This kind of sums up yesterday:
Carol Alvarado@RepAlvarado145 28m28 minutes ago
Carol Alvarado Retweeted Jason Sparks
Terrible way to end our #txlege session. Shame on you @MattRinaldiTX
Commentary wasn’t there but maybe all those brown faces in the gallery freaked out this Rimaldi fella. He may have thought he was at the Alamo on March 5, 1836. Then maybe he heard the “El Degüello” tune in his head and freaked out.
Honestly though, calling ICE was an act of a coward. In my book, Rinaldi and his actions will go down as one of the most cowardly in the history of the Texas Legislature – period. Get used to it, fella. Your plaque now hangs shamelessly on the wall of the Hall of Cowards. Come on! Who calls ICE just because a bunch of DREAMers are calling you out.
A response on the take of the upcoming repeal of the rev cap election:
We know that if the pension bonds are not approved by voters this fall, most of the legislation tied to lowering pension liabilities flies out the window as well. The exception for this are the cuts made to the firemen which are not tied to the bonds, so maybe the public will throw the cops and other city workers a bone while driving another nail into the hearts of the firemen. I suspect the revenue cap measure will have a campaign that espouses what types of cuts will have to be made if it doesn’t pass, fewer replacements for all the workers retiring to save earned benefits which translates to longer wait times, longer lines in city run facilities, less library hours, cutbacks to parks, and perhaps even finally cutting the Houston Zoo loose instead of simply deferring half the yearly operating subsidy as the proposed budget calls for.
The Mayor should keep it simple and point out the basics, less funds means less services. If voters are okay with that, let them try the county model for a few years. If that suits enough people, so be it. -Steve Houston
Folks know that Commentary is not fond of campaign sign stealing. It looks like one of the candidates for mayor of Pasadena got caught red-handed trying to steal one of his opponent’s signs. Really? Sigh! Grow-up! Not cool, buddy. Here is from the Chron:
Tensions are ratcheting up in Pasadena after one mayoral candidate lobbed allegations of attempted sign-stealing at his runoff opponent. The claims of campaign sign thievery surfaced over the weekend with photos showing candidate Jeff Wagner touching a sign of his political foe, John Moon Jr.
“His wife was driving the getaway vehicle,” Moon alleged. “This is like a small-time Bonnie and Clyde, continuing the same dirty politics that have given Pasadena a bad name.”
But Wagner, who replaced the sign after touching it, denied the claim that he planned to make off with it.
“I have never or anyone working on my campaign has ever taken any of our opponents’ signs,” Wagner, a current District F councilman, said by text message Monday.
The supposed shenanigans sprouted up just before noon on Saturday, when three politically-minded Pasadenans eating at Shipley Do-Nuts spotted Wagner hovering by a roadside Moon sign staked in the ground along Richey Street.
“I did not witness it,” Moon said, “but I have talked to all three of the people who did and they said until they confronted him with the sign rolled up under his arm, he was planning to steal it.”
Two of the witnesses were campaign workers – one with Moon’s campaign – and the third was Daniel Vela, who’s in the runoff for District A’s council seat.
“I personally couldn’t believe it,” Vela said. “I’ve known Jeff and I have respect for him, but why did he do this?”
Here is the entire read: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/pasadena/news/article/Pasadena-mayoral-candidate-denies-claims-of-11181123.php.
Not a smart move for sure. Guess he got bored with block-walking.
And now the Chron E-Board has endorsed Moon for Mayor. Here is how it starts:
The headlines don’t look good for Pasadena’s political status quo.
The city’s economic development agency has been hounded by criticism of unspent dollars, unfulfilled promises and secret – perhaps illegal – meetings. There are even allegations of lucrative contracts handed out to politically connected companies. At City Hall, longtime Mayor Johnny Isbell was found by a federal judge to have intentionally discriminated against Hispanic voters in a slapdash redistricting scheme. Now the city faces election oversight from the Department of Justice until 2023.
The second-largest city in Harris County could use a good shake-up.
That’s why voters should elect John “J.R.” Moon Jr. for mayor in the city’s runoff election.
Moon, 58, would bring the outsider perspective that Pasadena needs. He has spent the past decade as a trustee for the top-rated San Jacinto College. In addition to his public service, Moon also has the business credentials to make for a fine mayor of a growing city – he is a certified CPA and former chief financial officer at Moody Bank. Moon currently works as a commercial real estate agent.
Here is the entire E-Board take: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/recommendations/article/Eyes-wide-open-11179593.php.
And Commentary will add that Moon doesn’t steal campaign signs.
Commentary is going to be skipping the MLB question for a while and I will probably be late posting over the next few days.
That doesn’t mean I can’t write about the ‘Stros. My Dad and I were watching the game yesterday and we were kind of lamenting being behind 8-2 going into the 8th. Then all hell broke loose for the ‘Stros. I don’t want to say I couldn’t believe it because I can believe it. It was a monster comeback for sure and a first.
We now are 20 games above .500 and have an 11 game lead and there are still 2 games left to play in May.
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