Election Leaves Three Dozen Races Unresolved

We'll skip the part where we list the results of the elections, pointing you instead to places where you can examine what the voters have done. Our scoreboard, with the vote numbers in it, is here. And our election brackets, which we're using to track the candidates from filing to swearing in, are available here. The Secretary of State's numbers for Republicans are here; for Democrats, here.

The primaries left 37 races undecided — runoffs that will keep candidates busy (and spending money) for the next 60 days. There are 25 on the Republican side, 12 on the Democratic side. Those races include five at the statewide level, 11 for Congress, three for the State Board of Education, one for the state Senate and 17 for the state House. Democrats have the biggest turnout obstacle, with only one statewide race and the rest, at some level or another, local.

The marquee race, and it'll get national attention, is the Republican runoff between David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate. Cruz is riding the national wave of insurgency in the Republican Party; Dewhurst has spent plenty of time railing at Washington and the administration, but is positioned as the establishment candidate. Democrats have a runoff, too, between former state Sen. Paul Sadler and a political newcomer named Grady Yarbrough. Their problem is different: Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans (their primary turnout was less than half the size of the GOP's) and it's been almost 20 years since their party won a statewide election in Texas.

Incumbent Inertia, Thwarted

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, was the only member of the Texas congressional delegation bumped off and others who were supposed to have tough races — who told people they were in tough races — skated on through. Democrats Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas and Lloyd Doggett of Austin head that list.

• Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina landed in a runoff, as did Rick Perry appointee Barry Smitherman, who's trying to win election to the Texas Railroad Commission.

• Three members of the State Board of Education got the axe, including former chairwoman Gail Lowe, a Republican, Democrat Michael Soto, and Republican George Clayton, who finished third in a Republican primary and won't be in the runoff for his own seat.

• Sen. Jeff Wentworth is going to a runoff, but not one of his colleagues got beat or seriously challenged.

Donna Campbell of New Braunfels, who leap-frogged Elizabeth Ames Jones and got into a SD-25 runoff with Wentworth, R-San Antonio, might have been the biggest surprise of the election. And the breakdown shows where she's strong and he's weak. Wentworth led in Bexar County, with 39 percent to Jones' 38 percent and Campbell's 24 percent. That's where half of the district's voters live. Hays County is the next biggest, and lookee here: Campbell got 55 percent, followed by Wentworth at 29 and Jones at 17 (numbers are rounded). Comal is about the same size, and Campbell led there, too, with 37 percent to Wentworth's 32 and Jones' 31 percent. She was first in Guadalupe County, with 41 percent, followed by Jones at 31 and Wentworth at 28. Campbell led in Travis County, too, pulling 45 percent to Wentworth's 37 percent to Jones' 17. Last up: Kendall County, with the smallest population in the district. Wentworth got 37, Jones got 33 and Campbell got 30.

• Seven House members lost their reelection bids, and four find themselves in runoffs. Add those to the 30 state reps who didn't seek reelection. The dearly departed include Republicans Marva Beck, Leo Berman, Wayne Christian, Rob Eissler, Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, Barbara Nash, and Vicki Truitt. Chuck Hopson, Jim Landtroop, J.M. Lozano, and Sid Miller are on the primary trail for another nine weeks. Eissler, Hamilton, Truitt, Hopson and Miller are all committee chairs.

• This is a head-scratcher: Eissler, R-The Woodlands, went down on election night with money in the bank. There was only one other guy in the race, so he wasn't holding it for a runoff. As of his last report eight days before the election, Eissler was sitting on $650,104. He raised another $28,500 in that week, but won't report final spending until July.

Upwardly and Downwardly Mobile

It was a mixed election for officeholders looking for promotions. Winners include Joaquin Castro, who's on his way to a general election for Congress in one of the six open seats in the delegation (two from retirement, four added to Texas in reapportionment). And four House members won GOP nominations for the four open state Senate seats: Kelly Hancock, Ken Paxton, Charles Schwertner, Larry Taylor.

