Texas Progressives offer pre-primary thoughts

Texas Progressives await primary election results and possible runoffs even as this leftist corner reminds you there are more than two political parties in Texas. 

Off the Kuff looks at the most recent pre-primary poll of the Democratic race for US Senate. 

SocraticGadfly asked rhetorically what HAVE Texas Republicans accomplished in the past 25 years?

Black on Black, old vs. young? The Observer dives into the 18th Congressional District primary between incumbent Al Green and Christian Menafee. Note to the Observer? I had no idea that Trump's 2025 pseudo-State of the Union happened in 2024.

Tying in with my piece Monday and his endorsements, the Observer, in "More Money than Greg," notes Abbott's massive war chest:

[I]s at this point a political clearinghouse combined with an investment firm. His campaign regularly invests donors’ contributions into U.S. Treasury notes and CDs from banks. (Yes, this is, per the state’s campaign finance laws, legal, so long as the funds are not converted for personal use.) In 2026, Abbott raised about $42 million and purchased more than $30 million in investments—mostly in T-bills. He also earned a return of over $40 million, campaign finance records show. Not bad for a public servant.

Is far far bigger than Dan Patrick's or anybody else's. The rest of the story is about the massive lack of political ethics rules and enforcement.

Primary election thoughts and predictions and looking ahead

Per this, this and this, by me, let's dig in. Other links follow as needed.

I think the Senate race on the Rethuglican side goes to a runoff between the big two. Sorry, Wesley Hunt. For Democraps, having read the latest polling from the Trib, I guess it's Crockett's race to lose. Did her hit job on Talarico push her up that much? There are other polls, though, putting him ahead.

The Trib gushes that both have a national profile. She had only a backbencher social media national profile before deciding to run; he didn't even have that. The fact that R.F. O'Rourke also gushes shows where Texas Democraps actually are at.

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Both parties' AG, GOP Comptroller and GOP RRC are heading to a runoff.

On all of the above, plus Guv and Lite, I'll undervote the general in all likelihood, though I have said I'd consider Nathan Johnson for AG if he gets the Dem nod. (Crockett is as much a squish on Zionism as Talarico and Greens have no Senate candidate.)

Democraps have nobody for either of the top two executive positions,  and I've heard nothing in terms of special ideas from the Doinks running for Comptroller. Greens have nobody for these offices other than Comptroller and Lite Guv.

Kevin McCormick for Lite Gov sounds interesting but not jazzy. Shehla Fahzi for Comptroller? A Muslim who promises to trash all anti-BDS language in the Comptroller's office, a pledge I am unaware of Dem Sarah Eckhardt making. The Observer has a piece on her, but that issue was not raised.

For Ag Commissh,I won't vote for Alfred Molison, the Green, unless he admits the party was wrong to endorse Prop 4, the water amendment, and explain environmentally what is wrong with it.  

Speaking of? The Donald, going mano-a-mano with Strangeabbott, has endorsed incumbent Sid Miller in the GOP ag race. Abbott, in his first endorsement of a challenger in an executive race, broke for Nate Sheets some time ago. Given Trump's recent track record plus his general cluelessness in such races, along with this coming out after early voting was done make it next to worthless. (Yes, Rethugs more than Doinks vote on election day, but still.) 

He also endorsed the dreamy Don Huffines in the comptroller's race. Abbott, of course, is all in for Kelly Hancock, his nominee to temporarily fill the spot. That that said, the Trib notes that Trump may be a bandwagoner here, as Miller and Huffines hold polling leads. OTOH, the poll the Trib links was run before Abbott's endorsement of Sheets. 

The Observer, in "More Money than Greg," notes Abbott's massive war chest and how he throws it around. 

Texas progressives look toward election day

Off the Kuff rounded up all his interviews and Q&As for the primary cycle, including the late-breaking interview with Rep. Sylvia Garcia in CD29.

SocraticGadfly had a Texas environmental news roundup.

Texas could be the country's largest data center state by 2030. Have fun with all that Proposition 4 water supply that's supposed to flow in abundance.

A federal judge gave student sexual orientation clubs in Houston, Katy and Plano ISDs legal protection, at least for now.

J.W. Wingate broke the color line in minor-league baseball in Texas. Texas Monthly takes a deep dive. Showing how pervasive the reach of minor-league baseball was back then? He played for a team in Lamesa.

Colt McCoy, Strangeabbott's new flunky on the Higher Education Coordinating Board, talked out of his "I'm not up to speed yet ass" about DEI and other things. Michael Hardy could have pushed him more. 

