Daily News - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Democrats to Challenge Dunbar on Education Board

In 2006, Republican Cynthia Dunbar of Richmond drew no Democratic opposition in her run for District 10 on the State Board of Education, allowing her an easy 70% win over a Libertarian opponent.But with Dunbar making a spectacle of herself lately – being a pro-creationism, anti-evolution voice on the board, writing an editorial warning of martial law under an Obama administration, and writing a book calling public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion" and unconstitutional – and the Democratic Party resurging in Texas, she won’t get such an easy walk in 2010.In the past two days, party activist Susan Shelton confirmed to me that she definitely plans to challenge Dunbar, and University of Texas math professor Lorenzo Sadun said he’s “very likely.” Sadun also told me he’s heard "as many as a dozen people are thinking of running" as Democrats.

Don't Get Pricked on Sunday

This just in: Austin Police will be running their "no refusal" program on Super Bowl Sunday, meaning if you get pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving and refuse to blow you'll get a prick instead.This is the third no-refusal DWI initiative weekend since the department rolled out the program last Halloween. If you fail to blow, police will secure a warrant to draw blood to check alcohol content. On Halloween, 54 people were arrested under the initiative. All were legally drunk, according to APD, and 73% tested at least twice the legal limit.Police will be running the "Super Bowl No-Refusal" overnight Sunday, from 9pm to 5am Monday morning.

MetroRail Open Houses Coming Up

Is Wig Powder an Office Expense?

With a long day under their belt, it was no surprise that the state reps got a little giggly Wednesday evening when Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, proposed a last-minute amendment to the House Rules. His proposal, he told the House, "requires the speaker to wear a horse hair-wig, similar to the Speaker of the British House of Commons."Cue shouts of "aye!" from the peanut gallery.

New House, New House Rules

Speaker Joe Straus may not be making his committee announcements until nearer Valentine's Day, but with the passage of House Resolution 2, the House Rules, at least he knows what committees there are to fill.House Democratic Caucus Chair Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, admitted, "For most people, rules are like watching paint dry, but they are important, and now we know what they are, Joe will interpret them and enforce them. That's where the test comes down."The rules clarify what it takes to replace a speaker (after much argument, a simple majority) but the biggest shake-outs were in committees: Fewer committees and fewer chairs; Several agencies and the bills that relate to them shifted around; and more members on the remaining committees, which Dunnam whole-heartedly supports. "You'd think," he said, "that with fewer members they'd have more influence, but you can stack committees and artificially make them sway one way or the other."Most importantly, the newly-bolstered State Affairs becomes so important that neither its chair nor that of appropriations can sit on another substantive committee. Dunnam called it "a new super-committee, or rather the old super-committee come back. It's good that we've got this new 15-member committee that has a great degree of responsibilities on important issues in the state. That seemed to work well in the 90s."

Cofer Exits City Council Race

Democratic activist and city Solid Waste Advisory Council member Rick Cofer announced in an e-mail to supporters tonight that he is dropping out of the race for Austin City Council Place 1, leaving Chris Riley and Perla Cavazos to duke it out for the seat Lee Leffingwell is vacating to run for mayor. Cofer's announcement follows after the jump:

What's a Gerrymander?

The State of Ike

While Gov. Rick Perry was doing his best impression of Kevin Bacon in Animal House while discussing the Texas economy in yesterday's State of the State Address, there were his normal plaudits for ordinary citizens (and maybe some not so ordinary.)After a year of three major hurricanes (Dolly, Gustav and Ike) there were a lot of people that could be in line for some plaudits. So, while taking time to bash FEMA for being too slow in response, and completely ignoring the work of the Red Cross and the thousands of state and city employees that turned out to volunteer, Perry decided instead to praise the work of Somebody Cares America.Perry described it as "a Houston-based group whose volunteers worked tirelessly to bring thousands of meals and even hot showers to Texans whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Ike."All laudable achievements, but Perry missed out another word: Evangelical (yup, this was another big nod to the concept of faith-based initiatives.) The group also wasn't chosen at random: Founder Doug Stringer gave the opening invocation at the 2008 Republican Party of Texas convention and was appointed by Perry to his One Star Foundation – Perry's faith-based initiatives outfit.

Small Consolation for Doherty

Tip of the hat to Texas Weekly for an analysis of the 2008 general election stats. They pointed out that turnout in Congressional District 10 – the Austin-to-Houston district in which incumbent Republican Michael McCaul held off Democratic challenger Larry Joe Doherty – had the highest turnout of any Texas Congressional race with 333,083 votes cast.This dubious honor particularly caught our eye (italics ours): "Larry Joe Doherty, a Democrat, got 143,719 votes while losing to U.S. Rep.Michael McCaul – that's the most votes collected by any congressional loser this time out. … Nine people who got fewer votes that Doherty in other districts won, and took the oath of office earlier this month."