergency room nurse Rhonda Seth, was already running for the seat before Tuesday, aiming to take out Bonnen. The district in southeast Texas is solidly Republican.
With Bonnen's exit, members will be jockeying among one another to become the next speaker. That election officially won't happen until the next time the Legislature convenes, which is scheduled to happen in January 2021. In the meantime, if Bonnen remains in place until then, he can carry out typical interim duties, which include assigning issues for committees to study ahead of the next legislative session.
The race to replace Bonnen is coming ahead of a competitive election cycle for Republicans, who, after losing a dozen House seats to Democrats in 2018, are gearing up to hold onto their majority in the lower chamber. If Democrats were to flip nine seats and hold onto the dozen they picked up, they could be the party in power in the House and, consequentially, elect a member from their caucus to lead the lower chamber.
It's unclear what role — if any — Bonnen will play in 2020 in helping to hold onto the GOP seats. In July before Sullivan's allegations surfaced, Bonnen announced he had infused a new political action committee with $3 million to support House Republicans running for reelection. Since the speaker became engulfed with the drama though, some members have privately wondered whether Bonnen would be a help or hindrance to their fundraising efforts heading into the election cycle.
Shocking, but in retrospect not at all surprising. The day had started with this story about Republicans abandoning the Bonnen ship:
Some of the most powerful Texas House Republicans said Monday they no longer support GOP Speaker Dennis Bonnen, marking the biggest blow yet to his political future amid the fallout from a secret recording released last week by a hardline conservative activist.
Five Republicans considered senior members of the lower chamber issued a statement withdrawing support for him: State Reps. Four Price of Amarillo, Dan Huberty of Houston, Lyle Larson of San Antonio, Chris Paddie of Marshall and John Frullo of Lubbock.
"As long-serving members of the Texas House, we informed Speaker Bonnen earlier today that we no longer support him as our Speaker," they said in a joint statement released Monday night. "It is clear that trust and confidence in the Speaker has significantly eroded among our membership, and the matter has both damaged the reputation of the House and relationships among individual members."
All five members were closely aligned with Bonnen this year during his first session as speaker. A number of them also chair some of the chamber's most powerful committees: Price chairs the House Calendars Committee; Huberty heads the Public Education Committee; Larson chairs the Natural Resources Committee; and Paddie chairs the Energy Resources Committee.
Later Monday night, another high-profile chair, Phil King of Weatherford, who heads the Redistricting Committee, joined the calls for Bonnen to resign. So did Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, who said on Twitter she planned to pen a letter on Tuesday to the caucus chair requesting a caucus meeting to vote on it. Even Dan Flynn of Van, who just days before had reiterated his support for Bonnen, said he could no longer support the speaker.
See here for the previous update. Clearly, things snowballed from there. Bonnen likely could have won re-election – HD25 is indeed a strong R district, where Ted Cruz got nearly 70% – as there were no big name primary challengers yet, but he was certainly toast as Speaker, and I guess he didn't want to deal with life as a regular member again. I'd have had a hard time with that too, given all that has come out. I supported Bonnen as Speaker this year – he was hardly ideal from my perspective, but he was smart and was effective as Speaker pro tem. Dems did all right under him. I'm still shocked that he was dumb enough to trip over his own dick like this. Rick Casey summarizes it well in describing Bonnen's ill-fated meeting with MQS as "almost criminally stupid – both tactically and strategically." I don't know what happens from here – obviously, Dems winning enough seats to put one of them at the podium would be best, but someone from the wingnut faction could end up on top as well – but at this point it's hard to be sorry about what happened. Dennis Bonnen brought this on himself. He deserves what he's getting. Good riddance. A statement from the TDP (which has also moved to dismiss its lawsuit over the recordings) is here, and Texas Monthly, the Chron, the Texas Signal, the Observer, and the Current have more.
Filing roundup: Outside Harris County
A look at who filed for what on the Democratic side in the counties around Harris. These are all predominantly Republican counties, some more than others, so the Democrats are almost all challengers. On the flip side, there are many opportunities for gains.
