U.S. District Court Continues Hold On Five Deputy Voter Registrar Restrictions

Today, U.S. Southern District Court Judge Gregg Costa denied the state of Texas' request to stay an injunction issued earlier this month. That injunction prevents Texas from enforcing several of its restrictive deputy voter registrar laws.

On Thursday Aug. 2, U.S. Southern District Court Judge Gregg Costa issued an injunction to suspended five provisions of Texas law that place restrictions on groups and individuals who work to register new voters. These provisions place restrictions on groups like the League of Women Voters, making it significantly more difficult for them to register voters. The provisions are suspended until a trial in the Voting for America v. Hope Andrade case on whether the entire law violates the 1993 National Voter Registration Act can be held. The Houston Chronicle has more:

Under Judge Gregg Costa injunction, Texas may not require that deputy voter registrars live in Texas, a law Voting for America said prevented it from organizing voter registration drives.

It also may not prevent deputy registrars from registering voters who live outside their county; prevent organizations from firing or promoting employees based on the number of voters registered; prevent organizations from making photocopies of completed voter registration forms for their records; or prevent deputy registrars from mailing completed applications.

On Friday Aug. 3, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a motion to stay Judge Costa's order to suspended those provisions, arguing an injunction would lead to confusion and possibly disenfranchise more voters if third party volunteers improperly handled registration.

Costa wrote in his opinion that "no other state of which this Court is aware has gone as far as Texas in creating a regulatory web that controls so many aspects of third-party voter registration activity." Costa said that voter-registration fraud remains illegal without the new laws: "Defendants have not demonstrated that the challenged provisions are needed to buttress the direct tool of preventing fraud by prosecuting those who actually engage in fraud."

Mitt Romney Set To Pick Paul Ryan As Running Mate

Romney will announce Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his VP choice on Saturday morning at the beginning of a four-day bus tour through key battleground states, the campaign said Friday night.

The Weekly Standard reported earlier Friday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been asked to be ready to make the case for Ryan beginning Saturday.

Mitt Romney told a group of seniors last January that “we will never go after Medicare or Social Security. We will protect those programs.” Barely a month earlier, Romney became a strong backer of the Paul Ryan budget which would essentially end Medicare by privatizing it into a corporate insurance company voucher program.

Mitt Romney is trying to “change his tune,” DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in response to Romney's declared support for the Ryan budget plan as a way to save Medicare. “We had always assumed he’d be saying anything to voters in the Sunshine State to get elected.”

Democrats highlighted policies Romney has supported in order to argue that his promise to protect the two entitlement programs is “patently dishonest.” In addition to his support for Paul Ryan, his own plan creates a voucher Medicare system, which in their phrase leaves traditional Medicare to “wither on the vine.” And beyond Medicare, Romney’s support for a Cut, Cap, and Balance approach to the budget would result in drastic cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Romney has been careful in his campaign comments to leave the door open for the Ryan plan, or a similar reform effort, by hinting that in order to “protect” Medicare it might be necessary to reform it.

“So if I’m president, I will protect Medicare and Social Security for those that are currently retired or near retirement,” Romney assured the seniors he spoke to, adding, “and I’ll make sure we keep those programs solvent for the next generations coming along.”

Romney and Ryan propose to privatize Medicare by converting it into a corporate insurance voucher program for everyone younger than 5o years of age.

How committed to ending Medicare is the Republican Party? Committed enough to resurrect in 2012 Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare voucher plan of 2011, the plan that enraged seniors and helped Democrats win a special election in the House.

DCCC Video - Broken Promises
Constituents Erupt Over House Republicans Voting to End Medicare

The Republican Party endorsed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) sharply conservative 2011 budget bill when all but four Republicans in the U.S. House voted for and passed the bill before the 2011 Easter recess.

Breaking a promise Republicans made during the 2010 mid-term election to "protect Social Security and Medicare" Ryan's budget bill deeply cuts Medicare funding and replaces with a private insurance premium voucher program.

Ryan's Republican budget eliminates Medicare, as it exists today, and guts Medicaid as well as the rest of the government. The budget also gives additional huge tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires plus further big corporate taxpayer handouts to pharma, insurance and petrochemical industries. The Republican budget explodes deficit spend in the near term and doesn't actually balance revenues and spending until the year 2040.

Collin County's Republican Congressional representatives Sam Johnson, Tx-3rd and Ralph Hall, Tx-4th voted for Ryan's bill.

Threat To North Texas Water Supply From Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

From Nation of Change by Christine Leclerc

Just when it seemed that the Keystone XL pipeline was on hold, TransCanada Corp. segmented the project and the U.S. government fast-tracked the environmental review process. This allows TransCanada to begin construction on the southern part of the Keystone XL this summer.

With a nonviolent direct action camp that started July 27, 2012 in East Texas, grassroots opponents are working on a construction project of their own: Tar Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners, community members, students, and others dedicated to stopping the pipeline through direct action.

Building in Segments to Get around Opposition

The Keystone XL pipeline was originally proposed as a single line that went from Alberta to Texas. However, in February, TransCanada announced that the southern part of the Keystone XL had been reconceived as a separate Gulf Coast Project Seaway pipeline.

The Seaway pipeline is an aging 36-year old low pressure crude pipeline that passes through Collin, Grayson, Rockwall, and Kaufman counties, and crosses tributaries to Lake Lavon and other water sources supplying the DFW area.

