Early Voting Again

Early voting in the run-off election begins today.   Will Latino voter turnout decrease?   How many non November 3 voters will show up – 1000, 5000, or plus 10,000.  If any new voters show up, from what ‘hoods?   I’m sure the Kyle Johnston Daily Early Vote Report will help answer some of these questions.  I wonder if some of the labor folks will ask other Dems to stay away from the KJDEVR.

We will be officially informed this week on the H-Town Mayor’s decision to run for Guv.  The Chron had a piece on the race this past weekend and a point was missed – sort of.   Check out the story.  In the piece, here is what a noted political scientist from SMU said:  “Nobody knows whether he (Bill White) has that next gear to generate excitement in a statewide race, whether he can go down into the Rio Grande Valley and pull people out, whether he can put enough money into it and raise enough money to wage a credible fistfight in the street.”  I’ve said it a kazillion times, it’s not going to happen unless we launch a major Latino voter engagement effort in Harris County.

Commentary got a permission slip to take a few hours off yesterday to take in the Texans game.  The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was A-OK but the Texans weren’t. 

I’m not going to say anything about Vince and his 99 yard drive with 2:37 minutes left and a 10 yard game winning TD pass as time ran out against the Cardinals.  I’m not going to say anything about his 387 yards passing and winning five in a row since he’s been named the starter.  I’m also not going to say anything about the Titans being 0-6 and now 5-6 just like the Texans.

I’m not going to say anything about Tiger either.  The way I figure he was probably tired of the fancy Thanksgiving Day grub and around 2:30 am he decided he wanted to make a McDonald’s run.  I don’t care how he banged up his lip or his ride.  I don’t care that we didn’t know about it for 13 hours.

Already it looks like a 15 minutes of fame deal for Rachel Uchitel who the tabloids are trying to link to Tiger.  She gets the thumbs down in my book for hiring the always annoying and camera hogging Gloria Allred.

Former ‘Stro Shane Reynolds is on the Hall of Fame ballot but he won’t get too many votes.  Today is Cyber Monday so I just might try everythingbaseball or MLB.com. 

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Latino Politics,Houston Politics,Houston Elections,Latino Voter turnout and analysis,Houston Mayor Bill White,Texas Governor’s Election,Tiger Woods,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Texans,NFL

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Intervening Force

Commentary has called it right so far by saying Guv Dude is driving the agenda in the GOP gubernatorial primary.  He’s gotten Hutch to stay put.  Now they are launching Operation Intervention which is designed to get Dude backers to lean on Hutch backers to get her out of the race.  Talk about playing offense.  I t really wouldn’t surprise me if she just decided to surrender.  You know he is going to bang her around on letting the town of Sealy lose that huge Defense Department contract and a few thousand jobs.  The Defense Department contract issue is the lead story in today’s Chron.  Check it out. 

Here is the opening line of my pal Bill King’s latest take on the run-off election: “With Democrats breaking largely along racial lines and Latinos showing little interest in the current mayor’s race, white-suburban-Republican-leaning (WSRL) voters will likely to be the deciding factor in the runoff.”

Commentary capped off last night by checking out Sir Paul on ABC.  He’s not only for the ages, he’s for all ages.

My Best Friend celebrated a BB yesterday.  Happy Birthday yesterday Al Luna!

Pam-In-Charge who I sometimes refer to as My Brown Girl is celebrating one today.  Happy Birthday Pam Gardner!

Speaking of, just when I thought they were through handing out awards, I was wrong according to Tag: “ The streak-of-lightning speed of center fielder Michael Bourn, the slick fielding of second baseman Kaz Matsui and the spacious jersey of reliever Jeff Fulchino have the Astros trio in contention for two of MLB.com’s This Year in Baseball Awards. . Bourn, who won his first Rawlings Gold Glove earlier this month, and Matsui are two of 10 players up for Defensive Player of the Year, and Fulchino’s bizarre play that saw a batted ball get stuck in his jersey is a contender for the Oddity of the Year.”

Stay tuned!