Lisa Seger
CD08 – Steven David
HD03 – Lisa Seger
HD15 – Lorena Perez McGill
HD16 – Mike Midler
County Judge – Jay Stittleburg
District Clerk – John-Brandon Pierre
County Treasurer – Mandy Sunderland
First, kudos to Montgomery County, hardly a Democratic bastion, for having so many candidates. They're a County Clerk candidate away from having a full slate. I'm not tracking judicial candidates, County Commissioners, or Constables, but the MCDP has those, too. Steven David is a business and efficiency expert for the City of Houston. He's running against Kevin "Cut all the taxes for the rich people!" Brady. Lisa Seger, whose district also covers Waller County, is a fulltime farmer in Field Store Community who has helped feed first responders during the fires of 2011 and is also involved in animal rescue. Her opponent is Cecil Bell, who was possibly the most fanatical pusher of anti-LGBT bills in the State House. She's also a Facebook friend of my wife, who knows a lot of local farmers through her past work with Central City Co-Op. Jay Stittleburg is a Navy veteran and Project Management Professional who has worked in oil and gas. John-Brandon Pierre is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. A very solid group.
CD22 – Letitia Plummer
CD22 – Margarita Ruiz Johnson
CD22 – Mark Gibson
CD22 – Sri Preston Kulkarni
CD22 – Steve Brown
SD17 – Fran Watson
SD17 – Rita Lucido
SD17 – Ahmad Hassan
HD26 – Sarah DeMerchant
HD27 – Rep. Ron Reynolds
HD27 – Wilvin Carter
HD28 – Meghan Scoggins
HD85 – Jennifer Cantu
County Judge – KP George
District Clerk – Beverly McGrew Walker
Gotta say, I'm kind of disappointed in Fort Bend. They had a full slate for county offices in 2014, but this year there wasn't anyone to run for County Clerk or County Treasurer? I don't understand how that happens. Mark Gibson and Steve Brown list Fort Bend addresses, while Letitia Plummer and Margarita Johnson are from Pearland and Sri Kulkarni is from Houston. The Senate candidates we've already discussed. For the State House, Sarah DeMerchant ran in 2016, while Wilvin Carter is the latest to try to take out Rep. Ron Reynolds, who is the only incumbent among all the candidates I'm listing in this post and whose story you know well. Meghan Scoggins has a background in aerospace but works now in the nonprofit sector, while Jennifer Cantu is an Early Childhood Intervention therapist for a Texas nonprofit. KP George is a Fort Bend ISD Trustee and past candidate for CD22.
CD14 – Adrienne Bell
CD14 – Levy Barnes
SBOE7 – Elizabeth Markowitz
HD29 – Dylan Wilde Forbis
HD29 – James Pressley
County Judge – Robert Pruett
County Clerk – Rose MacAskie
CD22 and SD17 also contain Brazoria County. HD25, held by Dennis Bonnen, is in Brazoria but it is one of the few districts that drew no Democratic candidates. I haven't focused much on the SBOE races, but as we know longtime Republican member David Bradley is retiring, so that seat is open. It's not exactly a swing district, but maybe 2018 will be better than we think. Adrienne Bell has been in the CD14 race the longest; she's a Houston native and educator who was on both the Obama 2012 and Wendy Davis 2014 campaigns. Levy Barnes is an ordained bishop with a bachelor's in biology, and you'll need to read his biography for yourself because there's too much to encapsulate. Dylan Wilde Forbis is one of at least three transgender candidates for State House out there – Jenifer Pool in HD138 and Finnigan Jones in HD94 are the others I am aware of. The only useful bit of information I could find about the other candidates is the Robert Pruett had run for County Judge in 2014, too.
HD23 – Amanda Jamrok
HD24 – John Phelps
CD14 and SBOE7 are also in Galveston. Remember when Galveston was a Democratic county? Those were the days. I don't have any further information about these candidates.
Hope these posts have been useful. There are more I hope to do, but they're pretty labor intensive so I'll get to them as best I can.
I had some time to spare, so I spent it with the canvass reports from Brazoria County. You know, like you do. Here's what I was able to learn.
