Melissa Noriega on the Importance of Voting a Straight Democratic Ticket

After Chris Bell spoke at the Fort Bend Democrats’ Labor Day event, Susan’s Bubba announced that Melissa Noriega would the next speaker. I missed recording part of that but I wanted to include one thing that he did say. It was at an event very much like the Labor Day event, only in a fancier setting, that the Fort Bend Democrats first publicly urged Rick Noriega to run for US Senate to get rid of Bush’s rubber stamp senator, John Cornyn.

I know. I was there on that mid-February evening. I heard it.

But when Melissa spoke it was not as Rick’s wife, and it was not a stump speech for Rick Noriega (well, it was in a way, but only by default), it was a speech to urge everyone to send a message to the country.

To vote a straight Democratic ticket.

Like Susan Criss, this is in order to make sure that we elect Democratic judges, but really it is also to send a message. A message like the one we sent in 2006 when the Fort Bend County Elections office counted more straight ticket Democratic votes than straight ticket Republican votes.

Here’s Melissa (and sorry about the camera jiggling in the beginning. It happens. I own the cheapest tripod known to man).

John Edwards Spends a Long Hot Day In Houston

Well, actually I think he fairly blew through town. The man really gets around. Tomorrow he will be at Howard University in DC and on Friday he will be in Tampa.

It was a Long Hot Texas Summer Day for Ann, Sara and I.

We got to Ann’s place by 11 am. She was almost ready but someone needed to feed her turtle before we left. Ann has a turtle that she raised from an egg and he prefers it if you hold the food for him. Not today though, we were off to attend Melissa Noriega’s inaugural celebration in a pretty ritzy part of Houston. Well, ritzy for me. It was at La Griglia on West Gray. Then on to the John Edwards event.

The room at La Griglia was meant to hold 75 but at one point I think we were more like 200 strong. Melissa was running late, so Rick got up to announce that the City Council had extended their meeting and she would be late. This was about half an hour into the event. Then he got up again a little later, telling people that he hoped that they signed the guestbook so Melissa could see who had all come to wish her well. Then when 1:30 rolled around the room held about 30 or so, and we were getting hungry so we finally had to leave.

Best joke of the day: Rick opined that this was payback for when Melissa took his spot in the Texas House while he was in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban, now he, Rick, could take Melissa’s spot while she was having it out with the City Council.

After lunch at HEB’s Central Market we made our way to Houston’s Children’s Museum because I wanted to see a pulley demonstration that one of my students asked me about. I didn’t know what it was about and wanted to see. Turns out it is a mechanical advantage demonstration. But that wasn’t what my student was asking about. He wanted to know why it was easier for a person to pull himself up than for someone not sitting in the seat.

Ah, It’s great when they place a teaching moment right square in your lap.

Then over to the Edwards Event.

Tammy was there at the door helping out. We exchanged greetings and compliments on each others' campaign buttons, but I think Tammy wanted mine - it has John Edwards' photograph on it.

We got there a full 10 minutes before the 5:00 start time but the room was already 3/4ths full and no open seating. It was very standing room only. We three edged as far to the front as we could get, and only managed to get just behind the TV cameras. There we waited.

Lots of Fort Bend Democrats made it to the event. Scanning the room I saw Albert, Don, Mark and Elizabeth, Marsha, Bev, and Geri. Later I came across Gretchen, Judy, Martha and Farhan.

As we waited the room filled to past capacity. At 5:30 State Rep Garnet Coleman got a microphone, got it turned on, and spoke awhile about the 80th Legislature, and on the Democratic successes. Then around 6 pm he was back to introduce Chris Bell who was there to introduce John Edwards.

Edwards came in, dressed in slacks and a blue long sleeved shirt with the cuffs rolled up. Now I’ve seen Barack Obama speak, and he speaks with authority. John Edwards speaks with feeling and animation. He truly is the people’s candidate. He is like us.

He began right off with remarks on the hate-filled personal attacks of Ann Coulter, and Elizabeth’s blindsiding her on Hardball. Simply stated, these attacks have got to stop if we are to engage in dialogue at a time that we specifically need to have it.

On issues Edwards was all over the map. Universal Health Care, Stopping the war in Iraq, Torturing prisoners, Guantanamo, having a Supreme Court whose justices reflect the values of a majority of Americans. Dick Cheney and the secretive imperial Vice Presidency. To all of that, John Edwards just had three words: Constitution, Article Two. Yep it’s all there for Cheney to read.

37 million Americans living in poverty. Having to choose between paying the heating bill and feeding your family. John Edwards spoke of his 2004 “Two Americas” theme. It’s still there and the split is getting wider. He spoke of his “One America” Plan unveiled just last week. His plan to reduce rising debt among the poor and middle class.

Guess what he left out? Fear mongering. Any given Republican candidate will talk about how afraid we need to be and how the only party that can protect us is the self-same party that got us into this horrible bloody mess.

What else? Immigration. That red herring that is on the breakfast, lunch and dinner menu of every Republican in and out of office. Illegal immigrants didn’t run jets into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. All those guys had visas.

Really, if it weren’t for fear mongering and illegal immigrants, Republicans would have nothing to talk about, nothing to say but “Oops . . . sorry.”