The biggest loser might be Mike Jackson, who gave up a seat in the state Senate for an open congressional seat, only to miss the runoff. Michael Williams gave up his spot at the Texas Railroad Commission, couldn't get traction in the U.S. Senate race, switched to a congressional race, tumbled around in the redistricting maelstrom, and ran, finally, in a congressional primary that featured a dozen Republicans. He's going home. So is state Rep. Todd Smith, who lost to Hancock. A couple of local officials gambled on congressional seats and lost: Former Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald and Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Sylvia Romo.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst didn't win, but at least he's still breathing. He'll be in a runoff next month. That goes, too, for state Reps. Pete Gallego, Marc Veasey, and Randy Weber, who'll be in runoffs for congressional nominations.

• Endorsement power? President Barack Obama endorsed U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso. Former President Bill Clinton visited El Paso on his behalf. And then Reyes lost, getting only 43 percent of the vote.

• Nice night: Republican consultant Jordan Berry went undefeated, with one client — Jim Landtroop, R-Plainview — in a runoff. His list included Reps. James White, R-Hillister, and David Simpson, R-Longview.

Mitt Romney's win in Texas put him over the top for the delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination for president.  

• Had the redistricting litigation not delayed Texas elections twice, the state's voters would be going to the polls next week. For the primary runoffs, originally scheduled for May 22 and then for June 5.

By the Numbers: Turnout and Money

Unofficially, 2 million Texans voted, and 49 percent of them voted early. In uncanvassed returns, 587,146 Democrats voted in their presidential race, and 51.6 percent voted before May 29. On the Republican side, 1,443,781 voted, 48 percent of them early, according to the Secretary of State's posted returns.

• Most expensive losses, measured by dollars spent per vote: David Alameel, $1,277 per vote; Steve Salazar, $215; Chrysta Castaneda, $173; Roger Burns, $157; Sarah Winkler, $140. All but Burns are Democrats, and the first three were in the same race, for the 33rd Congressional District.

• Most expensive wins: Joe Straus, $140; Lon Burnam, $103; Chris Turner, $87; Lloyd Doggett, $75; Ron Simmons, $55. Doggett was running for reelection to Congress; the rest are Texas House candidates.

• Most efficient winner: Martha Dominguez won the Democratic nomination for the State Board of Education's District 1 spending $45, or about $9 for every 10,000 votes. Nobody else was close.

• A dozen candidates spend more than $1 million, led by David Dewhurst, $17.1 million; Tom Leppert, $5.2 million; Ted Cruz, $4.4 million; Alameel, $2.6 million; Barry Smitherman, $2.2 million [Editor's note: an earlier version of this had an incorrect total for Smitherman]Elizabeth Ames Jones, $1.8 million; and Roger Williams, $1.6 million. That list of seven includes no outright winners: Dewhurst, Cruz, Smitherman and Williams are all in runoffs, and the other three lost.

* Caveat 1: The numbers don't include money spent on behalf of candidates by PACs, Super PACs, nonprofit civic groups, etc.

* Caveat 2: The Texas Secretary of State doesn't have the vote totals for candidates in uncontested state races (except for the statewide races), according to a spokesman. No joke. You can't compute the cost per vote for those people, since all that's known, apparently, is that they won.

 

After a Win, a Combative Speaker

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, smiles at the end of a press briefing May 30, 2012 at his Capitol office.
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, smiles at the end of a press briefing May 30, 2012 at his Capitol office.

House Speaker Joe Straus, coming out of a big and expensive win in a rare contested primary at home, began the runoff reboot by tweaking Michael Quinn Sullivan and his Empower Texans group, deriding them as ineffective, ugly and resentful of his success.

Where's this guy been? And why is popping off now?