Trump   Clinton   R Avg   D Avg   Weber    Cole
=======================================================
Votes  36,572    15,127  37,036  14,996  37,917  14,678
Pct    68.58%    28.23%  71.18%  28.82%  72.09%  27.91%
Trump   Clinton   R Avg   D Avg   Olson  Gibson
Trump   Clinton   R Avg   D Avg   Thomp   Floyd
Votes  32,125    12,636  32,462  12,528
Pct    69.23%    27.23%  72.15%  27.85%
Brazoria County is part of two Congressional districts, CDs 14 and 22, and two State Rep districts, HDs 25 and 29. The latter two are entirely within Brazoria, so the numbers you see for them are for the whole districts, while the CDs include parts of other counties as well. The first table splits Brazoria by its two CDs, while the second table is for the two HDs. Incumbent Republican Randy Weber was challenged by Democrat Michael Cole in CD14, while Republican Pete Olsen was unopposed in CD22. The second group of numbers in the first table are the relevant ones for CD22; I didn't include Olsen because there was no point (*). There were no contested District or County Court races, so the "R Avg" and "D Avg" above are for the four contested district Appeals Court races; these are the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals, which as you know includes Harris County.
The second table is for the State Rep districts. In HD29, incumbent Republican Ed Thompson faced Democrat John Floyd, while Republican Dennis Bonnen was unchallenged in HD25. You can sort of tell from the tables and I can confirm from the raw data that HD29 mostly overlapped CD22, and HD25 mostly overlapped CD14. As I have done before, the percentages for the Presidential races are calculated including the vote totals for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, which is why they don't add to 100%. The other contested races all had only two candidates.
Still with me? If so, you can see that HD29 was much more interesting than HD25, and was where basically all of the crossover Presidential votes were. Trump lagged the Republican baseline in HD25, but those voters mostly either skipped the race or voted third party. Viewed through the Presidential race, HD29 looks like a potentially competitive district, but if you pull the lens back a bit you can see that it is less so outside that, and that Thompson exceeded the Republican baseline on top of that. It would be nice to point to this district as a clear opportunity, but we're not quite there. There is another dimension to consider here, however, and that is a comparison with the 2012 results:
Romney     Obama    Cruz  Sadler   R Avg   D Avg   Weber Lampson
Votes  35,571    13,940  34,618  13,865  33,931  14,444  33,116  14,398
Pct    70.82%    27.75%  69.34%  27.77%  70.14%  29.86%  69.70%  30.30%
Romney     Obama    Cruz  Sadler   R Avg   D Avg   Olsen  Rogers
Romney     Obama    Cruz  Sadler   R Avg   D Avg   Thomp   Blatt
In 2012, Randy Weber was running to succeed Ron Paul in the redrawn CD14, which had a nontrivial amount of resemblance to the old CD02 of the 90s, which is how former Congressman Nick Lampson came to be running there. He ran ahead of the pack, but the district was too red for him to overcome. Pete Olsen was challenged by LaRouchie wacko Keisha Rogers, Ed Thompson faced Doug Blatt, and Dennis Bonnen was again unopposed. I threw in the numbers from the Ted Cruz-Paul Sadler Senate race in these tables for the heck of it.
The main thing to note here is that HD29 was a lot more Republican in 2012 than it was in 2016. Ed Thompson went from winning by 31 points in 2012 to winning by 22 in 2016, with the judicial average going from nearly a 28 point advantage for Republicans to just under a 20 point advantage. Total turnout in the district was up by about 11,000 votes, with 7K going to the Dems and 4K going to the Republicans. That still leaves a wide gap – 14K in the judicial races, 16K for Ed Thompson – but it's progress, and it happened as far as I know without any big organized effort.
And that's the thing. If Democrats are ever going to really close the gap in Texas, they're going to have to do it by making places like HD29, and HD26 in Fort Bend and the districts we've talked about in Harris County and other districts in the suburbs, more competitive. If you look at the map Greg Wythe kindly provided, you can see that some of the blue in Brazoria is adjacent to blue precincts in Fort Bend and Harris Counties, but not all of it. Some of it is in Pearland, but some of it is out along the border with Fort Bend. I'm not an expert on the geography here so I can't really say why some of these precincts are blue or why they flipped from red to blue in the four years since 2012, but I can say that they represent an opportunity and a starting point. This is what we need to figure out and build on.