Neil at Houston Democracy Project posted about upcoming protest in Conroe regarding conditions at Texas ICE detention concentration camps, and of course ignores Leqaa Kordia. A local activist group & Harris County Democratic Club are co-organizers. Each day people realize while voting is essential, it won't be enough.

The Texas Signal shows how Austin is fighting homelessness with tiny houses.

The Barbed Wire provided a detailed Ken Paxton scandal timeline.

The Dallas Observer examines the North Texas World Cup host committee's draft plan for human rights issues.

Texas Public Opinion Research investigates the real ideological landscape of the Texas Democratic Senate primary.

So, what HAVE Tex-ass Republicans accomplished in 25 years?

At the end of a piece talking about how Tex-ass Democrats might actually miss Kenny Boy Paxton as state AG, as he profiles his four would-be GOP successors, CD Hooks rhetorically asks something that a former county commissioner in my county — a Republican, no less, told me several years ago on education.

He references the nutbar level of the four in a debate sponsored by the Republican Attorney Generals Association: 

Altogether, the debate painted Texas as a weak and collapsing place under imminent threat from about two dozen outside corrupting forces—Islam, gays, New York Jews, Somalians, the Chinese. Which tends to suggest a question that didn’t get asked. If everything the candidates said is true—if the Big D is being subjugated by the crescent moon—and all these things are the product of a quarter century of continuous, uninterrupted Republican rule, what possible reason could there be for conservatives to continue voting Republican?

Indeed. 

ICE is killing people in Texas, too, and yes, lying about it

ICE is killing people in Texas, both by bullets and by jailer thuggery. 

In the former case, ICE trotted out the Rachel Good claim, that Ruben Ray Martinez tried to run them over. I'll assume they're lying, as in that case, but without video here, it can't be proven.

In the latter, Geraldo Lunas Campos hit a George Floyd "I can't breathe," killing — and yes, it has been called homicide by a medical examiner. ICE has already lied twice about that, first with a made-up bullshit of "medical distress" then claiming it was suicide.

And Congresswoman Veronica Escobar suggests a prosecution loophole — this killing was by employees of a civilian contractor, so no sovereign immunity. 

In another case, ICE deported a 2-month-old baby that it sickened in ICE detention, along with its family. 

Neoliberal California climate change environmentalism in action

Shock me that the state governed by the former Mayor Pothole is doing toothless state carbon offsets by funding "renewable" natural gas plants in North Carolina, extracting and purifying the methane out of hog shit. And yes, per the piece, California FUNDS something that is not really environmental, is neoliberal greenwashing, involves cheating within that and also has environmental justice problems.

First, of course, some of that methane goes into making fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides for the food that feeds the hogs that produce .... methane and shit. It's "renewable" but in just the opposite way from Gavin Newsom's idea. 

And, as said Devon Hall, an environmental justice organizer who founded the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH) in Warsaw, North Carolina, about fifteen minutes down the road from the facility:

“Communities have been suffering with the swine CAFOs for many years,” said Hall. “Whenever you begin to talk about biogas, then it just further embeds the problem.”

There you are. 

The hypocrisy is compounded because Newsom signed into law a bill from the Cal Lege banning eggs from states that don't give chicken minimum room to roam but won't ban pork from CAFO farms.

Meanwhile, the biogas technology, a greenwashing effort by the Big Hog industry, doesn't actually solve the problem anyway:

The United States Department of Agriculture warns that the methane capture process can exacerbate certain water quality issues by increasing the water-solubility of nitrogen in livestock waste. That raises the risk of nitrate contamination of drinking water which is linked to miscarriages and infant mortality and is a particular concern in an area where most residents draw their water from wells.

Again, there you are. 

The story goes on to note that, back in Newsom's own state, biogas for dairy farms doesn't get the carbon reductions Newsom's state credits it for.

Worse yet? Newsom's California cheats:

Even more egregious, they say, is the fact that the program allows farms in Wisconsin, Texas, New York, Missouri and several other states to sell biogas credits into the California market for fuel that never makes it into California pipelines.

Cheats.

Go read more. I'm just halfway into the piece with that quote. 

No, there's more. California's hypocritical even compared to North Carolina! Yes:

Years before the LCFS existed, utilities in North Carolina were required by a 2007 state law to source some of their power from renewable sources, including 0.2 percent from swine biogas by 2018. It’s the only state in the country that mandates sourcing electricity from animal waste.

Again, there you are. The "only state that mandates" means no California. (That said, the mandate targets in NC aren't close to being reached.)

That all said, the story notes other environmental problems with the whole biogas idea. It also notes a shitload of environmental justice ideas. 

And people wonder why I don't vote Democrat, not only not for president, but also not for U.S. Senator nor any statewide state office.