Monday Roundup: Off to the Races

In case you hadn't noticed, there's likely to be a great many contested races this cycle in Texas.

The Lubbock press went to the streets with a roundup of how some notables think it will go, especially considering Rep. England's party switch last week, and I was particularly interested in one viewpoint: Harvey Kronberg's. According to the Lubbock paper, Kronberg is currently saying the balance in the next election will continue to shift in favor of Democrats with two or three pickups and no mention of D incumbent losses.

They cast Harvey as the arbiter between the state party chairs, and that isn't a bad place for him to be. Harvey has a well-earned reputation for being objective, and if he sees Democrats getting to 73 or so, I think that portends for a very interesting cycle.

He also holds forth a bit on the Craddick issue, which is being looked at both as a future struggle and a retrospective with all the drama of a well-tuned documentary. In fact, I'm surprised we haven't seen one yet. The Star-Telegram examines the ever-widening cracks in the state Republican Party and places Craddick's machinations squarely at the center of those divisions.

I have been making more than a few calls for attention to be paid to the economy in the last few weeks, so I was pleased to see that Texas has added some jobs recently and that the unemployment rate dropped here as well. Despite the fact that we're outpacing national job growth, though, there are still signs of a slowdown in the state when compared to last year:

Average monthly job growth in Texas has slowed this year to below 17,000, from about 23,000 last year. In August 2006, for example, Texas employers added 38,300 jobs.

Vigilance and caution are still necessary on the economy, even if we are running ahead of the country as an aggregate.

Garnet Coleman is a well-known State Representative, a leader among the Democratic caucus in the House, and a solar-powered friend of the show. Rep. Coleman was one of the main warriors fighting the battle for CHIP in Austin this last session, and this weekend he produced an editorial on recent Republican attacks against the federal version program. The title — "Ideologues seek to cut children's health plan" — should be enough to get you in the door.

If you're in an editorial mood, you may notice that Austin American-Statesman's John Kelso has opened himself up for letters of all varieties with his musings on what qualifies one to be a Republican or a Democrat. You can guess what my letter will say.

A little national news to round us out today. The official line on budget increases for the 2008 Defense budget has come down, and it will in fact include a request for $50 billion more than was initially projected. The indicator here is that at least the administration and the Defense Department are listening to one thing: criticism from Democrats that they haven't provided enough mine-resistant vehicles or equipment repairs:

Much of that money will go to refurbishment of military equipment and to the purchase of new protective equipment for troops, officials said, an indication of the toll that years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken on military vehicles, aircraft, weapons and other items.

-snip-

About a quarter of the new money would go to build additional mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, Pentagon officials said. “We’d put in an original request for 7,000 MRAPS, but we’re going to double that number,” said a senior Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the issue.

Members of Congress have criticized the Defense Department, saying it has been too slow to buy enough of the vehicles for troops in Iraq.

You can expect the battle over the Defense budget to be as big as anything in the coming months.