Here are Houston Democracy Project Blog Notes & Observations for October 29th. Election Day is in 7 days on November 5th. Early Voting is ongoing and ends November 1st.
*Elon Musk is contributing large sums of money to Texas Republican candidates in 2024. From the Texas Tribune: "Elon Musk gave $1 million last month to a powerful tort reform group that is one of the main political forces backing Republicans in battleground legislative races this fall, marking the tech mogul’s deepest foray yet into Texas politics." From Bloomberg Law: (The bulk of the story is behind a paywall.) "Elon Musk has contributed $2 million to a Texas political group backing Republican candidates for intermediary appeals courts, campaign finance reports released this week reveal." Elon Musk is funding Trump, talking to Putin and turning Twitter into a right-wing extremist sewer. I don't trust the judgement, ethics or patriotism of anybody taking Musk's money. Anybody taking his money is a public safety threat to our democracy and freedom. Musk's goal in the end is to take as much control of Texas government as he can. I know it's hard to keep track of all the horrible people in Texas politics. But we'll keep fighting and we will win. *At around 43 minutes into last week's Houston City Council agenda meeting, there was a brief discussion of Proposition B which was passed by Houston voters in 2023. Prop B directs the City of Houston to leave the regional Houston-Galveston Area Council unless the city is given representation on the council that proportionally reflects Houston's population. What brought the issue to Council is that HGAC dues are due. The upshot of the 2 minute mention of the issue is that according to the city attorney, the city's legal obligations to HGAC outweighs the referendum. And that was that--Despite the fact Prop B passed with 65% of the vote. Not very democratic at all. *The Houston Chronicle reports outgoing DA Kim Ogg spent 21 months in a costly investigation looking for election fraud that did not exist in 2022 Harris County elections. From The Chronicle: "For 21 months, Ogg’s office had been investigating claims that local election workers intentionally withheld ballot paper from Republican voters during the November 2022 midterm elections. As the probe continued, a string of lawsuits and state legislation filed over the matter continued to sow doubts about election integrity in the nation’s third-largest county....But according to interviews with election workers and documents related to the investigation, Ogg’s office and the Texas Rangers – who assisted in the probe – had likely known there was no election tampering for at least a year before Ogg informed the public." None of this is a surprise. It's just something though that entrusted by the public with the position of District Attorney of this giant county, Ms. Ogg used her office to weaken confidence in democracy. Nothing will correct her course. Please sign the Houston Democracy Project petition to make the pledge to show up for freedom in 2024 no matter what. Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways. Please help the effort. The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.
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AuthorI'm Neil Aquino. Archives
February 2025
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