Texas Politics & Government: Ideas and Institutions

 In my Honors Texas State and Local Government course on Thursday, we were talking about political ideology. One student asked if the chart that I presented on Ideology of Texans from 2010 to 2020 was of all Texans or just registered voters. The data were from the Texas Politics Project's poll and were from registered voters. Is there a considerable difference in political ideology and partisan identification between Texas' voting-age population (VAP) and Texas' registered voters?  There is a considerable difference. Using data from the Texas Lyceum Poll from January 2021, which considers a random sample of Texas' VAP, and the Texas Politics Project Poll from February 2021, here are the results: The percentage of moderates increases substantially; the percentage of liberals decreases by 11 percent; and the percentage of conservatives decreases by 9 percent. The results could have been expected as those Texans who are not registered to vote are less civically engaged and...

 Yesterday, the ICRC selected its final member. He is Joshua Blank. They also selected an interim chair--Christina Liu Puentes--and interim vice-chair--Luis Gonzalez. The average age of the commissioners is 43.57 years of age. The other demographic information is here: Name Gender Ethnicity District Education Calderon, Sara Ines Female Hispanic 2 Post-graduate Degree Dempsey, Erin Female Hispanic 10 Post-graduate Degree Finch, Whitney Female Anglo 2 Post-graduate Degree Gonzalez, Luis Male Hispanic 10 Bachelor's Degree Hardin, Errol Male African American 1 Post-graduate Degree Kambo, Shaina Female African American 9 Associat...

I borrowed the title for this post from a book by Samuel P. Huntington. The subtitle is The Challenges to America’s National Identity . It’s not my favorite book by Huntington, that’s American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony . That book, however, is followed by Who Are We? and the two books are related. First, American Politics was written to answer a question that was posed to Huntington during his oral defense of his dissertation. “Mr. Huntington,” the member of his dissertation committee stated, “what is the relationship between political thought and political institutions?” The questioner, Dr. Samuel H. Beer, was a political scientist of preeminence. Huntington states that the question was the impetus for a three decade search for the answer to that question, as it pertains to America. For many, America is an exceptional nation. In many respects that may be true, but it is not because of what America has achieved. It is because of the promise of America. It is because of ...

 Just when you thought that it couldn't get worse (you know the rest). At the April 23rd meeting of the Austin Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC), the twelve commissioners attending the meeting attempted to replace the commissioner who resigned because she was not qualified. After discussing the various possible appointees from the list of 60 Most Qualified Applicants, the group settled on two possible candidates: Isa Boonto-Zarifis and John McKiernan-Gonzalez. After discussing the merits of each candidate, the vote was conducted. The result was a tie vote; each candidate received six votes. The Austin City Charter requires a vote of nine members to replace a member of the Commission. The Commission has failed to hold a meeting since the April 23 debacle. But there's more. One of the commissioners, Hoang Le, who resided in SMD 8 when he applied and was selected to the Commission, now resides, according to his voter registration information, in SMD 3, which mea...

 Consider me surprised. The voter turnout exceeded 20 percent, but only barely. The voter turnout was 22.55 percent. Proposition B, the most contentious of the propositions, passed overwhelmingly with 57 percent of voters voting to reinstate the ban on camping. The proposition to change the form of Austin's municipal government from a council-manager form to a strong mayor-council form failed with only 14 percent supporting the proposed change. That was a good thing. The table reflects the vote on each proposition: The proposal for ranked-choice voting also passed overwhelmingly; however, the legislature would have to change the Texas Election Code to allow local governments to employ ranked-choice voting for it to become effective. The likelihood of legislative approval is slim to none given the current composition of the legislature. Overall, it was not a good day politically for Austinites, but that could be said on many days.

 On May 1, 2021, Austin residents will vote on eight propositions, many of which will alter the Austin City Charter. Probably the most contentious issue involves reinstating a camping ban in Austin, which would make camping in public spaces a class "C" misdemeanor. The only penalty is a fine; however, since homeless persons cannot pay the fine, a warrant for the person's arrest will be issued. It does nothing to solve the homeless situation in Austin.  Many of the issues deal with changing the Austin City Charter. The most significant change would change the form of municipal governance in Austin from the Council-Manager form to a Strong Mayor-Council form. The justification for this proposition is to make the operation of municipal government in Austin more accountable to the residents. Another proposition moves the mayoral election from non-presidential general election years to presidential general election years. The mayor would still serve a four-year term. However, ...

At today's meeting of the Austin ICRC, the Austin Auditor's Office explained that there was a glitch in the selection process for the commission. The result was five applicants for the commission being deemed unqualified when the five were actually qualified. In addition, five applicants who were not qualified were deemed qualified. So ten applicants were not categorized correctly by the Austin Auditor's Office. Since one of the applicants who was not qualified was selected  in the March meeting by the eight commissioners who were selected randomly, the commission was required to select a replacement. In addition, another applicant selected for the commission was not qualified, but the Auditor's Office, after consulting with Austin's Legal Office, decided that the applicant would need to be replaced by the thirteen commissioners at the next meeting. The commission debated the possible replacements among the 60 most qualified applicants and chose Salina R. Yee, who r...