Sullivan's response was that Straus ought to be listening to the voters who spat out three of his committee chairs and sent two more into runoffs, who elected small government conservatives when that was the choice in front of them and who is probably smiling that Straus gave him a new set of comments to throw into his fundraising and recruitment letters.

Here, edited but at length, are Straus' comments about Sullivan, made to a group of reporters gathered in his office the day after the election:

"I got to know him pretty well in my own district. He pretty much dropped the subtleties, I would say. He and his friend in Midland and another group out in Beaumont spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, sent dozens of attack mailers into my district. It was personal. It was ugly. It was ridiculous, really, when you look at the reality and at the charges they made. I had faith in the voters in my district. They could see it was nothing but distortions and character assassination."

"I don't see a lot of teeth there, in his bite. I think he is very much out of touch with conservatives. He's certainly out of touch with the conservatives that I represent."

"He was spectacularly unsuccessful. And frankly, I don't consider him much of a factor. It's a lot of noise... His biggest problem with me is that I keep succeeding. We've got a conservative House here and he's not part of it."

"He doesn't have any influence here."

"If he wants to participate in the political process, he should file and run for office, but I don't suspect he would ever do that. He'd be as spectacularly unsuccessful himself as he was taking on me."

The speaker is providing publicity for a foe who thrives on it, but he's also throwing a punch at the beginning of a nine-week runoff period in which Sullivan and his band of merry men will be campaigning against people like those two remaining Straus chairman on the ballot, Chuck Hopson, R-Jacksonville, and Sid Miller, R-Stephenville. [Editor's note and correction: Empower Texans supports Miller's reelection and has endorsed him. They have said, too, that the number of chairmen in trouble — including Miller — ought to be taken as a measure of support for Straus himself.] There are other arenas for the fight, with 17 House races on the runoff ballot, 13 of them on the Republican side, four of those featuring incumbents.

And there's the session itself, with another battle looming at the start. Empower Texans and other outside groups rallied conservatives against Straus at the beginning of last session, but couldn't produce the votes to oust him. They worked hard against his reelection this year, falling well short (he won handily against Matt Beebe). And with Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, jumping into the race for speaker this week, there is apparently more to come.

Could HHSC Face a Public Ed-Sized Leadership Void?

HHSC Commissioner Tom Suehs testifies before lawmakers.
HHSC Commissioner Tom Suehs testifies before lawmakers.

Everyone’s talking about the instability of public education policy in Texas, between sweeping budget cuts and the impending departures of three top school finance wonks from the Legislature — Reps. Rob Eissler and Scott Hochberg, and Sen. Florence Shapiro — and Commissioner Robert Scott from the Texas Education Agency.

Now health and human services may be giving public ed a run for its money.

First, the state’s Medicaid director, Billy Millwee, announced he was retiring after two decades with the Health and Human Services Commission. Now an agency spokeswoman says HHSC chief Tom Suehs hasn’t decided whether or not to retire in August, leaving the possibility that there could be a gaping hole this summer at the top of an agency facing billions of dollars in unpaid Medicaid costs and struggling to institute a federal waiver that calls for complex hospital payment reform.

If he's considering retiring, Suehs couldn’t be blamed for it. He’s got doctors screaming about Medicaid and Medicare cuts on one side. On the other, public and private hospitals are duking it out over who wins and who loses from a complicated new formula to determine how much they’re reimbursed for uncompensated care. Meanwhile, counties and hospital districts are facing their own mini turf wars, as they work to form the regional partnerships required by the waiver.

If Suehs leaves in addition to TEA's Scott, the double agency challenge presents an opportunity of sorts for Gov. Rick Perry, who's coming off of a losing presidential bid and batting away suggestions that he could be a lame duck governor. With the possibility of a big leadership void, he could reassert his authority over education and health and human services, which (if you include higher education) make up nearly 85 percent of the state's general revenue budget. 

TMA Targets Women's Health

Talk about not toeing the line: the Texas Medical Association, which represents many of the state’s doctors, has finalized its legislative agenda for the 2013 session — and women’s health is at the top of the list.

