Texas

The first two states with 2018 primaries are Texas-- March 6-- and Illinois-- March 20. The thing is about the Texas primaries is that they're going to, in most cases, lead to primary runoffs on May 22.

The Texas primaries are coming up in just under 3 weeks-- followed by primary runoffs on May 22. And those primaries-- with so many vulnerable red seats and so many seats Republican incumbents are abandoning-- are crowded.

TX-32 was carefully gerrymandered district in the northern Dallas metro to specifically exclude minority voters in order to keep crooked GOP hack Pete Sessions safe. Last year the district PVI was R+10. Despite the gerrymandering that removed minority heavy areas around Irving and Grand Prairie, the new PVI is R+5. McCain beat Obama 55-44% there and Romney did even better-- 57-42%. But TX-32 was not Trump country in 2016.

The Texas primaries are less than a month away-- March 6. And the races are crowded. Or at least the seats that look the most flippable are crowded, even after lots of candidates have dropped out. Texas has 36 congressional districts. The very last one, TX-36, southeast Texas in the Houston area, is so red, that the DCCC isn't even contesting it.

According to a Gallup survey released a week ago, Trump's overall jon approval is 38% and his disapproval is 56%. What does that tell us for the midterms 9 months from now? Not all that much, primarily because despite Trump's overall poor showing, it's in states that senators and governors are elected and in congressional districts where House members are reelected, not nationally.

EMILY's List always manages to find the worst women to back. Here you have a Blue Dog, a New Dem and a union buster.

Yesterday we told you about some DCCC "clean" non-politician recruits in California who are an opposition researcher’s dream with all their un-vetted baggage.

TX-21 candidate Derrick Crowe with Randy "IronStache" Bryce in San Antonio last weekIn a post early this morning, we saw how progressive former congressional candidate (PA-07) Paul Perry was so disgusted by the establishment's attitude about fundraising that he withdrew from the race.

Healthcare incorporated, gourmet thieves and destructive psychology + this day in history w/'Down and Out in Beverly Hills' and our song of the day by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on your Morning Monarchy for January 31, 2018.

I will start off by saying that this story brought tears to my eyes, so much so that I didn’t know that I could finish writing the story. Nevertheless I have a job to do and it requires a tough skin.
A former Jacksonville, Florida police officer has been sentenced to life in prison for paying a Texas woman to sexually abuse her 3-year-old daughter and send photos to the officer.