Posts Tagged ‘Dan Patrick’
Friday, August 2nd, 2024
More signs of the Biden Recession, the DOJ wants to put its thumb on the scale against Trump again, more Secret Service incompetence comes to light, more Kamala cringe, a bunch of lawsuit news, and a metric ton of Babylon Bee links. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
I keep thinking I’ll keep the LinkSwarms to shorter lengths, and the world continues not to cooperate.
Dispatches from the Biden Recession: “US Manufacturing Surveys Collapsed In July”
The start of the third quarter saw a deterioration in business conditions at US manufacturers as new orders declined for the first time in three months, according to S&P Global.
This makes sense as we have seen ‘hard’ US macro data serially disappoint for three months.
- S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI falls to 49.6 in July, dropping into contraction for the first time since Dec 2023.
- ISM Manufacturing PMI plunged to 46.8 (48.8 exp) – weakest since Nov 2023 (near post-COVID lockdown lows)
The FBI announces that they’re willing to resume their censorship of conservatives in an attempt to drag Karmala’s cackling husk over the finish line. Though the words they used were slightly different.
The FBI is going to resume its coordination with social-media companies on content moderation ahead of the 2024 election, after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to free-speech advocates who argue the federal government’s close cooperation with Big Tech firms violates the First Amendment.
According to a Department of Justice memo drafted earlier this month, the FBI “will resume regular meetings in the coming weeks with social media companies to brief and discuss potential [Foreign Malign Influence] threats involving the companies’ platforms.”
By “Foreign Malign Influence,” what they mean, of course, is “the possibility of a Trump victory.”
The memo is featured in a report from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the effectiveness of the department’s information-sharing system for monitoring foreign threats to U.S. elections. National Review has reached out to the FBI for comment on the memo.
Horowitz recommended the DOJ increase its transparency around the policies it put in place to ensure information sharing does not trample on the First Amendment, and to ensure the coordination strategy evolves to keep up with ever-changing foreign threats. The report’s appendix says both of the recommendations have been taken up by the DOJ, and requests documentation of the FBI’s outreach to social-media companies over the coming months.
The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and local offices will be tasked with building relationships with social-media companies in areas under the purview of various FBI field offices. As part of this outreach strategy, FBI officials are being instructed to make companies aware of the new standard operating procedure for monitoring suspected foreign influence operations online.
I’m so old that I remember when the primary duty of the FBi was to solve crimes, not to aid the Democratic Party…
Speaking of public agencies trying to destroy Trump:
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter snipers, to former President Trump’s rallies and events – despite repeated requests by the agents assigned to Trump’s detail in the two years leading up to his July 13 attempted assassination, according to several sources familiar with the decision-making.
Rowe succeeded former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned last week after bipartisan calls following her widely panned testimony before the House Oversight Committee. But both Rowe and Cheatle were directly involved in decisions denying requests for more magnetometers, additional agents, and other resources to help screen rallygoers at large, outdoor Trump campaign gatherings.
It was Rowe’s decision alone to deny counter sniper teams to any Trump event outside of driving distance from D.C., these sources asserted.
Criminal negligence all the way down:
The FBI: The Trump shooter’s social media accounts show he was an anti-immigrant extremist. Actual social media company: You’re lying out your ass.
“The Bloodless Coup of Joe Biden Will Not Work Out Well for Democrats.”
The Democratic Party ruling class’s bloodless coup of their own democratically elected presidential nominee, who also happens to be the nominal sitting president of the United States, is one of the most astonishing political developments of my lifetime. Joe Biden, though clearly physically and mentally impaired, has sought the presidency for quite literally longer than I have been alive. Biden had been defiant ever since the June 27 presidential debate debacle that he was not going anywhere, despite overwhelming pressure from party elites and sycophantic media lapdogs demanding he do precisely that. He has a Lady Macbeth-like wife who craves power, and he has a felonious son in desperate need of a presidential pardon.
Yet the coup succeeded. Biden became the first incumbent president to not seek reelection after his first term since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Biden made the much-anticipated announcement—not with a solemn Oval Office address—three days later, and he didn’t even explain his decision. Rather, he issued a bedridden tweet from a personal, not even official, account. It’s the equivalent of divorcing your wife over text message. As if that weren’t crazy enough, the announcement came smack in the middle of a five-day period in which Biden was not publicly seen and during which he apparently experienced an unspecified medical emergency. Suspicious much?
The Democrats’ decision to coup their own president is a curious one, on the political merits.
Hold aside the galling hypocrisy of the purported party of “democracy” trying to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot under an outlandish constitutional theory while simultaneously attempting to bankrupt, prosecute and incarcerate him on equally spurious grounds. Hold aside the self-proclaimed party of “democracy,” feigning ignorance over how its overheated rhetoric laid the seeds for their political opponent’s recent near-assassination and its continuing to depict that opponent as an existential threat to the American constitutional order. And hold aside that purportedly “democratic” party deposing its own presumptive elected nominee—a stark reversal from its presidential primary, when party poobahs worked hard to shut out all viable competition. Somewhere in Minnesota, Dean Phillips would like a word.
Hold all that aside. Because even on its own terms, the coup of Biden for cackler-in-chief Kamala Harris is going to spectacularly backfire on the Democrats.
Already, Democrats and the corporate media have been working hard to “define” Harris for the American people. At times, this has included some rather dubious retconning, such as magically pretending she wasn’t the Biden administration’s appointed “border czar.” (She was.) But the even bigger problem for Democrats is that Harris is not an unknown commodity. On the contrary, she is a very well-known commodity—one who just happens to be about as popular with the American public as venereal disease.
Harris’ current average approval rating is under 38%, and an NBC News poll last June found her to be the single least popular vice president in American history—only 32% of Americans had a positive view of her, putting her 17 points underwater. Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign was an absolute dud, self-imploding well before the first primary votes were cast. And as recently as a month or two ago, Democratic elites were openly discussing whether she could still be dropped as Biden’s 2024 running mate. Funny how quickly one can go from the weakest link to the great savior of “Our Democracy.”
Practically, the path to winning 270 Electoral College votes still runs through the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is frankly bizarre for Democrats to swap out the man who talks ceaselessly about his hardscrabble Scranton upbringing for a Californian who boasts the most left-wing voting record of any presidential nominee in modern history. Do Democrats really think Harris’ support for the Green New Deal and a national fracking ban will play well in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania or in the auto factories of Detroit? Will white working- and middle-class voters concerned about skyrocketing crime look favorably upon Harris’ enthusiastic support for the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, which racked up $2 billion worth of property damage?
Harris officially anointed Democrat nominee.
“Astronaut Mark Kelly, one of the favorites to be Kamala’s VP pick, literally owns a spy balloon company funded by a Chinese venture capitalist.”
Tucson-based World View, cofounded by now-U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly in 2012, received venture capital from Tencent — among the largest tech companies in China — both in 2013 and 2016. Tencent, like most Chinese tech giants, has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party….
Spy balloons partially funded by ChiComm ties? Like, how is this considered a totally normal business for a Senator to be in?
Not sure how much you can trust Seymour Hersh, but he says that Obama is the one who finally pushed Slow Joe out, threatening to invoke the 25th Amendment on him. He also says Obama is pulling Kamala’s strings. So there’s that.
Trump notes that Kamala Harris only used to promote her Indian heritage. “I didn’t know she was black.”
Indeed, “Kamala Harris’s Indian Background Was Once a More Prominent Part of Her Curated Image.” You don’t say. (Hat tip: Instapundit.”
More on that theme:
(Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
FBI raids home of New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul’s aide.
Early in the morning, the FBI raided the home of Linda Sun, a former official for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration. Sun served as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff for a year. Before that, she was the deputy superintendent for intergovernmental affairs and chief diversity officer under disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The federal officers searched the $3.5 million home, which resides in the exclusive neighborhood of North Shore.
That’s on top of a raid aimed at Winnie Greco, a top aide to New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Never forget that Kamala Harris is a radical.