The group knows that with an overwhelmingly conservative Legislature it won’t have much luck repealing abortion sonograms, a state mandate the TMA dislikes because many doctors believe it infringes on their relationship with patients.

But TMA’s members are taking a targeted approach: They’ll be advocating for the restoration of the tens of millions of dollars in annual family planning funding lawmakers stripped out last session, part of an effort to defund Planned Parenthood while meeting the state’s budget shortfall.

They’re also going to aggressively try to revise the state’s mandatory “Women’s Right to Know” policy, which requires doctors to give women seeking abortions a brochure that dedicates nine pages to the risks of abortion, including feeling “guilty, sad or empty,” having “suicidal thoughts,” and being at higher risk for breast cancer. The TMA says much of the pamphlet is pure fiction (the American Psychological Association, for example, says women who have elective first-trimester abortions have no greater risk of mental health problems; the National Cancer Institute says large studies have shown no link between abortion and breast cancer).

A TMA letter published on the group’s website in May calls for a “more rigorous approach to reviewing these materials to help ensure that language is rooted in science and evidence-based clinical literature.” 

Heat in Texas Will Spark New Battles

Summer has officially started in Texas — and that means more strain on the electric grid powering all those air conditioners.

"Resource adequacy" is the perpetual watchword at the grid operator, ERCOT. The Massachusetts-based Brattle Group is releasing a highly anticipated study on how to keep the lights on in Texas in the future. ERCOT expects to get through this summer with calls for conservation and without rolling blackouts, but the real question is how to make sure there is enough power going forward for Texas' growing population — at a time when low natural gas prices discourage companies from building more power plants. The Brattle Group report promises a supply-side and a demand-side look at the issue. 

Things will also get a little hot for Al Armendariz, the recently departed regional head of the Environmental Protection Agency. On June 6, Armendariz is scheduled to appear before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee (specifically the subcommittee on energy and power), whose Republican members are no doubt looking forward to a televised grilling. Armendariz resigned in April after comments from 2010 surfaced comparing his approach to oil and gas regulation to a "crucifixion" of violators. The Hill has reported that Armendariz is appearing voluntarily.

Oil and gas awaits another big development this month involving the dune sagebrush lizard. By June 14, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must decide whether to list the species as threatened or endangered. The lizard's habitat includes the booming oilfields of West Texas, and that industry has made no secret of its stands against a listing. In a visit to Midland last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hinted that a listing could be avoided if enough voluntary agreements to preserve lizard habitat came through. If a listing occurs, look for an explosive reaction from the oil and gas industry — not to mention the four Republican candidates still competing in runoffs for two Railroad Commission seats. 

Speaking of oil and gas, the Texas House Committee on Energy Resources is expected to hold a hearing on fracking in late June (the schedule is not yet set). Word is that the committee will look at water issues; probably economic development and regulations will also be covered. And the Texas Railroad Commission will be reviewing its rules on natural gas flaring, which has been an issue in the Eagle Ford Shale, where natural gas pipelines have not been laid fast enough to keep up with the drilling, and also in West Texas.

Finally, in other news, a big solar confab is happening in Austin June 3-8, and a major building-systems group called ASHRAE, which covers energy efficiency, is holding a conference in San Antonio June 23-27. And on June 24, the Natural Resources Defense Council will release its annual report on the nation's beaches — so we'll see how Galveston et al hold up.


Inside Intelligence: Health Care, Anyone? Schools?

For the second week, we lifted questions from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll and asked them of the insiders, and we'll come back around with a comparison of the insiders' answers and those of likely Texas voters.

The insiders split on the federal health care law that's pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, with 40 percent saying the court should uphold it and 37 percent saying the judges should overturn the whole thing. Another 19 percent said the individual mandates in that law should be declared unconstitutional with the rest left in place.

