Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Texas Progressive Alliance Blogs for Last Week


The Texas Progressive Alliance knows why the alligator crossed the road as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff analyzed the Texas Lyceum poll of attitudes towards Trump and 2018 races.

Easter Lemming remarks on the great Houston Chronicle endorsement for Pat Van Houte for Pasadena mayor and tells you a bit about city election political funding.

SocraticGadfly writes about — with photos — Earth Day 2017 and climate change reminding readers that time is running short, and that a carbon tax, a strong carbon tax, must be the baseline of any solution.

The popular political drama from the last decade The West Wing turns out to be a lousy model for the Democratic Party, observes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Better Texas Blog looks favorably on school finance bill HB21.

Kyle Shelton looks at the different kinds of density in Houston.

Dan Solomon introduces us to Student Body Armor.

Paradise In Hell attended the Ted Cruz town hall.

Lone Star Ma presents an Earth Day-themed reading list.

The TSTA Blog isn't having it with Dan Patrick's spin on the budget.

Lisa Gray eulogizes longtime Houston preservationist Bart Truxillo.

Michael Li compares the 2011 and 2013 State House maps in the wake of the Fifth Circuit ruling that the 2011 map was passed with discriminatory intent.

Purple City says goodbye and leaves us with a few of the ideas it didn't get to finish exploring.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

The Houston Chronicle endorses Pat Van Houte for Pasadena Mayor

"A Fresh Start"

A very informative endorsement.

"Councilmember Pat Van Houte confronts challenges that others ignore. Van Houte has a record of standing up for the hard fight during her eight years on City Council... she wants to replace the term-limited Isbell and run a city government that's open to all of Pasadena instead of merely the well-connected. This means fairness in contracting, competitive bidding, soliciting community input and promoting transparency. Van Houte also said that she wants to reinstate a public transit circulator for senior citizens that the city had stopped funding. She hasn't raised a lot of money - Van Houte declines donations from city contractors - and her personality is more cautious librarian than charismatic populist. But there's no doubt that Van Houte as mayor would be a fresh start for a city that deserves better than its current bad press."

I will provide a link to the candidate blog post with this full endorsement to avoid the pay wall.

https://www.pat4pasadena.com/2017/04/23/houston-chronicle-endorsement/

The link has the Houston Chronicle link as well as the google cache.

By the way, not accepting city contractor money, who traditionally fund city political campaigns, means the people need to step up. One opponent has well over $100,000 in his war chest, mostly a loan to himself, that he expects contractors to make good on if he wins. This is considered standard behavior.

Easter Lemming has provided support for the Pat Van Houte campaign.