Politex

State Rep. Kelly Hancock picks up Huckabee endorsment

State Rep. Kelly Hancock on Tuesday picked up a new endorsement in the race for Texas Senate District 9.

Hancock, who faces Democrat Pete Martinez and Libertarian Dave "Mac" McElwee in the race to replace retiring Republican Chris Harris, has gained endorsements from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Huck PAC.

"Kelly Hancock is a shining example of what elected leaders can accomplish through hard work, determination and a willingness to work with others toward solutions," Huckabee said. "Throughout his service, Kelly Hancock has done great things for the people of Texas and has been successful in moving the state in the right direction and I am confident he will continue to be a force for good in the Texas Senate."

Huckabee, a 2008 GOP presidential candidate, once studied at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Hank Williams Jr. calls Obama a Muslim during Fort Worth concert

Hank Williams Jr. is known for many things, including the hit song Family Tradition.

Now he's gaining publicity for speaking out against President Obama during the Stockyards Music Festival at the North Forty outdoor concert venue in Fort Worth Sunday night.

"We've got a Muslim for a president who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates fishing, hates farming, loves gays, and we hate him!" reports show Williams told the crowd.

This isn't the first time Williams has spoken against Obama. His theme song for ESPN's Monday Night Football was pulled last year after he likened Obama to Adolf Hitler on Fox & Friends.

Actor Alec Baldwin was among those sounding off about Williams, tweeting that the country singer is "a broken-down, senile, racist coot."

-- Anna M. Tinsley

State Rep. Marc Veasey on Voter ID ruling

State Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, put out a statement on the Voter ID ruling.

"Today, a panel of federal judges rejected attempts by Texas Republicans to disenfranchise minority voters," he said. "In ruling that the State of Texas's Voter ID bill cannot be precleared under the Voting Rights Act, this court confirmed that the legislation would have had a disproportionate and unfair impact on poor and minority voters.

"The Republicans should be ashamed of their attempts to use taxpayers' money to uphold a discriminatory law that would have disenfranchised thousands of minority voters. It is no surprise that once this bill was reviewed by the court, it was overturned. After fighting against this bill in the Legislature and as an official intervenor in the the state's lawsuit, I am proud and relieved to see justice prevail."

-- Anna M. Tinsley

State Sen. Wendy Davis responds to Voter ID ruling

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, commented Thursday on the Voter ID court ruling.

“Requiring photo identification could have, perhaps, been enacted fairly, but Governor Perry and state leaders insisted on forcing through a flawed law that would have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars without protecting a single vote," she said in a statement. "Texas leaders should be focusing on creating jobs instead of throwing money away on partisan politics.”

-- Anna M. Tinsley

 

Tarrant County Democratic Party chairman rips GOP after Voter ID ruling

"Let's be clear here, folks -- two of the top Republican legislative priorities have now been revealed as exactly what they were meant to be by the repressive and backward-thinking Republican leaders of the legislature -- nothing more, or less, than the disenfranchisement of an entire class of Texas citizens," Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairman Steve Maxwell said.

"Add to that the message behind the evisceration of the Texas Public School system by the elimination of $5.4 billion from the budget, and the meaning is obvious. The Republican legislature was intent on creating an 'underclass' -- a large segment of the population made up mostly of minority citizens who, thanks to these legislative priorities and others, would no longer have the right to a good education, to quality health care, or even the ability to exercise the fundamental right to vote," he said.

"Fortunately for Texas, no matter how these laws were dressed up and distorted, the United States Court system saw through the deception and called it exactly what it was -- discrimination and disenfranchisement at its very worst. Wake up, Republican voters -- you should be ashamed at what the people you elected are doing."

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Medical and education endorsements announced in Texas Senate District 10 race

Updated 7:50 p.m.

State Rep. Mark Shelton gained a new endorsement Wednesday from TEXPAC, the Texas Medical Association's political action committee.

Shelton, R-Fort Worth, is challenging state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, in her bid to win a second term representing Texas Senate District 10.

"I am honored to have the endorsement of the Texas Medical Association,” Shelton said. “Liberal personal injury trial lawyers have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to my opponent, State Senator Wendy Davis. Together, Davis and the trial lawyers are supporting Obamacare in an attempt to undermine our state’s medical liability reforms. This is unhealthy for Texas patients and
taxpayers.”

Davis recently was endorsed by the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, the state's largest physician specialty organization.

"TAFP endorsed me because they recognized that I have voted to support doctors and patients time and time again -- meanwhile my opponent voted against them," Davis said. "While TMA made their decision based on Austin-based political considerations and the advice of their shared political consultant rather than substance, my commitment to working constructively with doctors and other care providers to assure quality healthcare for Texas families remains as strong as ever."

On Wednesday, Davis' campaign announced that she has picked up statewide endorsements from the United Educators Association, Texas State Teachers Association, and Texas AFT. Locally, she has picked up support from school board members across Tarrant County, including the presidents of Fort Worth and Arlington ISDs, the two largest school districts in Tarrant County.

Shelton is trying to win back for his party the seat that Kim Brimer of Arlington represented until Davis unseated him in 2008. In that race, she earned 49.91 percent of the vote to Brimer's 47.52 percent and Libertarian Richard A. Cross's 2.56 percent, election records show.

His campaign also has released a list of 600 local endorsements that includes 180 Tarrant County physicians.