Most — 56 percent — said the legal arguments, rather than politics and partisanship, will sway the judges on that law.

More than half of the insiders say health insurers should be required to cover women's birth control. An overwhelming majority — 86 percent — think candidates should avoid signing anti-tax pledges before they're in office and know what the state's finances look like.

Only a few think the public schools in Texas are better than they were a year ago, and 42 percent say the schools are about the same today as they were then. Almost half — 49 percent — say the schools are "somewhat" or "a lot" worse. Money's part of that, according to the insiders: 62 percent say Texas spends too little on public schools, while 21 percent say spending is about right and 11 percent say spending is too high.

As always, we've attached a full set of the verbatim comments on our questions. Here's a sampling:

.

Recently the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the new health care law, which is called the 2010 Affordable Care Act. What do you think the Supreme Court SHOULD do?

• "The Supreme Court should follow their best interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Likely that would be to rule the individual mandate is unconstitutional."

• "Seems like it was a big bite on this bill, but I am not an attorney and did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either."

• "The one good part of the law, requiring people to get insurance, is the one illegal part. The rest is just welfare, which is legal."

• "The act is not artful, but it is constitutional. The opponents' arguments are based on partisan politics, not sound legal positions."

• "The mandate was a constitutional 'bridge too far,' but the rest of the law depended on it, and Congress would not have passed it without the mandate, so if the Court 86s the mandate, it needs to do the Full Monty and let Congress start over [if at all]."

• "They'll keep the 'good stuff' and ditch the mandate."

.

Do you think the Supreme Court justices will decide the health care case primarily based on the legal arguments and the Constitution, or primarily based on politics and partisanship?

• "I've worked for the courts. Judges, especially Republican judges, are scrupulously nonpolitical when it comes to deciding cases. The one exception I've seen was the Texas Supreme Court in the early 1990s, when 60 Minutes exposed corruption by Democrats."

• "The Roberts Court has proven itself to be activist and corporatist."

• "They will twist the law to the outcome they seek — if they strike the law down. If they uphold it, it will be because they followed well-established precedent and did not cave to public sentiment."

• "This question is exceptionally cynical and offensive. I do not think this Supreme Court or any Supreme Court of the past makes political decisions. I will concede that the Bush/Gore decision can be criticized as such, but that case was historically unique."

• "SCOTUS is smart enough to mask politics and partisanship under sound, legal arguments."

• "The question improperly assumes all justices act with the same motivation. This case comes down to one justice, Kennedy, who will decide on the law."

• "This court's legal reasoning dovetails with the political views of those who appointed them. No way to separate the two."

• "It'll be based on the legal arguments, but it'll be split along the conservative/liberal voting blocks. As usual, Kennedy will be the deciding vote."

.

Do you think health insurance companies should be required to cover the full cost of birth control for women?

• "If we would only make birth control an 'across the counter' option for women 18 years and older, this wouldn't be the issue it is."

• "Small costs to avoid so many more unwanted children. ... To that point, the state should probably provide them."

• "Birth control is a lifestyle issue, not a health issue. No one should be forced to pay for someone else's lifestyle choice."

• "Birth control is preventive medicine. The American Taliban will have to come to terms with modernity, namely, the fact that women are more than breeding stock."

• "I oppose all mandates. Mandates are bad."

• "This is simply not debatable. We cannot afford a health care system where birth control is not covered. It is the number one cost-saver in the system."

• "Of course not. If insurers want to, then they can offer it — but it should not be mandatory. The fact that the question is even on the table shows how craven politics has become, with one party now promising cost-free, consequence-free sex in order to troll for votes."

.

Compared with a year ago, would you say that K-12 public school education in Texas is a lot better, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse or a lot worse?

• "I have no children in Texas schools, but my sense is if $4B is abruptly removed from districts' budgets, something has to give and it probably isn't school lunches or bus drivers."