It was over too soon but he had lots of signing to do. Don got Edwards to sign a campaign sign that some lucky devil will get to bid for at the next Fort Bend Democrats fundraiser, I am sure.

Then we all went across the street and ate some barbecue.

And all is well in the world.

John Edwards AND barbecue.

UPDATE:

Dos Centavos has his take on the Edwards Event. While I fully figured that he would be there, I completely missed him. A feat in and of itself. ===> Happy face. (sorry some of my readers don't know when I am making a whimsical joke, right junk?).

Number Crunching Time

Let’s have one last look at the Houston City Council election. Why not? Let’s compare May 12th to June 16th. Spreadsheet included. Click on it to make it bigger.

Total voter turnout for the city council race on May 12th was 33,853 or 3.73% of total registered voters as opposed to a total turnout of 24,716 votes on June 16th or 2.72% of registered voters in Harris County.

But while total votes were down, Roy Morales’ campaign picked up votes from other campaigns, and doubtlessly so did Melissa Noriega’s but we’ll never know for sure. And there is the entire story. With such a low voter turnout, the winner is the campaign that can beat the bushes the best to get voters to the polls, on a rainy, stormy late spring weekend day in Houston . . . on Juneteenth.

Actually, I am doubting that the Juneteenth factor had much to do with Morales’ numbers. As a matter of fact, if you look at the Fort Bend County Elections website (the Houston part of Fort Bend County is overwhelmingly African-American), you see that while Morales picked up 16 votes in those eleven precincts, Melissa Noriega lost 52 votes comparing with the May 12th election results.

Comparing totals between the special election and the run-off, you see that Morales’ campaign learned some lessons about absentee ballots. In the May 12th election, Morales had a miserable showing in absentee ballot totals. Someone must have noticed, because absentee ballot votes for Morales increased by over 300%. Their early vote effort, improved as well, with a 54% improvement. The campaign had similar gains in Election Day votes, a 51% improvement.

Compare that to Melissa’s totals and you see a 34% increase in absentee ballots sent in for Melissa, but early voting and Election Day voting turnout for Melissa were down by 14% and 23%, respectively over turnout on May 12th.

So while Morales’s campaign made startling gains on all fronts, doubtlessly fueled by what became a one-issue, anti-immigrant, fear-mongering campaign, it was not enough to offset Melissa’s commanding lead, that could absorb a nearly 13% loss in voters and still come out on top.

In the end, it was the votes of 1346 people that made the difference, with a little over half of those being from the net gain of absentee vote ballots sent in.

Yes, it was that close.

Polls Close! Melissa Watch Begins

OK, it’s done. Time to watch and wait. The Harris Votes site almost immediately posted the mail in and early vote numbers.

Morales - Mail In: 2,754 Early Vote: 3,080
Noriega - Mail In : 2,689 Early Vote: 4,301

Melissa is ahead in the Early Vote/Absentee 6990 to 5834 (54.5% to 45.5%)

More to follow. . .

8:22 PM, 20% of precincts reporting

Morales: 6,468
Noriega: 8,330

56.3% to 43.7%

Melissa's margin is widening.

With 33.85% of precincts reporting:

Morales: 6,987
Noriega: 9,169

56.75% to 43.25%

. . . and widening . . .

At 9:02 and with 50.19% of precincts reporting:

Morales: 8,058
Noriega: 10,326

56.17% to 43.83%

Kingwood must have reported in . . .



At 9:34 and with 80.54% of precincts reporting:

Morales: 9,910
Noriega: 12,453

55.69% to 44.31%


I'm calling it . . . No, wait, can't find the Fat Lady . . .

Ah . . . here she is . . . singing.

10.03 PM: Just saw a live broadcast from Melissa's Victory Party at Cafe Adobe. No new data yet but it's over, can't you feel it? I wanted to be there. I was there on May 12th. But I wanted to do something different this time. Those who know me know that I don't write my blog on a lap top - I am tied to my kludgey desktop. Yeah, I know Dinosaursville.

Besides, I got to see the live broadcast.

Melissa looked good, and was thrifty with her answers regarding her working with Mayor Bill White. Rick was there (as was Little Ricky), and he easily dodged questions about his candidacy for US Senator.

Yes, it is Melissa's night.


10:15 PM. They're being downright stingy with that last 20%. Something that I heard today that is still giving me the giggles is that Roy Morales has former City Councilwoman, former CD-22 Congresswoman Shelley Sekula Hyphen Gibbs doing a recorded robo call for Morales. Isn't that just nuts? Do they not realize how seriously afflicted and embarrassed voters are about the Shelster? One nutcase calling voters to vote for another nutcase?

Guys, please . . . don't make this so easy.

OK . . . WHAT'S the deal here? 10:53 PM and no more updates. Is it the old 80:20 rule in effect here? It takes 20% of the effort to get 80% of the vote counted, and 80% effort to get 20% of the vote counted?

And we are done.

Melissa Noriega is in absolute triumph over Roy "Bufo houstonensis" Morales!!!

Final count:

Melissa Noriega with 13,704 votes (55.44%) to Morales' 11,012 votes (44.55%). A 10 percent margin.

Congratulations to Melissa, to Team Noriega, to everyone who helped elect this excellent human being to Houston City Council. Melissa, all of you, I almost want to rename this blog "Half Full" because I am feeling really good, right now, about how things can be, about how things are going to be.

