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Riding on Blue Power!

Sun City Ballroom2 Texas DriveGeorgetown, TX

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Questions? Please email Ira Dolich at idolich@aol.com

Williamson County March 6, 2018 Primary Election Results

Primary Runoff Election Day May 22, 2018Last Day to Register for Runoff Election April 23, 2018

Early Voting for Texas Democratic Primary Runoff Election begins Monday, May 14, 2018, and ends on Friday, May 18. The Cowan Creek Amenity Center will be the Sun City polling location for Early Voting.

In 2017 your club moved with passion, discipline and enthusiasm to play a critical role in advancing the progressive values that lie at the heart of our club.

I applaud the enormous growth in membership. We greeted 2018 with over 550 proud members, a leap in membership that is all the more remarkable from an off-year. Needless to say, the election results from November, 2016 played a large part in convincing folks that participation with a group of like-minded individuals is critical to resisting horrific governmental actions. The development early in the year of an Activist Group led to coordinated action by our outraged members marching in demonstrations, writing and calling elected officials, visiting officeholders in person and generally keeping our members informed.(Click here for more )

The April meeting of the Sun City Democrats Club will be held in the Sun City BallroomRefreshments, coffee and social time at 9:30 and program at 10:00 a.m. The Democratic Congressional candidates for the primary run-off M.J. Hegar and Christine Mann will speak to us about their plans and policies.NOTE: 2nd Saturday instead of 3rd

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Sun City Democrats Club

President Trumps decision to announce tariffs on steel and aluminum is his latest effort to close America off from the world in a counterproductive movement to turn back the global economy 40 years. The decision serves as a moment for Democrats to stand up for an open America that confidently competes globally.

The immediate impact of Mr. Trumps policy will be price increases for the middle class and loss of automotive-related jobs, which Democrats should campaign against in 2018. But for the longer term, these tariffs also represent a pessimistic and backward-looking view of the world that Democrats must reject. The future of the American economy is jobs in high-skill fields like cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and energy technology, not in trying to reopen mills that closed down in the 1980s. Our policy must evolve to position America for technological changes and globalization, instead of pretending those trends will not continue.

The political opportunity for Democrats is even stronger because congressional Republicans under Mr. Trump have given up on defending an American economy that competes globally. The relatively sheepish response from supposed free-trade advocates in the congressional Republican leadership shows they are more fearful of offending Mr. Trump than they are concerned with preventing price increases that working families in Kentucky and Wisconsin will face on everything from beer to baby strollers.

For Democrats, the message is simple: After congressional Republicans passed a tax cut to benefit Wall Street and their wealthiest donors, they are now allowing significant price increases that will affect middle-class families, seniors and small businesses.

The geopolitical implications of Mr. Trumps trade decisions should also alarm Democrats. His decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which President Barack Obama negotiated) weakened Americas economic standing in the world and was a gift to China. If the United States is not involved in setting the rules for international trade, China and Russia will now drive these decisions. Our strong allies will be pushed into trade deals dictated by China. The alternative to TPPs negotiated labor and environmental standards will be Chinas lack of standards on labor and the environment. The same applies to technology, where either the United States will set rules with a focus on innovation or China will set rules with a focus on government control of information.

When Democrats focus on building a modern economy that competes globally, as we did particularly in 1992 and 2012, we appeal to the majority of voters who believe that trade benefits America. When we do not lean in on a positive case for competitive jobs of the future or are perceived as indecisive on Americas role in the global economy, as we were in 2004 and 2016, it can come across as hypocritical to the recent history of our party and limits our ability to win over swing voters.

Electorally, Democrats can win over small-business owners and moderate Republicans with a platform of investing in education and research to build an American economy that competes with the rest of the world. We proved this in Virginia, where the state has gone from being solidly Republican just 10 years ago to having a Democratic winning streak in statewide contests. That shift occurred both because Republicans focused on an extreme anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-immigrant agenda and because Democrats made the case directly to moderate Republicans and business owners that we were the only party focused on building a modern, vibrant Virginia economy.