While the left is trying it’s hardest to recast Kamala Harris as a moderate Democrat – quietly scrubbing her public record over the past 5 years – her actual positions have always been radical.
For starters, she’s on record wanting to abolish ICE (which she compared to the KKK), letting criminals like the Boston Marathon bomber and rapists vote, ban fracking and offshore drilling, defund the police, provide US taxpayer subsidized healthcare to illegals, and ban private health insurance.
Meanwhile, during 2020 Democratic primary debate Harris said that if elected president, she would “ban by executive order the importation of assault weapons.”
She also said she would reinstate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status and DACA protection for illegal immigrants, and end other Trump-era immigration policies.
And in multiple speeches and interviews, Harris insisted America needed racial ‘equity’ as well as ‘equality.’ In other words, she endorses ‘equality of outcomes’ over ‘equality of opportunity.’
As The Federalist pointed out on Tuesday:
- She Supported Bailing Out 2020 Rioters
Accused rapists, repeat offenders, and rioters alike benefitted in June 2020 when Harris encouraged her social media followers to donate to a bail fund dedicated to those arrested for their months-long, $2 billion siege of cities like Minneapolis. The vice president later lied about her involvement in the money-raising scheme.
- She Put Other Countries’ Borders Before Her Own
Harris traveled thousands of miles away from the U.S. border invasion she was tasked with handling to deliver “peace and security” to the borders of Ukraine, which “is a country.”
- She Proudly Enabled the Jussie Smollett Race Hoax
Harris called the staged hate crime an “attempted modern-day lynching.” She did not apologize even after Smollett was found guilty of felony disorderly conduct and making false police reports.
- She Sponsored Legislation That Would Codify Abortion Through All Nine Months
As a senator, Harris was a proud co-sponsor of the original version of the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which sought to codify abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
- She’s Openly Anti-Catholic
As a senator in 2018, Harris smeared Brian Buescher, a nominee for the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, for his affiliation with the famous Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus and its historically pro-life views.
Flip, meet flop, as Kamala Harris tries to walk back all her radical positions.
In 2019, Kamala Harris was rated the ‘most liberal’ Senator in a now-scrubbed rating from GovTrack. She’s on record wanting to abolish ICE (which she compared to the KKK), letting criminals like the Boston Marathon bomber and rapists vote, banning fracking and offshore drilling, defunding the police, providing US taxpayer subsidized healthcare to illegals, and banning private health insurance.
According to the NY Times, “video clips of her old statements and interviews are being weaponized as Republicans aim to define her as a left-wing radical who is out of step with swing voters.”
“The archive is deep,” said Brad Todd, a Republican strategist and ad maker who is working with David McCormick, the G.O.P. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, among other campaigns. “We will run out of time before we run out of video clips of Kamala Harris saying wacky California liberal things. I’m just not sure that the rest of this campaign includes much besides that.”
To that end, McCormick’s campaign has produced one of the first TV ads to attack Harris on her longstanding positions.
Yet, according to the Times, nevermind all that- Harris is now a reformed moderate – and has suddenly reversed course on virtually all of her most radical views.
On Friday, the Harris campaign announced that she no longer wants to ban fracking – a ‘significant shift’ from where she stood four years ago. She’s also reversed course on funding for border enforcement, no longer supports a single-payer health insurance program, and has walked back liberal fever dreams of a mandatory gun buyback.
She is no longer pushing for a single-payer health care system, and on Friday her campaign said she would maintain Mr. Biden’s pledge not to raise income taxes on people making less than $400,000 per year. -NYT
Packing the Court? Nah…
On Monday, as Mr. Biden prepared a speech in Texas calling for term limits and ethics guidelines for Supreme Court justices, the Trump campaign resurfaced statements Ms. Harris made in 2019 saying she was “open to this conversation” about expanding the Supreme Court. Ms. Harris, in a statement released by her campaign, endorsed Mr. Biden’s proposal, which does not call for adding additional justices to the court.
According to Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank, Harris has ‘evolved’ into a Biden style centrist (if centrism is defined as letting 20+ million illegals into the country and cooking Americans with inflation).
“There’s a tremendous difference in changing one’s policy ideas and changing one’s principles,” said Bennett. “She has not changed her principles. She still thinks climate change is an existential threat — she just doesn’t think the Green New Deal is the way to address it.”
Sure Matt.
The Times also hints that Harris is essentially an idiot who didn’t really understand her own positions while running for president in 2020.
…during that race, Ms. Harris also often appeared as if she were not sure what she believed. In a CNN town-hall event the day after what was widely viewed as a successful campaign rollout in Oakland, Calif., she appeared tentative while discussing health care policy, eventually saying she would eliminate private health insurance and institute a single-payer health care program.
She would go on to propose an array of policies popular with progressives. She sought to increase pay for public-school teachers by an average of $13,500 through a bump in the estate tax.
She also called for an assault weapons ban and said she would sign an executive order mandating background checks for customers of any dealer who sold more than five guns in a year.
“Harris VP Short-Lister Comes Loaded with Baggage.”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz is on the short list to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. This is almost laughable when you look at Walz’s record running the state government, which somehow manages to combine the honesty of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, the competence of former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, and the sharp-eyed ethical-watchdog instincts of soon-to-be-former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez. A whole lot of shady and unethical people in Minnesota see the state government as a giant pile of money just waiting to be taken, with a sleepy guard in the form of the governor.
“Segregation now, segregation forever!” “White Dudes for Harris” was born cringe…
More on that cringe: “Only Democrats can gather in whites-only affinity groups with matching hats.”
Another poll oversamples Democrats by a lot…and Trump still wins 48-45.
“J. D. Vance is weird.” Yeah, the modern Democratic Party is the last set of people who should be accusing others of weirdness…
“Did the Israelis just take out two key leaders in Iran’s proxy armies? Just hours after announcing that a strike in Beirut killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, the Iranian state media announced that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh had been “martyred” in Tehran. Haniyeh had just arrived there to meet the newly elected president.” Reports say he stayed in the same room in the same complex every time he visited, so Israel managed to sneak a bomb under his bed several months ago…
First F-16s sent to Ukraine.
Ukraine hits Olenya Air Base near Finland with drones some 1,800KM away from Ukraine. Tu-22M reported hit.
Ukraine also hit another Russian airbase…in Syria.
Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil depot in Polevaya, Kursk.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan threatens to send troops if Israel enters Lebanon to fight Hezbollah. You would think having some three regional wars happening on its periphery would be enough for Turkey…
“Canada’s standard of living is on track for its worst decline in 40 years, according to a new study by Canada’s Fraser Institute. The study compared the three worst periods of decline in Canada in the last 40 years – the 1989 recession, the 2008 global financial crisis, and this post-pandemic era. They found that, unlike the previous recessions, Canada is not recovering this time. Something broke. In fact, according to the Financial Post, since 2019 Canada’s had the worst growth out of 50 developed economies. Inflation-adjusted Canadian wages have been flat since 2016.” That’s what happens when you elect socialist asshats like Justin Trudeau.
“Dan Patrick Says Dade Phelan Intends to Kill School Choice Legislation Again. Patrick says Phelan refused to join him and Gov. Greg Abbott in a budget letter prioritizing school choice.” Leopard, meet spots.
But Texas House Republicans simply aren’t that into him any more.
Like the electoral blowout feared by national Democrats with Biden at the top of the ticket, Phelan’s abysmal record of the Texas House under his mismanagement resulted in a political disaster; more incumbent Republicans lost their primary re-election campaigns than any time in modern history.
Phelan himself is damaged goods, politically. He outspent his primary opponent by a 5-to-1 margin yet garnered a “win” of less than 700 votes in a race that saw a couple of thousand Democrats flip primaries, clearly to “help” him.
Everyone in the House knows that their defeated colleagues earned challengers because Phelan made them vulnerable… and then left them to go down in defeat.
But he is, for now, still the speaker… in name, anyway.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was publicly done with Phelan more than a year ago after the speaker and his cronies sent a deeply flawed, legally problematic, and factually vacuous “impeachment” of Attorney General Ken Paxton to be sorted out by the Senate.
