U.S. Supreme Court declines to change Wisconsin's voting rules, keeps Election Day deadline for mail

MADISON - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Wisconsin's voting laws Monday, rejecting an effort to require the counting of absentee ballots that are sent back to election officials on or just before Election Day.

The court's 5-3 ruling means that absentee ballots will be counted only if they are in the hands of municipal clerks by the time polls close on Nov. 3.

The justices determined the courts shouldn't be the ones to decide the election rules amid the coronavirus pandemic that is surging in Wisconsin and across the world.

"The Constitution provides that state legislatures — not federal judges, not state judges, not state governors, not other state officials — bear primary responsibility for setting election rules," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion.

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan gave that notion short shrift, noting Wisconsin's Republican-run Legislature hasn't met since April. Extending the deadline for absentee ballots should have been allowed, she wrote.



https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/26/u-s-supreme-court-declines-change-wisconsins-voting-rules/3670662001/

TX-07: Fletcher shrugs off Hunt's late fundraising surge

Democrats, encouraged by President Donald Trump’s flagging approval and the emphasis on health care in this year’s election, have grown confident in U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher’s re-election odds, though a recent fundraising surge by Republican Wesley Hunt has injected some concern into the battleground Houston race.

Fletcher, a Houston Democrat who unseated Republican John Culberson in 2018, entered her first re-election cycle widely viewed as one of the country’s most vulnerable House members. Now in the homestretch, she expressed confidence in winning another term in the once-reliably Republican district.

“I hear from Republicans in the middle that they feel politically homeless right now,” Fletcher said. “What they want is responsible governance and what they see is that is what Democrats are doing.”

It’s a confidence shared by outside groups, including the Democratic House Majority PAC, which the Texas Tribune reported shifted money to a nearby race anchored in Fort Bend County.



https://www.expressnews.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/In-Texas-7th-Congressional-District-Fletcher-15670512.php

'It's our responsibility' -- San Antonio voters on the East Side caravan to the ballot box

Sam Mills, 61, voted for the first time 12 years ago when he cast his vote for former president Barack Obama.

He’s voted in every election since.

“It’s been about wanting change for me. That’s how it started and that’s how it is,” Mills said.

A late convert to the habit of voting, Mills was eager to participate in Sunday’s “Souls to the Polls” drive because he believes a sense of community can propel residents to cast their ballots.

The retired city employee led a caravan of cars from Sam Houston High School on the East Side to the voting booths at the Claude Black Center, 2805 East Commerce, honking the horn on his pickup as three flags — one American, one Texan and one honoring Juneteenth — waved in the wind in the back.



https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/It-s-our-responsibility-San-Antonio-15674294.php

Trey Martinez Fischer becomes second Democrat to announce run for speaker of the Texas House

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer announced Monday that he is running for Texas House speaker, becoming the second Democrat in the lower chamber to launch a bid for the gavel.

Martinez Fischer, from San Antonio, joins state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the longest-serving woman and Black person in the history of the Texas Legislature, in the race. Both filings come ahead of a November election in which Democrats are within striking distance of winning control of the Republican-held House for the first time in nearly two decades.

Martinez Fischer would be the first Latino to hold the position, if elected. Thompson would be the first woman and Black person to serve as speaker.

No Republicans have filed paperwork yet with the Texas Ethics Commission to run for the job, which Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen will vacate at the end of his term when he retires from office. More members from both parties are expected to enter the race in the coming days.

Martinez Fischer, chair of the House Business and Industry Committee, was first elected to the lower chamber in 2000. In 2016, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Texas Senate and was reelected to the House in 2018. A former chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, Martinez Fischer has also overseen a political action committee to help elect Democrats to the lower chamber.

The Texas politics publication Quorum Report first reported Martinez Fischer's speaker bid.




https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/26/trey-martinez-fischer-speaker/

As Ken Paxton battles scandal, George P. Bush considering a run for attorney general.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush will “keep all options open” about a potential bid for attorney general in 2022 as current Attorney General Ken Paxton grapples with a mutiny from his senior staff and the spectre of a criminal investigation, a senior adviser for Bush said Monday.