In my 2013 campaign for governor, I won endorsements from many moderate Republicans because I campaigned on a welcoming Virginia economy, while my opponent was known for crusading on social issues that scared global companies away from Virginia.

As governor, I worked across party lines to help build a new Virginia economy that traded with the world. That work included 35 trade missions to five continents, which brought substantial foreign investment to Virginia and helped create over 200,000 jobs. The states economy was driven in part by exports, and agriculture and forestry increased 31 percent, to $91 billion. That growth in trade meant more jobs, with Virginias unemployment rate falling to 3.7 percent from 5.4 percent during my term.

There are some leaders in my party who believe as President Trump does that populist appeals against trade will benefit them politically, even if they actually believe in the benefits of trade. Putting aside the cynicism of this position, Democrats will never defeat Mr. Trump by attempting to sound more protectionist and isolationist than he is.

Instead, Democrats will win with an optimistic vision of an America that is confidently able to compete around the world because of new investments in education for our workers, research in cutting-edge industries and modernized infrastructure. It is a pro-jobs message that we should enthusiastically embrace.

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Democrats Should Embrace an Open Economy

HOUSTON Texas Democrats surged to the polls on Tuesday in the first primary of 2018, demonstrating a wave of Trump-inspired energy, but also showcasing party divisions that have emerged at the outset of an otherwise promising midterm campaign.

Nearly 886,000 Texans cast ballots early in the states 15 most populous counties, the highest early-vote turnout in a nonpresidential election year in state history. And more Democrats statewide voted early this year than even in 2016, the year that Donald J. Trump, a Republican, was elected to the White House.

Yet even as Democrats in the states biggest cities came out in large numbers, Republicans still cast more ballots over all thanks to their rural strength.

The most heavily anticipated contests were in three racially diverse House districts that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, won in 2016, but where incumbent Republican lawmakers are seeking re-election.

And none was more closely watched than the Democratic primary race in Houston to take on Representative John Culberson.

The progressive Laura Moser made the May 22 runoff despite a late attempt by the House Democratic campaign arm to derail her candidacy. Ms. Moser, an author and an organizer, trailed Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a lawyer, but Ms. Fletcher failed to garner 50 percent of the vote, so they will face off again in a race that will be something of a proxy battle between the moderate and more liberal wings of the Democratic Party.

Fearing that Ms. Moser is too liberal to defeat Mr. Culberson in an affluent and historically Republican district, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the rare step last month of publicly attacking her as a Washington insider who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress.

However, the broadside may have only lifted Ms. Moser who grew up in Houston but lived in Washington while her husband worked in Democratic politics there in a primary that featured seven candidates capturing votes.

In an even more Democratic-leaning seat, Gina Ortiz Jones, a lesbian and Iraq war veteran who would be the first openly gay member of Congress from Texas, was the top vote-getter in a district that stretches south from San Antonio to the Rio Grande and west to El Paso. The seat is held by Representative Will Hurd, a Republican who has narrowly won twice, but Democrats argue that Mr. Hurd will have a more difficult time surviving the backlash to Mr. Trump.

The excitement you can feel it, said Ms. Jones, a former Air Force officer who moved to San Antonio after serving in President Barack Obamas administration. Folks are hungry for a win in this district.

Ms. Jones is part of a wave of Democratic women, African-American and Hispanic people, gays, lesbians and even journalists who are running for office for the first time in Texas, in large part in reaction to the Trump administration.

She will face either Judy Canales, who served in Mr. Obamas Agriculture Department, or Rick Trevio, a high school teacher, in the May runoff.

And in a Dallas-area district, Representative Pete Sessions, a veteran Republican, is facing an energized left. Colin Allred, a former Obama Housing and Urban Development Department official and an N.F.L. veteran, advanced to the runoff and will compete against either Lillian Salerno, another official in Mr. Obamas Agriculture Department, or a former television reporter, Brett Shipp, for the nomination.