“DEA’s Most Wanted Sinaloa Drug Cartel Leader ‘El Mayo’ Arrested Near El Paso. Federal authorities arrested the notorious drug lord Ismael Zambada-Garcia, who is already under indictment for his role in leading a multi-billion dollar narcotics empire.”
The Democratic Party’s social justice agenda in action: “At least eleven transgender-identifying male felons are currently housed at a formerly women-only prison in Washington State. Many of them committed violent crimes against women and children before they entered the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW), colloquially known as ‘Purdy.'”
“Organization Fighting Radical Gender Ideology in California Sues School District for Withholding Public Records.”
Female boxer quits after 46 seconds into a match against a biological man at the Olympics.
NRA’s New York trial “Ends With A Whimper And Not A Bang.” Severe negligence on the NRA’s part, but no special monitor.
Some interesting charts that break down how U.S. sports teams make money.
Speaking of which, the NFL’s $4.7 billion antitrust judgement was just overturned. “The jury’s damages verdict was otherwise unsupported by the evidence.”
“A Bakersfield College professor who was investigated and disciplined after he questioned the use of grant money to fund social justice initiatives at his school has agreed to a $2.4 million settlement to resolve his lawsuit.” Keep hitting them in the pocketbook…
Chevron moves its headquarters from California to Houston. Wonder what took them so long…
Texas oil pipelines nearing capacity, could reach 94% or 95% of capacity next year.
Boar’s Head recalls $7 million pounds of meat over Listeria.
Ford lost $47,585 for every electric car sold in Q2. (Hat tip: TPPF.)
Comedian wins court case brought by Australian government over offensive joke.
Bungie games, of Destiny and Halo fame, just laid off a bunch of staff. Official line says 17% of the company, but elsewhere I’m hearing the true total is closer to 40%. Microsoft bought then spun out Bungie, and Sony bought them in 2022.
GreensPoint Mall, RIP.
Congratulations to Dwight for fifteen years of blogging.
The worst safety video ever. Actually, only the second worst, behind Staplefahrer Klaus…
“FBI Director Suggests Trump’s Ear Just Spontaneously Exploded.”
“Democrats Continue Long-Standing Tradition Of Large Whites-Only Gatherings.”
“Kamala Admits She Can’t Remember If She Was In Charge Of Border As She Was Pretty Drunk These Last 4 Years And Honestly It’s All A Bit Hazy.”
“Exhausted Journalist Finally Gets To Bed After Long Day Of Copying And Pasting Democrat Talking Points.”
“Behavioral Scientists Now Believe Feminists Are Always Angry Because They Don’t Have A Man To Tell Them To Calm Down.”
“Imane Khelif Wins First-Ever Gold Medal In Freestyle Domestic Violence.”
“Sodom And Gomorrah Set To Host 2028 Olympics.”
“The dog just wants to be a dog, and they are trying to turn it into a Social Justice Warrior.”
I’m still between jobs, so hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags:2024 Presidential Race, 25th Amendment, 89th Texas Legislature, Babylon Bee, baseball, Biden Recession, Bungie, California, Canada, Chevron, China, Communism, corruption, Crime, DACA, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, DEA, DEI, Democrats, dogs, El Paso, Eric Adams, F-16, FBI, feminists, fraud, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houston, Iran, Ismael Zambada-Garcia, Ismail Haniyeh, Israel, Israel-Hamas War, J. D. Vance, Joe Biden, Josh Hammer, Justin Trudeau, Kamala Harris, Kathy Hochul, Kursk Oblast, Lebanon, Linda Sun, LinkSwarm, Mark Kelly, Mary Katharine Ham, Media Watch, Microsoft, Military, NBA, New York, New York City, NFL, NHL, NRA, Obama, oil industry, Olympics, Polevaya, polls, recall, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ronald Rowe, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, school choice, Secret Service, Seymour Hersh, Sinaloa Drug Cartel, Social Justice Warriors, Sony, Syria, Texas, Tim Walz, transexual, Turkey, Ukriane, video games, Winnie Greco
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, July 9th, 2024
After hitting the Yucatan, Hurricane Beryl took a sharp turn and made Texas landfall straight over the Houston area. According to CenterPoint Energy (the linear successor to Houston Lighting and Power following deregulation) some 1,765,034 of 2,600,000 customers are currently without power. Yesterday evening that number was over 2.2 million, so progress is being made.
But CenterPoint’s outage tracker us offline, so it’s hard to tell which areas are affected.
And it’s not just Harris County. Large portions of Waller, Fort Bend, Wharton, Matagorda, Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, and Montgomery counties all showed over 50% of residents without power.
Houston is a huge, sprawling city, and a certain amount of power outages are to be expected from a hurricane with 70 MPH winds. But given the widespread destruction wrought by Harvey and Ike (both more powerful hurricanes), one would have thought CenterPoint and other relevant energy producers would have conducted more vigorous tree trimming, but evidently not.
Acting Governor Dan Patrick (Governor Abbott is off on an economic development trip to Asia) declared 121 counties disaster areas.
Having endured Allen, I can assure you that living through an extended power outage in Houston during the summer is a hot, humid and deeply unpleasant experience.
So far only seven people have died, so let’s hope the death toll stays that low.
Update: A whole lot of Conroe and The Woodlands lack power right now.
Tags:Brazoria, CenterPoint Energy, Chambers County, Dan Patrick, Fort Bend County, Galveston, Houston, Hurricane, Hurricane Beryl, Matagorda County, Montgomery County, power outage, Texas, Waller County
Posted in Texas | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, May 28th, 2024
If you live in Texas, today is primary runoff election day. In particular, Dade Phelan and a whole lot of his coalition cronies are fighting to stay in power, and voters can slam the door shut on them today.
Brad Johnson at The Texan has an overview of what’s a stake in today’s runoff.
House District (HD) 21 is the largest chip on the table and the warring sides in this raging intra-GOP trench war have gone all-in.
Including third-party groups, more than $12 million is likely to be spent on both sides of the clash between Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and David Covey. The challenger beat the incumbent by 3 points in the primary, but this round is winner-take-all.
Not only is a legislative seat on the line, but so is a speakership, one that comes with lots of influence for the area — a fact that’s been fashioned into an argument by Phelan and team.
The last time a speaker lost re-election was in 1972, though it was a substantially different circumstance.
Legislative hopes for next session are on the line — both in terms of what Phelan himself hopes to accomplish in 2025 and for everything that may end up on the chopping block should he and other incumbents survive, opening the door for a kind of revenge tour against Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Patrick’s legacy as one of the most influential and powerful politicians in Texas history is already cemented. But he never likes losing a fight; he wouldn’t be where he is if he did. To that end, Patrick wants to ensure the speaker with whom he’s feuded so prolifically and publicly meets his political end on Tuesday…and Phelan hopes to deny Patrick what he wants yet again.
The lieutenant governor has likened the speaker to everything under the sun except the first over the wall at the Alamo. And the speaker has returned fire in-kind. Fences can always be mended, but this fence is more like the Great Wall of China or the Trump border wall that was never finished.
Should the speaker escape his political doom tonight, it’s more likely than not that slings and arrows will again be lobbed as the Legislature is eventually brought to a grinding halt.
Whether they’ll admit it publicly or not, more members than one might believe think Phelan will retain the speakership in that scenario; pour one out for all the “the King is dead”-type of columns written right after the primary.
And if Phelan loses tonight, that’ll mark the true beginning of the 2025 House speaker race. Jockeying for position behind the scenes has been going on since November, but at that point it would significantly ramp up.
The bomb-throwing contingent on the right of the House GOP caucus is bigger than it’s ever been and will have a legitimate run at pushing for various reforms. And after their faction won the Texas GOP chairmanship, the political relevance that waxed last year and during the primary waxed further.
Instead of “bomb thrower” I’d call them “the Republican wing of the Republican Party,” the one that actually wants to enact conservative policies and the one that doesn’t want to rule at the head of a Democrat-dominated coalition. Unlike Phelan.