In this plan, tar sands crude will travel 500-miles between Cushing, Oklahoma and refineries on the Gulf Coast. Tar sands is far more toxic, acidic, and corrosive than conventional crude since it has to be liquified with natural gas condensate and other chemicals to dilute it enough to push it through a highly pressurized pipeline.

The Seaway pipeline will be developed by Enbridge Inc., the operator responsible for the largest and most expensive tar sand spill in U.S. history, in a 50/50 partnership with Enterprise Partners. The toxic Enbridge spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan was due to a rupture in an aging, 43-year old repurposed pipeline, not unlike Seaway. Now, two years and $720 million later, people along the Kalamazoo are sick and their property is ruined.

DFW's already scarce water supply will be at risk with the transport of tar sands crude through this aging, repurposed pipeline.

Rita Beving, North Texas organizer for Public Citizen, talks about the Seaway Pipeline project - June 23, 2012

---

Rachel Maddow reports on the NTSB review of the 2010 Enbridge oil spill that dumped tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River, requiring two years of futile clean-up efforts and ultimately becoming the single most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history. July 10, 2012

TransCanada spokesperson David Dodson characterizes the Gulf Coast pipeline as important for the energy security of the United States.

According to Dodson, domestic producers “do not have access to enough pipeline capacity to move the production to the large refining market along the U.S. Gulf Coast.”

In March, U.S. President Barack Obama expedited the review process for pipelines going from Oklahoma to Texas. “In part due to rising domestic production, more oil is flowing in than can flow out, creating a bottleneck that is dampening incentives for new production while restricting oil from reaching state-of-the-art refineries on the Gulf Coast,” reads the president's March 22 memo.

In a whopping 86-word sentence, the president goes on to explain that all agencies are to “coordinate and expedite their reviews, consultations, and other processes as necessary to expedite decisions related to domestic pipeline infrastructure projects.”

Following the President's order to expedite the review process, the Sierra Club, Oklahoma and Texas landowners, and the Texas communities of Reklaw, Gallatin, and Alto filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which issues water permits.

Restrictions On Deputy Voter Registrars At Issue

Last Thursday, U.S. Southern District Court Judge Gregg Costa issued an injunction to suspended five provisions of Texas law that place restrictions on groups and individuals who work to register new voters. These provisions place restrictions on groups like the League of Women Voters, making it significantly more difficult for them to register voters. The provisions are suspended until a trial in the Voting for America v. Hope Andrade case on whether the entire law violates the 1993 National Voter Registration Act can be held. The Houston Chronicle has more:

Under Judge Gregg Costa injunction, Texas may not require that deputy voter registrars live in Texas, a law Voting for America said prevented it from organizing voter registration drives.

It also may not prevent deputy registrars from registering voters who live outside their county; prevent organizations from firing or promoting employees based on the number of voters registered; prevent organizations from making photocopies of completed voter registration forms for their records; or prevent deputy registrars from mailing completed applications.

One day later, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a motion to stay Judge Costa's order to suspended those provisions, arguing an injunction would lead to confusion and possibly disenfranchise more voters if third party volunteers improperly handled registration. Judge Costa will rule on A.G. Abbott's motion on Wednesday to determine whether to allow those five provisions of Texas law to remain in effect pending a full trial.

KVUE News

KVUE News

There are more than 13 million registered voters in Texas, roughly 71 percent of the voting age population, however, there’s a fight brewing over exactly who can register the rest.

At issue are a five provisions of current Texas law, from a pair of items passed during the last session to legislation dating to the mid-1980s. One provision keeps third-party voter registration groups from working in more than one county.

Another specifies only Texas residents who are themselves registered to vote in a county can can become a deputy registrar to register new voters who reside only in that same county. Other elements include legislation to keep registrars from being paid in relation to the number they sign up, from photocopying registration certificates and from mailing completed forms.

Last week, a federal judge put those laws on hold with an injunction against the State of Texas. In his 94-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa of Galveston called the rules “more burdensome… than the vast majority, if not all, other states.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott replied Friday with a motion to stay, arguing an injunction would lead to confusion and possibly disenfranchise more voters if third party volunteers improperly handled registration. ”I just think it’s another straw man,” said Dicky Grigg, an Austin attorney representing Voting for America, an organization that includes non-partisan voter registration organization Project Vote and a plaintiff in the original lawsuit against Texas.

Grigg characterizes the legislation as a whole as “sort of like a thousand small cuts,” designed to disenfranchise minority voters under the guise of preventing statistically rare voter fraud. ”What they’re trying to do is to prevent the registration of minority voters. That’s basically the bottom line of what the legislature has done,” said Grigg. “Talking to the media they talk about voter fraud, but there wasn’t one piece of evidence of voter fraud put on before this judge because it doesn’t exist,” said Grigg. “It’s not a problem.”

Read the full story @ KVUE News.

GOP's Serious Vulnerability To A Democratic Wave Election

Democracy Corps

Less than 100 days until the election, the latest battleground survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Democracy Corps shows Democrats with an advantage in the most vulnerable tier of Republican districts. The first Democracy Corps survey of the reapportioned battleground shows Republican incumbents in serious and worsening trouble. The 2012 campaign has just turned the corner on 100 days and the message of this survey could not be clearer: these 54 battleground Republicans are very vulnerable and many will lose their seats.

These members, on average, are barely ahead of their challengers and are as vulnerable as the incumbents in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Those elections we now know crystallized earlier—in 2010, incumbent vulnerability translated into anti-Democratic voting by March as health care came to a close in 2010. These incumbents are equally vulnerable but have not yet paid the price for the Ryan budget and their priorities, but it is clear that their support is now falling.