In statewide races, George P. Bush, the state land commissioner and a son of former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, averted a runoff after a somewhat difficult primary campaign against Jerry Patterson, who previously held the job and accused Mr. Bush of mismanaging the General Land Office so badly that it brought him out of retirement.

Mr. Bush, one of the few members of his family to back Mr. Trump, was scared enough about the challenge that he produced fliers noting that he was standing beside our president. And he offered Mr. Trump a MAGA post last week on Twitter invoking the presidents campaign slogan, Make America Great Again after Mr. Trump offered his support via tweet and noted that Mr. Bush had supported him when it wasnt the politically correct thing to do.

Senator Ted Cruz faced minimal opposition in the Republican primary, but his Democratic opponent, Representative Beto ORourke, won the nomination while losing a substantial number of votes to two little-known opponents, demonstrating that he is not well known yet among many of the states voters.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican with a $43 million war chest, was renominated and will face either Lupe Valdez, the former Dallas County sheriff, or Andrew White, the son of former Gov. Mark White, in the general election.

Yet even while Mr. Abbott is an overwhelming favorite for re-election, he proved that he did not have an iron grip on his party: Two of the three Republican state representatives he opposed as part of an unusual intervention against incumbents still managed to win.

Manny Fernandez reported from Houston, and Jonathan Martin from Moon, Pa.

See original here:
Texas Democrats Surge to Polls, in Show of Anti-Trump ...

The TAKE with Rick Klein

Primary season 2018 has Democrats thinking big. So why does it feel so much like 2016?

These should be heady times for the party of the resistance. President Donald Trump is overseeing a chaotic White House, with an approval rating mired in the 30s; the presidents policy gyrations are making GOP members of Congress squirm; Robert Muellers probe is even forcing new, bizarre plot twists.

Yet the storylines going into the first 2018 primaries, being held today in Texas, are of overstuffed Democratic fields, and of establishment-led efforts to thin them out.

One of todays marquee races, in the Clinton-carried Houston suburbs of Texas 7th Congressional District, features the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee trying to disqualify a progressive favorite. On cue, progressive organizations rallied to her side with memories still raw from the Hillary-vs.-Bernie feuds of two years ago.

Yes, Democratic enthusiasm is fueling record-setting early voting in Texas. But the challenge for Democrats will be keeping that going for another eight months - with a whole lot of rough-and-tumble politics being played along the way.

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

I like him. I like him not. I like him...

Every Republican candidate is going to have to land on one of those answers about the president, and with primary season now officially in full swing, the days and options for petal-picking are ticking down.

Its a tricky question for traditional Republicans, just when every voter is focusing in, and the president is not making it easy for them to stick together.

Hiked tariffs, as the president is pushing, are antithetical to the free-trade pillars of the old Grand Old Party. House Speaker Paul Ryan said as much yesterday.

Now with another senior Republican lawmaker, Sen. Thad Cochran, announcing his retirement, and putting two U.S. Senate seats in his ruby-red Mississippi on the ballot, Republicans will have yet another outlet for duking out their disagreements.

The TIP with Emily Goodin

Former Rep. Steve Israel, who served as Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman during his congressional tenure, talked about the races that would keep him up at night if he were running the campaign committee this cycle.

The first House primaries of the 2018 midterm take place today as Texas voters head to the polls.

First of all, Israel pointed out: Democrats have to hold 19 seats. People are forgetting that. They are thinking about Republican pickups. Democrats still have to hold 19 of their frontline seats, including six open seats.

Democrats need to net 24 seats to retake control of the House. But some of their own seats they need to protect include: Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and the seats of retiring Reps. Tim Walz and Rick Nolan in Minnesota, and Carol Shea Porter in New Hampshire.

Then, a few GOP seats opening up are on the must-win list: Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinens in Florida, Martha McSallys in Arizona, Rodney Frelinghuysens in New Jersey, and Patrick Meehans in Pennsylvania.

