Yesterday was a great day for Barack Obama, and an even better day for the hundreds and thousands of new voters registered today across the United States. Here in Austin we ran a voter registration drive that crossed the city, looking to make as many new Democrats as possible. We ended up with several hundred new voters, and dozens of new deputy registrars.
We'll be at it again next weekend, Saturday May 17 at 1:00 p.m. starting from Nuevo Leon, 1501 East 6th Street, concurrent with the launch of the Travis County Coordinated Campaign.
If you happened to watching the proceedings of the U.S. House on Wednesday, what you saw wasn't a pretty sight--especially if your mother was watching, too.
Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Austin) voted against against H Res 1113 "Celebrating the Role of Mothers in the United States and Supporting the Goals and Ideals of Mother's Day. " Now this was a pretty stupid vote. Politicians often talk about how they won't vote against something because doing so would be like voting against mothers and apple pie. But this politician actually did vote against mothers! (His decision on apple pie is pending a higher campaign contribution from the apple pie lobby).
Sure it was just a vote on a ceremonial resolution, but it was emblematic of McCaul's atrocious voting record on the issues that matter to mothers, fathers, families, and children across America. For instance:
* McCaul voted AGAINST a resolution honoring the contributions of mothers and Mothers day.
* McCaul voted AGAINST a bill that would repeal the tax breaks given to big oil companies. Meanwhile, working mothers driving to work and moms driving their kids to the soccer game pay more at the pump while the companies make record profits.
*McCaul voted AGAINST expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
*McCaul voted AGAINST beginning to bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq.
*McCaul voted AGAINST raising the federal minimum wage for working mothers across the country.
*McCaul voted to CUT funding for federal assistance for working mothers and student loans.
And the list goes on. McCaul managed to score a paltry 9 percent rating from the National Organization for Women, and scored 0 percent in 2006 from the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, a leading advocate for women on economic issues.
If these aren't reasons enough to support Larry Joe Doherty for Congress, I don't know what is. This Mother's Day, spend time with your mother, make her dinner, send her a card, or just let her know you love her. Then, donate $25 or whatever you can spare to Doherty, whose mother was a grocery clerk. Volunteer or tell your friends. Because one of the best things we can do for our mothers and our families is to make change happen and return responsible representation to Congress.
I'm really curious what announcements may be coming...
The voters have spoken, and Cid Galindo and Laura Morrison will now go into a runoff. I congratulate them on their success and wish them both the best. I salute Jennifer Gale, Sam Osemene, and Ken Vasseau for their campaigns.
I'm deeply grateful for all the loyal friends and the many new friends who joined my campaign, and to the citizens who responded so warmly. It's been a blast!
My family and my staff and I will be taking some well-earned rest, but I may have an announcement or two in the coming week.
Thanks.
-Robin
Robin continues to impress. I doubt this is the last we've heard of him.
In all the hoopla about the Austin city races, it was easy to miss out on all the excitement out in the suburbs. One of the most interesting races was for Leander ISD, where incumbent Pam Waggoner faced off against challenger Will Streit.
Waggoner made noise earlier this year when she became the Republican nominee to take on Donna Howard this November in TX House District 48 (I guess Ben Bentzin got the hint). Waggoner, a six year veteran of the school board, also chose to run for re-election (how's that for confidence?), citing her passion for education issues (Howard is also a former school board member for the Eanes district).
Below are the current results for the major races. We're using the combined early and election day vote. Feel free to follow select jurisdictions in the comments.
All reports now final.
PLACE 1, AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL
206 of 206 Precincts Reporting
Lee Leffingwell 22,539 67.84% (re-elected)
Allen Demling 3,162 9.52%
Jason Meeker 7,524 22.65%
PLACE 3, AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL
206 of 206 Precincts Reporting
Jennifer Kim 9,347 27.02%
Randi Shade 22,190 64.15% (elected)
Ken Weiss 3,053 8.83%
PLACE 4, AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL
206 of 206 Precincts Reporting
Cid Galindo 9,729 29.13% (runoff)Laura Morrison 12,882 38.57% (runoff)
Ken Vasseau 592 1.77%
Jennifer Gale 1,951 5.84%
Osemene, Sam 1,419 4.25%
Robin Cravey 6,825 20.44%
And in the ACC race, we may see a runoff...
PLACE 1 ACC TRUSTEE
193 of 193 Precincts Reporting
Tim Mahoney 13,625 49.10% (runoff)Harrison Keller 9,132 32.91% (runoff)
Michael Reid 4,995 18.00%
And in the AISD Place 3 Race...
AISD DISTRICT 3 SINGLE MEMBER TRUSTEE
21 of 21 Precincts Reporting
Christine Brister 1,191 63.22% (elected)
Jerry Garcia 693 36.78%
All 3 AISD bonds are passing by healthy margins wit 100% reporting.
I've heard that literally DOZENS AND DOZENS of Austinites have turned out to vote today. Not the most encouraging news --- and if we do have a runoff in the Place 3 and Place 4 races (which may or may not happen), then any runoff may come down to who has a longer list of supporters on their website.
Leave any predictions below, and feel free to comment on results. Also, if you voted, let us know -- we're curious to see how many of you we can count just here on our site. :)
Update by KT: If you're done with elections today, feel free to head to any of the following victory parties.