These Republican incumbents now hold a marginal edge against their unnamed challengers—47 to 45 percent.

In the most competitive half of the battleground – the 27 most vulnerable Republican-held seats, where Democrats lead the named incumbent by 6 points, 50 to 44 percent—two-thirds could lose their seats.

While Democrats start behind in the vote in the second-tier districts, a balanced battle on the Ryan budget and tax cuts erodes the Republican advantage by two-thirds, getting Democrats to within 3 points in these districts.

A number of things have come together to make these incumbents vulnerable. Obama has made significant gains in these districts—he edges Romney on the ballot by a 2-point margin—just two points short of his margin in these districts in 2008. The Republican brand is also in trouble in these Republican seats, and the party image is growing increasingly negative. Finally, these incumbents themselves are very weak on the traditional measures of incumbency, like fighting for people in their own district.

Read the full story @ Democracy Corps.

Sadler Could Win U.S. Senate In November On Turnout

When it comes to the reality of winning election to the U.S. Senate in the one of the nation's most consistently far right red states, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Paul Sadler argues it isn't impossible. Sadler believes a high turnout of his supporters, Democrats, Independents and old guard Republicans, for the November general election could give him the win over Tea Party nominee Ted Cruz .

Tea party-backed attorney Ted Cruz trounced old guard Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to win the primary runoff Tuesday and seize the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Cruz received support from national Tea Party super PACs such as Club for Growth and FreedomWorks, national conservative radio hosts including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and Tea Party celebrities Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum.

According to a Public Policy Polling (PPP) report,Cruz's victory was driven by 4 things:

The Tea Party, the enthusiasm of his supporters, a generational divide within the Texas Republican ranks, and the lack of regard the party base currently holds for Rick Perry.

Cruz led Dewhurst by a whooping 75-22 margin with Tea Party voters, more than making up for a 56-39 deficit Dewhurst had with voters who don't consider themselves members of that movement. There has been too much of a tendency to ascribe any Republican primary upset over the last few years to Tea Party voters, but this is one case where it's well justified.

Sadler said in a KVUE interview that he doesn't buy is Cruz's claim that his win marked a Tea Party "revolution" in Texas.

KVUE News interview with
Paul Sadler, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate

Pointing to the relatively small group of 1.1 million voters who cast Republican primary runoff ballots, Sadler believes a high turnout general election in November could paint a different picture.

Cruz captured only 631,316 (56.8%) statewide votes in the runoff, out of 13,065,425 registered voters and a total Voting Age Population of 18,279,737 Texans. Only 1.4 million people voted in the May 29 Republican primary where Cruz received only 480,558 votes.

(2012 Primary Turnout by VAP)

Sadler told KVUE News that he believes Cruz's Tea Party insurgency is already causing some more moderate Republicans to consider crossing over in the general election.

"We're raising money. Our money has started coming in very rapidly," Sadler said. "In fact, I started getting calls Tuesday afternoon -- a lot from Republicans wanting to donate to the campaign, get involved in the campaign."

When it comes to the reality of pulling off an upset in the one of the nation's most consistently red states, Sadler argues it isn't impossible. The East Texas native believes the numbers to pull off a Democratic win are achievable.

"I'm going to win the Hispanic vote because my policies are right. I'm going to win the African-American vote because my policies are right, and they've always supported me," said Sadler. "I won 14 out of 16 counties in East Texas, which is where I need to win. Even if I just do 45 percent, I win the United States Senate seat."

Sadler points to several issues when it comes to his opponent, including the fact the Ted Cruz was born in Canada and not a "native son" of Texas. He also takes issue with the amount of support Cruz received from out of state super PACs such as Club for Growth, national conservative radio hosts including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and Tea Party celebrities Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum.

"I don't want to owe anybody outside the State of Texas our Senate seat. I don't want to owe some group outside the State of Texas our Senate seat," said Sadler. "We'll all own this seat, and we won't owe it to Club for Growth or some other big super PAC; we'll answer to each other for it."

"I'm from here. I've seen the hurricanes on the coast. I've seen the wind storms and the dust storms in West Texas; I've lived through them. I've lived through the drought in Central Texas. I've seen the hot, humid days in the summer in East Texas," said Sadler. "I know this state, and that's what we need in the United States Senate. We don't need some Washington hand-picked lobbyist."

Read the full story @ KVUE News.

Paul Sadler for U.S. Senate campaign video

Pew: Obama Leads Romney By 10 Points Nationally

A new poll from the Pew Research Center finds more voters say they have an unfavorable than favorable view of Mitt Romney by a 52% to 37% margin.

A review of final pre-election surveys of voters since 1988 finds that all candidates enjoyed considerably higher personal ratings going into the final days of their campaigns than does Mitt Romney currently. Only three, Michael Dukakis in 1988, George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996, were not rated favorably by a majority of voters.

Obama continues to hold a sizable lead over Romney in the election contest. Currently, 51% say they support Obama or lean toward him, while 41% support or lean toward Romney.

This is largely unchanged from earlier in July and consistent with polling over the course of this year. But Obama holds only a four-point edge (48% to 44%) across 12 of this year’s key battleground states.

Read the full report @ Pew Research Center.

U.S. District Court Suspends Five Texas Restrictions On Deputy Voter Registrars

In 2011, the 82nd Texas Legislature enacted and the Governor signed three bills that substantially affected the qualifications to become a volunteer deputy registrar in Texas. Today, U.S. Southern District Court Judge Gregg Costa suspended five provisions of Texas law that place restrictions on groups and individuals who work to register new voters. Judge Costa issued his 94-page order (3:12-cv-00044 Document 65) in the Voting for America v. Hope Andrade case.