Almost.

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Help Melissa Noriega Win

10. Position 3 is Shelley Sekula-Gibbs old seat before she abandoned it to serve out Tom DeLay’s term. What better way to thumb your nose one last time at Hot Tub Tom?

9. She’s much better looking than Roy Morales whose countenance resembles Randy’s, my friend Ann’s erstwhile Bufo houstonensis boarder

8. She’s got the tools: Email Sherry (sherry@melissanoriega.com) for a list to call.

7. She’s got the talent. Named Freshman of the Year by her Texas State House Democratic colleagues.

6. She’s Little Ricky’s mom.

5. She runs a clean campaign unlike her opponent, who has trouble finding enough muck to rake.

4. To Melissa, public and service aren’t just two words, they are two words indivisible.

3. When you can get 6 of your 10 former opponents’ endorsements, that’s saying a lot.

2. Position 3 is reserved for blondies only.

. . . and the number 1 reason why you should help Melissa Noriega win the election tomorrow?

1. When Democrats help other Democrats vote, Democrats win.

Early Voting Is Over In Houston

It’s just past 7 PM CDT as I write this. Early Voting in the race for the At-Large Position 3 seat on Houston’s City Council is now over.

It has been an amazing 9 days. I called voters nearly every day in the afternoon to early evening in four Houston precincts. All, if not just about all of the voters on my lists were Democrats. Nearly half of the human voices that I spoke to today said that they had already voted. This could bode well for Melissa, just as it did in the May 12th election.

Results in the May 12th election showed that those who went in to vote early voted for Melissa by a vast margin (250%) in comparison to those who voted for Roy Morales.

Vote totals as of yesterday (the daily early vote totals have not been updated with today’s turnout yet) have 5860 in person early votes and 4589 returned mail-in ballots, for a total of 10,449 early votes so far in this election. Check out the Early Vote turnout here. Maybe by the time you read this the last day's data will be displayed.

But let's play with some numbers. Should today’s vote totals be equal to the average of the previous 8 days, that would make it about 732 in-person votes and about 917 mail-in ballots, for a grand total of over 12,000 votes.

This is very near the projected 15,000 votes that were estimated by lots of people and organizations – for the entire voter turnout including Election Day.

So people are still coming out in low numbers, but not the abysmal 2% that was anticipated.

With low numbers like that, anything can happen, so we’ll just have to see how things pan out on Saturday.

Roy Morales Will Save You From Those Illegal Immigrants

Roy Morales, that wacky guy owes money to his sign painter, the guy who the Harris County Republican Party has out rightly endorsed (can you do that in a non-partisan race?), has a new television ad. No, I won’t provide the video. It would get him too many views in You Tube. Go find it yourself. I’ll spare you from gazing at his frog-like countenance and just provide the text of his blurb below. You be the judge of this, but in my humble opinion, it is nothing less than incendiary demagoguery.

“Illegal immigration how long can we afford it? I’m Roy Morales and I am running for Houston city council at large position 3. Our number one issue in our city today is the illegal immigration problem. We can no longer afford the increased costs in our education and healthcare systems, increased identity theft and most importantly citizens dying at the hands of illegal immigrants. We need to find real solutions to a problem that threatens the stability of Houston’s future.”

Yada yada yada.

And that’s really funny, because not too long ago, on this blog, we had Roy Morales saying that the number one threat to the city of Houston was Terrorism, and how he had the tools and connections to see that we’d all be safe from the terrorists if we’d only elect him.

But no. Now we’ve moved on, and the number one issue is now illegal immigrants. Roy Morales says that is uniquely gifted in finding “real solutions”. Well then, Roy’s talent is being wasted here in Houston. He needs to join that group of 535 Senators and Congressmen in DC and straighten them all out. They don’t have a clue how to find real solutions. He obviously does.

Early Voting Starts Monday! Time To Step Up For Melissa Noriega

The title says it all. Monday June 4th is the first day of early voting for the special election runoff between Melissa Noriega and Roy “I’ll Protect You From the Terrorists” Morales. So call (713-MELISSA) or get down to the campaign headquarters and get a GOTV phone list or walk list. We’ve got to get those same people who came out and voted for Melissa to do it again during early voting, June 4th to June 12th, or on Election Day, June 16th.

The May 12th election totals put Melissa just shy of a majority (47%), a major feat when you are in a field of eleven candidates. Morales came in 2nd with a distant 18%. While Morales has gotten the endorsement of Tom “Loose Cannon” Nixon, Melissa has gotten the endorsements of 6 former opponents Noel Freeman, Andy Neill, Sara Owen-Gemoets, Ivan Meyers, Kendall Baker and Alfred Molison. Since the May 12th election she has also been endorsed by the Houston Association of Realtors.

Morales, on the other hand, got sued by a campaign sign manufacturer who works only for Republican campaigns. He didn't pay his bills in the last election, and he failed to throw more business his way. Poor Roy.

But let’s not let these pieces of good news keep us from the task at hand. Time to put this one away.

Melissa Monday Recap - And A Comment Goes Up Front

Yesterday's Melissa Monday event was a "gang blog" if you will, on the part of several bloggers in the Houston area, as well as from points far and wide, in Texas and foreign countries like Massachusetts. A list of blogs that posted something on The Roy Morales Affair is to be found at the bottom.