Given widespread Republican dissatisfaction with Phelan’s faction, who is throwing money to keep Phelan’s toadies in office? Gambling interests.
Special interest casino gambling is spending big to protect incumbents who have carried their water in the Texas legislature.
According to campaign finance reports filed on Monday, Sands PAC donated nearly $650,000 in a mixture of races, including returning incumbents, failed candidates, and those taking part in primary runoff elections,
Already defeated incumbent Kronda Thimesch (R-Lewisville) received $54,000 from the PAC following her loss to attorney Mitch Little in the March primary. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo), who notched an unimpressive primary victory in March, received $25,000.
Embattled House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) received $100,000 in direct contributions from the Sands PAC and $512,163 in-kind spending, which the Speaker and other candidates obtained from a newly formed and well-funded vehicle for Sands and its owner.
Earlier this week, Texas Scorecard reported on the political spending of the “Texas Defense” PAC, a newly established committee funded by Miriam Adelson, the owner of Sands Casino.
Along with Phelan, the Texas Defense PAC supports embattled incumbents Frederick Frazier, Justin Holland, John Kuempel, and John McQueeney, a candidate for the open seat vacated by State Rep. Craig Goldman.
Frederick Frazier’s felony-plagued candidacy received $496,000 from the Defense PAC and $50,000 from Sands, as did Holland.
Seguin-based State Rep. John Kuempel also received $50,000 from Sands. Kuempel’s father, the late John Kuempel, was a proponent of expanded gambling and authored measures during his time in the legislature to that end.
Alan Schoolcraft, a former lawmaker, is challenging Kuempel and has the backing of Gov. Greg Abbott after Kuempel voted to strip school choice from an omnibus education bill in 2023.
All incumbent lawmakers forced into runoffs (Frazier, Holland, Kuempel) voted to expand gambling in Texas during the 2023 legislative session, despite the issue not being a priority for Texas voters. The only incumbent who missed out on funding and voted likewise was Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston).
Democrats Jarvis Johnson and Nathan Johnson (no relation) received $50,000 and $9,000 in funding from Sands, respectively.
Today will also decided the runoff between gun YouTuber Brandon Herrera and incumbent Tony Gonzales for the 23rd Congressional District.
Tags:2024 Election, Alan Schoolcraft, Brad Johnson, Brandon Herrera, Craig Goldman, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, Drew Darby, Elections, Frederick Frazier, gambling, Greg Abbott, John Kuempel, John McQueeney, Justin Holland, Kronda Thimesch, Miriam Adelson, Republicans, runoff, Texas, Texas Defense PAC, Texas House District 21, Texas House District 44, Texas House District 61, Texas House District 97, Tony Gonzales
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »
Friday, April 12th, 2024
It’s been a week of petty frustrations, with simple things like paying for online transactions made impossible by websites that send out the wrong information despite the right information being on file. Speaking of frustration, Americans continue to be battered by high inflation, blacks continue to abandon Biden, and it turns out that the Pope might, just might, be Catholic after all.
Core inflation is up yet again.
A hotter-than-expected consumer price index report rattled Wall Street Wednesday, but markets are buzzing about an even more specific prices gauge contained within the data — the so-called supercore inflation reading.
Along with the overall inflation measure, economists also look at the core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, to find the true trend. The supercore gauge, which also excludes shelter and rent costs from its services reading, takes it even a step further. Fed officials say it is useful in the current climate as they see elevated housing inflation as a temporary problem and not as good a measure of underlying prices.
Supercore accelerated to a 4.8% pace year over year in March, the highest in 11 months.
Tom Fitzpatrick, managing director of global market insights at R.J. O’Brien & Associates, said if you take the readings of the last three months and annualize them, you’re looking at a supercore inflation rate of more than 8%, far from the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal.
(Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Speaking of inflation, welcome to $7 Tree.
Black voters continue to abandon Biden in droves.
According to a Wall Street Journal Swing State Poll, blacks, especially black males are abandoning Biden in huge numbers.
While most Black men said they intend to support Biden, some 30% of them in the poll said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for the former Republican president. There isn’t comparable WSJ swing-state polling from 2020, but Trump received votes from 12% of Black men nationwide that year, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large poll of the electorate.
That’s an 18 percentage point swing, minimum, for black males, if the national results and the swing state voting is similar.
By confirmed, I mean those who said they intended to vote for Trump.
The gap is even larger if we factor in undecided voters. Biden is down by a massive 30 percentage points vs 2020.
Biden may not be on the ballot for the Ohio general election because the Democratic National Convention falls too late to certify him.
Pope turns out to be Catholic, comes out against child genital mutilation.
“Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell announces that he’s switching from Democrat to Republican.”
Country musician Jason Aldean refuses to let Biden campaign use hit song “Fly Over States.”
Good: A teacher helping her son with homework. Bad: A teacher helping her son force female students into sex trafficking. “Klein Cain High School cosmetology teacher Kedria McMath Grigsby is accused of helping her son, Roger Magee, force the troubled teens into prostitution.”
Man driving eighteen-wheeler interntionally crashes into DPS office in Brenham, killing one.
Hard evidence that temperature data is being manipulated to show global warming.
Investigative science writer Paul Homewood last year discovered considerable tampering in 2022 with the recent CET record. He initially found that in version one, the summer of 1995 had been 0.1°C warmer than 2018. In version 2, the two years swapped places with 1995 cooled by 0.07°C and 2018 warmed by 0.13°C. Alerted to these changes, Homewood then analysed the full record from version 1 to 2, and the graph below shows what he found.
As can be seen, the adjustments up to 1970 are small with ups and downs offsetting each other. Homewood then found that the years from 1970 to 2003 had been cooled markedly, followed by significant rises to 2022. Homewood concludes that “unfortunately it is part of a much wider tampering with temperature globally – and the tampering is always one way, cooling the past and heating the present”. Given that we now know that the Met Office has been using class 4 statistics for two thirds of its database since 2006, the recent higher adjustments would seem to call for clarifying explanations from the state-funded Met Office.
(Hat tip: Boreptach.)
Ukrainian drone attack hits radar site 650km inside Russia.
Speaking of drones, China is supplying tens of thousands of drones…to Ukraine. I did not see that coming, but China certainly can use the money.
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick lays out his legislative priorities for 2025.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has announced his interim charges for the Senate, a set of 57 issues he is calling on Senate Committees to investigate and research ahead of the legislative session next year.
The list of charges runs the gamut of issues conservatives have called on the legislature to address, including property tax relief, protecting Texas land from hostile foreign ownership, and strengthening laws preventing electioneering by school districts and other political subdivisions.
Some of the biggest reform proposals, however, have been reserved for higher education.
Patrick has asked the Higher Education Subcommittee to study and make recommendations regarding the role of ‘faculty senates’, antisemitism on college campuses, as well as to review the implementation of a new state law banning DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in state universities that went into effect earlier this year.
“The Senate’s work to study the list of charges will begin in the coming weeks and months. Following completion of hearings, committees will submit reports with their specific findings and policy recommendations before December 1, 2024,” said Patrick.
When you think Houston Democratic Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee has already said the stupidest thing she possibly can, she goes out and proves you wrong.
I know you’re shocked, shocked to find out that gun-grabbing opportunist David Hogg’s political group Leaders We Deserve spent way more on administration than backing candidates.
Thanks to New York City’s idiotic rent control laws, not only would a hotel guest refuse to pay rent or leave, but a court actually ruled that he was the owner of the hotel.
First class stamps are going up to 73 cents. Thanks, Joe Biden.
If the commies running Vietnam accuse someone of a crime, I don’t automatically trust them, but Truong My Lan may actually be guilty.
Behind the stately yellow portico of the colonial-era courthouse in Ho Chi Minh City, a 67-year-old Vietnamese property developer was sentenced to death on Thursday for looting one of the country’s largest banks over a period of 11 years.
It’s a rare verdict – she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime.