The suit was filed in February against Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade’s office by Voting for America Inc., the voter registration affiliate of Project Vote, a national nonprofit voter education and advocacy organization. The deputy registrar provisions Judge Costa suspended with a temporary injunction are:

1. No one can work in voter registration drives who doesn’t live in Texas;
   
2. No one can work outside any one particular county;
   
3. Payment to registration drive workers must be an hourly wage and compensation cannot be based on the worker’s productivity;
   
4. No completed voter registration forms can be photocopied by the registration drive workers or the registration drive organization; and
   
5. All completed voter registrations must be delivered to county elections officials in person by the deputy registrar.
   

It may take a while for the Office of the Secretary of State to update the Texas Volunteer Deputy Registrar Guide on it's website.

Democrats - Wake Up And Learn To Use The Internet!

by Michael Handley, DBN Managing Editor

In toppling Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst for the state’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate Tuesday, Mr. Cruz certainly had the full force of the Tea Party movement supporting him with cash, social media, and people power.

Dewhurst, owner of an energy company, dominated Cruz 3-1 in campaign donations, raising more than $33 million. But super PAC and other outside spending on "soft" media buys increases the total money spent by or for Dewhurst to $39.5 million. Cruz's campaign raised just $10.2 million with pro-Cruz groups adding an estimated $8 million more in soft spending.

Dewhurst had more than a 2-1 advantage in campaign spending, used largely for old media advertising buys. And still, Tea Party favorite and former Texas solicitor general Cruz shellacked Dewhurst 55 percent to 45 percent.

What happened to the old math of campaign spending in the 2012 Texas GOP primary? As they proved with big 2010 mid-term election Tea Party candidate wins, Tea Party groups have learned how to use the Internet's free communication channels to motivate voters and get out the vote.

The Tea Party may be an Astroturf movement funded by billionaire conservatives like Charles and David Koch, but it has proven very effective in using the Internet to motivate grassroots conservatives to get out and vote.

President Obama got elected in 2008, in part, by harnessing the Web and mobile phones, drawing in a new generation of young people. Now the Tea Party is using the Internet and mobile devices as effectively as the Obama campaign and much more effectively than Democrats in general, or even old guard conservatives like David Dewhurst, in drawing in both young and older voters.

Grassroots Democrats - wake up and learn how to effectively use the Internet to drive and support your "base building" community organizing and Get Out The Vote ground games!

How the Tea Party Used Obama's Digital Playbook To Gain Power

Obamacare Gives Women Health Security

Forty-seven million women are getting greater control over their health care and access to eight new prevention-related health care services without paying more out of their own pocket beginning Aug. 1, 2012, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today.

On July 31 Republicans in the House of Representatives for the thirty-four time since they took control of the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to emphasis their not only their opposition to the Obamacare, but their war on women.

Specifically, the eight preventive-care provisions that, as of today, will no longer entail any out-of-pocket costs for 47 million American women are:

1. Well-woman visits.
2. Gestational diabetes screening that helps protect pregnant women from one of the most serious pregnancy-related diseases.
3. Domestic and interpersonal violence screening and counseling.
4. FDA-approved contraceptive methods, and contraceptive education and counseling - Birth control covered by insurance companies, free of co-pays.
5. Breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling.
6. HPV DNA testing, for women 30 or older.
7. Sexually transmitted infections counseling for sexually-active women.
8. HIV screening and counseling for sexually-active women.
   

• To learn more about the health care services available for at no extra charge under the Affordable Care Act, go to http://www.healthcare.gov/prevention.

The Rachel Maddow Show," July 31, 2012

Previously some insurance companies did not cover these preventive services for women at all under their health plans, while some women had to pay deductibles or copays for the care they needed to stay healthy. The new rules in the health care law requiring coverage of these services take effect at the next renewal date – on or after Aug. 1, 2012—for most health insurance plans. For the first time ever, women will have access to even more life-saving preventive care free of charge.

According to a new HHS report also released today, approximately 47 million women are in health plans that must cover these new preventive services at no charge. Women, not insurance companies, can now make health decisions that will keep them healthy, catch potentially serious conditions at an earlier state, and protect them and their families from crushing medical bills.

The Affordable Care Act requires many insurance plans to provide coverage for and eliminate cost-sharing on certain recommended preventive health services.

In addition, pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, in August 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration published guidelines on women’s preventive services that require health insurance plans to cover certain recommended preventive services specifically for women, without charging a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible beginning in plan years starting on or after August 1, 2012.

The Guidelines are based on recommendations to the Department from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The Department provided for an exemption for certain religious employers, and a transition is provided for certain additional non-profit organizations with religious objections to contraception coverage.

“President Obama is moving our country forward by giving women control over their health care,” Secretary Sebelius said. “This law puts women and their doctors, not insurance companies or the government, in charge of health care decisions.”

Democratic Blog News Endorses Paul Sadler For U.S. Senate

Primary run-off Election Day is 7:00am-7:00pm, Tuesday, July 31. We encourage all Democratic voters to cast their ballot for Paul Sadler.

Collin Co. Election Day Polling Locations & Sample Ballots

The Democratic Party's runoff ballot is short. It has just one statewide ballot position for U.S. Senate. Democratic Blog News endorses Paul Sadler in the Democratic runoff for U.S. Senate and encourages all Democratic voters to cast their ballots for this well qualified candidate.