But first, I received an incredibly informative comment on my Melissa Monday posting earlier today. The comment is obviously from someone who has had the time and talent for reading those draconian campaign finance reports. I was happy to find out that I was not alone in not being able to balance these books. It would seem like income minus outgo would give you cash on hand but it doesn't work with Roy Morales.

In case you missed the comment, I am front paging it below:

"It's interesting to note that between January 15, 2007 and April 12, 2007, about $37,000 in campaign debt magically disappeared. He might say that it was a different campaign, but campaigns cannot get closed out without a zero balance, and campaign debt cannot be "forgiven" without it being reflected as a campaign contribution. So where did it go?"

"The contribution period for Morales' 2005 race closed in February 2006, and he accepted $10,000 illegally from Bob Perry and his wife in November 2006 (which went straight into Morales' pocket)."

"Morales' most recent finance report shows $1,500 in campaign debt, but doesn't show any loans to substantiate that debt being on the books. Is it possible Morales is skimming campaign funds through bogus "debt?"The bottom line is that his numbers don't seem to add up. If he can't manage his own campaign finances ethically and properly, how can we trust him with a $3.8 billion city budget?"

Pretty damaging, huh?

I bet ol' Roy Boy isn't smiling today, at least not from the nose up.

Other blogs that ripped on Morales are to be found below:

Bay Area Houston - shows a photo of Roy (the sued) posing with Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbott (a suer).
Brains and Eggs - Points out how hapless GOPers are in municipal runoff elections.
Burnt Orange Report - Recaps the Melissa Noriega campaign along with the Miya Shay report.
Feet to Fire - Suggests maybe Roy Morales and Michael Franks can fight it out in front of Judge Judy.
McBlogger - Mentions one mis-spelling of the former councilwoman whose seat Melissa will fill come June 16th - a mis-spelling that I completely forgot about.
Off The Kuff - Got to put up his photo of Melissa's campaign sign one more time.

Fiscally Conservative Republican Roy Morales Won’t Pay His Bills

Susan has an alternate definition for “conservative” on her website today (can’t say it’s a blog because it ain’t a blog). Quoting Evelyn Burleson, Calhoun County Democratic Party Chair: “Conservative is just a political justification for being stingy”.

Well, Roy Morales, Melissa Noriega’s opponent in the Houston City Council At Large Position 3 seat (aka The Shelley Schulla Gibbons Memorial Seat), is a fiscal conservative, making him stingy with his 2005 campaign funds.

Miya Shay’s KTRK political blog today has a story out that Roy Morales owes Michael P. Franks’ Texas GOP Store a grand total of $5375.76 in charges for political signs that he ordered. Go here and here to look at page one of each of the two small claims court suits filed by Republican Michael Franks against Republican Roy Morales. Miya’s totals show “$1,700 worth of signs” and I am assuming that was Franks’ out-of-pocket expenses for production of the signs.

The second of the two suits alleges a broken promise made to Franks, promising additional business to his company. Well, that didn’t happen to any great extent. Morales’ campaign paid Franks’ company $2178.46 for new business in this election cycle, in comparison to spending a whopping $15,343.79 alone at another printing company, Business Extension Bureau.

Morales didn’t have much of a good reason for not paying Franks what he owed him. His campaign didn’t run out of money. Look at the 3 campaign finance filings in the ’05 election. Now I am no accountant by any stretch of the imagination, but his total campaign contributions were around $32,130 and he loaned himself $28,300. So he had a total of $60,445 out of which he spent $54,230. Leaving a grand total of $6,215. This more than covers the $5375.76 that Franks says he is owed by Morales.

Republicans suing Republicans. Sounds familiar. Where have I heard that expression before?

So, Roy Morales is a Republican, a self-described fiscally conservative Republican at that. Does this send a message to those living in the City of Houston in a new context?

Fiscally stingy Republican.

If you want one thing in a city council member it’s someone you can trust. Someone who pays their debts. Not someone who freeloads on Houston businesses, promising them “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”.

I just don’t trust Roy Morales and this little exposé clearly shows me why. But why, I ask, didn’t I trust Roy Morales before this story broke? Well, it’s a little quirk of mine and I have to stop doing this.

I’ve never trusted people who smile with their both their top and bottom teeth.

The runoff election is this coming June 16th.

Vote for the lady with the nice smile.

Update - Houston City Council Candidates Fall in Line

Andy Neill is on board the Noriega train.

From his campaign

"Hello everyone, I wanted to forward on my official endorsement for Melissa Noriega in the upcoming runoff for the vacant At-Large position 3 seat. It is an enthusiastic endorsement and I look forward to working with her and her campaign over the coming weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Thanks for your attention and coverage over the past several months.

Sincerely,

Andy Neill

Candidate

Houston City Council At-Large # 3"

There are other endorsements in the pipeline I am told. This is just the second after our friend Noel Freeman. Andy's endorsement is particularly valued as Andy Neill is not necessarily a progressive Democrat. He just simply gets the fact that Melissa will be best for the city of Houston. Good job, Andy.

Hey, David . . . what's the hold-up? You're exempt from finals, right? Get on the phone.