The decision is a reflection of the dizzying scale of the fraud. Truong My Lan was convicted of taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. The verdict requires her to return $27bn, a sum prosecutors said may never be recovered. Some believe the death penalty is the court’s way of trying to encourage her to return some of the missing billions.
The habitually secretive communist authorities were uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They said 2,700 people were summoned to testify, while 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers were involved.
The evidence was in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five others were tried with Truong My Lan, who denied the charges and can appeal.
All of the defendants were found guilty. Four received life in jail. The rest were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended. Truong My Lan’s husband and niece received jail terms of nine and 17 years respectively.
Snip.
By 2011, Truong My Lan was a well-known business figure in Ho Chi Minh City, and she was allowed to arrange the merger of three smaller, cash-strapped banks into a larger entity: Saigon Commercial Bank.
Vietnamese law prohibits any individual from holding more than 5% of the shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, Truong My Lan actually owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial.
They accused her of using that power to appoint her own people as managers, and then ordering them to approve hundreds of loans to the network of shell companies she controlled.
The amounts taken out are staggering. Her loans made up 93% of all the bank’s lending.
According to prosecutors, over a period of three years from February 2019, she ordered her driver to withdraw 108 trillion Vietnamese dong, more than $4bn (£2.3bn) in cash from the bank, and store it in her basement.
That much cash, even if all of it was in Vietnam’s largest denomination banknotes, would weigh two tonnes.
Yeah, none of that seems kosher…
Memorial Hermann Hospital: No liver transplant for you!
How CD sales and rock music both collapsed in the early 21st century.
A very interesting O.J. Simpson story:
(Hat tip: Commenter Kirk.)
Strange news from Russia: Chechnya has banned music that’s slower than 80 beats per minute, or faster than 116 beats per minute. Both the Russian and Chechen national anthems are slower than that…
“John Tinniswood of Southport, UK is now the world’s oldest man.
How a programmer managed to rip off casinos for years. It helped that he worked for the Nevada Gaming Control Board…
“New ‘Biden Diet‘ Sweeps Nation: Pay The Same Amount Of Money But Eat 50% Less Food.”
Vatican Reluctantly Sides With God On Gender Theory.
Adorable prison break.
Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags:2024 Presidential Race, 89th Texas Legislature, Biden Recession, Brenham, Catholics, Chechnya, China, Communism, Country Music, Crime, Dan Patrick, David Hogg, Democrats, dogs, drones, Economics, Elections, fraud, gambling, Global Warming, inflation, Jason Aldean, Joe Biden, Kedria McMath Grigsby, Klein ISD, Leaders We Deserve, LinkSwarm, Mike McDonnell, Nebraska, Nevada, Nevada Gaming Control Board, New York City, O.J. Simpson, Ohio, Paul Homewood, Pope Francis, rent control, Rock and Roll, Roger Magee, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, sex offender, Shelia Jackson Lee, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Texas DPS, transexual, Truong My Lan, Ukraine, USPS, Vietnam
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Global Warming, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, video, Waste and Fraud | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 6th, 2024
Lots of gratifying results came out of yesterday’s primaries. Perhaps the most gratifying is that the Straus-Bonnen-Phelan Axis, which has thwarted conservative priorities for decades, finally had a stake driven through its heart.
First statewide and national office races:
President Trump crushed Nikki Haley in Texas with over 76% of the vote.
Indeed, Trump won every Super Tuesday primary save Vermont, where Haley eked out a win.
Former president Donald Trump seems poised to breeze to the Republican presidential nomination after nearly sweeping the party’s Super Tuesday contests.
By 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Trump had won the Republican presidential contests in at least twelve of the Super Tuesday states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Maine, Alabama, Massachusetts, Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, and delegate-rich California.
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, meanwhile, earned her first — and likely only — win of the night in Vermont.
Results from caucuses in Alaska and Utah were still outstanding around 11:30 p.m. ET.
The results were so crushing that they managed to drive establishment catspaw Haley from the race.
Ted Cruz cruised to a victory with just under 90% of the vote, and will face Democrat Collin Allred in November. Allred won a clear majority in a five-way race, with Roland Gutierrez coming in at very distant second that was more than 40 points behind.
U.S. Representative Tony Gonzalez is headed into a runoff with YouTuber and gun rights activist Brandon Herrera.
In the Republican primary race for Texas Congressional District 23, Brandon Herrera has taken incumbent Congressman Tony Gonzales to a runoff.
According to unofficial totals, Gonzales captured 46 percent of the vote to Herrera’s 23 percent.
Leading into the election, much of the discussion centered on Gonzales’ multiple censures from Republican organizations.
The congressman had been censured by the Medina County Republican Party, which was followed by a censure from the Republican Party of Texas (RPT).
The RPT censure was only the second time in history the party had used the maneuver for a sitting politician, the first being in 2018 with then-House Speaker Joe Staus (R-San Antonio). House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) then became the third sitting member to be censured by the State Republican Executive Committee when they approved the official resolution in February.
Gonzales’ censure came after RPT found that he had violated the multiple tenets of the party platform with his votes in Congress.
The incumbent Gonzales had also been criticized for his stance on border security.
In December, he penned a letter to both Democratic and Republican federal leadership stating that he believes the border crisis could reach a “point of no return” if lawmakers do not act soon.
The letter came after a disagreement with Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX-21) over a border security bill Roy introduced to require the detention or expulsion of illegal immigrants, which would prohibit “all asylum” claims. Gonzales has also labeled some of his GOP colleagues “insurgents” and accused 20 Republicans of planning to push “anti-immigrant” legislation under the guise of border security policy.
The leading issue for voters statewide leading into the primary election is border security and immigration, which is represented by the vote totals in this race.
Herrera describes himself as a “Second Amendment activist, and social media personality,” known online as “The AK Guy.”
He proclaimed, “Texas is done with RINO’s,” during the night of the primary election.
“The war starts now.”
(Previously.)
But in Texas, the big news was that Dade Phalen, the latest in the Joe Straus/Dennis Bonnen cabal that has stayed in power with Democratic Party backing to thwart conservative priorities, is headed into a runoff with David Covey for Texas House District 21, with less than half a point separating the two.
The Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan will be heading to a runoff, after failing to receive the support of a majority of Republican voters in his district.
Phelan, who was first elected to the House in 2014 and has been speaker since 2021, will face off against former Orange County GOP chairman David Covey in a runoff election that is certain to garner attention from across the state.
Phelan had been criticized by conservatives for failing to pass conservative priorities, placing Democrats in leadership positions, and leading the charge to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton last year. Former President Donald Trump endorsed Covey, calling any Republican who backed Phelan “a fool.”
Phelan received 45.8 percent of the vote with Covey earning 45.3 percent.
Alicia Davis, a Jasper County activist, took 8.9 percent of the vote.
“The people of House District 21 have put every politician in Texas, and the nation, on notice,” said Covey. “Our elected officials are elected by the people and work for the people, and when they don’t, there will be consequences.”
“Since 1836, Texans have answered the call to defend liberty and fight for our freedoms. I have every intention of continuing that tradition,” he added.
Covey was joined by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick at his election night watch party. Patrick, who has been a vocal critic of Phelan, had not officially endorsed Covey.
But it wasn’t just Phelan! A whole bunch of the Republican state reps who backed Phelan either lost outright or are headed to runoffs:
Mike Olcott thumped incumbent Glenn Rogers in Texas House District 60.
The runoff rematch between state Rep. Glenn Rogers (R-Graford) and Mike Olcott went entirely unlike the first round two years ago, with Olcott defeating the incumbent in a landslide.
Once Palo Pinto County returns came in, it was clear which way the bout would go. Olcott won Rogers’ home county by 365 votes and cleaned up in the rest of the district.
Last go-around, Rogers nipped Olcott by a few hundred votes, thanks in large part to support from Gov. Greg Abbott. This time in the rematch, the governor switched sides after Rogers voted against his education savings account plan — opposition to which the incumbent has remained steadfast. On Monday, state Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford) announced his support for Olcott in the race.