The following is intended to be a one-stop post for all of the information you could want for the Austin City Council races. Please let us know if we are missing any information, and feel free to share this post with any and all friends and neighbors who want to get more informed on Austin City Council races. Thanks for reading Burnt Orange Report.
ABOUT CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS - Explanation, Endorsements, Polls, Election History
"There are seven members on the Austin City Council: one Mayor and six Council Members. The entire Council is elected at large by the voters of the City. Each member serves a staggered three-year term. Thus, three of the members are voted on one year, with the remaining members, including the Mayor, elected the following year. Term limits are now in place, which means the Mayor and Council Members may serve in their respective seat for a maximum of six years, or two consecutive terms."
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, whose spokesperson cited the district's vote as a primary reason, announced an endorsement for Hillary Clinton. As a United States Congressperson, he is a superdelegate to the DNC Convention.
What say you? How significant is it that the district's support is the primary reason?
John Cornyn has turned his back on Texans for six years, and now Texans are returning the favor. If these polls tell us anything, it's that John Cornyn should be very nervous because Texans are ready for new leadership.
The fact that Cornyn can only managed to get about four in five GOP members to back him in his reelection bid -- about the same level of support from within his own party that Noriega receives despite the fact that the latter hasn't been on the scene for nearly as long -- speaks to the incumbent's problems.
Noriega still has a big hill to climb come November, but the Research 2000 poll shows at least the possibility that Democrats could seriously expand the playing field this year.
Some believe this is evidence of a political realignment, with more voters self-identifying as independents and slippage of the GOP steel-grip on statewide offices.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is reporting that LULAC has filed suit against the TDP over the primacaucus delegate selection procedure.
The link at Marshall's site goes directly to the El Paso Times story about the suit. No details.
Anyone know anything more?
Update from Phillip
Considering how focused the TDP has been on changing the rules going forward -- and eager and willing to address these changes at the upcoming convention -- it's a shame LULAC is doing this. We could have been all coming together right now, and instead, we get a lawsuit. And based on the article below the fold, the lawsuit is just a heavy hammer being thrown around to make sure LULAC gets their chips at the bargaining table counted.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: as an Hispanic, I sure felt like my vote was counted.
(Register voters and help take back the House. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
This Saturday, take part in something that can help every single Texas Democrat on the ballot in November. Join the Obama campaign's 50-State Voter Registration Drive. The more folks we can register now who are eager to vote for a Democrat, the more we can concentrate on turning them out in November.
Right now, Barack Obama only trails John McCain by five points here in Texas, and Rick Noriega only needs to make up about as much ground on John Cornyn. One great way to help those candidates--as well as folks like Diane Maldonado, Wendy Davis, Larry Joe Doherty, and Nick Lampson--is to make more voters who can cast their ballots for our candidates.
Here in Texas we've got four events planned: Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio will all be taking part. Please RSVP for your event so the organizers can make sure to have enough forms and clipboards for all of you!
We've written about the "ghost workers" story twice now, and you can read the two links above to get all the details/dirt. Fundamentally, though -- now that the week is ending and Craddick's ridiculous smearing of Democrats has bitten back against him hard -- we ask the bigger question:
Craddick's outrage on the "ghost worker" standard is fundamentally that he thinks House Members are cheating taxpayers by having the public pay for health benefits for the "part-time" workers. So, the questions:
Texas has a higher uninsurance rate than any other country - what's wrong with providing health benefits?
Why don't part-time workers deserve health benefits?
We, as Democrats, believe that we should do everything in our power to provide affordable access to health coverage to as many Texans as possible. Craddick and the Republican leadership don't -- and a look at some of the latest headlines demonstrates this point precisely:
[There were] 5.7 million people in Texas who did not have health insurance in 2006. Many Texans may know that their state has the nation's highest portion of residents without insurance, 25 percent, a figure that has remained constant for several years. [...]
Most are employed. Two-thirds of uninsured Texas adults younger than 65 have jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Texas families saw their health insurance premiums soar 40 percent in five years; 10 times faster than their incomes increased, according to a report being released today by a national foundation that promotes health care improvement.[...]
At the same time, Texas ranked No. 1 in the percentage of residents without insurance. In 2005-06, that figure was 27 percent. The state had 5.5 million of the nation's 47 million uninsured people.
Families USA estimates that more than seven working-age Texans die each day due to lack of health insurance (approximately 2,700 people in 2006).
Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in Texas who died because they did not have health insurance was nearly 17,700.
I was wrong earlier in the week when I said Craddick had political motives in trying to go after these "ghost workers." He doesn't care if he outs Democrat or Republican staffers. Speaker Craddick and the failed Republican leaders in this state are so fundamentally opposed to providing health care to Texas --- a philosophy that has led to the disastrous health coverage for Texans that is outlined in the stories above --- that they'll do anything to save a few bucks.
That's why Craddick must go: not because of his bullying, petulant politics, but because of the disastrous political philosophy he drives through the Legislature and forces onto Texas families.
This Saturday, take part in something that can help every single Texas Democrat on the ballot in November. Join the Obama campaign's 