Seriously, thanks to all the former candidates for Houston City Council who have, or maybe will possibly support Melissa in this important race to capture a City Council seat formerly held by one of the most controversial politicos to occupy a seat on the city council in awhile. One who wore Pink.

Please, let's put the DeLay nightmare behind us once and for all.

Support Melissa Noriega for Houston City Council.

Vote on June 16th.

Houston City Council Candidates: Time to Rally Around Melissa Noriega

So . . . ahhh . . . David: What are you going to do with those votes of yours? You know, the 2,328 votes you got in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties when you ran for Houston City Council? Those votes that were nearly 6.8% of the total vote?

By the way, David Goldberg got one vote in Montgomery county, giving him second place in that county (Nixon beat him out by one vote).

So, David, how many of those votes can you get over to Melissa Noriega’s campaign? You know, the one that paid over 12 dollars per vote? You could really do your city and your fellow Houstonians a real favor if you endorse Melissa Noriega in the runoff election against the right wing nut job Roy Morales. Morales has been endorsed by the ex-cop, Tom “Loose Cannon” Nixon. If he can deliver all of his votes to Morales, Morales still loses. If all the numbers play like they did on the 12th Morales doesn’t even have 40% with Nixon’s voters’ votes.

All Melissa needs is a few percentage points. Your 6.8% along with Noel Freeman’s, who just came out in support of Melissa’s campaign, puts her over the top.

And the rest of you who have not endorsed any campaign: what about supporting Melissa with an endorsement? You just can’t get past Noel Freeman’s comment that she will be the best one for that office, the one with the most connections to the state. No getting around that, is there?

Come on guys, you know it’s the right thing to do.

Do it soon. Runoff Election Day is in exactly one month, June 16th.

Yes, Juneteenth.

Melissa Noriega in a Runoff, FBISD School Board Swept Clean

Well in the Melissa Noriega race for Houston City Council, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that Melissa won in Fort Bend County. She garnered 216 (51.67 %) votes to her nearest competitor, Kendall Garner, who received 63 votes (15.07 %). Roy Morales, who will face Melissa in a runoff election got 24 votes in the Fort Bend County part of Houston. Unfortunately, his numbers in Harris County were a bit higher, at 6,321 (18.69 %) to Melissa’s impressive 15,729 (46.50 %). So the bad news is that Melissa Noriega did not win the race outright and will have to face one opponent in a runoff election: Rick "I will save Houston from the Terrorists" Morales.

I attended the Melissa Noriega election watch party after the polls closed (sorry forgot the camera) and listened to Melissa as she spoke to a crowd, that at times topped 200 souls, telling them that they could all go home and celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, but to be prepared to come back on Monday to begin again if there is a runoff.

Melissa Noriega has lots of supporters. She spoke of that over and over again in her election night speech. She likened putting your name on the ballot in an election to someone dumping a mountain of sand in your backyard, and then they give you a spoon to move the whole thing. “I can’t do this,” she said in exasperation, “but then everyone showed up holding spoons”.

Some of the more well-known politicos who showed up with their spoons were none other than Chris Bell who came within just a few percentage points (well, 9 and change) of being our governor right now, Houston Mayor Bill White, Judge Susan Criss of the 212th District court in Galveston County (rumored to be in the race for Texas Supreme Court Justice), and a couple of SDEC members that I could see. Also in attendance was Melissa Noriega’s trophy husband, State Rep. Rick Noriega.

So that’s what’s happening in Houston. Back over here in Fort Bend County we have a new school board. Bob “Anyone but Lisa” Broxson swept Lisa Rickert out of office by an impressive margin with 6,406 votes (63.58 %) to her 3,670 (36.42 %).

So long Lisa. It’s been (a) real (pain).

David Reitz, the Republican that I could not support because there was a credible Democrat on the ballot, edged out his fellow Republican, Ken Bryant by a few percentage points. None of those running in the race garnered a majority but in this race, you only need a plurality, and that was what Reitz got with a total of 3,521 votes (36.36 %) to the next higher vote getter, Bryant, whose totals were 2,936 (30.32 %).

Notable in this race was that Daniel Menendez took in 504 clueless votes. Menendez pulled out of the race in deference to Reitz. Imagine what would have happened had he stayed in. We’d be stuck with Bryant just like we are stuck with Rick Perry.

By the way, have we deported Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn yet? If not, what’s the hold-up?

And last but not least, the Fort Bend County Proposition 1 passed by 79.21% to 20.79 %. People, people, people. Do you not know that you have plopped another 156 million smackers in the hands of our kleptocratic county court? I give up. OK, someone has to watch these characters and it isn’t going to be me because I warned you. You gave them this windfall, YOU hold them accountable.

By the way, rumor has it that Judge Hebert is something like $100 poorer now due to a Texas Ethics Commission fine.

$100.

Now I could be wrong, but I think that is just the tip of the melting iceberg in what is coming.

Tick – Tick – Tick 7 Days To Go

Early Voting Continues Until May 8th

Have you voted yet? I have. Anyone can vote on early voting dates. That’s still a huge misconception. It’s best to vote early so that you know you won’t be turned back or given a provisional ballot. If I could have, I would have voted for Melissa Noriega for Houston City Council Position 3, but my voter registration card brought up only Fort Bend County and ISD positions as well as the statewide Texas constitutional amendment issue.