Sadler's extensive Texas legislative experience in public education and professional work on renewable energy give him a solid grounding on issues that are critical to Texas and the nation. He is the obvious choice in the runoff to be our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, and will best represent Texas, if elected.

Many Democrats voted for Grady Yarbrough in the May 29 primary because they recognize the name Yarbrough on the ballot. Grady Yarbrough seemingly snuck onto the runoff ballot because too many Democrats confused him with the former Democratic statesman, Ralph Yarborough. Grady Yarbrough ran twice as a Republican for statewide office -- he is definitely no Ralph Yarborough. As reported by the Dallas Morning News, Yarbrough “hasn’t kept up with Federal Elections Commission campaign finance filings […] There is no documented proof about how his campaign is funded.” When asked about his position on immigration, Yarbrough said that the Berlin Wall was “pretty effective.”

If you love outside of Collin Co. you can find your polling place here.

Candidate backgrounder after the more jump.

TDP Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa Coming To Dallas August 27

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa will be at Fairview Farms Corral Barn on Monday, August 27 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm to support the Democratic candidates for the Fifth District Court of Appeals. (Fairview Farms Corral Barn, 3314 North Central Expressway, Plano 75074 - map)

The Texas District Courts of Appeals are distributed in fourteen districts around the state of Texas. The Courts of Appeal have intermediate appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases appealed from district or county courts. Like the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, Justices of the Texas Courts of Appeals are elected to six-year terms by general election.

Appeals from Collin, Dallas, Kaufman, Rockwall and Grayson counties (map) are all heard by the 5th District Court of Appeals, which includes one Chief Justice and twelve other Justices.

In the 2012 General Election five Democratic Candidates are running for the 5th Court of Appeals.

• Tonya Holt for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 11
  
• Penny Phillips for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 5
  
• Larry Praeger for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 12
  
• David Hanshen for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 9
• Dan Wood for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 2
  

Both civil and criminal appeals are typically heard by a panel of three justices, unless in a particular case "en banc" hearing is ordered, in which instance all the justices of that Court hear and consider the case. (Graphical Guide to the Court System of Texas)

Texas Tea Party Favorite Ted Cruz Is Cruising To Win U.S. Senate Runoff

Public Policy Polling found a 52-42% lead for Texas Tea Party favorite former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate runoff. Cruz is ahead by a whooping 75-22% margin with Tea Party voters, more than making up for a 56-39% deficit to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst with voters who don't consider themselves members of that movement. Cruz's likely victory Tuesday is also indicative of a generational gap within the Texas Republican ranks. Dewhurst leads with seniors, ages 56-39. But younger Republican voters are going heavily for the Tea Party candidate, 60% to Dewhurst's 33% with voters ages 18-45, and 59% to 35% with voters in the 46-65 age range.

Public Policy Polling: PPP's final poll of the Republican Senate runoff in Texas finds Ted Cruz opening up a 52-42 lead, an increase from our survey two weeks ago that found him ahead 49-44.

Cruz's victory is driven by 4 things: the Tea Party, the enthusiasm of his supporters, a generational divide within the Texas Republican ranks, and the lack of regard the party base currently holds for Rick Perry.

Cruz is ahead by a whooping 75-22 margin with Tea Party voters, more than making up for a 56-39 deficit to Dewhurst with voters who don't consider themselves members of that movement. There has been too much of a tendency to ascribe any Republican primary upset over the last few years to Tea Party voters, but this is one case where it's well justified.

Cruz has a 63-33 advantage with voters who describe themselves as 'very excited' about voting in Tuesday's runoff election. He also has a 49-45 advantage with those describing themselves as 'somewhat excited.' The only reason this race is even remotely competitive is Dewhurst's 59-31 lead with voter who say they're 'not that excited' about voting. It's an open question whether those folks will really show up and if they don't it's possible Cruz could end up winning by closer t0 20 points.

The greater excitement among Cruz voters can also be measured by their eagerness to get out and cast their ballots during the early voting period. Cruz leads 55-40 among those who say they've already voted, so Dewhurst will likely need a huge advantage among election day voters to overcome the deficit. But Cruz has a 49-44 lead with those who have yet to vote too.

Finally this is a story of surrogates and quite possibly a deep repudiation of Rick Perry. By a 31/24 margin voters say they're more likely to vote for a candidate backed by Sarah Palin, who gave her support to Cruz.

Read the full story @ Public Policy Polling

Among the ten largest counties in Texas, Collin County ranked first in Republican voter turnout and second to last in Democratic voter turnout, as percentage of total registered voters. This tale of two parties is indicative of the Tea Party's organizational strength among grassroots conservatives in the county and the Democratic Party's challenge to reconnect with its atrophied grassroots base of voters.

