Elections

Derrick Broze sues Texas to challenge the election law that kept him from running for mayor of Houston

Posted on · Broze was barred from the mayoral ballot because of an 18-year-old felony conviction for drug possession. He said the current interpretation of the Texas Election Code, effectively banning all convicted felons from running for office, violates the U.S. and Texas Constitutions.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Voting

Federal appeals court stays redistricting ruling against Galveston County

Posted on · The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed until November 10 a lower court judgment requiring the county’s Republican leaders to submit a new map to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Houston Mayor

Whitmire stresses experience, rivals focus on crime and budget solutions in last Houston mayoral debate before early voting starts

Posted on · State Senator John Whitmire continues to lead the field of Houston mayoral candidates, according to the most recent UH Hobby School survey of likely voters. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee missed the debate, tied up in Washington, D.C. with the fight to elect a new Speaker of the House.

Voting

Galveston County leaders get a week’s delay in deadline to file new redistricting plan

Posted on · Democratic Commissioner Stephen Holmes, whose precinct is at the center of the voting rights legal battle, says his GOP colleagues are still cutting him out of the process of redrawing the county’s political boundaries.

Voting

Federal court strikes down Galveston County’s 2021 redistricting plan

Posted on · Judge Jeffrey V. Brown ruled the county violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act when it redrew its political boundaries to eliminate the one precinct in which Black and Latino residents comprised a majority of registered voters.

Harris County

Harris County leaders seek to upgrade NRG Park

Posted on · Commissioners voted unanimously to have the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation come up with at least two alternatives to plan for the future of the complex, which needs at least $500 million in deferred maintenance.

Criminal Justice

Alan Dershowitz, Jewish groups lead last ditch clemency appeal for death row prisoner Jedidiah Murphy

Posted on · Murphy, who was convicted of the 2000 carjacking and murder of an elderly woman, is one of at least two Jewish individuals on Texas’ death row.

Politics

Votes on school vouchers and Paxton impeachment raise the risk of primary challenges for some Republican lawmakers

Posted on · Governor Greg Abbott told Texas pastors that he’ll back the primary opponents of GOP lawmakers who don’t vote for his private school voucher plan in an upcoming special session of the Legislature.