(Since I initially drafted this, Greg provided me two more maps, with a closer view to the blue areas, to get a better feel for what's in and around them. Here's the North Brazoria map and the South Brazoria map. Thanks, Greg!)
(*) – As noted in the comments, I missed that Pete Olsen did have an opponent in 2016, Mark Gibson. I have added the numbers for that race. My apologies for the oversight.)


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Gnaius Baebius Tamphilus was een Romeins politicus aan het begin van de 2e eeuw v.Chr. en broer van Marcus Baebius Tamphilus.

Gnaius Babeius Tamphilus was tribunus plebis in 204 v.Chr..

Daarna was hij in 199 v.Chr. praetor, doch streed ongelukkig tegen de Gallische Insubres. Hij verloor in een slag tegen hen bijna 7000 man.

In 182 v.Chr. was hij consul en gelukkig in de oorlog tegen de Liguriërs.

Noten

Referentie
 art. Cn. Baebius Tamphilus, in  - trad. ed. , Classisch Woordenboek van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Rotterdam, 1857, p. 139.

Baebius Tamphilus, Gnaeus
Baebius Tamphilus, Gnaeus
Gens Baebia
Persoon in de 2e eeuw v.Chr.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Home»News»Andrew Tate's collection of expensive Car is seized by Romanian authorities
Andrew Tate's collection of expensive Car is seized by Romanian authorities
By Chandeep Yadav January 5, 2023 Updated: January 5, 2023 2 Mins Read
Andrew Tate is currently being held in a Romanian jail centre after being arrested on charges of people trafficking. Authorities there have seized his 11 high-end automobiles on the assumption that he purchased them with money obtained through unlawful means.
The incredibly popular social media figure was arrested in Romania last week and is expected to remain in jail for another three weeks if his appeal is unsuccessful. Along with at least three others (including his brother Tristan, who is also in custody), he is accused of using the promise of a romantic relationship to coerce multiple women into engaging in pornographic actions for the benefit of the alleged perpetrators. Andrew Tate's arrest on charges of sexually exploiting women after a year in which he gained huge fame due to his radical views on relationships. However, his provocative opinions were not confined to women.
Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin are among the seized premium vehicles. It was confirmed by the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism that the vehicles had been seized, and it was also mentioned that they could be used as collateral to help pay compensation for the victims of the alleged crimes.
In reaction to Greta Thunberg's insult of Andrew Tate in a reply to his puzzling tweet, a popular Twitter user disseminated the idea that the Tates' arrest was the result of authorities being tipped off that Tate was in Romania after seeing a pizza box from a Romanian pizzeria in a video response. Authorities have shot down the rumour, saying they knew where Tate was without any such cheap help.
Attorney Eugen Vidineac said,"We are not at a stage where guilt or innocence is proven. For now, we only discuss preventive measures."
Andrew Tate Entertainment News
Chandeep Yadav

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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class Withdrawal < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :user
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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BANKS Music Videos News Watch
See BANKS' Music Video For "Gemini Feed"
August 16, 2016 August 25, 2019 Hidden Jams 0 Comments BANKS, Gemini Feed, Music Video, New Album, New Single, The Altar	min read
Earlier this month, BANKS debuted her new song, "Gemini Feed," off her upcoming sophomore album, The Altar. While it was preceded by her 2015 teaser single "Better" and last month's first album track, "F–k With Myself," "Gemini Feed" is the most impressive new song so far. It's as infectious as her best songs on Goddess, but it also explores new territory. It's clear that The Altar will be a stellar followup.
Today BANKS released the music video for "Gemini Feed," and it's as intriguing as the song itself. It starts with BANKS softly singing the chorus, accompanied only by piano, before launching into the studio version of the track. It's immediately mysterious and eerie, BANKS' face adorned with exaggerated gold decorations as she sits atop her grand throne. We then see a more normal BANKS, her hair down, eyeliner thick, wearing a black dress. She's connected to a third BANKS wearing white whose hair is cut short. Eventually we can see that the latter two are tied together by white and black rope, referencing the gemini twins.
