[This is Part I of a two part-post on financial reports].
Once again, James Leninger is doing his very best to buy seats in the Texas House of Representatives.
Like meth addicts looking for their next fix, it seems that Republican candidates for Texas House cannot get enough of the school voucher advocate’s cash—either in direct expenditures or through political action committees.
After years of tracking Leninger’s money through the various and sundry PACs he cretes, co-opts, or gives to, you’d think he might try a bit more innovative of an approach. However, he’s giving to expected PACs: Craddick’s Stars over Texas PAC, Texans for Lawsuit Reform and other PACs that are the bread and butter of the radical Republican religious right.
Leininger has contributed nearly $1.2 million to various candidates and political action committees since September 30.
These include:
$100,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform
$100,000 to Associated Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund
$50,000 to the Republican Party of Texas
$83,000 to Talmadge Heflin
$125,000 and $10,000 to Stars over Texas PAC
$165,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform
$5,000 to Friends of David Buryear
$100,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform
$50,000 to Michael Esparza
$15,000 to Nelson H. Baldio
$75,000 to Associated Republicans of Texas
$50,000 to David Dewhurst Committee
$100,000 to Associated Republicans of Texas
$170,000 to Texans for School Choice PAC
$5,000 to Texans for Don Willett
$5,000 to Will Wilson
According to Harvey Kronberg’s Quorum Report, Leininger’s largesse is responsible for a significant percentage of money raised by several of the PACs to which he has contributed during the most recent reporting period:
•Associated Republicans of Texas: 69.8% of its funding is
from Leininger
•Texans for Lawsuit Reform: 26.8% of funding is from Leininger
•Stars over Texas: 34% of funding from Leininger.
•Republican Party of Texas PAC: 17.3% of funding came from Leininger.
||Texas Congressional District 28||Map||Henry Cuellar (D) [bio, $$, TV] vs. Frank Enriquez [bio, $$, TV] vs. Ron Avery (C)||Harris (part)||3rd Party TV||Frio, Guadalupe, Hidalgo (part), Jim Hogg, La Salle, McMullen, Starr, Webb (all), Wilson, Zapata.||
Texas Congressional District 28 is another Congressional District touched by redistricting.
||Texas Congressional District 17||Map||||Chet Edwards (D) [bio, $$] vs. Van Taylor (R)||Calhoun, Aransas, San Patricio, Nueces (part)||Bosque, Brazos, Grimes, Hill, Hood, Johnson, Madison, McLennan, Somervell, Burleson (part), Limestone (part), Robertson (part).||
More than a year ago, pundits an analysts across the country predicted that Chet Edwards (D-Waco) would have a tremendous fight on his hands to be able to hold on to the congressional district that includes President Bush’s Crawford ranch.
And, while Edwards has no cake walk in such a Republican district, it is clear he is not facing the fight most people feared in 2005.
Edwards, a seasoned Congressman who votes his district, faces Van Taylor, aka Nicholas Van Campen Taylor, a former aide to a Dallas Republican Congressman, Harvard graduate, and ex-Marine whose family is connected to Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick and has a personal fortune from, among other things, Exxon stock.
For a normal Democratic candidate in a normal election year, this would be a tough race for Edwards who just two years ago defeated Arlene Wholgemuth and became the only Democratic Congressmen to survive Tom DeLay’s mid-decade redistricting.
However, Edwards is no typical Democratic candidate. More conservative than many Congressional Democrats, Edwards is credited by his constituants as one who is in-touch with his district and votes its conscience (which is fairly conservative) while not totally surrendering his Democratic ideals.
One major signal for Republican opponent Taylor that things weren’t going his way was that Edwards snagged a number of major endorsements from groups that usually side with Republicans: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business, Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND, Texas Association of Businesses and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Edwards has also snagged the endorsements of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Waco Tribune-Herald, neither of which had much good to say about Edwards.
The Final Analysis: Edwards will win this district by a fairly comfortable margin. The district is one with toll road issues and Taylor will not be the beneficiary of full-strength straight ticket Republican voting as some Republicans will doubtless defect to Strayhorn. In addition, Edwards has support from many Republicans who view Taylor as an outsider out for mere political gain.
Edwards should be able to pull 55-56 percent of the vote in this district.
Please accept my appologies if you came at 12 and two looking for installments in “The Final Stretch.” Somehow, I left them in ‘draft mode’ so they didn’t post as they were supposed to. I’ll get them up ASAP.
The kids in your neighborhood will forgive you in ten years if you don’t buy 25 dollars worth of Halloween Candy and instead give that money to Chris Bell.
In fact, they’ll thank you because their public schools won’t be destroyed by school vouchers.
Seriously, though: please help Chris keep his TV and radio ads on the air. We cannot let his recent bump in the polls go to waste, folks. This is our prime opportunity.
This is the most important election of our generation. If we do not stop the Rick Perry/Tom DeLay/Tom Craddick machine once and for all with a win at the top, there is no limit to what the Republicans will be able to destroy.
So, if, this Halloween, you’d like to make sure there is a public school to send your kids to when they get old enough, have clean air to breathe, a generation of kids who can access medical care, and keep personal control of your uterus (ladies!), then please: skip the trip to Wal-Mart or Costco or Target for candy after work, give up your cokes/coffee for the rest of the week, and send Chris Bell whatever you can, and then keep your porch light off, put a “vote Democratic”sticker up there in place of whatever decorations you’ve got, and spend the evening calling people you know and reminding them to vote.
You won’t regret it (unlike paying good money to see The Blair Witch Project).
The Houston Chronicle, whose pollster is evidently doing heavy drugs, has taken another poll. This time, it’s in the race for U.S. Senate against Kay Bailey Hutchison:
Hutchison is favored by 61.1 percent of likely voters in her quest for a third full Senate term, compared to 26.6 percent for Radnofsky and 5.4 percent for Libertarian Scott Lanier Jameson of Plano, according to the poll. Almost 7 percent of voters are undecided.
Yesterday, Charles Kuffner already noted why their polling numbers in CD 22 were, in a word, whack.
I’m sure if the sampling was done in a similar manner, these results are whack, too. There is simply no way Barbara Radnofsky will not at least hit 42-45 percent. And, there is no way that Scott Lanier Jameson will go above three percent. Where the hell was this poll taken, anyway? Plano?
In Tarrant County, the Democratic Party and four local voters have filed a federal lawsuit against Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams alleging that the electronic voting machines used in that county are unconstitutional and in violation of federal law.
The lawsuit demands a verifiable paper trail be installed in time for Tuesday’s election. Though top election officials say that’s impossible, it has always been my understanding it only takes money to order the machines and a few minutes to plug them in, assuming FedEx can get them here in time.
Here’s more:
Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is wearing melon pink, Kay Bailey Hutchison is wearing lime green (stick with blue and red, honey) and George W. Bush looks like he’s getting back his old beer belly. And, oh! How adoringly they look at each other!
After House District 32 on the gulf coast, HD 134 in the heart of Houston is Democrats’ next best chance for a pickup.
The district includes the Houston neighborhoods of Meyerland, River Oaks, West University Place, the Texas Medical Center, a small portion of Rice/Military and half of Montrose.
And, it’s where incumbent Martha Wong (R-Houston), is in the fight of her political life.
Democrat Ellen Cohen has Wong on the defensive and has built up strong coalitions within the communities in the district, which give her an advantage and has set the district to flip.
Regardless of what happens this election cycle, I know we’ll all sleep easier knowing that Rick Perry’s network of contributors, many of which have served as campaign ATMs for him for years, are in no danger of drying up:
Do you know that you can 
