Check Out The New TDP Website!

The Texas Democratic Party has a great, newly redesigned website. Be sure to check it out and sign-up for email updates. Since TDP was kind enough to purchase a BlogAd here on Capitol Annex and many other Texas blogs, we’re going to direct you to the left sidebar and encourage you to click on their BlogAd to visit the new site.

Chris Bell Joins D.C. Lobby Firm

This is indeed interesting news:

Former Democratic congressman and gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell will start a new job today with the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Patton Boggs.

Read more

Dallas DA Featured In Washington Post

Newly elected Dallas County DA Craig Watkins, a Democrat, got some very positive press in the Washington Post yesterday:

And in an unprecedented act for any jurisdiction in the nation, he announced he would allow the Texas affiliate of the Innocence Project to review hundreds of Dallas County cases dating back to 1970 to decide whether DNA tests should be conducted to validate past convictions. At 12 in the past five years, Dallas has more post-conviction DNA exonerations than any county in the nation and more than at least two states. A 13th exoneration, of a Dallas County man, is expected to be announced within days.

By his own estimate, Watkins should not be occupying what he calls a “ten-gallon-hat, cowboy-boot-wearing, dip-chewin’, lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key” post in the ninth-largest city in the country.

He’s black, he’s a Democrat, he’s young, he was a defense lawyer with an office in a southside neighborhood, and he has no prosecutorial experience — unless he counts a year-long internship handling misdemeanors in the city prosecutor’s office. His two previous applications to work as an assistant district attorney in Dallas County were rejected, in fact, by an office in which a prosecutor once produced a manual on how to exclude minorities from Texas juries.

Wow.

National Targeting Of Texas Congressional Races: We Need To Make Peace With Our Moderates

For those of you as eager as I am for the start of the 2008 election cycle (which started last November 8th, ha ha), you’ll no doubt find this article over at Fire Dog Lake (one of my favorite national blogs) quite interesting.

The post discusses the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and ponder some potential Democrats that could be the subject of more progressive primary targets in 2008. It mentioned Congressmen who were most likely to side with Republicans on “substantive matters.”
The post caught my interest because it mentioned a couple of Texas Congressmen: Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) and Chet Edwards (D-Waco).

Read more

TDP Blogger Briefing

I’m on a conference call right now with other bloggers and TDP Chairman Boyd Richie in Austin. I’ll post an update after the call Monday afternoon.

Former Congressman Sandlin To Marry SD Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth

Former Texas Congressman Max Sandlin (D-Marshall), will wed South Dakota’s lone Congressional representative — Stephanie Herseth (D-SD).

The Associated Press reports the announcement was made during Herseth’s 36th birthday party Friday night in Rapid City, SD.

Sandlin, who is now employed by Greenberg Traurig, was one of four Texas Congressmen who fell victim to a mid-decade redistricting plan engineered by former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land).

Herseth is in her second term and was keynote speaker at the Blue Star Breakfast of the Texas Democratic Convention in 2006.

Former Texas Congressman Part Of Jackson Mayor’s Defense Team

By now, we’ve all heard about Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Frank Melton sending folks out to bust up crack houses with baseball bats (or whatever he was accused of doing).

However, there’s a new twist. Melton, who previously lived in Tyler in East Texas, has added former Texas Congressman Craig Washington (D-Houston) to his defense team.

Read more

Charlie Wilson: Texas Pol On The Big Screen

I had heard that they were making a movie about former Congressman Charlie Wilson and the book Charlie Wilson’s War.

However, I had no idea the cast was going to be so star-studded:

Read more

Barefoot Sanders Stepping Down

Senior Federal District Judge—and Texas legal and political legend—Harold ‘Barefoot’ Sanders has announced he will retire. He is 81.

Though Sanders is most famously known for presiding over the desegregation of Dallas ISD schools, he has a distinguished record as a judge and public official. I was, in fact, stunned that Wikipedia doesn’t have an article on Barefoot Sanders (I’ll be writing one, though).

Sanders served four terms in the Texas Legislature from 1952 to 1958. During his tenure in the Legislature, he sponsored a number of bills including Texas Securities Act, the Texas Probate Code, the Texas Mental Health Code,
In addition, President Kennedy appointed Sandars as U.S. Attorney for the Nothern District of Texas, a position he held from 1961 until 1965. In 1965, he was named Assistant Deputy Attorney General, rising to Assistant Attorney General in 1966 and serving out the remainder of the Johnson years as Legislative Counsel to the President from 1967 until 1969.

In 1972, Sanders sought and won the Democratic nomination for United States Senate from Texas after a bloody battle and runoff against former U. S. Senator Ralph Yarborough. He went on to oppose Senator John Tower in a hotly-contested general election battle.
President Jimmy Carter named Sanders to the Federal bench in 1979.

More Vilma Luna Stuff

Statement of Solomon Ortiz, Jr., announcing he will seek the nomination.

Houston Chronicle coverage

KRIS-TV Coverage.

Burnt Orange Report has the legal skinny on how the replacement will be filled and what the status of Republicans is concerning the November ballot.

Also: Pink Dome, Dos Centavos, The Red State, and Just Another Blog tells us Rep. Luna may be acquiring new employment…with HillCo…interesting.

Next Page »