Watch the music video for "Gemini Feed" below:
BANKS' new album, The Altar, comes out on September 30th. You can pre-order it now and get instant downloads of both "Gemini Feed" and "F–k With Myself." Her 2015 single, "Better," will not appear on the album. Following her stunning 2014 album, Goddess, this will be her second full-length release. The Altar comes out in just a few weeks, and we may hear more songs before then. Keep checking back here for all the latest BANKS music news.
← Zac Farro Confirms He's Recording With Paramore
Hear Amy Lee's "Dream Too Much" From Upcoming Kids Album →
Tyson Ritter Talks Fun New All-American Rejects Songs Due In April, Shares Lyrics
February 15, 2017 April 4, 2017 Hidden Jams 0
Natasha Bedingfield's September Studio Updates
September 30, 2018 March 24, 2019 Hidden Jams 0
Avril Lavigne Teams Up With Nick Carter On "Get Over Me"
November 25, 2015 March 3, 2017 Hidden Jams 0
Smith & Burrows Finish Recording Second Album
September 19, 2019 September 19, 2019 Hidden Jams 0
Hear Kelly Clarkson's Stunning New Songs "Love So Soft" & "Move You"
September 7, 2017 November 7, 2017 Hidden Jams 0
Hoobastank Is Still Writing New Album, Expected Out Later This Year
March 2, 2016 June 28, 2017 Hidden Jams 0
Garbage - 7th Studio Album
Paramore Drops Funky New Song & Music Video, "Told You So"
May 3, 2017 July 28, 2019 0
Muse's Matthew Bellamy Shares Sweeping "Pray (High Valyrian)" For 'Game Of Thrones'
April 26, 2019 May 1, 2019 0


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A few tutorials and links to start
SmartApps & Automations FAQ
April (April Wong) February 16, 2015, 5:55am #1
Our developer's documentation has a lot of information to get you started. We're continuing to build and beef up this portal, but you may find most of your answers here:
http://docs.smartthings.com/en/latest/getting-started.html
Other useful stuff.
ScottinPollock's video tutorial on Creating SmartApps from External code
Terminology Is Important: Documentation Needs a Glossary?
Development with SmartThings API Writing SmartApps
OK… so here's a rough summary of what @balkcivil and I discussed. I'm hoping @Jim takes note and will be able to tell us what is planned in the short term documentation, with the rest going into the Community FAQs that @April is encouraging us to write … This is meant to be a rough draft overview and may have various degrees of inaccuracy or consistency. Terminology Is Important: Documentation Needs a Glossary? A SmartApp is not a mobile app (and certainly not THE SmartThings Mobile App). A SmartApp is often just a "rule" or "recipe" (if <open> then <turn on> <light>), where <x> are parameters – called Preferences in a SmartApp. A SmartApp, however, can be much more complex than basic rules, as developers write them with Groovy methods, access to some Java libraries, etc…; but they run…
Listing all set parameters
How to list all set parameters? Writing SmartApps
Is there a way to list all the parameters set when a smartapp is installed from within the same smartapp? I've tried everyway that I know how in groovy but none of them work.
[OBSOLETE] Vacation Light Director
April (April Wong) February 17, 2015, 5:35pm #2
@JDRoberts has a great explanation about Modes and Hello Home Actions in a coder's POV and how it affects the end-user.
Brand new to ST, first thing I discovered: modes are tricky. Wrote an app Writing SmartApps
Welcome to the group! SmartThings can be great fun for people who enjoy coding, it's a very flexible developer platform. From a coder viewpoint: Mode functions as a global mutable state variable. So you can change it from a lot of different places and then it's available everywhere. And yes, if you're not careful it will break your heart, because one process may have changed it before another one checks it. (And it can be very hard to debug because an error may depend on which process happened to complete first.) Mode can only have one value at a time, but you can add more values if needed. And you can make mode one of the schedule controllers and change the mode at the end of the action, like changing mode from At Home to Away. Hello Home Actions are limited option scenes with…
nico89s (Nico) April 4, 2015, 3:06pm #3
I use 'Light Turn On Motion' Smartapp, I want to edit that code but I can't find it on IDE menu. Where is it ?


