After repeatedly pointing out how problems can’t be solved by throwing money at them, Governor Greg “Hey Abbott” is throwing $200 million dollars at the Texas Department of Public Safety’s budget to shorten the lines at driver licensing centers. Maybe we could have a few bucks for our crumbling infrastructure, so we might actually have a place to drive our cars without dodging giant potholes and collapsing bridges? (WFAA)
In a move that runs contrary to Texas’ embrace of restricting voter rights, Harris County (Houston) has approved a study on setting up a polling location at their jail as early as this November. Surprisingly, they acknowledge people sitting in jail before they’re convicted still have a constitutional right to vote. Now if they’d only come to the same conclusion about Texas’ 11.4 million Hispanic voters. (Houston Public Media)
The panic among Texas House Republicans is growing by the day, as they start to eat their own while trying to out-conservative one another. Texas House GOP Caucus chairman Dustin Burrows has been forced to resign because he was secretly recorded by ultra-conservative Michael Quinn Sullivan saying “"terrible things" in a meeting about challenging 10 GOP House incumbents in the 2020 elections. (The Texas Tribune)
Anyone who lived under the reign of Governor Goodhair wasn’t surprised when he fell for a new version of an old Instagram hoax. The surprising part, as Dan Solomon points out, is that he’s still the Secretary of Energy. (Texas Monthly)
Mini-Rant – Texas Gerrymandering
Look at this map…
Before the illegal gerrymandering, about half the districts in Texas sent Democrats to the House and more than a few Democrats (20 since the Civil War) to the Senate. Last week, about 200 conservatives met at the ALEC convention in Austin to learn how to take gerrymandering to a disgusting new level. It’s never been more important for Democrats to hit the voting booths in overwhelming numbers in Texas than it is in 2020. Since the SCOTUS recently ruled that the federal judiciary has no ability to police partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, Texas will be used as a test case for an increasingly right-wing GOP that would rather cheat than change. If you live in a safe (for now) blue state, donate to Texas Democrats and help us with this fight. The state you save may be your own!