Rogers outlasted his previous two stiff primary challenges, the first in 2020 for the open seat against Jon Francis, the son-in-law of conservative mega-donors Farris and JoAnn Wilks. Then in 2022 Olcott challenged Rogers, the incumbent, and narrowly lost.
This time, Abbott has made multiple trips to the district, stating at one that, “There are many reasons we are here today, and one of those is that I made a mistake last time in endorsing Glenn Rogers. And I’m here to correct that mistake. I’m here to make sure everyone knows, I’m here to support Mike Olcott to be your state representative.”
Olcott swept the top-level endorsements with Abbott, Donald Trump, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Joanne Shofner absolutely destroyed incumbent Travis Clardy in Texas House District 11, 63% to 37%.
uring the 88th Legislative session last year, Clardy was one of the House members who voted in favor of stripping education savings accounts from the November education omnibus bill.
Leading into the election a central issue was how each candidate landed on school choice, as both Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have based their candidate endorsements on support for education freedom.
Clardy was also issued a cease and desist letter by Abbott for “representing to the public that Governor Abbott has endorsed you in your bid for re-election,” when in fact Abbott had endorsed his opponent Joanne Shofner, whom the letter called “a true conservative.” Clardy has continued to express vocal opposition to school choice: “Right now, the price to get his endorsement was I had to bend the knee and kiss the ring and say that I will vote for vouchers[.]”
Shofner, along with both Abbott and Cruz’s support, also had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Janis Holt defeated Ernest Bailes in Texas House District 18, 53% to 39%. Colony Ridge was a hot topic in the race.
Shelley Luther defeated incumbent Reggie Smith.
Conservative activist Shelley Luther has won her rematch against incumbent Republican State Rep. Reggie Smith of Van Alystne to represent House District 62 in North Texas.
House District 62 includes Grayson, Fannin, and portions of Delta and Franklin counties.
Smith, who has served in the Texas House since 2018, is part of the House leadership team, serving as chair of the House Election Committee under House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont). As chair, Smith either slow-walked or killed several Republican priority measures addressing election security.
Smith’s record from the past year also includes voting to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton—who was later acquitted by the Senate—and voting against school choice legislation.
Luther, who made state and national headlines in 2020 when she was jailed after refusing to close her salon during the COVID-19 shutdowns, said previously she looks forward to working with the governor to pass school choice this next session.
Marc LaHood defeated incumbent Steve Allison in Texas House District 121, 54% to 39%.
Allison voted with Democrats to strip a school choice measure from a school spending measure.
His opposition to school choice drew the ire of Gov. Greg Abbott, who endorsed LaHood.
During Allison’s two terms, he has earned an “F” rating on the Fiscal Responsibility Index for his votes on fiscal issues. He was also one of the 60 Republican House members who voted to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Hillary Hickland defeated incumbent Hugh Shine in Texas House District 55, 53.1% to 39.5%.
Belton mom and pro-family advocate Hillary Hickland has won the Republican Primary Election for House District 55, unseating incumbent State Rep. Hugh Shine of Temple.
HD 55 encompasses part of Bell County.
School Choice has defined the HD 55 race, as Shine voted against Gov. Greg Abbott’s proposed school choice package.
Hickland meanwhile accumulated endorsements from Abbott, former President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Home School Coalition, and Young Conservatives of Texas.
Matt Morgan defeated incumbent Jacey Jetton in Texas House District 26, 53.8% to 38.6%.
Businessman Matt Morgan has defeated State Rep. Jacey Jetton of Richmond in the Republican Primary.
House District 26 includes part of Fort Bend County.
The failed impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton featured prominently in the race.
Jetton was among the Republicans who voted to impeach Paxton.
Morgan—who fell short to Jetton in a runoff in 2020—quickly earned the endorsement of Paxton. He also had the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, who called Jetton a “liberal.”
During his two terms in office, Jetton earned an “F” rating on the Fiscal Responsibility Index for his votes on fiscal issues.
Brent Money unseated “incumbent” Jill Dutton in Texas House District 2, reversing the results of the January runoff between the two.
Former Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson takes a narrow lead over incumbent Justin Holland into the Texas House District 33 runoff.
State Rep. Justin Holland (R-Rockwall) and challenger Katrina Pierson will duke it out for another three months after neither eclipsed 50 percent, both advancing to the runoff.
The pair were neck and neck in the Rockwall County and Collin County portions of the district.
Holland’s clash with Pierson and London was highly-anticipated. Pierson has the largest profile of any challenger in this 2024 primary, having served as a Donald Trump campaign spokeswoman in 2016. On top of that, London challenged Holland in the 2022 primary, giving him some level of ballot name ID.
Despite that Trump affiliation, Pierson was omitted from the former president’s endorsement list in Texas races.
The incumbent found himself in the political right’s crosshairs after three consequential votes: impeaching Attorney General Ken Paxton, striking down Gov. Greg Abbott’s school choice plan, and advancing through committee a proposal to raise the age of purchasing certain semi-automatic rifles to 21.
Holland far outraised and outspent his two opponents, who combined raised $337,000 to the incumbent’s $1.2 million.
He was the beneficiary of around $170,000 from Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), $225,000 from the Charles Butt Public Education PAC, $50,000 from the casino group Texas Sands PAC, $40,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, and $115,000 from the Associated Republicans of Texas.
Alan Schoolcraft took a small lead against incumbent John Kuempel in the Texas House District 44 race. “Following election night results, Alan Schoolcraft and John Kuempel will go head to head in a runoff election scheduled for May 28. Schoolcraft received 48.13% of votes while Kuempel received 45.02% of votes.” Schoolcraft was endorsed by President Trump.
Mitch Little, Ken Paxton’s impeachment lawyer, appears to have won Texas House District 65 over incumbent Kronda Thimesch . “Little, with Paxton’s backing, defeated State Rep. Kronda Thimesch, who had the backing of Governor Greg Abbott, by about 300 votes.” Which means a recount is likely.
In Texas House District 1, Chris Spencer forced incumbent Gary Vandeaver into a runoff, with less than 2.5% separating them.
Helen Kerwin takes a seven point lead over incumbent DeWayne Burns into the Texas House District 58 runoff, and only missed an outright win by 1.2%. Kirwin was also endorsed by President Trump.
Challenger Keresa Richardson takes a seven point lead over incumbent Frederick Frazier into the Texas House District 61 runoff. Looks like I’ll have to wait until May to use the “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” joke…
Challenger Andy Hopper takes a narrow lead over incumbent Lynn Stuckey in the Texas House District 64 race into the runoff.
Challenger David Lowe was only two points behind Stephanie Klick going into the Texas House District 91 runoff.
Given the usual run of only one or two incumbents getting knocked off in primaries (and those usually involved in prominent scandals), having 17 reps meet that fate is a political earthquake on par with Newt Gingrich-lead Republicans capturing the House after 40 years of Democratic rule in 1994. All the outside gambling and other special interest money was on the Phelan Axis side, and they still got stomped. I credit this in large measure to Trump, Paxton, Abbott and Cruz getting involved in statehouse races.
The Phelan Axis decided that killing school choice and the Paxton impeachment were the hills they wanted to die on, and a large number of them did.
But not every rep who voted for the Paxton impeachment and/or against school choice lost or got taken to a runoff:
Keith Bell defeated Joshua Feuerstein in District 3.
Cole Hefner defeated Jeff Fletcher in District 5.
Jay Dean defeated Joe McDaniel in District 7.
Cody Harris stomped Jaye Curtis in District 8.
Trent Ashby thumped Paulette Carson.
Steve Toth defeated Skeeter Hubert in District 15.
Stan Gerdes beat Tom Glass in District 17.
Ellen Troxclair won against Kyle Biedermann in District 19.
Terry Wilson beat Elva Chapa in District 20.
Greg Bonnen destroyed Larissa Ramirez in District 24.
Gary Gates beat Dan Mathews in District 28.
Ben Bumgarner won a three-way race in District 63.