Several residents have accused the police department of overreacting when officers charged a 9-year-old boy with extorting $170 from classmates, but Chief Bob Roberts said he had no choice.
"They have the perception that we went into the school and dragged this kid out," Roberts said. "We arrested him at home and handled it the only way we could. We investigate all complaints of a criminal nature."
Roberts said police reacted to a complaint filed Thursday by the mother of an 8-year-old girl who told police the boy used "threats and intimidation" to force her daughter to pay him $1 a day since December.
"It would have been strictly a school matter had it not been that we had a complaining victim," he said. "We just can't ignore a complaint. We have to investigate."
The boy, whose name was withheld by authorities because he is a juvenile, was suspended Wednesday by Roseborough Elementary School Principal John Banner, the day school officials learned of the extortion.
Mount Dora police Capt. Noel Griffin III said the boy "terrorized" at least five children, threatening to beat them if they missed their payments.
"When we had those kids down here at the station, a couple of them broke down and cried," Roberts said.
Some of the victims, who were 8 and 9 years old, said their grades slipped because of the harassment, Griffin said.
Mount Dora police charged the boy with five counts of felony extortion. The case will be turned over to the state attorney's office today, Roberts said.
Bob Cole, Lake County division supervisor for 5th Judicial Circuit state attorney's office, said Monday that investigators will talk to all of the victims involved, then decide whether to press charges.
The state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services also will make a recommendation.
If state officials decide to press charges, the case would be heard in a juvenile court and the worst punishment the boy could get would be time in a special school or program for delinquent children, Cole said.


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Kodiak salmon: Sockeyes are down. Pinks are up. KMXT by Rhonda McBride - July 21, 2020 The Kodiak commercial salmon season got off to a disappointing start. James Jackson, Kodiak's area biologist for commercial fisheries, says the early run of sockeyes was the worst in 43 years. https://kmxt.org/2020/07/kodiak-salmon-sockeyes-are-down-pinks-are-up/ Petersburg to spend CARES Act money on testing resident seafood processing workers KFSK by Joe Viechnicki - July 17, 2020 Petersburg's borough assembly Wednesday agreed to spend some of the local government's federal coronavirus relief money on testing local residents who work in seafood processing. https://www.kfsk.org/2020/07/17/petersburg-to-spend-cares-act-money-on-testing-resident-seafood-processing-workers/ International Pacific blackcod market: Higher quotas collide with weaker demand for abundant and smaller fish National Fishermen by Charlie Ess - July 17, 2020 Small fish, severed links in the domestic distribution chain and weak markets in Japan spell continued doldrums for West Coast blackcod. https://www.nationalfisherman.com/west-coast-pacific/pacific-blackcod-market-higher-quotas-collide-with-weaker-demand-for-abundant-and-smaller-fish Federal Register Pacific Halibut Fisheries; Revisions to Catch Sharing Plan and Domestic Management Measures in Alaska A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 07/21/2020 This final rule implements regulations for a "fish up" provision in the halibut and sablefish Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program to allow Community Quota Entities (CQEs) located in IFQ regulatory Area 3A (Southcentral Alaska) holding Area 3A category D halibut quota share (QS) (i.e., for use on catcher vessel less than or equal to 35 ft (10.7 m) length overall) to have the associated IFQ harvested on category C vessels (catcher vessels less than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) length overall) beginning August 15 of each IFQ fishing season. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/07/21/2020-15752/pacific-halibut-fisheries-revisions-to-catch-sharing-plan-and-domestic-management-measures-in-alaska FYI's Reminder: Complete the COVID-19 Economic Survey Saving Seafood by NOAA Fisheries - July 20, 2020 The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: If you received a survey in the mail from NOAA Fisheries and our partner, the University of Florida, please complete it. The results will help us assess the impact of COVID-19 on commercial/for-hire fishing operations and on seafood dealers and processors. https://www.savingseafood.org/news/economic-impact/reminder-complete-the-covid-19-economic-survey/ NOAA hires directors of offices of science and technology, sustainable fisheries Seafood Source by Cliff White - July 20, 2020 NOAA has hired a new director of its Office of Science and Technology and director of its Office of Sustainable Fisheries. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/business-finance/noaa-hires-directors-of-offices-of-science-and-technology-sustainable-fisheries Seafood2030 hosting virtual sustainability forum in September Seafood Source by Ned Daly - July 20, 2020 Seafood2030 and SeafoodSource will be hosting a virtual event on 9 and 10 September highlighting the evolving relationship between the seafood industry and governments on the sustainability front. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/seafood2030-hosting-virtual-sustainability-forum-in-september
Pacific Seafood Processors Association 1900 W Emerson Place Suite 205, Seattle, WA 98119 Phone: 206.281.1667 E-mail: admin@pspafish.net; Website: www.pspafish.net Our office days/hours are Monday-Friday 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. *Inclusion of a news article, report, or other document in this email does not imply PSPA support or endorsement of the information or opinion expressed in the document.