The poll workers are invariably Republicans here. My guy was disappointed that I gave him only my voter registration card. He liked photo IDs. He didn’t say a thing as he scanned my card’s barcode, but when the next guy in line handed over his Texas driver’s license and I heard the guy say, “well at least with this I can see that it is you.”

Jerk.

Melissa Noriega needs your help. She has phone lists and a great decision tree script for you to use. It’s so easy now, you don’t even have to think, just follow the script and the if/then conditions.

Like: If they say they voted for Melissa then ask them if they want a yard sign. Stuff like that.

Election Day is Saturday, May 12th. So go out and vote early at any polling location in your county, then go on up to Melissa’s headquarters on Saturday and volunteer to call a list or go block walking. I hear they will feed you.

Show up at 9 AM for breakfast and a short training session. Then go block walking. It’s fun. Then get back to the headquarters at 1:30 PM and they’ll feed you again. Or if you’re not a morning person, sleep in. Get to the headquarters by 1:30 PM and they will feed you and send you out for afternoon block walking.

On an uncharacteristically optimistic note, I think Melissa is going to win this one. But nothing is carved in stone, and a win doesn’t happen until people come out of the woodwork and get people out to vote.

What I really want to happen is have Melissa’s margin be so over the top compared to the next highest vote getter, that it will set people to notice that the city council seat once occupied by Crazy Shelley – the Pink One - who embarrassed us all during the lame duck session of congress last year - get filled by a very nice, sane, intelligent, progressive woman.

Early Voting has started for the May 12th Election

Now go and vote

The Half Empty recommendations for Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees is Noel Pinnock for Position 7 and Bob Broxson (AKA Anyone but Lisa) for Position 3.

The Half Empty recommendation for Fort Bend County Proposition 1, the Fort Bend Mobility Bonds is NO! NO! NO! Believe me when I tell you that passage of this bond will result in the widening of a road that I travel on all the time. But the way our county squanders bond money fills me with the urge to defecate.

The Half Empty recommendation for the Constitutional Amendment, Proposition 1, is yes, of course.

And in the 10 City of Houston precincts within Fort Bend County, you need to go on down and vote for Melissa Noriega. Melissa is the most qualified candidate on the ballot. If you know anyone who lives in Houston, call them up and tell them to go and vote for Melissa Noriega. It’ll be a low turnout election so their vote will count more than most times. Wouldn’t it be nice to decide who 95 other people besides yourself want on the Houston City Council?

I have the Early Vote locations and schedule below. Nearest Early Vote locations for the Houston City Council election is highlighted in blue.

Missouri City Community Center - 1522 Texas Parkway, Missouri City, TX

Garcia Middle School - 18550 Old Richmond Road, Sugar Land, TX

Hightower High School – 3333 Hurricane Lane, Missouri City, TX

Monday through Friday April 30 – May 4, 2007: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Saturday May 5, 2007: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday May 6, 2007: 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday May 7 – 8, 2007: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sugar Land City Hall – 2700 Town Center Blvd. North, Sugar Land, TX

Fort Bend ISD Administration Building – 16431 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land, TX

Sugar Land Fire Administration - 10405 Corporate Dr., Sugar Land, TX

Monday through Friday April 30 – May 4, 2007: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m
Saturday May 5, 2007: CLOSED
Sunday May 6, 2007: CLOSED
Monday and Tuesday May 7 – 8, 2007: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Chasewood Clubhouse -7622 Chasewood Drive, Missouri City, TX

Meadows Place City Hall - One Troyan Drive, Meadows Place, TX

First Colony Conference Center - 3232 Austin Parkway, Sugar Land, TX

Monday through Friday April 30 – May 4, 2007: 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Saturday May 5, 2007: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m
Sunday May 6, 2007: 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday May 7 – 8, 2007: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The Fort Bend Democrats: Fighting for You

The Fort Bend Democrats, a Democratic political action committee in Fort Bend County, Texas, have a lot of things going on right now, not only to help out in any way we can in imminent elections, prepare for next year’s election, and also to support local charitable efforts in the present tense.

We support the campaign of Melissa Noriega for Houston City Council Position 3. The Get Out The Vote call list I collected from the campaign this past week was delivered to some of the silver-tongued devils in the group today. I retained the bulk of it, but Geri, silver-tongued devil extraordinaire took a pinch (knowing Geri she’ll probably talk her list out of some money for the campaign), and so did Tony. We are calling Democrats residing in the Houston part of Fort Bend County who vote in city elections.

We are preparing for an all out assault on the appetites of Democratic supporters by organizing an outdoor barbecue at Eldridge Park in Sugar Land next May 19th. The speaker list is being put together right now, but it looks like we will attract local elected officials as well as at least one state official. I can now state with a certainty that Democratic Party State Chairman Boyd Richie will speak at the event. It is being held on the same day as a TDP Town Hall meeting at the Student Center at the U of H main campus. So it was not a problem getting him to commit to speaking and eating some barbecue with Democrats of Fort Bend and environs.

So we have that to look forward to.

And we have now spent our first day doing charitable work for Hearts and Hammers. Today we worked at the home of Emmanuel and Margarita, elderly home owners in North Richmond, who needed some exterior work on their house. An organization known as the Fort Bend Corps has organized a local “Hearts and Hammers” effort in Fort Bend County. Several of us spent all afternoon applying a coat of primer to the house. There is more work to do but we ran out of material.

