By Andy Hogue on 9/8/2010 10:08 AM

The Associated Press recently reported Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White would slash the advertising budget for tourism under the the Office of the Governor -- a report the White campaign is calling incorrect.

The news of cutting the funds ($22 million was spent last fiscal year to advertise Texas as a tourist destination) was enough to warrant a strong rebuke from the travel lobby.

The Texas Hotel and Lodging Association and the Texas Travel Industry Association issued a joint statement Tuesday. The two groups said White's proposal (as reported) "would devastate the economy, would hurt hard-working families and would result in a net loss for the state budget."

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By Andy Hogue on 9/2/2010 4:17 PM

The Texas Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit against the county's tax assessor-collector and elections registrar today, claiming that an attempt to block several examples of duplicate and incorrect addresses from being assigned voter registration cards disenfranchises prospective voters and could represent a breech of privacy.  

According to a press statement from Boyd Richie, chairman of the TDP, Vasquez may have "violated" an agreement to cease what the TDP considered to be "inappropriate practices" stemming from the 2008 election. The TDP claimed that Vasquez' predecessor, Paul Bettencourt, rejected about 70,000 voter registration applications for illegitimate purposes. They also said that an activist group which reviewed the records was given a look at confidential details on the applications.

A voicemail message was left for Vasquez, but no comment was available at the time of writing. See last week's story for more on Vasquez' perspective. Below is Richie's statement:

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By Andy Hogue on 8/31/2010 12:52 PM

At first, visitors to the Texas Capitol were asked to empty their pockets as a way to deter would-be threats to the building.

And now DPS troopers are sporting semi-automatic M-4 assault rifles at the doors as part of a recent crime-deterrence plan, KVUE-TV in Austin and KHOU-TV in Houston are reporting.

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By Andy Hogue on 8/31/2010 9:06 AM

Harris County, after losing all of its 10,000 electronic voting machines in a fire on Friday, will be able to purchase enough of the devices to host the General Election at all existing precincts, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The county's Commissioners Court approved $13.6 million to purchase 2,325 Hart Intercivic eSlate machines to keep all polling places open and compliant with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which requires computerized balloting in counties as large as Harris. That's about half as many machines as were used in 2006, the Chronicle article said.

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By Andy Hogue on 8/27/2010 12:41 PM

Days after allegations of voter fraud surfaced in Harris County (see blog post and story), a fire early this morning destroyed all of the county's voting machines.

About 10,000 Hart Intercivic eSlate machines were ruined in a three-alarm fire this morning, the Houston Chronicle reported. The damage to the equipment is estimated at around $30 million.

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By Andy Hogue on 8/26/2010 4:04 PM

So that's why Texas GOP Chairman Steve Munisteri had his first press conference in Waco!

We're working on our weekly issue at this time, but here's the Republican Party of Texas' press release, verbatim:

WACO -- Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri today provided reporters with a series of documents that make it clear that State Rep. Jim Dunnam, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, does not live in House District 57, the district he represents in the Texas House.  In fact, it appears that Dunnam has not lived in House District he represents since the lines were re-drawn as a result of the 2000 Census. ...

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By Andy Hogue on 8/24/2010 4:09 PM

A Houston-based conservative group released what they considered to be a discovery of thousands of false voter registrations this afternoon.

The group, the King Street Patriots, claimed they found hundreds of voter addresses linked to vacant lots -- some associated with six or more false voters. ... If these charges are true, this could add new fuel to the push for a Voter ID bill in the next legislature.

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