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Celebhubs
Celebrity, Entertainment, Gossips & Photos
TV-Celebrity
PAMELA ANDERSON NET WORTH,SON, PETA, CAREER
December 15, 2016 9:32
IN :
The Canadian-American beauty is a prominent model, actress and author. Pamela Anderson's net worth has been amassed from her career as a Playmate for Playboy magazine, her appearances in many TV series, and her famous books.
Pamela Anderson is an eminent Canadian born American actress, model, animal rights activist, model, and author. Pamela Anderson's net worth is known to have been accumulated from her appearance in TV series like Dancing with the Stars, Dancing on Ice, Bigg Boss, Big Brother, VP Brother, and more. The details of Pamela Anderson's son, PETA contribution, career, net worth and more can be found on numerous social media sites that are constantly viewed by her fans all around the world.
Pamela Denise Anderson was born on July 1, 1967 in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada to Barry and Cole Anderson. Her father was a furnace repairman and her mother was a waitress. She comes from a Finnish and Russian ancestry. She is regarded as Canada's Centennial Baby as she was the first baby born on 1st July 1967 which was the 100th anniversary of Canada's official founding via the Constitution Act, 1867.
Early Life & Childhood
During her childhood days, Anderson was sexual abused by female babysitters and raped by an older man. She furthermore revealed that she was gang raped by her boyfriend and his friends. Pamela Anderson went on to join Highland Secondary School based in Comox, British Columbia. After graduation in 1985, Pamela shifted to Vancouver and worked as a fitness instructor.
Net worth & Career
Pamela Anderson's career as a model began when she was hired as a spokes model for brewing company, Jumbotron. She then became a cover girl for Playbody magazine in its October 1989 issue. She also appeared in the playboy magazine in 1990 as well as 2000. Pamela began her career as an actress in the TV sitcom, Home Improvement. Later, she became C.J. Parker on Baywatch. Next, her most prominent role was in TV series, V.I.P. as Vallery Irons. She has also been credited for her work in Stripperella, Stacked, Bigg Boss 4 in India, Celebrity Juice, Package Deal , Dancing on Ice's 8th season, Dancing with the Stars' tenth season, VIP Brother, and more. Pamela Anderson's career has been remarkable throughout the years.
Pamela Anderon's net worth is estimated to be $ 5 million. Pamela Anderson's net worth has been amassed from her exceptional career in acting, modeling, and more. Pamela Anderson's net worth has also been accumulated from her books like Star Struck (2005), A Pocket Guide for Student Midwives, Forgetting the Art World, Chronophobia, Uta Barth and more.
Girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse
Pamela Anderson was married to Motley Crue's drummer, Tommy Lee in February 1995. The couple had married only 4 days after knowing each other. Pamela Anderson's son, Brandon Thomas Lee was born on 6th June 1996. Pamela Anderson's second son, Dylan Jagger Lee was born on 29th December 1997. The couple had a divorce in 1998. She then got engaged to model Marcus Schenkenberg. After their separation, she became engaged to Kid Rock. Soon she got married to Kid Rock in July, 2006 in France. After a miscarriage, she filed for a divorce from Kid Rock in November of the same year. Anderson then got married to film producer, Rick Salmon and separated in February 2008. She got remarried to Salmon yet again and divorced again in April 2015.