• "Last I saw, a growing number of Texas kids entering Texas colleges and universities need remedial classes to get up to speed. That's not a good sign of improvement in quality and preparedness."

• "Many children will succeed despite the cuts in education funding. Those on the margin, however, will be more likely to fail than succeed."

• "You get what you pay for."

• "Texas ranked 45th on per-capita education spending and then cut $4b."

• "There are districts and schools that are making gains. But there are others that are lagging. State leadership needs to pick up the pace, and educrats need to stop moaning about accountability and rise to the occasion."

.

Do you think that Texas spends too much, too little or about the right amount on primary and secondary education?

• "It really has never met what national school standards suggest, on a per-child basis, including an annual formula to account for rising school pops."

• "About one-fifth of the population of Texas attend our public schools. If we don't fund our schools properly, and make sure children have good instruction and good instructors, our 'Texas miracle' of economic growth will cease."

• "But a lot is wasted that in theory could be reallocated to offset —but still more investment in our kids, and their teachers, period."

• "We spend way too much for the results we are getting."

• "Our demographics are shifting, and the world is about to pass us by."

• "Trick question. How do we know what 'the right amount' is? We give school districts money. They spend it. Get varying results. But never any real study on how they spent it and what really works."

• "Texas public school funding is lower than the national averages for both spending per student and teacher salaries. However, expenditures alone would not seem to account for the anemic quality of the educational improvement, leaving far too many children with inadequate training to prepare them for economic success in our increasingly complex world."

• "Are you kidding? This state couldn't squeeze more blood from a stone with the biggest industrial compressor in the world. The public schools have their flaws, but there's only so much you can do when you are being starved."

• "There's a pot load of waste and admin costs in each system, but the underfund on Higher Ed, especially, is not consistent with our stated desire to be the jobs magnet for the rest of the country."

.

As you may know, Texas legislative candidates have recently been invited to pledge NOT to increase taxes when the Legislature convenes in January 2013. Some people say that legislative candidates should pledge not to increase taxes before the primary elections so that voters know where they stand on taxes. Others say that anti-tax pledges lock candidates into inflexible positions before the fiscal situation in January 2013 is clear. Which of these positions is closer to yours?

• "We can always continue borrowing and ignoring all of the major issues: water, highways, education and health care. ... Our democracy will not survive without an educated people."

• "Few candidates and only slightly more incumbents have a clear understanding of emerging fiscal conditions. Most legislators are predictably surprised at the increased costs of essential services and go through a denial phase each session."

• "The only pledge a candidate should make is to represent the district's interests to the best of his/her capabilities."

• "Cut the size of government and reduce regulations, that's how to improve the economy, which will in turn increase government revenues. NO NEW TAXES!"

• "What candidates should pledge to do is be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. And the way they show that is by rigorous oversight during the entire two-year cycle, not just the session. The LBB should meet regularly [and include the nonmember appropriators] to provide this oversight."

• "Candidates and elected officials should not sign politically motivated pledges but instead concentrate on good public policy — which in Texas at the moment is a very bad joke and terribly irresponsible."

• "Ask Bush 41."

• "Stick to the Pledge of Allegiance, the rest is BS."

 

Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Cathie Adams, Brandon Aghamalian, Jenny Aghamalian, Clyde Alexander, George Allen, Doc Arnold, Jay Arnold, Charles Bailey, Tom Banning, Don Baylor, Dave Beckwith, Rebecca Bernhardt, Andrew Biar, Allen Blakemore, Tom Blanton, Hugh Brady, Steve Bresnen, Chris Britton, Lydia Camarillo, Kerry Cammack, Marc Campos, Thure Cannon, Snapper Carr, Tris Castaneda, Corbin Casteel, William Chapman, Elna Christopher, George Cofer, John Colyandro, Harold Cook, Randy Cubriel, Denise Davis, Hector De Leon, Eva De Luna-Castro, Richard Dyer, Jeff Eller, Alan Erwin, John Esparza, Jon Fisher, Tom Forbes, Dominic Giarratani, Bruce Gibson, Jim Grace, Clint Hackney, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, Sandy Haverlah, Albert Hawkins, John Heasley, Ken Hodges, Steve Holzheauser, Kathy Hutto, Shanna Igo, Deborah Ingersoll, Richie Jackson, Cal Jillson, Karen Johnson, Mark Jones, Lisa Kaufman, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Ramey Ko, Sandy Kress, Pete Laney, James LeBas, Luke Legate, Mark Lehman, Richard Levy, Ruben Longoria, Matt Mackowiak, Luke Marchant, Bryan Mayes, Dan McClung, Debra Medina, Robert Miller, Lynn Moak, Craig Murphy, Keir Murray, Pat Nugent, Sylvia Nugent, Gardner Pate, Bill Pewitt, Wayne Pierce, Royce Poinsett, Kraege Polan, Jay Propes, Bill Ratliff, Tim Reeves, Chuck Rice, Kim Ross, Jason Sabo, Luis Saenz, Mark Sanders, Andy Sansom, Jim Sartwelle, Stan Schlueter, Bruce Scott, Bradford Shields, Christopher Shields, Ed Small, Martha Smiley, Todd Smith, Larry Soward, Dennis Speight, Jason Stanford, Bill Stevens, Keith Strama, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Charles Stuart, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Sherry Sylvester, Jay Thompson, Russ Tidwell, Trent Townsend, Trey Trainor, John Weaver, Ware Wendell, Ken Whalen, Darren Whitehurst, Ellen Williams, Michael Wilt, Seth Winick, Angelo Zottarelli.

Texas Weekly Newsreel: Elections, Runoffs, Speaker's Race

Elections! Runoffs! A Speakers' race! 

The Calendar

Tuesday, June 5:

  • Mitt Romney in Dallas for fundraiser
  • House Ways and Means Committee hearing; Austin (10 a.m.)

Wednesday, June 6:

  • Mitt Romney in San Antonio and Houston for fundraisers

And since it's on our minds:

Monday, July 2:

  • Last day to register to vote in the primary runoffs

Monday-Friday, July 23-27:

  • Early Voting

Tuesday, July 31:

  • Election Day
 

The Week in the Rearview Mirror

Deep cuts to their budgets in the last legislative session led school districts to reduce teaching staff while their populations were growing, leading to a net loss of more than 15,000 teachers statewide. Jobs lost were almost 5 percent of the total number of working teachers last year — 324,000. But 65,000 new students weren’t taken into account as hiring decisions were being made. Districts don’t expect things to get any better in the coming year, as the funding cuts remain at record highs.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s proposal to allow immigrants to remain in the country upon completion of their master’s and doctoral degrees is drawing support from the technology community. The STAR Act, as it is known, would permit universities, high tech-companies and business organizations to hire recent graduates of science, technology, engineering or math programs to perform highly skilled research through the addition of 55,000 immigrant visas. But the additional visas would come at the cost of so-called diversity visas awarded by the lottery system to immigrants of countries that have low rates of immigration to the U.S. The bill is pending in the Senate.

A new report shows Houston Hispanics dropping out of school at a startling rate. An overall dropout rate of 26 percent in Houston pales in comparison to a 50 percent rate among Hispanics, and only 10 percent of Hispanics in the city attend college, compared with the overall rate of 28 percent. 

Law enforcement officials are happy with the results of the new can ban on two Central Texas rivers. The Comal and Guadalupe Rivers had substantially less trash left behind over the Memorial Day weekend, when the traditionally large crowds weren’t allowed to bring beer cans with them as they floated down the rivers. But river outfitters weren’t so thrilled — they claim the ban led to a downturn in business from last year.