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,Governor Rick Perry,Texas Governor’s Election,Houston Mayoral Race,Bill King,Houston Politics,Houston Elections,Houston Latino Politics,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston City Election Results

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Now for the Bad News

Now that the H-Town Mayor is fixing to get into the race for Guv, he’s got to take on the mother of all the Lone Star State’s public policy issues – funding for our public schools.  The Chron has a front page story on school funding today.  Check it out.  It is a big problem that needs addressing. 

There is also the issue of increasing the gas tax that some Dem and GOP legislators are calling for so we can use the funds to fix and repair highways and roads.  Guv Dude and Hutch will oppose for now.  I’m figuring the H-Town Mayor will try to sidestep the issue.

Well one of the questions was answered in today’s Chron regarding the fate of the H-Town Mayor’s Chief of Staff. Check it out.

Of course, Commentary’s not ready to lay some money on who will win.  Guv Dude first got elected to the Texas House in 1984 and he hasn’t lost yet.  Dems haven’t won a statewide race this century.  Before I head out to Vegas and place a bet, I’ll wait to see if Dems put together a serious Latino voter engagement effort.

Commentary’s favorite – Katie Couric – was one of the notables that attended last night’s state dinner.  She showed up with her new boyfriend who just happens to be fifteen years younger.  I don’t have a problem with that.  Go Coogs!

One place to avoid today is Spec’s in Midtown. It is cwazy out there the day before Thanksgiving Day.  I made my run last night.

Congrats go to Albert Pujols for winning the NL MVP.  We have to wait until Friday, July 9 before we get to see Albert and the Cards at The Yard.  I think that wraps up all the awards for this past season.

Commentary will take tomorrow off but will be back on Friday so have a nice Thanksgiving Day!

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Latino Politics,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Mayor Bill White,Texas Governor’s Election,Governor Rick Perry,Texas Politics,Houston Politics,Houston Elections

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Politics and an Oiler Hangover

It turns out that Schieffer fella is not that big of a dumbarse after all.  He got out of a race he never should have entered.  Well he still is a dumbarse of sorts for actually thinking a lot of Dems would embrace his candidacy for guv of the Lone Star State.  A lot of Dems across the state just weren’t into a forgiving mood for his years of playing grabarse with 43.  In his statement yesterday he said “we simply must get behind one candidate that can unite our party.”  Huh!  I didn’t know we Dems were disunited.

Meanwhile, H-Town’s Mayor who is probably the smartest person in the state is a listener after all.  For months, folks have been advising the Mayor to run for Guv.  The Mayor finally got it after Hutch decided to stay put for a while.

Local Harris County Dems are feeling pretty good because now they will have someone at the top of the ticket that will expend resources to get out the base and pull in independents.

We now probably know one of the answers to a question at City Hall.  What will Chief of Staff Michael Moore be doing after December 31?

Now that we have a strong candidate at the top of the ticket, expect to see other strong Dems run for some of the statewide down ballot positions.

Even though Farouk Shami and Hank Gilbert say they are still in it, they will eventually have to read and accept the handwriting on the wall and get out of the race.  Who care what The Kinkhole does.  His isn’t a campaign anyway, it’s a book tour.

Of course, unless Lone Star State Dems get serious about putting together a Latino voter engagement effort, yesterday’s hoopla could all be for naught.  The current Lone Star State Dem Party Chair doesn’t get it.  I’m betting the H-Town Mayor will.

This morning is reminiscent of all those times back in the Luv Ya Blue era when the Steelers, Bills, Chiefs and other AFC teams would put a hurt on our Oilers and we would have a loser’s hangover the next day – usually a Monday morning.   Vince and the Titans punked us last night on national TV and we’re feeling it this morning.

Things are quiet at The Yard these days on the free agent front.  No news to report.