Pamela Anderson's age at present is 49 years old. Pamela's hair is blonde and long. Anderson has a body measurement of 39-24-34 inches from the breasts, waist to hips. Pamela's bra size is 34 DD and dress size is 8. Anderson has revealed that she has had breast implants. In 2005, Anderson was named most powerful Canadian in Hollywood. Anderson's height is 5 feet 7 inches and her weight is 57 kg. She has an exceptional hourglass shaped body.
Large images of Anderson's face are featured in Sam Newman's pop architecture building construction based in Australia. Anderson is a vegan and supports animal rights. Pamela Anderson PETA contribution has been one of the biggest celebrity supports. Pamela Anderson's PETA campaigns include several animal rights issues like the use of fur, KFC's treatment of chicken, and more.
Pamela has not been criticized much by the media and the public for her acting skills. She has been nominated for awards like The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1996, Ten Choice Award in 2005, Razzie Awards three times in 1997, MTV Movie Awards in 1997, Golden apple Awards in 1997, and more. Furthermore, she has been placed 3rd in the Bravo Otto Germany award in 1994, 2nd in 1995, and 3rd in 1996 as Best Female TV star and Best Actress respectively. The bio of the eminent and beautiful, Pamela Anderson can be found on various social media sites like Wikipedia, Twitter, IMDb, Facebook, and more.
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PRESENTER STEVE JONES WIFE, NET WORTH, DATING AND CAREER
HEATHER CHILDERS AGE, BIO, MARRIED AND NET WORTH
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U.S. Supreme Court/
Supreme Court: Montana Scholarship Program Can't Exclude Religious Schools
By Laura Temme, Esq. on June 30, 2020 | Last updated on August 09, 2021
In another 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that Montana cannot prohibit scholarships funded by tax credits from going to religious schools. The majority found that the state constitution's "no aid" provision discriminated against religious families in violation of the Free Exercise Clause.
SCOTUS Overrules Montana Supreme Court
In 2015, the Montana Legislature passed a bill creating a tax credit for those who donate to organizations that provide students with scholarships to private schools. Only one organization participated in the program since its inception: Big Sky Scholarships.
Big Sky distributed scholarship funds to thirteen schools, twelve of which were religiously affiliated. This wasn't much of a surprise, given that around 70% of the state's private schools are faith-based institutions.
The Montana Supreme Court invalidated the entire program in 2018, finding it ran contrary to the state constitution - which prohibits any state aid from going to religious education.
Now, the Supreme Court has overruled the state's high court.
Another Close Decision
Chief Justice John Roberts, who has become the swing vote to watch this term, delivered the majority opinion. Siding with the court's more conservative justices, the Chief Justice writes that the program did not violate the Establishment Clause because it was neutral. Religious institutions only benefit as a result of Montana parents independently choosing to send their children to those schools.
Relying on Trinity Lutheran, the majority concluded that disqualifying "otherwise eligible recipients from a public benefit" based on religion was unconstitutional.
In his dissent, Justice Breyer warned that the majority risks "the kind of entanglement and conflict that the Religion Clauses are intended to prevent." Dissenting justices also argued for a free exercise rule that operates on a more case-by-case basis, but the Chief Justice was unconvinced:
"The protections of the Free Exercise Clause do not depend on a 'judgment-by-judgment analysis' regarding whether discrimination against religious adherents would somehow serve ill-defined interests."
Will the Court's upcoming decision on ministerial exemptions lower the wall between church and state even further? Keep an eye on our Supreme Court blog to find out.
Supreme Court Takes Up New 'Ministerial Exemption' Lawsuits (FindLaw's Supreme Court)
Supreme Court Won't Revisit Religious Accommodation Standard - For Now (FindLaw's Supreme Court)
Supreme Court Upholds Precedent, Invalidating Louisiana Abortion Law (FindLaw's Supreme Court)


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