“Several donors have asked Commissioner Bush to consider running for Attorney General in 2022 in light of the recent allegations about that office,” Ash Wright, a senior political adviser for Bush, said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “Commissioner Bush has always said he will ‘keep all options open’ and that remains his policy. Like many conservative leaders around the state, he is very concerned about the allegations regarding Paxton.”

Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and nephew of former President George W. Bush, is the only member of the well-known Republican family to currently hold office, though a cousin, Pierce Bush, ran unsuccessfully this year for the GOP nomination in Texas’ 22nd Congressional District. He was elected in 2014 to oversee the Texas General Land Office, a statewide position.

Ian Prior, a political spokesman for Paxton, said the attorney general — who has called the aides’ allegations false — “is absolutely planning on running again, is looking forward to winning a third term and is never going to stop fighting for the people of Texas."


https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/26/george-p-bush-texas-attorney-general/

'It's now or never.' Democrats pour over $55 million into newly competitive Texas

WASHINGTON — Democratic groups are pouring money into Texas, fueling the state’s most competitive races with tens of millions in spending that would have been unthinkable four years ago.

And with former Vice President Joe Biden leading in the state in some polls, prominent Texas Democrats are urging their national counterparts to spend even more in a final push to win a statewide election for the first time since 1994.

The funding from D.C. and elsewhere comes as Democrats across the country rake in cash during the final stretch. The Biden campaign entered October with $177 million — nearly three times as much money as the $63 million President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign reported.

“Given the cash-on-hand advantage they have right now, I would argue they have a responsibility,” former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke said on a Democratic press call last week. “They have invested close to zero dollars in the state of Texas and they are doing this well. Imagine if they invested some real dollars.”

The close polling is “just too much to ignore,” Julián Castro, the former San Antonio mayor, said on the call.




https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/It-s-now-or-never-Democrats-pour-over-15675932.php

Texas Guard to send troops to cities for possible 'post election' disturbances

The Texas National Guard said Monday it would dispatch up to 1,000 troops to five major cities around the state as early as this weekend, but a top general insisted Monday it was not in anticipation of trouble during the Nov. 3 election.

Maj. Gen. James K. “Red” Brown, chief of staff for the guard’s commander, said the activation of troops would be for “post election” support of local law enforcement and the Texas Department of Public Safety, “as we did previously to deter any civil disturbance at sites in various cities within Texas.”

Protecting polling stations “has not been on any mission request or in any conversation with the governor’s office,” he said.

Texas Guard spokesman Brandon Jones could offer few details and referred questions about the reason for the deployment to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. He said troops could be sent to Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. He didn’t know how many troops would be deployed to each of those cities. The plan calls for troops to be posted at the Alamo and state Capitol, among other places.

“Right now we could go to 1,000 troops in support of civil disturbance operations,” Jones said. “We’re going to guard buildings just like we did during the George Floyd protests earlier this year. We are not going anywhere near polling locations. That has not been requested.”


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Texas-Guard-Abbott-to-order-1-000-troops-to-15676493.php

Nate Cohn: Trump coud win Texas and doom suburban Republicans.

NEW FLIPPABLE: Chokwe Pitchford for MI-HD79

My story is not perfect, but it has become all too common where I am from. I was born to Chokwe Pitchford and Kimberly Houston on May 7th, 1999 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Young and in love, they moved down south to chase after whatever they believed to be the American Dream, but the world was not working in their favor.

I decided to run for office because no one is talking about working families, and this year has shown we need someone who can unify our community and not seek to divide us further. It does not matter to me if you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. What matters is going forward, together as a community on issues like reforming health care to cap the cost of prescription drugs, changing our economy to give working families pathways into the middle class, and fixing the injustices of our criminal justice system to allow everyone to realize the American Dream.






https://www.chokwefor79th.org

Michigan State House moves from 'Tossup' to 'Tilt Democratic'