The Austin City Council, Place 3 race between Jennifer Kim, the first Asian American on Austin’s City Council, and Randi Shade is Saturday. If you don’t like learning about the candidates in interview format, you may enjoy Randi’s own introduction, and Jeff Heckler’s supporting statements for Jennifer.
Endorsements are split. Jennifer has the backing of groups such as Clean Water Action / Texas Vote Environment, Capital Area Asian American Democrats, Capital Area Progressive Democrats, Capital City Young Democrats, Southwest Austin Democrats, and the League of Bicycling Voters. Randi has the backing of Austin American-Statesman, the city’s lone mainstream newspaper (and endorser of Bush in 2004), and the Daily Texan, UT’s school paper. Burnt Orange Report couldn’t decide, so it endorsed both. The Austin Chronicle, the city’s “alternative” newspaper, couldn’t decide, so it made no endorsement.
Jennifer and Randi both have ads on tv. Jennifer’s 2005 ad probably bumped her into the runoff.
Kim’s campaign has placed anonymous robocalls in violation of state law. Shade’s campaign seems to have its own campaign problems, having received an ethics complaint from Kim’s campaign regarding Shade’s failure to properly disclose bundled donations.
Capital Area Asian American Democrats conducted a poll of the race three weeks ago and found Undecided is leading the race. You, as the people leaning towards Undecided should do, can learn more about the race and other Austin City Council races here.
This race will be one to watch tomorrow!
In more nationally sexy races, TX-07, home of the Texas Medical Center, and Rice University is starting to look competitive. Even if Skelly has no chance, the sort of money he’s raising will mean more money that Republicans must spend on defense to try to survive November cannot be spent threatening Democratic seats. Kuff links us to an interview with Skelly, who is one of the top fundraising challengers in the nation.
TX-22 will prove as exciting this year as it was two years ago. In the primary, Olson slew The One In Pink, much to the delight of pretty much everyone except those who voted for her, as he capitalized on the “anybody but Silly Shelly” vote. He will face incumbent Nick Lampson, who, if reelected, will likely will become chair of the space and technology subcommittee of the House Science Committee, granting him substantial power over NASA.
“Liberal” is the only attack the Republicans have against Lampson. This attack is hollow for many reasons, mostly because Lampson is not liberal, unlike his colleague and true Democrat, Al Green.
To better understand TX-22, read Professor Murray’s history of the district.
Noriega’s race against Cornyn continues to become more interesting and may be one of the most exciting of all the senate races this cycle. Noriega will receive Progressive Patriot Fund and DSCC money. Texas is the first stop on the DSCC’s road to victory! The only attacks Cornyn’s supporters can muster consist of racism, which hopefully will be an inadequate defense.
A recent poll shows Noriega down by 4 and Obama down by 13, with McCain barely over 50. A slightly less recent poll shows the same results for Noriega with Obama only down by 4 with McCain below 50. This is an improvement for McCain, who was only one point over Obama back in early March when the campaigns were all in Texas. Take these presidential numbers with a grain of kosher salt. March polls taken around that time showed McCain with about the same numbers in California as Obama in Texas — either a spectacular or horrifying revelation. Burnt Orange Report has a great roundup of reactions to the May numbers.
Why are Democrats fairing so well in these polls? Is it the rise of Hispanic voting power? Democrats moving in from out of state? Are people finally getting fed up with the Republicans? Tell us what you think.
I think with the continued growth of the state and its likely pickup of up to four more seats in the House after the 2010 census, the Republicans will pull out all the stops to try to hold on to power. One of their strategies will be the continued direct assault on voting — highly flimsy charges of vote fraud against likely Democratic voters (likely with an inability to fully defend themselves, which thankfully is not as big a problem as it could be because voter fraud cases are difficult to prosecute), extreme difficulties for minority voter registration and voting one might expect from the 1960’s and earlier, and requiring voter id. The recent Supreme Court decision about voter ID in Indiana does not help, but IDs are not free (yet) in Texas, unlike in Indiana. Of course “free” IDs in Indiana are not free because obtaining them requires supporting documents that are not free. Of course, some people ARE voting illegally. Anecdotally from reliable sources, some of these multi-voters were proud to have done so.
I also think the continued population growth does not bode well for the future of air quality in Texas. Fort Bend County, home to many of the Houston area’s Asian Americans, has bad air. The entire Houston area does. And there is so little incentive for polluters to remedy themselves, and the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality supports the polluters. Why do more people not care that smog causes premature death?
Such growth requires more places to live. But, due to another commission in the pocket of the industry it’s supposed to regulate, one’s house isn’t as reliable as it should be. Yes, the Texas Residential Construction Commission, or TRCC (pronounced “trick”) - a group named almost as well as Nixon’s CREEP - thwarts homeowners at almost every opportunity. If a homeowner can find rare success in the arbitration process, like the Culls, the Texas Supreme Court will throw another roadblock. This court, which releases far too many per curiam opinions, will favor its donors. Kuff sums the difficulties people in Texas face in finding legal redress.
Bare with me, I’m almost through this current list of Texas grievances only to be remedied by a Democratic tidal wave.
The state board of education usually makes news when they’re trying to decide between real science and history textbooks or teaching that white Jesus rode a dinosaur to America. This time, they’re trying to push through a very non-diverse recommended reading list. The board’s chair doesn’t seem to understand what a reading list is for, defending the lack of diversity with “a bunch of crazy Chinese words” not helping “mastery of English.” I’ll let you digest the many things wrong with that statement yourself. Of course, there’s also the bible classes to be concerned about. I have no problem with a bible class, if it’s in college Before college, teach of religious texts, even as literature, should be far more broad based. I suggest including apocryphal texts of Christianity, the Qur’an, Tipitaka, and the Sruti. Perhaps modern texts such as Dianetics and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster should be included as well. The Eight I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts really should be posted in classes and court rooms.
Maybe with such change, we can start to do something about poverty too.
As soon as this year’s election cycle is over, which will happen before we know it, we can start to focus on the looming Republican gubernatorial nominee steel cage death match between Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry, which could possibly even include David Dewhurst. Oh what joy! Houston mayor Bill White will likely run against whoever emerges as the Republican candidate.
- Justin Gillenwater
Update: Shade destroyified Kim, which is a shame because Kim raised the profile of Austin’s Asian American community on the city’s boards and commissions. While I am disappointed, all is not lost. Bob Perry-backed - yes Bob “Swift-Boat” Perry - candidates lost their attempt to take over my local water authority by even greater margins.
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