TX-32

Russian Bribes And Election Interference-- The Texas ConnectionTexas Republican Pete Sessions has a well-deserved reputation as a complete sleaze-ball.

2010 was an anti-blue wave, just as 2018 is shaping up to be an anti-red wave. No doubt a failed clown like Ben Ray Lujan will try to "modestly" take credit for the great Democratic wins in November, regardless of the indisputable fact that there would be more wins if he was put into hibernation until November 9. The Republican who was in his place in 2010 was Pete Sessions, the corrupt and sleazy NRCC chairman from Texas.

Very much by design, the DCCC doesn't have a Regional Vice Chair for the area of the country that includes Texas rand Colorado. That gives the national headquarters and their incompetence staffers an opportunity to do whatever they want without adult supervision-- like the catastrophe they caused in Houston, a catastrophe they seem hellbent to repeat in Dallas now.

Redistricting takes place at the beginning of every decade, after the census. But in 2002 Republicans won control of the Texas legislature for the first time in 130 years. They immediately set about redrawing the state's congressional districts-- absurdly in many cases-- to send more Republicans and fewer Democrats to Congress. AT the time, Democrats held 17 seats to the Republicans 15.

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.

Kara Eastman (Democrat) and Brad Ashford ("ex"-GOP Blue Dog)Alixandria Lapp, a poster child for the DC Dem's revolving door problem worked for New Dem Adam Smith (WA) from 1997-2005 and then went to work for the DCCC. In 2007 she became executive director of the New Dems, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

It may have been lost yesterday as a line in a long, long post on how crooked the political establishment is. At one point I listed the Hillary donors funding a crap candidate for Pete Sessions' seat in Dallas, Ed Meier.

While more Republican incumbents assess their party's-- and their own-- electoral prospects next year and respond by announcing early retirements, a flood of qualified Democrats are rushing to announce their candidacies across the country.

Ed and HillLast year the DCCC didn't bother recruiting a candidate in TX-32, Pete Sessions district in the suburbs north of Dallas, including Highland Park, University Park, Richardson, Garland and east to Lake Ray Hubbard and Lavon Lake. The DCCC hasn't paid any attention to Sessions and his district since he beat powerful Democratic incumbent Martin Frost there in 2004.

There have been a lot of rumors lately that Jared Polis may be contemplating ditching his safe Boulder, Colorado congressional seat for a very iffy gubernatorial run in a crowded field for an open seat. I wish him well. But he was just elected Regional Vice Chair of the DCCC for a region that includes Texas, likely to be one of the hottest 2018 battlegrounds. Ummm... likely... likely...