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The Texas Blue
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The Texas Blue: Articles

Giving the Texas Two-Step the Old One-Two

Silly me -- and here I thought that the big floor debate in today's general session of the Texas Democratic Party convention would be over the race for state party chair.

Civic Engagement and Voter Turnout

I bet a number of you guys are down here in Corpus, slogging through the heat and humidity to attend the TDP state convention. If you missed the Young Democrats caucus earlier this afternoon, you may have missed your best chance to see just about every elected official and candidate in attendance -- the speaker list was long and colorful.

State Representative Mark Strama's time at the microphone was spent telling the story of one of his staffers that left the campaign to volunteer for Edwards in Iowa, struck a chord with me.

In Favor of Prop 4 and Prop 8

When Texans go to the polls today, they'll have the chance to vote on two propositions that could help make our state a leader in higher education and veterans' services. Proposition 4 would provide funding to enable emerging universities in Texas to develop into major research universities. Proposition 8 would forge a partnership between the state government and the federal government to bring a VA Hospital to the Valley and help boost facilities across the state.

Sine Die: The Aftermath

After finally (seemingly!) conquering our particularly ill-timed technical problems, we're back just in time to give you a run-down of what did and didn't happen this session -- and what may happen in a special session later this year.

Perry's Options for 2010

The Houston Chronicle continues to report on the back-room preparations for the 2010 elections in Texas. As we have previously noted multiple times (among them here and here), how the election cycle unfolds really revolves around what happens in the governor's race. There seems to be little doubt that Perry is going to try for an unprecedented third term, but there are a few things still up in the air:

Sarah Palin Did Not Cost McCain The Election

Now that the McCain/Palin ticket found the bottom of the downward spiral to an electoral defeat of Mondale proportions, journalists, campaign operatives, and others looking to make names for themselves are all sagely pointing the finger of blame at Sarah Palin. Granted, she made things easier; I will enjoy few things more than seeing her consigned to the Dan Quayle Institute of Forgotten Novelty Candidates. One thing that she did not do, however, was cost the Republicans the election.

Races To Watch: '08 National Edition

Why are you paying so much attention to your television? Watching minute-by-minute changes in Idaho won't change who ends up winning the presidential election. And inauguration still won't happen until next year. Just make an early night of it and pick up the paper tomorrow.

What, you're going to bite your nails and watch anyway? Yeah, we will too. To give a little order to your Election Night madness, here's the Blue's guide to national races this year.

A Hypothesis on Why Palin's Cosmetologist Is Paid So Much

I wanted to introduce this post with a riddle, but the punchline was too juicy not to use in the subject heading. The New York Times decided to go through the FEC reports from McCain/Palin 2008 and see what they could find. Highlights:

Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staffer. It was Amy Strozzi, Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday night.

Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records. The campaign categorized Ms. Strozzi’s payment as “Personnel Svc/Equipment."

[...]

The Only Things You Need To Know About Sarah Palin's Kids

Alaska governor Sarah Palin has not gotten very good press for her first few days in her new role as the Republican vice presidential nominee. Some has revolved around the TrooperGate scandal she's at the epicenter of in her state. Some has revolved around her incredibly short time in public office and absolute lack of experience or qualification to be a heartbeat away from the role of President of the United States. And some, against the urging of Republicans and Democrats throughout America, has focused on Sarah Palin's children.

We are in agreement with Senator Obama that a candidate's family should be off limits to political attacks. But the way the McCain campaign has dealt with the issue are much more of a story than Palin's kids ever were. So to cover the subject and be done with it, here are the two things you should know about it, from the mainstream media themselves:

Eight States Where the African-American Vote Will Change the Race

When party lines are drawn and an election looks close, the end result often hinges on turnout. Much has been made about the enthusiasm of Obama supporters compared to the collective apathy of McCain backers. Still, the polls say it's close. Having known this all along, the Obama campaign has something up their sleeve: organizing African-American turnout. Sure, this is no secret, but will all of this organizing make a difference or is it all a mirage? The answer is, it's real.