A campaign volunteer in South Texas was shot in the leg Tuesday as he stood on a busy corner with other volunteers holding a sign for Hector Mendez, a candidate for Hidalgo County sheriff. The incident was called a drive-by shooting and wasn’t determined to be politically motivated. The man’s injury was not life-threatening, and he was scheduled to be released from the hospital later in the day. Police didn’t have enough information to pursue the shooter.

Planned Parenthood found itself embroiled in a new controversy when a group secretly filmed a video at a South Austin clinic and then publicly released the video. Live Action, the activist group behind the video, sent actresses posing as pregnant women into clinics asking for their pregnancies to be terminated based on the sex of the baby. The group claims that Planned Parenthood encourages sex selection and counsels women accordingly. Officials of Planned Parenthood responded that the employee caught on film did not follow protocol and was subsequently fired.

Houston City Council members are being asked to decide whether to expand the city's international air traffic to two airports. Southwest Airlines has volunteered to fund the expansion of Hobby Airport, with plans to build five additional gates and a customs facility bearing the brunt of the cost. But United Airlines, the other big gun in the battle, objects to international flights directed away from its hub at Bush Intercontinental Airport and predicts that the outcome won’t be what leaders expect. United claims that a study used to back up Southwest’s claim of adding 18,000 jobs to the economy is flawed and that if the deal is approved, it may cancel its plans to expand its own operations at Bush.

Political People and their Moves

Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, started Election Day off with a bang, announcing he had filed papers to challenge House Speaker Joe Straus in next year's election for speaker. In a letter to members after the elections, Hughes said Straus "has proved incapable of protecting key members of his leadership team." He accused the speaker of "abusing the redistricting process" and "fetting involved in races - all in an effort to defeat his conservative colleagues who opposed him."

David Dewhurst picked up the first endorsement from a competitor in the U.S. Senate race. Craig James, who finished fourth, endorsed Dewhurst, who finished first but short of the win.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, endorsed Marc Veasey of Fort Worth in his runoff against Domingo Garcia of Dallas in CD-33.

Jeff Leach, running for an open House seat in Collin County, picked up an endorsement from state Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, who is well on his way to being that area's next state senator. So did state Rep. Jerry Madden, whose spot in the House Leach is trying to win in a runoff with Jon Cole

Chris Connealy is the new State Fire Marshal, an office at the Texas Department of Insurance. He's been the fire chief in Cedar Park since 2004 and before that, served as fire chief for the Houston Fire Department.

Cherie Townsend, the executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, is leaving at the end of June after four years at the agency. She's overseen a restructuring of the agency and a dramatic drop in the population of the state's youth prisons, but the agency has recently come under fire for increases in violence and gang activity in the prisons. 

Quotes of the Week

He was spectacularly unsuccessful. And frankly, I don't consider him much of a factor. His biggest problem with me is that I keep succeeding. We've got a conservative House here, and he's not part of it.

House Speaker Joe Straus on conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan

The lieutenant governor's record has not been conservative. He has consistently compromised with Democrats, increased spending and increased taxes.

Ted Cruz, on his way to a U.S. Senate runoff, quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The word moderate was meant to be a negative on me. I'm a proud conservative. At the same time, I will work to move what is in the best interests of the state of Texas as I always have over the last nine years.

David Dewhurst, Cruz's ruoff opponent, in that same article

I was surprised to see Tom’s little girl all the way at the top of the ballot there. I thought Chisum would run first.

SMU political scientist Cal Jillson, after Christi Craddick topped the field in a Railroad Commission race, in the Texas Energy Report

The silent majority remained silent yesterday. 

Senate candidate Elizabeth Ames Jones, in a press release after her defeat

My staff and I are ready to work with the new Congressperson and their incoming staff to transition the office and to continue the vital work it provides this community.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes in a statement conceding his Democratic primary to Beto O'Rourke, who less than a day earlier Reyes said had run a "nasty, dirty campaign"

I really try hard to stay out of Senate politics, with the false hope that they will do the same for me.

House Speaker Joe Straus