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Latino Politics,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Texans,NFL,Houston City Hall,Texas Governor’s Election,Kinky Friedman,Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,Houston Mayor Bill White,Texas U.S. Senate Race

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On The Roundtable

Maybe this will be the first year that The Roundtable does a two-fer on picking the run-off winners.  I think there are still nine races on the ballot.  A mayoral, controller, two district city council, three at-large council, and two HISD trustee contests are yet to be decided.  That would make for a good pot right before Christmas.  Plus UH’s Dr. Murray could throw in a question on voter turnout – better or worse than November 3.  I wonder what the record is for most races on the ballot in a run-off.  Speaking of, there has never been a run-off in a Houston City Council District I race if I don’t mind saying.

The best line of the weekend was U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) saying “I don’t want four Democratic Senators dictating to the other 56 of us and to the rest of the country – when the public option has this much support – that (a public option is) not going to be in it.” 

All of H-Town will come to a screeching halt at 7:30 this evening as the Texans play host to Vince and the Titans on MNF.

To folks that are already doing Christmas shopping try going to everythingbaseball.com.  They have the coolest baseball gear.

Alyson’s Footnotes has a nice piece on Roy O’s new Homeplate Fish and Steakhouse that opened this past weekend.  Check it out.  I wonder who will open for us on April 5 – Roy O or Wandy?

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Latino Politics,Houston Politics,Houston Elections,Houston City Council Elections,Houston Texans,NFL,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Mayoral Race

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Headlines

I saw where HISD Trustee Larry Marshall was endorsed by two of his former challengers in the run-off.  That is interesting because usually the challengers to an incumbent endorse the remaining challenger in a run-off. 

Oprah is getting more run than health care, Afghanistan, and The President this morning and she still is going to be around for another couple of years. 

Commentary dropped by The Dean’s reception last night.  All the usual suspects showed up including the Lite Guv.   The buzz last night was whether or not we were going to have a U.S. Senate race next year.

My buddy and neighbor Orell Fitzsimmons is featured in a story in today’s Chron.  Check it out. 

If you don’t have anything better to do this Sunday morning at 11:30 am, you can check out Commentary, UH’s Dr. Tatcho Mindiola, Harris County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez, and former City Council Member Gracie Saenz (who by the way never needs touching up) on Channel 13’s “Viva Houston” talking about politics of course.

The good news is that on Opening Day on April 5 we get to watch the 2009 NL Cy Young Award winner.  The bad news is Tim Lincecum pitches for the SF Giants.

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,HISD School Board elections,State Senator John Whitmire,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Latino Politics

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You’ve Got to Change Your Evil Ways

Commentary doesn’t like to rely on profanity to get my point across so I really can’t express my true feelings about Dave Wilson and his evil ways.  I was watching him being interviewed on Channel 11 yesterday and he seemed to be relishing the attention and totally oblivious to the hate he’s spewing.  He kind of had this “Joker” like smile.

This isn’t the first time Wilson has injected his divisiveness into local politics. In 1997 he got enough signatures to force an election to do away with H-Town’s Affirmative Action Program because he didn’t want African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Women to get city contracts.  We beat him at the polls.  In 1996 he successfully led the effort against an HISD school bond campaign because he didn’t think our kids needed new or renovated schools.  Now he’s taken his act to another level.  I kind of wish we could extend 287(g) to morons like him.

The Dean has his one and only reception this evening at the Four Seasons.  This is kind of a mandatory event that Commentary will attend.

Tomorrow is first day that MLB teams can start signing free agents and we will find out soon who will be wearing the brick red on April 5 at The Yard against the Giants.

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Politics,Houston Elections,State Senator John Whitmire,HISD School Board elections,Houston Affirmative Action Program

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Fact Checker

I guess anyone can get on their laptop and send something over to CEWDEM and believe in their own BS and of course not know the facts or do their homework.  It happens all the time in cyber space.  Jonathan Day is the Chair of the new Houston Business-Education Coalition (HBEC).  It consists of about 15 or so business leaders including former City Council Member Gracie Saenz, Michael Trevino and Gasper Mir.  HBEC was created to help get good folks elected to the HISD Board.  In District 1, all three candidates tried to get the HBEC endorsement.  It went to Anna Eastman.