Early Voting		Democratic Party			Republican Party
County	Reg Voters	Cumulative In-Person Voters	Cumulative In-Person And Mail Voters	Cumulative Percent Early Voting	Cumulative In-Person Voters	Cumulative In-Person And Mail Voters	Cumulative Percent Early Voting
Harris	1,930,869	9,915	19,019	0.98%	53,040	70,481	3.7%
Dallas	1,136,239	12,806	15,558	1.37%	27,510	33,895	3.0%
Tarrant	937,440	8,710	11,010	1.17%	29,050	34,837	3.7%
Bexar	881,633	11,709	13,958	1.58%	28,187	32,764	3.7%
Travis	597,718	5,181	5,575	0.93%	14,153	16,056	2.7%
Collin	440,085	947	995	0.23%	20,693	22,650	5.1%
El Paso	375,238	7,994	8,284	2.21%	2,043	2,301	0.6%
Denton	369,156	496	536	0.15%	12,739	14,338	3.9%
Fort Bend	326,810	738	834	0.26%	11,412	14,451	4.4%
Hidalgo	296,452	13,742	14,750	4.98%	1,813	2,022	0.7%
Total	7,291,640	72,238	90,519	1.24%	200,640	243,795	3.3%

Justice Scalia: Women Have No Constitutional Right Of Privacy To Use Contraception

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says that the pivotal decision which reversed a law that prohibited women from using contraception is not supported under his interpretation of the Constitution. During an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Scalia why he believed that it is a “lie” that women have a Constitutional right of privacy to choose to have an abortion and to use contraception.

At the top of the video Justice Scalia and Wallace discuss the so called strict constructionist originalism and textualism constitutional argument that only the exact words written in the constitution, rather than an understanding and application of the principles, within the modern world context, that the framers were attempting to define, may be considered by the American judicial system. Later (9:15-11:30) they discuss Scalia's view that women have no constitutional right of privacy to choose to use contraception or have an abortion.

Many people today do not remember that the sales and use of contraceptive products, even by married couples, were against the law in many states until the mid-1960's.

Even the distribution of books and pamphlets about contraceptive products and practices was illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled such state laws unconstitutional in its 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision. The court based its Griswold decision partially on the grounds that such state laws violated a married couple's right to privacy in making their own private family planning decisions.

Social conservatives hold the Supreme Court's Griswold “right to privacy” declaration with contempt because it is the foundation of the court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Citing the Griswold v. Connecticut and Eisenstadt v. Baird decisions, which were based on justifications of privacy, the Justice Burger Court extended the right of privacy to include a woman's right to have an abortion in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Justice Scalia told Fox News host Chris Wallace during the interview:

“Nobody ever thought that the America people voted to prohibit limitations on abortions,” the 76-year-old conservative justice explained. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says that.”

“What about the right to privacy that the court found in 1965?” Wallace pressed.

“There’s no right to privacy in the Constitution — no generalized right to privacy,” Scalia insisted.

“Well, in the Griswold case, the court said there was,” Wallace pointed out.

“Yeah, it did,” Scalia agreed. “And that was wrong.”

Florida Republican Admits Voter Suppression Agenda

Salon

Florida’s former Republican Party chairman Jim Greer claims Republicans have made a systemic effort to suppress the black vote.

In a 630-page deposition recorded over two days in late May, Greer, who is on trial for corruption charges, unloaded a litany of charges against the “whack-a-do, right-wing crazies” in his party, including the effort to suppress the black vote.

In the deposition, released to the press yesterday, Greer mentioned a December 2009 meeting with party officials. “I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting,” he said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Texas A.G. Abbott Says Dead People Are Voting, Again

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, defending the state’s voter photo I.D. law, said in a Fox News interview on July 15, 2012: "What we have proved in Texas is that voter fraud exists. We have more than 200 dead people who voted in the last election -- and we proved that in court in addition to the fact that the voter ID law will have no disenfranchisement effect on the voters in the state of Texas."

The Texas Voter Photo I.D. case currently before a federal Washington D.C. Circuit Court will decide whether Texas can enforce its year-old voter photo I.D. law. The three-judge panel composed of D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel, and District Court Judges Rosemary Collyer and Robert Wilkins heard testimony in that five day trial earlier this month.

PolitiFact: To recap trial testimony pointed to by Abbot: An elections official testified that after comparing a list of 50,000 dead registered voters -- where’s that headline? -- to records of voters in the recent primaries, "we believe" that 239 "folks voted in the recent election after passing away," meaning 239 voters cast ballots using voter registrations of dead Texans. According to his testimony, the state then took the best matches and sought death certificates "for as many of those as we could round up in a short time."

Ten death certificates came back and, the official testified, four names, birth dates and Social Security numbers completely aligned on the lists and death certificates.

Read the full story @ PolitiFact

So the 200 dead people Abbott says voted in the last election boils down to four who may or may not have "voted after they died." In follow-up of other, similar, allegations over the last several years, further investigation has shown that:

• The person who's dead isn't the same person listed on the voter rolls.
• The person who's listed as voting didn't actually vote due to a clerical error at the polling place.
• The person who's listed as dead isn't actually dead due to a clerical error at the vital records office.
• The person who's dead mailed a vote by mail ballot before death.
• There was actually a fraudulent vote by mail ballot cast.

In other words, dead people are not voting and there is no "dead voter" impersonation fraud.

Last January, the DMV Director of South Carolina claimed in a sensational hearing that 950 dead people had voted in an election in that state. He made the claim to explain that South Carolina desperately needs a voter photo ID law to stop voter impersonation fraud. The South Carolina attorney general's office gave the State Election Commission six names off the list of 950 allegedly dead voters, and this is what they found:

In a news release election agency spokesman Chris Whitmire handed out, the agency disputed the claim that dead people had voted. A review of the six "dead voters" by the South Carolina State Election Commission revealed:

• One was an absentee mail ballot cast by a voter who then died before election day;
• Another was the result of an error by a poll worker who mistakenly marked the voter as Samuel Ferguson, Jr. when the voter was in fact Samuel Ferguson, III;
• Two were the result of stray marks on the voter registration list detected by the scanner – again, a clerical error;
• The final two were the result of poll managers incorrectly marking the name of the voter in question instead of the voter listed either above or below on the list.

