District J

There is a fundraiser tonight in Downtown Houston for H-Town City Council District J candidate Sandra Rodriguez. The fundraiser is co-hosted by Cong. Sylvia Garcia, State Sen. Carol Alvarado, State Reps. Armando Walle and Gene Wu, H-Town Council Member Robert Gallegos and other prominent folks. Sandra Rodriguez is in the runoff.

District J was created after the 2010 census during the 2011 City of H-Town redistricting process. Then H-Town Council Member James Rodriguez, no relation to Sandra Rodriguez, led the effort to make District J a Hispanic opportunity district. We got a lot of help and cooperation from then Mayor Annise Parker. My old pal Council Member Mike Laster was first elected to the position in 2011 and he is term limited this time.

Good luck, Sandra Rodriguez! Seize the opportunity! I will be dropping by this evening.

Here is from Kuffer today on the HD 148 Special Election Runoff date:

The key bit of the proclamation is this: “WHEREAS, Section 2.025(d) of the Texas Election Code provides that the runoff election must be held not earlier than the 70th day or later than the 77th day after the date the final canvass of the main election is completed”. You can see that statute here. It’s pretty straightforward, which is why I always say I Am Not A Lawyer when I try to interpret legal matters. I will say, I did get the explanation of the early voting period for this correct. The reason why there are only four days of early voting for these runoffs is because Monday the 20th is MLK Day, and there is no voting on federal holidays. (*) We have had this happen in legislative runoffs before, most recently in 2016 with the special election runoff for HD118.

As Campos notes:

“To put this in perspective, Early Voting in Person in the 2020 Texas Democratic Party Primaries begins on Tuesday, February 18, 2018. That is three weeks after the January 28 special election runoff and probably a week after the winner is sworn into office.” 

That makes this a huge challenge for the candidates, who will be competing for attention with all of the primary campaigns and who may themselves have to run in competitive primaries. Just having to explain to people that they have to vote in January and then again a few weeks later is headache-inducing. And note that early voting for the primaries starts on a Tuesday as well, because Monday the 17th is Presidents Day.

Federal holidays, y’all. Anyway, now is a great time to get involved with the Eliz Markowitz and/or Anna Eastman campaigns. These runoffs may not be next month, but they’ll be here sooner than you think.

(*) Yes, I know many people would like to make Election Day a federal holiday. It’s a great idea! Be that as it may, when there’s a federal holiday during an early voting period in Texas, early voting is off for that day.

Here is all of Kuffer: http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=93095.

Here is Stace’s take on the HD 148 Special Runoff Election:

The Special Election for Texas House District 148 will be held on January 28, so, I’m rooting for Democrat Anna Eastman to win the run-off in HD148. As people keep telling me, they are doing it all over again in March in the Dem Primary, but I agree with some of my friends who say HD148 voters can’t give away the seat to a right-wing, anti-Latino Latino just because their person didn’t make it to the run-off. Campos reports on Anna’s endorsements and they all look pretty good and diverse to me.

Here is all of Stace:
https://doscentavos.net/2019/11/19/staceslate-2019-run-off-edition/.

Remember when those clowns in Austin attended that bill signing ceremony with those Chick-fil-A Styrofoam cups strewn about. That’s funny.