The Texas Observer

Rep. Rick Noriega’s campaign released it’s latest video today, which by appearances borrowed heavily from his appearance in front of the Capitol to announce his candidacy in July. Same backdrop, same “Answer the Call” message, even the same time of day.

But Noriega’s word choice has sharpened. In the video, embedded below, Noriega repeats that the U.S. government erred in moving resources from Afghanistan, where Noriega served, to the Iraq war. Previously, when it came to Iraq, Noriega has said he would follow the withdrawal timelines laid out by the Iraq Study Group. In the video released today, however, his rhetoric turns unequivocal: “It is time to stop this war.”

A spokesman with Noriega’s campaign confirms that while the intent was always there, this is the first time he’s gone public with such direct phrasing. It’s a welcome shift, if for no other reason than he doesn’t mince words.

Coincidentally, the New York Times yesterday published a lengthy story — titled “How a ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad” — that backs up Noriega’s case. The piece examines the deterioration of security in the country as the U.S. government shifted focus to Iraq.

In other Noriega news, his campaign filed his financial disclosure forms with the state, bringing his exploratory campaign one step closer to the real deal.

We’ve focused a lot on the race to possibly replace John Cornyn in Washington, but a D.C.-based analysis group, the Lone Star Project, has identified a state Senate race worth watching.

According to polling done in May, Republican Kim Brimer, who represents SD 10, is vulnerable to a challenge even though his district leans GOP, the Lone Star Project concludes. Their homepage right now has the details from the polls. The short story is that Brimer, despite holding office in Tarrant County for around 20 years, is hardly well known, nor particularly well liked. “When asked their opinion of Kim Brimer, nearly 50 percent of those surveyed had never heard of him,” the Project’s release says. Another 25 percent of those surveyed had a “neutral” opinion of Brimer, while only 18 percent rated his performance “favorable.”

Matt Angle, a spokesman for the Project, said that in the past Brimer, like many down-ticket candidates, has benefited from high-profile Texas Republicans at the top of national tickets. Brimer’s been “riding a bandwagon that somebody else is driving,” Ange said.

This year, that’s different. Cornyn is the highest profile candidate, and he polled at only 31.6 percent favorable (versus 14.9 percent unfavorable). And for the first time, according to the Project’s survey, Bush’s approval disapproval rate is slightly higher than his approval rate in the district.

That all bodes well for the right Democratic candidate, Angle said. Given the conservative tilt of the district, that candidate would likely need to be centrist — or “mainstream,” as he put it. Just yesterday BOR reported that Fort Worth city councilwoman Wendy Davis is the first candidate to publicly announce plans to challenge Brimer. Her decision was based in part on the Lone Star Project’s findings.

The conservative Heritage Alliance, an organization whose “goal is to identify 1 percent of the citizens in each legislative district who support traditional values” and provide them with services like “daily email reminders to pray for key leaders,” has released their report cards for the session. In other words, it sounds like a report card for folks who self-identify as the conservative elite.

Sixteen legislators made the grade, voting with Heritage’s recommendations 90 percent of the time or better on dozens of bills they tracked. The lawmakers, all from the House, will be honored at Heritage’s 2007 Freedom Texas Celebration, scheduled for October in Dallas. The list of honorees, all Republicans, reads like a Who’s Who of members distinguished by their wingnuttery this session: Jodie Laubenberg, Linda Harper-Brown, Debbie Riddle, Charlie Howard, Wayne Christian, and so on.

Down at the very bottom of the list, with scorses between 15-17 percent, were usual suspects Lon Burnam and Jessica Farrar, both Democratic Reps. On the whole the Senate had a much smaller range of scores, with Republican Robert Nichols topping out at 79 percent and Democrat Eliot Shapleigh bringing up the rear at 40.

The full list of scores is here. The grading criteria is linked on that page, but it boils down to: limited government, free enterprise, (fewer) taxes, and traditional values.

Our original post with other 80th Session scorecards has also been updated.

Hot item from a Republican Party of Texas e-mail blast: some guy on the internet totally pwned(*) Mikal Watts because his campaign video = suxorz.

Okay, the e-mail wasn’t quite that bad, but it was just as fatuous. The e-mail’s only purpose was to pass along a column in Roll Call by Stuart Rothenberger that criticized Watts’s website’s campaign video. The bulk of the charges? Watts abused the words “fight” and “fighter.” Sure, it’s a valid point — especially near the end, when the repetition gets borderline absurd — but “Watts Needs Better Video Editor” hardly seems like the kind of headline to rile up the base and fire up the checkbooks.

The only interesting thing about the email, though, is the GOP’s continued pattern of attacking Watts’s Senate campaign while steering clear of Rep. Rick Noriega’s. Already, Sen. John Cornyn has made hay about Watts’s job as a lawyer in order to raise money. And this e-mail concludes with a line from GOP spokesman Hans Klinger: “When the ‘inside the beltway’ crowd is starting this early to critique every move Watts’ makes he may want to rethink his decision to jump into a ‘fight’ [clever! — eds.] against podium storming State Rep. Rick Noriega which Watts is neither prepared for nor can handle.” (Hmm, speaking of editors…)

No telling what’s up here. Are the Republicans genuinely scared of Watts’s money? Is he just an easier target than Noriega, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan? Maybe they assume Watts will be the nominee and are getting a head start. Or could it be reverse psychology? Might also be pure opportunism. Or any number of other scenarios that aren’t popping to mind just now. At least, it’s one more data point toward a trend.