Supporting Equality, Dignity & Respect

Durkin's Pizza - Every 4th Tuesday 5pm to 9pm
8930 Highway 121, Suite 594, In Target Shopping Center (NE Corner of Custer and Hwy 121, next to QT) McKinney, TX

Once a month fundraiser night to benefit Youth First Texas Collin County. 10% of all sales will be given to YFT! No collecting receipts. No having to designate. All sales count so even if you can't stay, call in an order and pick up. Please feel free to invite anyone who likes pizza and wants to support a great cause.

Durkin's is great pizza and reasonably priced. They serve beer, wine and soda.

Bring the whole family!

Collin County Gay & Lesbian Alliance

Advocating Equality, Dignity & Respect

Crime Stoppers Fundraiser

Youth First Texas Collin County is holding this bowling event to raise funds that will be offered as reward money for information relating to the deadly assault of Molly Olgin, (19) and Mary Kristene Chapa, (18) a lesbian couple from Portland Texas. Both women were shot in the head on June 23rd 2012. Molly Olgin was killed and Kristene Chapa is still hospitalized. The entire proceeds of the event will be given to Crime Stoppers in hopes that it will aid in the capture of the assailant.

To show your support join us at this event. You’ll enjoy 2 hours of bowling, including shoe rental for $25 per person. Gift bags will be given to the first 60 people who pay to attend the event. Please note, we will accept cash only at the door.

Saturday July 28th at 7:30pm
Plano Super Bowl
2521 Avenue K
Plano, TX 75074

For tickets: http://www.ccgla.org/bowling-for-justice

Collin County Gay & Lesbian Alliance

Advocating Equality, Dignity & Respect

Democratic Blog News Endorses Paul Sadler For U.S. Senate

Early Voting in the primary run-off is 7:00am-7:00pm, Monday July 23 through Friday July 27. Election Day is 7:00am-7:00pm, Tuesday, July 31.

Primary Run-Off Election - Early Voting Locations & Hours

The Democratic Party's runoff ballot is short. It has just one statewide ballot position for U.S. Senate. Democratic Blog News endorses Paul Sadler in the Democratic runoff for U.S. Senate and encourages all Democratic voters to cast their ballots for this well qualified candidate.

Sadler's extensive Texas legislative experience in public education and professional work on renewable energy give him a solid grounding on issues that are critical to Texas and the nation. He is the obvious choice in the runoff to be our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, and will best represent Texas, if elected.

Many Democrats voted for Grady Yarbrough in the May 29 primary because they recognize the name Yarbrough on the ballot. Grady Yarbrough seemingly snuck onto the runoff ballot because too many Democrats confused him with the former Democratic statesman, Ralph Yarborough. Grady Yarbrough ran twice as a Republican for statewide office -- he is definitely no Ralph Yarborough.

We encourages all Democratic voters to cast their ballots for Paul Sadler.

Video: Penny Phillips, Candidate For 5th District Court Of Appeals

by Michael Handley, DBN Managing Editor

Penny Phillips, candidate for 5th District Court of Appeals, Place 5, is out with a very well done campaign video on YouTube. I have been urging candidates to take advantage of free Internet broadcast channels, particularly YouTube, to inform voters about themselves and their campaigns.

The DBN gives the Phillips Campaign a big hat tip for posting a very well done campaign video! The DBN will give a hat tip to every video any Democratic Candidate posts on YouTube.

Penny Phillips talks about running for Court of Appeals Justice. Penny is an Air Force Veteran, 20-year attorney, and dedicated leader. Penny is an experienced lawyer with a long history of dedicated public service.

Penny served the state of Texas as an Assistant District Attorney in the 1990s. She also served the United States as a JAG officer in the Air Force.

As a judge on the Court of Appeals, Penny would make sure that the lower court judges got the right answer by applying the right law to the facts of the case.

In other words, as an appeals judge Penney would look at the law as it exists and hold everyone to it.

Penny's background makes her a great choice to do this job and serve as a Justice on the 5th District Court of Appeals.

The Texas District Courts of Appeals are distributed in fourteen districts around the state of Texas. The Courts of Appeal have intermediate appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases appealed from district or county courts. Like the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, Justices of the Texas Courts of Appeals are elected to six-year terms by general election.

Texas' Voter Photo I.D. Law - Why You Should Care

by Deborah Angell-Smith

Join us for a Democratic Network Educational Forum discussion at 10:45am this Sat., July 21st, at the John & Judy Gay Library in McKinney, to learn about why the State of Texas is suing U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder over Voter I.D. (John & Judy Gay Library - 6861 El Dorado Parkway - Map)

Learn about why is the State of Texas suing the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder over "Voter ID" - and why should you care? How will it impact you and your fellow soldiers "in the trenches" of grassroots political fieldwork? This and more will be explained at the next Democratic Network Forum, Saturday morning, July 21st. Please join us, and bring a friend or two while you're at it!

There has been plenty of coverage of various Voter ID issues across the country, but it's easy to get mired in minutia and lose track of what it all means in practical terms. Considering that the final resolution of the Texas case - possibly in the U.S. Supreme Court - could still be months away, and the deadline to register to vote in the General Election is October 9th, we may be in for another confusing election season. Michael Handley, Publisher and Managing Editor of Democratic Blog News, will be on hand to provide a "what you need to know" summary.

