Tom Wakely

-by Tom WakelyMy name is Tom Wakely and I am a candidate for Governor of Texas but before we get into that I’d like to tell you a story or two of how I came to the decision to run and why I am running.My wife and I run a private care home for hospice patients in San Antonio. We offer them a place in our home to die. We have been doing this for a little over eight years now and we have helped 48 people to die with dignity and respect.

Texas Congressman Lamar Smith is a joke. NO, I don't mean he's a joke the way most of the Texas GOP delegation is a joke. Smith is a very special joke. When the House GOP leadership decided to make Lamar Smith chairman of the House Science Committee, it was a big yuck all over Capitol Hill.

-by Zack LykeI had just come off managing the Wakely 2016 campaign. I was tired. The team scrapped, we fought, but ultimately we failed. There were some positive signs, though. Numbers that exceeded experts’ projections and progressive enthusiasm that folks in the area had long forgotten or abandoned. At the North East Bexar County Democrats club meeting this past December, in the middle of my presentation of the club’s coordinated campaign efforts, a man rose and suggested the club give a standing ovation for Wakely’s 2016 efforts.  That man had also run against Lamar Smith, twice.

-by Tom WakelyI just returned from the People’s Summit in Chicago. It was a jammed-packed long weekend of progressive politics. It culminated on Saturday night with remarks from Senator Bernie Sanders who gave the 4,000 plus crowd at the Arie Crown Theater a reason to believe. Now, depending on what you wanted to get out of the Summit, you had your choice of attending any of a dozen workshops or group sessions like the "Voices of Resistance Power" and learning from the likes of Jorge Aguilar with the Food & Water Action Fund.

Thomas Edsell's OpEd in the NYTimes yesterday, Has the Democratic Party Gotten Too Rich for Its Own Good?, came just as Blue America posted the above video by Mike Lux on

In 2008, when Obama faced off against John McCain, turnout for an American presidential election was relatively high-- 63.7%. This past year it fell to 55%. France's voter turnout ion their presidential election earlier this month was also down-- to around 65%. Yesterday Iran voted. The voter turnout was around 70%, higher than turnout in any US election since 1900. Why is that? Well there could be a number of reasons-- some existential, but in Iran Election Day is a national holiday; people get off work to vote.

It was a big ha, ha/LOL moment when the GOP House leaders decided to make crackpot Texas Christian Scientist Lamar Smith chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee. One Republican staffer told me "one of them" (presumably Boehner but he would;t confirm my suspicion) was "slightly drunk" and laughing so hard that he pissed in his pants and had to go change.

We've been talking about TX-21 for over two years now. Blue America backed Berniecrat Tom Wakely, who defeated a Democratic establishment candidate in the primary and then went on-- with no support from the DCCC or the establishment and very little money-- to hold long-time Congressman Lamar Smith to his lowest win number ever.

Tuesday, Jean Stothert was reelected mayor of Omaha 51,413 (53%) to 44,977 (47%) over Heath Mello. I don't doubt that Mello would have made a better mayor than Jean Stothert has been. And-- most important for some shallow imbeciles-- he would have been against Trump. What more could anyone want? Plenty.

Texas has been ignored by the DCCC for too long. I fear 2018 isn't going to change much either, despite rumblings of some early interest. Is the new DCCC regional Vice Chair even paying attention-- or just running for governor of Colorado?