God bless the poor souls who try to quantify whether the Texas Legislature is friendly to poor kids. A Houston nonprofit recently compiled a legislative scorecard on children’s issues, and it seems the task proved too ugly to complete.

Children at Risk is a nonprofit devoted to improving the lives of kids in Houston and around the state through “research, education and influencing public policy.” In addition to encouraging the federal government to expand SCHIP, the center just released its legislative report card that grades each member of the high-profile Houston delegation based on how they voted for children’s issues. (The center’s full 80th Session wrap-up is here.)

Overall, Children at Risk gave the entire Legislature a grade of C+.

We were encouraged by the legislature’s prioritizations of certain children’s issues such as: CHIP reform, increased funding for early childhood education and dropout prevention programs, and reform of the Texas Youth Commission. However, these victories for children were coupled with a number of defeats. The 80th Legislative Session failed to pass legislation on the following important issues: clear and transparent methodology to calculate high school graduation rates, parity for mental health services, reform of alternative education programs, and environmental reform to improve Texas’ air quality.

The grading criteria was based on their tracking of several categories of legislation: education, physical and mental health, human trafficking, child welfare, juvenile justice, and the environment.

Overall, the Houston delegation got a B. Grading individual legislators apparently proved problematic, especially if you’re uncomfortable saying some lawmakers voted against kids. Grades for each Houston lawmaker are here (along with the grading methodology), and if you skim that list, it sure seems like Houston knocked it out of the park this session — A’s and B’s all down the line. Except for all those curious I’s.

Turns out, rather than grade the House Republicans who didn’t support bills Children at Risk thought were important, the organization gave them a gentleman’s Incomplete — the same grade as the legitimately absent Sen. Mario Gallegos. Every I is explained by a form letter: “CHILDREN AT RISK does not believe that anyone would intentionally ignore the needs of our children. Although Rep.Talton did not vote favorably on all the bills we prioritized, most notably the CHIP reform bill, we are confident that by working more closely with him in the future we can encourage Talton to become a strong advocate for children.”

Not sure what the point of handing out a report card is if you don’t distinguish between a C and an F, but for what it’s worth here’s a list of the I’s (excluding Gallegos): Reps. Bill Callegari, Beverly Woolley, Charlie Howard, Patricia Harless, Joe Crabb, Gary Elkins, and Robert Talton.

Receiving A’s: Sen. John Whitmire, Reps. Garnet Coleman, John Davis, Scott Hochberg, Rick Noriega, Sylvester Turner, and Borris Miles.

The fine editors here at the Observer are looking for my replacement, since, sadly, I’m leaving this great position in a few weeks. Here’s the listing:

It’s a part-time job for someone eager to post daily updates to our Web site about Texas politics, government, culture, and the occasional oddity. Curiosity, solid reporting skills, and a measure of self-discipline are all musts. A bit of wit and charm and a sense of humor are also helpful. To apply, send a letter, a resume, and some writing samples to:

Editors
The Texas Observer
307 West 7th Street
Austin, Tx. 78701
editors@texasobserver.org

I’m biased, but I think you won’t find a better opportunity to cut your teeth in political journalism than this here job. Come and take it, as they say.

The Republican Party of Texas announced a few days ago that it was handing over the reins to former state rep. Talmadge Heflin. Democrats around the state rejoiced. Heflin, it seems many think, will be as effective as the GOP’s executive director as he was in his former district, where in 2004 he became one of the earliest Craddick lieutenants to fall despite his chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee at the time.

Sadly, Paul Burka reports that it’s likely a temporary appointment for Heflin. His sources say that the party wanted former executive director Jeff Fisher out of there pronto, and Heflin is just holding down the fort until a permanent replacement takes over.

But while we’re here, it’s a good opportunity to revisit some of Heflin’s past achievements.

— He presided over one of the most destructive budgets in state history.

— He lost his reelection bid in 2004 by only a few dozen votes, a defeat he and his lawyer went to absurd lengths to attribute to voter fraud. As with nearly every claim of the sort by Republicans, it was nothing but political hokum.

— He tried and failed to muscle Craddick into making him the Speaker’s budget director.

— And, of course, there was the bizarre, disturbing attempt by Heflin and his family to, well, steal a baby. The mother, an Ugandan who was working for the Heflins (and getting paid a tiny wage under the table since she didn’t have a green card), had to fight in court to retain custody of her child while the Heflins tried all kinds of dirty tricks to keep the child away from its mother. The episode included this disturbing self-justifcation from Heflin for taking the child: “We all know the terrible problem that black male children have growing up into manhood without being in prison.” Weird, disturbing, and wild stuff.

We’re not likely to see anything so wild this go-round, after which Heflin can quietly return to his sinecure at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.