Matt Shaheen beat Wayne Richard in District 66.
Jeff Leach beat Daren Meis in District 67.
David Spiller beat Kerri Kingsbery in District 68.
Stan Lambert beat Liz Case in District 71.
Drew Darby defeated Stormy Bradley in District 72.
Dustin Burrows defeated Wade Cowan 2-1 in District 83.
Stan Kitzman defeated Tim Greeson by a similar margin in District 85.
John Smithee defeated Jamie Haynes in District 86.
Ken King walloped Karen Post in District 88.
Candy Noble edged Abraham George in District 89.
Giovanni Capriglione beat Brad Schofield in District 98.
Charlie Geren defeated Jack Reynolds in District 99.
Morgan Meyer edged Barry Wernick in District 108.
Angie Chen Button decisively Chad Carnahan in District 112.
Briscoe Cain stomped Bianca Gracia in District 128.
Mano Deayala defeated John Perez in District 133.
Lacey Hull defeated Jared Woodfill in District 138.
That’s 31 Republican reps that could theoretically reconstitute the Phelan axis, but I’m not sure they have the stomach for it.
Of those, Bell, Dean, Lambert, Darby, King and Geren were the only ones to vote both for the Paxton impeachment and against school choice. Michael Quinn Sullivan (who I’m pretty sure is ecstatic at the numbers of Phelan enablers taken down yesterday) has identified Burrows and Harris as the two most likely Phelan axis members to attempt to take the gavel next year, and Geren and Capriglione have always struck me as among the biggest supporters of the axis. But a lot of those other names strike me as “soft” axis supporters who might be persuaded to support an actual Republican for speaker, least the same fate befall them as all the other Phelan backers taken down.
All in all, it was a very, very good day for Texas conservatives.
Tags:2024 Election, 2024 Presidential Race, 2024 Texas Senate Race, Abraham George, Alan Schoolcraft, Angie Chen Button, Barry Wernick, Ben Bumgarner, Bianca Gracia, Brad Schofield, Brandon Herrera, Brent Money, Briscoe Cain, Candy Noble, Chad Carnahan, Charlie Geren, Chris Spencer, Cody Harris, Colin Allred, Colony Ridge, Dade Phelan, Dan Mathews, Dan Patrick, Daren Meis, David Covey, David Spiller, Donald Trump, Drew Darby, Dustin Burrows, Elections, Ellen Troxclair, Elva Janine Chapa, Ernest Bailes, Frederick Frazier, Gary Gates, Gary VanDeaver, Giovanni Capriglione, Glenn Rogers, Greg Abbott, Greg Bonnen, Guns, Hillary Hickland, Hugh Shine, Jacey Jetton, Jack Reynolds, Jamie Haynes, Janis Holt, Jared Woodfill, Jeff Leach, Jill Dutton, Joanne Shofner, John Perez, John Smithee, Joshua Feuerstein, Justin Holland, Karen Post, Katrina Pierson, Keith Bell, Ken King, Ken Paxton, Keresa Richardson, Kerri Kingsbery, Kronda Thimesch, Kyle Biedermann, Lacey Hull, Larissa Ramirez, Liz Case, Mano Deayala, Marc LaHood, Matt Morgan, Matt Shaheen, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Mike Olcott, Mitch Little, Morgan Meyer, Nikki Haley, Reggie Smith, Republican Party of Texas, Republicans, Shelley Luther, Stan Gerdes, Stan Kitzman, Stan Lambert, Steve Allison, Stormy Bradley, Super Tuesday, Ted Cruz, Terry Wilson, Texas, Texas 23rd Congressional District, Texas House District 1, Texas House District 11, Texas House District 18, Texas House District 2, Texas House District 21, Texas House District 24, Texas House District 26, Texas House District 33, Texas House District 44, Texas House District 5, Texas House District 55, Texas House District 60, Texas House District 61, Texas House District 62, Texas House District 65, Texas House District 7, Texas House District 8, Tim Greeson, Tom Glass, Tony Gonzales, Travis Clardy, Wade Cowen, Wayne Richard
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Global Warming, Guns, Republicans, Texas | 20 Comments »
Monday, December 11th, 2023
Here’s some Texas oil industry news that also has some political implications.
The most well-known political donor in Texas GOP politics, Midland’s Tim Dunn, just became substantially wealthier as his shale company CrownRock LP was purchased by Houston’s Occidental for a deal worth roughly $12 billion.
That total is broken down into three tranches: $9.1 billion in new debt financed through loans with Bank of America, $1.7 billion in new-issued stock, and $1.2 billion in assumed CrownRock debt. The deal will go through by the end of 2024’s first quarter.
“We believe the acquisition of CrownRock’s assets adds to the strongest and most differentiated portfolio that Occidental has ever had,” Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental, said in a release.
“We found CrownRock to be a strategic fit, giving us the opportunity to build scale in the Midland Basin and positioning us to drive value creation for our shareholders with immediate free cash flow accretion.”
The deal is a massive one in the petrochemical business, moving CrownRock’s 170,000 barrels-per-day production to the 10th-largest petroleum company in the U.S.
Not so long ago, some pundits were predicting that Saudi Arabia could just lower the cost of oil until they drove all the American shale players out of business. That turned out not to be the case. American shale companies improved their technology and got smarter and leaner, managing to survive and thrive even at lower oil prices.
The purchase may also have a significant impact on the Texas political landscape.
But the larger impact could come on the political side, supplementing Dunn’s already large war chest even further. Dunn has contributed nearly $14 million to candidates and political action committees (PAC) on the state level in the last three years, $9.6 million of which went to the now-embattled conservative group Defend Texas Liberty (DTL).
DTL has been mired in scandal since its then-president, former state Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford), hosted right-wing gadfly and antisemitic commentator Nick Fuentes at the office of his Fort Worth consulting firm Pale Horse Strategies back in October. Fuentes was photographed entering the office building and leaving it over six hours later. The meeting has sent a ripple effect throughout Texas politics, most notably in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s use of his $3 million donation and loan from DTL to purchase Israeli government bonds.
I never reported on the whole Nick Fuentes thing because I thought it was a clown-show distraction from real news, and because I never felt Defend Texas Liberty had much of an impact. They back Dan Patrick and Tony Tinderholt, but both were well-established before they got DTL money.
Stickland was removed from his position as president — replaced by Luke Macias — but could still preside over Pale Horse according to business filings, the overarching consulting firm that directs the various organizations underneath its umbrella.
It’s also caused turmoil within the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) — to which Dunn has given $130,000 since 2021 — culminating in a heated debate over the adoption of language forbidding association with espousers or tolerators of antisemitic views.
The scandal drew a tacit response from Dunn when he posted back in October, “I am proud to have been named as a top 50 Christian ally of Israel by the Israel Allies Foundation, and call on all people to stand with Israel at this time of need. Israel must defeat Hamas, who was put on a suicide mission against them by Iran.”
Dunn is the chairman of the Christian Advisory Board within the Israel Allies Foundation — a group that organizes trips to the Jewish state for political leaders and business figures with the goal of fostering partnerships.
If Dunn needs a good cause for his billions, maybe he could consider backing primary challenges to every Republican state rep who opposed school choice. The filing deadline for 2024 races expired just as I was typing this up…
Tags:CrownRock, Dan Patrick, Defend Texas Liberty, Jonathan Stickland, Luke Macias, Occidental Petroleum, oil industry, Tim Dunn, Tony Tinderholt
Posted in Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 6th, 2023
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has long been critical of House Speaker Dade Phelan, but this week he stepped up his criticism, saying that Phelan was “impossible to work with.”
The Texas Legislature has ended the Fourth Special Session, with the Texas House once again leaving school choice undone.
At a press conference held this afternoon, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick laid the blame at House Speaker Dade Phelan’s feet.
Gov. Greg Abbott tasked lawmakers with border security and education issues during this most recent special session.
While they made quick work of border security measures, the two chambers and the governor remain at an impasse regarding education.