You could say that I am righteously tired tonight.

Making a Needless Trip Into Houston a Worthwhile Effort

It’s TAKS week here in Texas and that means 3 more 3-hour standardized tests for high school juniors. Proctoring these tests is a mindless job but one benefit to teachers is that there is virtually nothing to do to prepare for classes the next day. So when school ended today I drove in to Houston. My destination was Melissa Noriega’s campaign headquarters. I told the campaign that I would call precincts in the Fort Bend county portion of the City of Houston and thought I would go in and pick up the call lists.

Traffic was light but I was beating rush hour. I drove right up to the yellow 2-storey office building on the Gulf Freeway feeder, and parked in the shade. I knew I was in the right place because nearly every motor vehicle in the parking lot had a “MelissaNoriega for Houston City Council – At Large Pos. 3” bumper sticker fixed to it in one place or another. And a plethora of lawn signs all over the place.

Through the barred glass doors, follow the arrow up the stairs, then walk the maze following arrows to the open door.

It was quiet in there. Then I saw Melissa sitting at a big desk with a phone stuck in her ear. I waved and passed, looking for someone to talk to. In the workroom I found Melissa’s mom and told her why I was there. Someone behind me made a noise and I turned around. There was muse and the woman in charge of putting out phone lists working at a table.

There was immediate understanding of what I wanted, but the list was not assembled. The campaign knew about making the list, but the list maker was not told about it. I could stay awhile and wait, but she said it would take an hour to print.

“I can email it to you,” she said.

“You can email phone lists?”

“Sure”

“I just came all the way down here for nothing?”

“Yep.”

OK, so for all of you people who want to call a Get Out The Vote list for Melissa Noriega, just call them at 713-MELISSA (635-4772). Give them your email address and they’ll send you one.

OK, so maybe that wasn’t such a waste of a trip.

They also gave me a call script and a push card for more information should there be questions. Then I thought. Heck, why not put the push card on the blog as well. At least people who have never seen it will be able to view it. Same drill. Click to enlarge.

So now maybe what started out as a wasted trip is ending up to be a worthwhile effort.

Melissa Noriega: The Serious Candidate for Houston City Council

If you look at the Houston, Texas eGovernment page showing the campaign finance reports for the May 12, special election to fill Shelley Sekula-Gibbs’ abandoned city council seat, you will see that of the eleven candidates seeking this office, only four have actually filed reports. These four being from the campaigns of Melissa Noriega, Ton Nixon, Andy Neill and Kendall Baker.

Matt Stiles, on his Chron blog, reports that two additional reports have been filed by the campaigns of Roy Morales and Tom Molinson. In addition, two other candidates, the kid and Sara Owen-Gemoets do not intend to raise more than $500, so that a campaign finance report is not required of them. That leaves three who have not filed, or have mailed the report by the deadline but they have not yet been received. Who knows?

One wonders, though, about the vast gulf between Melissa Noriega’s fundraising prowess at $105,121.23 with a $53,032.58 balance on hand and that of her nearest competitor, Roy Morales, with an even $24,000 cash infusion, and $2,363 on hand. This appears to be about Roy’s limit. When he ran for the Position 1 seat in 2005, his total campaign contributions were $32,129.32. That’s a total for all three reporting periods.

Melissa Noriega is a serious contender who can attract serious campaign contributions. Did I mention that Melissa Noriega has been endorsed by the Houston Police Officer’s Union? I did, didn't I? I provided the link. I guess I should also mention that they backed up their endorsement with a twenty-five hundred dollar check.

Roy Morales’ campaign slogan “Building a safer Houston” seems to have fallen on the deaf ears of those who, on a daily basis, keep Houston safe.

I Saw the Sign: Melissa Noriega's Signs Go Up in the Fort Bend County Part of Houston

There is a small corner of Fort Bend County that overlaps with the City of Houston. Awhile back the Fort Bend Democrats volunteered to put up Melissa Noriega's campaign signs in that part of Houston and today they went up. Don borrowed Marsha's pickup truck again and we loaded it with T-posts and Melissa's signs, and drove over there this afternoon.

It was a phenomenal day to be outside slogging through the mud. Don joked with me that on Saturday I dealt with virtual mud and today I encountered the real thing. Houston, after a good rain, has this kaolin clay that turns into a gumbo. With every step you gain another quarter of an inch in height.

Again, as in the '06 campaign, the first sign took the longest amount of time to put up. It has been awhile.

This one we nailed to a pre existing signpost sited right at the exit of a small community known as Quail Glen. An elected official of the Fort Bend County Democratic Party has a residence there so it ought to remind her that there is an election coming up real soon.

Then we found this wire fence right at one of the entrance to the Fort Bend Parkway.

See what I mean about a phenominal day? Oh, by the way, if you've never seen a grassroots effort, take a look at all the grassroots in this area of Houston near the "antenna farm" in neighboring Missouri City.

This one is meant to catch the attention of Melissa's "Sonic" fans.

I worked the phones on November 7th calling this precinct. When we drove past the Briarchase Baptist Church, where I was directing people to go and vote, it all came back to me.