Saturday July 21, 2012

21

REGISTER NOW

Linda Magid, Senate District 8 Committeewoman for the Texas Democratic Party, will also be with us to share some exciting information about the new "Voter Empowerment Project," an initiative from the TDP to educate and empower Democratic voters. And, we'll also provide an overview of the voter registration process so you can bone up on the basics. There are just 12 weeks remaining to register new voters for the November 6th election, so now is the time to find prospective voters, help them register and provide the information they'll need to make wise choices when they vote.

Once again, we'll meet at the John & Judy Gay Library in McKinney, 6861 El Dorado Parkway, just east of Alma. It's centrally located in the county and a beautiful facility with plenty of room, so please bring interested friends and neighbors. Come for coffee and breakfast goodies at 10:45 am and the program will get started at 11. We'll wrap up by 1 pm and those who care to can adjourn to a nearby restaurant for lunch and continue the discussion.

If you're not able to come this Saturday, we hope you'll be able to join us at our next Forum. Our plan is to offer local residents opportunities to learn more about the issues that affect us right here in Collin County, and what we, as Democrats, are doing to make things better. We also hope to foster discussion groups in each of our local communities.

We invite your input on topics, speakers, format and other options - and encourage you to get involved in growing our network. We'll have sign-up and comment sheets at the event, but if you aren't able to attend, please e-mail us at info@collindems.net, or call (469) 713-2031 to leave a voice message.

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Democratic Network Educational Forum

Voter Photo I.D. Laws A Burden To 1 In 10 Voters Who Lack A Photo I.D.

During the 2011-12 legislative sessions, states enacted an unprecedented number of laws restricting access to voting. Voter ID laws are the most common type of restriction. Ten states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin8 — now have restrictive voter photo I.D. laws. A new report released by the Brennan Center for Justice within New York University finds that these new laws create an obstacle to voting for more than 10 million eligible voting age citizens who do not have a photo I.D.

Many American citizens lack the documentation these laws require. In fact, more than 1 in 10 voting-age citizens do not have current, government-issued photo ID. Some populations lack these documents at even higher rates: 25 percent of African-Americans, 16 percent of Hispanics, and 18 percent of Americans over age 65 do not have such ID. Data supplied by Texas and South Carolina also show that poor and minority voters are substantially less likely to have the kind of photo ID these states require.

Of course, 9 in 10 Americans do have photo IDs. These documents are used to drive cars, board airplanes, enter government buildings, and purchase various consumer products. Accordingly, many Americans might find it difficult to understand how so many of their fellow citizens lack such basic documentation. They might also assume that it must be relatively easy for these citizens to get photo ID. After all, all states with restrictive voter ID laws provide some way for voters to obtain a free one. However, making the ID itself free does not address the significant obstacles that can make it difficult for Americans who lack the required photo ID to obtain one. Many of these voters do not have a car and will have to rely on public transportation — where it exists — to travel to a far-away government office. That office may be open only a few hours a week, and rarely on weekends or in the evening. Voters may have to miss work or arrange for childcare to make the trip. And even if they can make it there, they may not be able to afford the costly supporting documentation — such as birth certificates or marriage licenses — required to apply for photo ID.

The Brennan Center report describes the burden on Americans who must obtain government-issued photo ID to comply with restrictive voter ID laws. The study demonstrates that many rural, urban, poor, and minority voters must overcome substantial obstacles in order to retain their right to vote.

Read the full Brennan Center report.

I.D. Laws Signal Need for New Voting Rights Act

From Roll Call, by Norman Ornstein

Who will be able to vote in this year’s pivotal presidential and Congressional elections? That is a key question, and the answer will be shaped by the wave of new laws in states designed to curb and suppress voting in the name of combating voter fraud that has repeatedly been proved to be virtually nonexistent.

Since 2010, 11 states, almost all dominated by Republicans, found the time and exerted the effort to pass voter ID laws, all in the ostensible name of fighting the terror of voter fraud.

It took the Majority Leader of Pennsylvania to show that voter fraud is not exactly the only motivator — in the Keystone State, a measure was designed to enable presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to win by cutting nearly
9 percent of voters from the rolls.

Actually, state Rep. Mike Turzai (R) was not the first elected official to commit embarrassing truth when discussing voter ID laws. In New Hampshire, the Republican state Speaker told a tea party gathering that he supported the state’s voter ID law because it would decrease student voting, and: “They’re foolish. Voting as a liberal, that’s what kids do.” What a surprise that in Texas, a concealed weapon permit is acceptable for voting, but a state university-issued student ID is not.

Most of the new voter ID laws make it very hard for people, especially the poor, minorities and elderly, to get acceptable photo IDs when they don’t have them. Older voters who don’t have birth certificates or other supporting documents required to get the photo ID have to pay to get them — and in some Catch-22 cases, they can’t get birth certificates without photo IDs. In Texas, the rural poor who lack IDs could have to drive 100 miles or more to find a place to get one, and most do not have cars. Attorney General Eric Holder has been criticized by the Wall Street Journal for calling this a new poll tax, but he is right — it is an onerous burden on poor people who don’t drive and don’t fly in order to be able to vote, a burden that does not exist for most of us.

Read the full story @ Roll Call.

Video: Pres. Obama's Campaign Stops In Texas

C-Span: Pres. Obama Luncheon Remarks in San Antonio
C-Span: Pres. Obama Campaign Stop in Austin

Pres. Obama speaks at Austin Music Hall


Part 2: Pres. Obama speaks at Austin Music Hall


Part 3: Pres. Obama speaks at Austin Music Hall