Davis, a former Fort Worth councilwoman, became a lightning rod for the GOP last year after staging a filibuster at the end of the legislative session, protesting public education cuts and forcing a special session. Attempts to make her district lean Republican were thwarted by legal challenges and court rulings that left the district as it was in 2008.

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Wendy Davis picks up Texas Academy of Family Physicians endorsement

Updated at 2:30 p.m., 11:35 a.m.

State Sen. Wendy Davis gained a new endorsement Tuesday from the Texas Academy of Family Physicians.

Davis, D-Fort Worth, faces a challenge from Republican state Rep. Mark Shelton of Fort Worth, a Fort Worth pediatrician, in her bid to win a second term representing Texas Senate District 10.

"Sen. Davis has championed access to health care and growing our physician workforce because she understands that a healthy Texas means a healthy and competitive economy," said Dr. Joane Baumer, a TAFP member and a Fort Worth doctor. "Family physicians are supporting Sen. Wendy Davis because she has been a steadfast advocate for doctors and for all patients."

Texas Academy of Family Physicians is the state's largest physician specialty organization.

Shelton is trying to win back for his party the seat that Kim Brimer of Arlington represented until Davis unseated him in 2008. In that race, she earned 49.91 percent of the vote to Brimer's 47.52 percent and Libertarian Richard A. Cross's 2.56 percent, election records show.

 “It’s no surprise that special interest groups supporting Obamacare support Davis,” Shelton said. “The Texas Academy of Family Physicians endorsed Obamacare. Davis supports Obamacare.”

Shelton said a poll earlier this year showed that voters in the Senate district shows voters in the district are opposed to the nation’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as well. “As a 24 year pediatrician, I and a majority of other primary care physicians know firsthand that Obamacare is bad medicine for Texas families,” he said.

TAFP officials say their group has never endorsed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but noted members have worked to explain how measures in the law impact doctors and their patients.

 Davis, a former Fort Worth councilwoman, became a lightning rod for the GOP last year after staging a filibuster at the end of the legislative session, protesting public education cuts and forcing a special session. Attempts to make her district lean Republican were thwarted by legal challenges and court rulings that left the district as it was in 2008.

"A healthy, competitive workforce ensures our economic prosperity and protects our families," Davis said. "I'm honored that the work I've done on behalf of doctors and patients has earned this prestigious endorsement."

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Thinking outside the voting box doesn't always help in finding it

Maybe it's just me, but when I tried out the new QR code printed on my Tarrant County voter's registration certificate this morning in search of my polling place, Smartphone technology once again made me feel dumb.

I scanned in the ubiquitous marbled square that accessed the county's elections site, entered my name, hit a couple of prompts, and voila, no voting location. I tried scrolling up and down, running through the prompts again, but no dice.

Was my Droid the dud? Had my fumbling digits once again failed the digital test?

A quick computer search (faster than the phone) turned up a subsequent page on the county election site that gave me the address of my polling place.

""It's definitely new this year," said Steve Raborn, the Tarrant county elections administrator, as he talked me through the QR steps later. "It's useful, but we really haven't had a lot of feedback about it yet."

Raborn reported later that he had no problems when he tried it on his own phone, and suggested that differences in phones or downloaded QR apps could be responsible.

_Shirley Jinkins

 

 

State Rep. Marc Veasey picks up endorsement from former Texas Democratic Party Chairman

State Rep. Marc Veasey picked up a new endorsement today from former Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie and his wife Betty, who is a member of the Democratic National Committee.

Veasey, D-Fort Worth, faces off against former state Rep. Domingo Garcia, D-Dallas, in Tuesday's  primary runoff election as they both seek to become the first person to represent the newly drawn 33rd Congressional District that stretches from Fort Worth's Stockyards to Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood.

"Marc has been a dear friend for many years," Betty Richie said. "Boyd and I could not be more proud to support his run for Congress."

Said Boyd Richie: "As chairman, I often found myself having to fight to protect minority voting rights and there was no fiercer ally in that fight than Marc Veasey. Many of the Republican voter suppression tactics currently being deployed around the country had their genesis in Texas. Having Marc Veasey in Congress will go a long way towards putting an end to those dirty tricks.

"Marc has always been a leader I could count on and having him in Congress will go a long way towards Democratic efforts to take back Texas."

The winner of the Democratic primary runoff will face Republican Chuck Bradley in the November general election.

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Democratic candidates for 33rd Congressional District face off in a televised debate Tuesday

State Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and former state Rep. Domingo Garcia of Dallas will face off in a 30-minute televised debate Tuesday, at the KERA studio in Dallas.

For 30 minutes, the two Democrats will address issues facing the district, as they did during a fiery non-televised debate last week in Dallas.

During last week's debate, Garcia criticized Veasey for gaining support from the Democratic establishment, said Fort Worth's Stop Six and Poly neighborhoods "look like ghettos" and said elected officials representing those neighborhoods are more worried about money for themselves than about their constituents best interests.

Veasey fired back, saying Garcia takes shortcuts, is a "bad Democrat," has been reprimanded by the Texas State Bar, was dubbed the "one-man leper colony," and traveled to Washington, D.C., seeking supporters and donors but couldn't find any takers.

The two will tape their debate at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 10, at the KERA Studios. it will be aired at 10 p.m. that night on KERA-TV Channel 13 and again at 5 p.m. Sunday, July 15. 

-- Anna M. Tinsley