Now Jonathan Day isn’t interested in gutting HISD.  Jonathan Day isn’t new to HISD either.  In fact, he has served as the Chair of the PAC that has funded the successful HISD School Bond campaigns in 1998, 2002, and 2007.  His efforts have help build or renovate schools for kids all over HISD.  Of course, if one did their homework, they would know that.  Folks like Jonathan Day and other men and women that donate to HISD candidates still believe in HISD.  Commentary is glad they are around.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again.  Nobody can come away from a substantive conversation with Anna Eastman and not be impressed – period.

The ‘Stros said they are interested in signing Miggy so stay tuned!

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Politics,Houston Elections,HISD School Board elections,Anna Eastman,Houston Business-Education Coalition PAC (HBEC),Jonathan Day,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball

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The Rogue Experience and Anna Eastman

Commentary watched The Rogue on Oprah yesterday.  I don’t agree with most of her positions but I do think she is great entertainment. 

Chief Bradford sent out an invitation to a fundraiser.  The fundraiser said there would be music and dancing.  I hope the folks that think dancing is sinful don’t weigh in on this.

The local labor guys are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to supporting their nemesis, HISD Trustee Larry Marshall.  I don’t have a problem with that.  A lot of folks are drawing lines in the sand this campaign season.  Of course, one of these days the line is going to turn into a canyon.  I prefer to let folks decide who they want to support and try not to hold grudges.

So far I haven’t seen any run-off mailers.  SHOW ME THE MAIL!

Anna Eastman’s former opponent endorsed her in the run-off for HISD District 1 Trustee.  Here’s what Linda Toyota had to say:  “It is important to have HISD Board members who are open minded and committed to continuing to move the District forward. Two-way communication with diverse constituents in the District, insuring accountabilities are in place and board governance through meaningful policies continues to be important to me. It is for these reasons I have decided to support Anna Eastman for our District I school board trustee.  Your vote for Anna Eastman will insure that our schools will continue to improve and teachers can be recognized for their accomplishments.”

Here is how Anna Eastman responded:  “Linda Toyota demonstrates a commitment to education and the children of Houston as evidenced by her campaign, community involvement and work history.  I am proud to have her confidence and endorsement as I enter into this stage of the campaign.”

Toyota received 14.4% of the vote on November 3.

Anna Eastman has also been endorsed by the Houston Business-Education Coalition, Houston Chronicle, and the Harris County Women’s Political Caucus.

If you want to see the Titans owner flip the bird to fans,  check it out.  Bud Adams has had way too much touching up.  It makes you appreciate my pal Drayton.

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,HISD School Board elections,Anna Eastman,Linda Toyota,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Houston Politics,Houston Elections

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Going Primitive

Commentary was stuck without internet this weekend thanks to AT&T.   So I missed doing a take on the Hootsie hate campaign.  I guess if my last name was Hootsie, I’d want to spend my life hating folks.  I missed out on doing a take on the Gene Locke Latino Lunch having three times as more Latinos in attendance than the Annise Parker Latino Breakfast.  I missed out on doing a take on the Gene Locke poll that my friend Bill King sent out.  I missed out on telling folks again that Guv Dude is setting the agenda in his race against Hutch.  I missed out on asking folks what the H-Town Mayor and John Sharp are running for these days.   I missed out on telling folks that I didn’t know that Gene Locke served as Chair of the Sports Authority.

My Brown Eyed Girl called last night to let me know that my third best movie of all time was on TBS.  After seventy years, the horse of a different color is white, purple, red and yellow.

Commentary is thinking about dropping by Sheer Luck’s on West Gray Wednesday to go meet ‘Stros new skipper Millsy at Astroline.  Maybe he’ll let me know who he has in mind to bat in the two hole on Opening Day April 5 against the Giants.

 

Technorati Tags: Marc Campos,Campos Communications,Latino politics,Texas Latino Politics,Houston Politics,Houston Elections,Gene Locke,Annise Parker,Houston Mayoral Race,Houston Astros,Major League Baseball,Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,Governor Rick Perry,Texas Governor’s Election,Steven Hotze

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