Finally, there are some likely GOP seats that, if Democrats win them election night, would indicate that a blue tide is about to sweep the House: Reps. Mike Coffmans in Colorado, Carlos Curbelos in Florida, Don Bacons in Nebraska, Barbara Comstocks in Virginia, Will Hurds in Kentucky, and Andy Barrs in Kentucky.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

President Trump meets with the Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Lofven in the Oval Office at 2:05 p.m. President Trump and Prime Minister Lofven will then participate in an expanded bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at 2:15 p.m.

President Trump will hold a joint press conference with Prime Minister Lofven at the White House at 3:30 p.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivers remarks at 10:30 a.m. at George Mason University on the U.S. relationship with Africa and the governments desire to strengthen ties with African partners through greater security, trade and investment.

FBI officials will brief members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on the Parkland investigation today, according to a committee aide.

Today is primary election night in Texas and the first primary voting of 2018. The polls open on Tuesday at 7 a.m. CST (8 a.m. EST) and close at 7 p.m. CST (8 p.m. EST).

Former Vice President Joe Biden heads to Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District to campaign for Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former prosecutor.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Let him arrest me. - Former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, in a Washington Post interview Monday, after claiming special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed him to testify before a grand jury Friday in the ongoing Russia investigation.

NEED TO READ

Former Trump aide says he intends to spurn special counsels subpoena. In a dramatic round of interviews former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg appeared on cable television via telephone on Monday to announce his intention to defy a special counsel subpoena to appear before the grand jury this week. (Lucien Bruggeman) http://abcn.ws/2Fr9Ibl

Dreamers protest on Capitol Hill on DACA deadline day. Hundreds of young undocumented immigrants and their allies from Florida to California came to Capitol Hill Monday - the day President Donald Trump set for the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program - to protest and lobby members of Congress to pass legislation that would protect them. (Cheyenne Haslett) http://abcn.ws/2H8JiIE

GOP senator Thad Cochran to retire in April, setting up special election in November. Citing lingering health issues, longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran announced Monday that he will retire from Congress on April 1st, a move that will mean both of Mississippi's U.S. Senate seats will be in play this year. (John Verhovek) http://abcn.ws/2Fh5D6k

At least 50 women running for Congress in Texas primaries, a record number. President Donald Trumps negative comments about Mexican Americans and immigrants both on the campaign trail and in office inspired Judy Canales, a Democrat and Latina in Texas, to fulfill a long-held dream to run for Congress. (Allison Pecorin and Rachel Scott) http://abcn.ws/2FotOTW

5 things to watch for in the Texas primary. Texas holds the first primary contests of the 2018 election on Tuesday and both parties are watching for indications of how the battle to control Congress may play out in November. (Emily Goodin, John Verhovek and Rachel Scott) http://abcn.ws/2Fe4PDo

Texas primaries will show 'tremendous' Democratic enthusiasm ahead of midterms: Former San Antonio mayor Castro. What were going to see on Tuesday is a tremendous amount of Democratic enthusiasm, Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Barack Obama and is considering a run president in 2020, told ABC News Rick Klein on the "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. (John Verhovek) http://abcn.ws/2FUZaPC

Trump Organization orders presidential seal replicas for golf courses: Report. The Trump Organization reportedly ordered replicas of the presidential seal to use at its golf courses despite laws against using the seal for financial gain, according to a report from ProPublica. (Stephanie Ebbs) http://abcn.ws/2oVtXE6

Flynn selling house to pay legal bills in Trump probe. Michael Flynn, the retired Army general and ex-Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty last year to lying to FBI agents about his Russian contacts, has put his Virginia home up for sale to pay mounting legal fees, friends and family members told ABC News. http://abcn.ws/2tnAufU (James Gordon Meek)

Trump says tariff exemptions for Canada, Mexico depend on 'new and fair' trade deal. President Donald Trump said Monday "we're not backing down" on steep tariffs he pledged last week to impose on steel and aluminum imports - even for U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico. (Cheyenne Haslett) http://abcn.ws/2I3QNlx

Inside Trumps $100 million mans rapid rise to power. Newly minted Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale is already Donald Trump's $100 million man. (Katherine Faulders, Jonathan Karl and Soorin Kim) http://abcn.ws/2oIOcFr

Russia Investigation Romance: Key witness George Papadopoulos marries Italian lawyer. George Papadopoulos, the onetime Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who became the first witness to cut a deal with the Special Counsel Robert Muellers Office, married his Italian fianc in an intimate ceremony in Chicago over the weekend. (George Stephanopoulos and Matthew Mosk) http://abcn.ws/2I5HCkC

The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the key political moments of the day ahead. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.