Isn't it nice how they made a "bevel" on this fence? This sign is at a signaled intersection and visible from three directions. I hope this one stays up and no one complains. Melissa's campaign staff tells me that Roy Morales put one of his signs on one of these people's property in the Museum District. The person called and Morales' hired hand had to go and take it down.

Here's another one we planted in the same general area. Notice I'm starting to tire and am now taking photographs from the truck, through glass?

This one we put up as the pile got smaller toward the end of the day. See? The sun's getting low. This is on the road leading to the location of one of the early voting sites.

Oh yeah, we put in a whole bunch more. One memorable one is along a Fort Bend Parkway feeder. We were getting a little punchy and putting up signs facing both directions when it suddenly dawned on us that it was a one-way road.

Another memorable one we placed in a neighborhood with slabs of concrete sidewalks all tilted up from swelling clay. Walking back to the truck, I didn't pick up my right foot high enough and was too tired to catch my fall as I pitched forward right into Don, and then to the ground. No harm done. Don partly broke my fall and now I can have some new cutoff denim jeans.

Yeah, it's hard work, but righteous work.

Work that I hope will, in some small way, help to get the best candidate elected to the At-Large Position 3 seat on the Houston City Council.

Where in the World is Melissa Noriega?

It has been awhile since I have posted anything about Melissa Noriega’s campaign for the Houston City Councilman At-Large Position 3 seat. I have mentioned some interesting bits of information on some of her opponents, but really, nothing about the campaign. So I thought I would mention a few things, make a couple of observations and pass on something interesting I heard about the campaign.

First, let me say right up front that while I am quite partisan, I think I can dissociate myself from my political leanings and just look at the race from the standpoint of a casual observer. As a casual observer, I just can’t see how anyone would want to vote for one of her opponents. Melissa Noriega is a smart articulate woman with her heart in the right place. You don’t believe me, listen to her interview at Kuff’s place, or read what her father says about her.

It looks like the campaign finally has their headquarters up, and none too soon. Do you realize that it is now only 40 days until early voting begins on April 30th? If you want to help celebrate the campaign headquarters’ opening, they are having a headquarters opening party on Saturday, March 24th from 4 to 7 PM. Go there. It’s at 7401 Gulf Freeway in a two-story yellow building. Get a map here. Bring friends. Find out how you can help. I’m going to be calling GOTV phone lists. You should, too.

OK, I can’t help but make a couple of observations about Melissa vis-à-vis some of her opponents. Look at this announcement on her website. Melissa recently got an endorsement from the GLBT Political Caucus PAC. If you don’t want to click over there, here is what was said of Melissa:

“We had excellent candidates vying for our endorsement. It was a very difficult choice, but we believe we have made the right choice in endorsing someone who will defend us and work towards our eventual full equality in this city. We are proud of our endorsement of Melissa Noriega," said Jenifer Pool, president of the Caucus.

Now this is truly a startling endorsement. And I say this because they made the decision to endorse Melissa Noriega at a candidates’ forum that they held. Melissa attended the forum as did at least two of her opponents.

Both of them openly gay men.

Melissa is not gay, but she garnered the endorsement of the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender PAC. Over two gay opponents. I see this as a trust issue. No one would doubt that either of her opponents would work for gay issues in the Houston City Council, but they, instead, endorsed straight as an arrow Melissa Noriega, because, in my opinion, they see her as being the most effective candidate.

And speaking of endorsements, take a look at this announcement on the campaign website. Here we have Melissa Noriega, who is not a policeman, but who has an opponent who actually was a policeman, and she gets the endorsement from the Houston Police Officers’ Union. I kid you not. Tom Nixon, who actually was on the Houston police force, and even has a photograph of himself in police uniform at his campaign website, was not endorsed by the Police Officers’ Union, but Melissa Noriega was. I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the last time anyone saw Nixon on the news it was a story about him being a loose cannon on the force when he openly criticized his superiors on police pursuit policy. Perhaps they see that Nixon has a special agenda, and that Melissa can be trusted to be more even-handed.

So if you have been clicking over to Melissa Noriega’s campaign website, you may have noticed how they keep it so current and up-to-date. That is really appreciated by news-hungry people like me. It is hugely informative on campaign events. Actually it is so informative that even her political opponents stop in from time to time to find out “Where in the World is Melissa Noriega?”

This announcement of a meeting of the Alief Democrats last March 13th was apparently read by one of the opposition, and who should show up to the meeting but the aforementioned Tom Nixon. He came in, sat down, listened to Melissa’s words, then got up afterward and delivered his own 25 minute long speech. So the Alief Democrats, who invited Melissa to come speak at their club meeting, had their club meeting turned into a candidates’ forum. I am told that he delivered a “red meat Republican diatribe” to a room full of Democrats attending their regular club meeting, Democrats who must not have appreciated his imposition, especially after they turned their deaf ears toward him.

And finally, as a kind of special gift to you, I have this You Tube video embedded below in case you missed it. It’s an interview that Roy Morales gave when he showed up in support of The Minutemen. You know, those right-wing nutjobs who play at being in a militia to keep our borders safe? “Doing the job Congress won’t do”? A big thank you for Dos Centavos for uploading the video.

So is it just me or is everyone else who actually watches this race simply convinced that there is just no other viable choice, no other viable candidate in this race but Melissa Noriega?