Gus Bova
@gusbova
Kansas-Texas transplant. Editor-in-Chief, Texas Observer. Tips: bova@texasobserver.org, or DM for Signal.
In Austin, state house Dem runoff goes to labor candidate Montserrat Garibay:
23 years in the U.S. Senate and it ends* like this, and you didn't even stand up to the guy anyway. *probably
Y'all check out the great work of @michellepitcher.bsky.social and @wesferguson.bsky.social, The Unforgotten: Riding Shotgun, which is currently #6 in top series on Apple (!) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Such a cool award for the @texasobserver.org. Thanks to the Park Center for Independent Media and all the folks we saw in Ithaca this week.
Inbox: Reacting to news that Travis County will withhold part of the Tesla Gigafactory tax rebate, @repcasar.bsky.social notes that the subsidies covered the period during which Antelmo Ramirez died on the job, which Tesla initially failed to report to the county.
Flashback to when the Observer endorsed Jesse Jackson based on his plan to make pension funds invest in public works. By contrast, a 2028 preview: "While [candidate] is the tallest & among the top two hottest, his fitness routine made Joe Rogan cringe & he's far too abundance-pilled for DoomTok..."
This is the Talarico (green)/Crockett map alongside the Bernie/Biden map. Obviously Talarico picked up a bunch more rural counties than Sanders here, but you can see the Austin/San Antonio/Valley/El Paso vs. Houston/Dallas/East Texas split still
Didn't see this until now but it was clear from a glance at the map. Talarico +32 in counties that went for Sanders www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Even with all the discourse, UT poll basically has the Sen primaries going chalk. Crockett and a Paxton/Cornyn runoff texaspolitics.utexas.edu/blog/competi...
A lot of odd little nuggets in the New Yorker profile, like Talarico apparently dismissing the idea of persuading Evangelicals www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
This weirdly feels like the right point of comparison, because the '24 and '22 Dem primaries here were boring. h/t Derek Ryan
Inbox: Union workers with ProPublica, Texas Tribune, and the Austin American-Statesman picketing downtown today:
Based on recent elections, we've basically all accepted that Abbott is untouchable even in a blue wave. But is there really no point at which this kind of noxious overbearing stuff ever pushes him down to the Cruz/Paxton level?
Super packed meeting in Austin to hear about Austin PD relationship with ICE. This is just like the front portion of the school cafeteria
SEIU Texas endorses Crockett -- AFL-CIO did not endorse so affiliates may endorse as they like:
A new Texas Center for Voucher Transparency is launched (two citations to @josephinelee.bsky.social in the press release):
Huge crowd at anti-ICE rally in East Austin. This is a very random angle from the playground area -- but basically Pan Am is packed to the gills.
Inbox: “Our Texas labor movement is united in standing up for immigrants, union members, and our families, and calls for ICE to get out of our communities,” said @texasaflcio.org president:
I finally understand what it is like to live in Minnesota or Siberia or any other of the world's most frigid locations
Something Texas Dems keep failing to replicate about 2018 is that Beto was in the Senate race by February 2017 (and Joaquin Castro was officially out by that May, fully clearing the way). This, well, is the opposite of that: www.statesman.com/news/politic...
Texas AG on 10/22: "Attorney General Ken Paxton Arrests 35 Illegal Aliens for Immigration Violations Through Partnership with Trump Administration" On 11/12: "As these individuals were not arrested by the OAG..." Well gee, I wonder how people got the wrong impression...
3. TPPF is also going after the city's ability to apply wage and employment requirements *in its own contracts*. A concern that critics of the bill and other bills like it raised for years but that was usually waved off by GOP proponents:
2. The "death star" bill carved out existing payday lending ordinances. And yet... (TPPF lawsuit targets this Dallas ordinance on left; law carveout is on right)