Link:
The Note: Democrats fighting each other as primaries begin ...

Democrats who raged against the release of a GOP memo alleging misconduct at the FBI on Friday tempered their concern with a dash of relief and some greeted the document as an outright bust.

Drafted to portray the Department of Justices investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted by bias against President Donald Trump, the memo ultimately bolstered Democrats defense of the probe by confirming that it did not begin based on the contents of an unverified anti-Trump dossier.

Story Continued Below

And the memo offered little new evidence to undercut Special Counsel Robert Muellers inquiry into Russias disruption campaign, despite Trumps reported interest in the document as grounds to provoke further public uncertainty about the impartiality of the investigation.

Republicans have overplayed their hand, and they have created a frenzy about this memo" against the urging of intelligence and law enforcement officials, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) a member of the House intelligence committee, said in an interview.

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Because the person who is a person of interest here is the president of the United States," Speier added, "and in his mind this was going to derail the investigation. Its not going to derail the investigation.

Still, any reassurance Democrats derived from the substance of the memo was counterbalanced by apprehension about Trump and congressional Republicans continuing to seize on it. The intense media coverage of the GOP memo, fueled in part by the fierceness of Democratic pushback, has raised its profile to an extent that Trump may be more inclined to use it to further up the pressure on DOJ.

It's pretty clear that the memo wasn't worth the paper it's printed on, one Senate Democratic leadership aide said. But we know that the president will use anything at his disposal to try to undermine the investigation, no matter how thin it is.

Democrats remain incensed by the process House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) used to release the previously classified memo with a green light from Trump, while keeping them from issuing their response. The minority members said theirs would have provided context lacking in Nunes' document.

Nonetheless, the substance of the GOP memo left Democrats unimpressed.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) slammed it as garbage evidence assembled by House Intelligence Committee Republicans to provide cover for the president to strangle Muellers probe.

This memo seems to do more to confirm the legitimacy of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign than to undermine it, Murphy said in a statement.

The document revealed that the FBI's probe began not with the controversial dossier financed by Democrats and commissioned by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele but with a tip from Australian officials who had received intelligence from Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos during a random April 2016 encounter. It also indicated that no surveillance warrants were issued for Page until after he left the Trump campaign. And it left unchallenged much of the substance of the Steele Dossier.

Some Republicans and FBI allies bolstered the Democrats' critique.

"This is it?" former FBI director James Comey asked after the memo emerged.

"I doubt this was the intent, but the House GOP and the Trump admin just blew up the rights favorite conspiracy theory," argued National Review conservative commentator David French. "The Russia investigation isnt the fruit of the poisonous dossier; it existed before. The decks are now cleared for Mueller."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has joined fellow Republicans in calling for a second special counsel at DOJ to investigate internal misconduct in probes of the Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns, also said plainly Friday that "nothing in the memo released today undercuts Mr. Muellers investigation."

House Republicans were left as the most vocal proponents of the memo's contents, arguing that it revealed abuses of the FBI's spying authority to target an American citizen. They defended their ability to conduct oversight of the intelligence community and said laying the facts out despite Democratic protests that their competing memo had not yet been cleared for release was a show of transparency.

Whether the memo moves public opinion on the DOJ investigation remains to be seen. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted last month found that 55 percent of independent voters view the probe of potential collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign as legitimate, versus 41 percent deeming it a "witch hunt."

As for the long-term effects of the memo, Speier surmised that the attack on law enforcement's credibility has "Vladimir Putin ... grinning ear to ear."

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Democrats: Nunes memo a dud - POLITICO