Abbott’s call specifically mentions increased funding for government schools as well as a school choice program. While both chambers appeared to agree in the abstract on increased teacher pay and school safety funding, school choice remained the sticking point.
The plan pushed by Abbott and passed by the Senate would create Education Savings Accounts, by which students enrolled in the program would receive money that they could use to pay for tuition at a private school.
But while the Senate passed that legislation numerous times, the House voted to strip the school choice provision out of their omnibus school spending bill last month.
Since that vote, the House has not considered any additional legislation, leaving the school safety and teacher pay raise proposals to perish.
On Tuesday, the House adjourned sine die, one day earlier than the 30 days allotted for the special session, leaving senate bills on school safety and teacher pay raises unaddressed. The Senate followed shortly after, with Patrick calling a press conference for the afternoon.
Over the summer, Patrick had ramped up his criticism of Phelan, eventually calling on him to resign. While he says he will not get involved in House races, he did say he would personally be making the speaker selection an issue as a voter.
“Republican voters need to ask their House members if they’re going to support Speaker Phelan for speaker, and if they do, there’s a good chance they lose their race,” said Patrick.
He noted that, while he had disagreements with past speakers Joe Straus and Dennis Bonnen, he could have conversations with them. Phelan, meanwhile, has not communicated with him.
“This guy’s just flat out impossible to work with,” he added, saying that if Phelan is speaker of the House next session, school choice and other issues, such as a taxpayer-funded lobbying ban, will die again.
Time after time, Patrick has marshaled the Republican majorities in the senate to pass conservative legislation in a timely manner, only to have it die in Phelan’s house.
Patrick should reconsider his policy of not getting involved in house races, so that he, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott can present a unified front for defeating not only Phelan, but everyone who voted to kill school choice.
Tags:2024 Election, 88th Texas Legislative Session, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, Dennis Bonnen, Elections, Joe Straus, Republicans, school choice, Texas
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 8th, 2023
Passing school choice was Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s top priority when he declared a third special session. Dade Phalen, and the left-leaning cabal backing him, had other priorities, namely taking long weekends instead of getting legislative work done. This is despite the Senate passing school choice legislation early in the special session.
Now Abbott has responded to Phelan’s sloth and antipathy to school choice with another special session.
Almost as soon as the third special session of 2023 ended, the fourth one began as Gov. Greg Abbott issued his proclamation setting the start for the next special session for 5 p.m. Tuesday — the same day the previous one came to a close.
The fourth special session is an attempt to pull items across the finish line that stalled out during the October special, including an education savings account program, the creation of a penalty for illegal entry into the state from a foreign nation, border barrier funding, and a medley of school funding measures.
The proclamation includes:
Creating an education savings account program
Providing a pay raise to teachers and other school employees
Increasing school funding through the basic student allotment
Additional school safety and security measures
Establishing a state penalty for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation, with removal language for state law enforcement
Appropriating more funding for the construction of border barriers
Allotting more state dollars to fund overtime expenses associated with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s operations in Colony Ridge,/li>
Abbott said, “The Texas Legislature made progress over the past month protecting Texans from forced COVID-19 vaccinations and increasing penalties for human smuggling.”
“However, there is more work to be done. I am immediately calling lawmakers back for Special Session #4 to complete their critical work to empower Texas parents to choose the best education pathway for their child while providing billions more in funding for Texas public schools and continuing to boost safety measures in schools.”
He continued, “We must pass laws that will enhance the safety of all Texans by increasing funding for strategic border barriers and mirroring the federal immigration laws President Joe Biden refuses to enforce. Texas will also arrest people for illegal entry into our state from a foreign nation, and authorize the removal of anyone who illegally enters our state, with penalties up to 20 years in prison for refusing to comply with removal. To crack down on repeated attempts to enter Texas illegally, illegal re-entry will be penalized with up to 20 years in prison. I look forward to working with members of the Texas Legislature to better secure Texas and pass school choice for all Texas families.”
The school choice issue never really got off the ground in the House during the third special. The Senate passed its plan, but the House never held a hearing on its proposal.
In the final days, Abbott announced that there was a deal struck, but subsequent statements by Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick indicated there wasn’t — at least not one that could be sped through the process in time before the 30-day clock ran out.
Also:
The other items that also stalled out in the Legislature during the third special session include a $1.5 billion appropriation for border barrier construction, the Senate’s version of which encompassed $40 million for state law enforcement overtime aimed at Colony Ridge, and the creation of a state offense for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation.
Now it remains to be seen if Phelan is willing to get his ass in gear, or if the cabal backing him is going to go all out to prevent school choice from being passed in Texas.
Stay tuned…
Tags:88th Texas Legislative Session, Colony Ridge, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, education, Greg Abbott, Republicans, school choice, Special Session
Posted in Regulation, Republicans, Texas | 7 Comments »
Thursday, October 12th, 2023
It’s not often that the leader of the Senate says that the leader of the House, of his own party, must resign, but that’s what Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said about Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan.
Just hours before the Legislature is slated to convene for a third special session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has taken his criticism of House Speaker Dade Phelan to a new level, calling on him to resign.
While Patrick has been critical of Phelan following the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, until now he has avoided calling on him to step down.
In a statement released Monday morning, Patrick said Phelan had hit “rock bottom” by “using the war in Israel for his own political gain.”
“With nearly 1,000 dead and over a hundred kidnapped, anyone who would use the war in Israel for their own political purposes is revolting, repulsive, and repugnant,” said Patrick.
“I am calling on Dade Phelan to resign his position before the House gavels in this afternoon,” said Patrick. “There is no place in Texas political discourse for any elected official to use the atrocities in Israel for their own political gain. That’s what Dade Phelan is doing. At this point, he’s simply got to go.”
Dade was evidently trying to make hay over the fact that Patrick got money from someone who talked to Nick Fuentes. Hardly a topic at the forefront of the minds of Texans.
Speaking of Phelan, he bragging that he’s still going to appoint Democrats as committee chairs because that’s “what Texans want.” Given that Texans have elected Republicans to every statewide office for over two decades, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case.
Republicans will not truly control the Texas House they have a majority in as long as Phelen is speaker.
Tags:88th Texas Legislative Session, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, Nick Fuentes, Republicans, Special Session, Texas
Posted in Republicans, Texas | 2 Comments »
Saturday, September 16th, 2023
This just in: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been acquitted on all 16 articles of impeachment.
In a dramatic loss for the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas Senate did not sustain any of the articles of impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton, triggering his reinstatement to office after nearly a four-month suspension.
The House Board of Managers needed to convince 21 senators to sustain at least one of the charges. The Senate’s court of impeachment sustained none of the charges, granting a full acquittal to Paxton to resume his position as the duly elected attorney general.
Most of the charges were dismissed by a vote of 14 to 16.
After the vote concluded, Sen. Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) made a motion to dismiss the four articles of impeachment that had been held in abeyance and were not considered in the Senate’s impeachment trial proceedings. The motion passed by a vote of 19 to 11.
Paxton slammed the Texas House and Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) in a statement celebrating the acquittals.
“The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt,” Paxton said.
“Now that this shameful process is over, my work to defend our constitutional rights will resume. Thank you to everyone who has stood with us during this time.”
The attorney general thanked his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney), and his other supporters.
Patrick had his own criticisms of Phelan and the House after the acquittals were announced.
“Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on this impeachment!” Patrick exclaimed from the dais.
The lieutenant governor called for amendments to the Texas Constitution to prevent the hasty impeachment of an elected official based on unsworn testimony, among other recommendations.
A few moments later, Patrick signed the documents reinstating Paxton as attorney general and dissolved the Senate’s court of impeachment.
It became apparent in the trial that the allegations against Paxton were unsupported.
The next step should be that every Republican who voted to impeach Paxton in the House or Senate needs to be primaried.
And Dade Phelan should be at the top of that list.
Tags:Brian Birdwell, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, impeachment, Kelly Hancock, Ken Paxton, Republicans, Robert Nichols, Texas
Posted in Regulation, Texas | 16 Comments »