The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - September 30, 2022

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

Want to support reporting on Texas politics that doesn’t include the spin? Subscribe at https://thetexan.news/subscribe/ The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review!Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Paxton’s reaction to claims he ran from a courier serving him a subpoenaThe indefinite suspension of a San Antonio City Council memberThe City of Houston hosting its second gun buyback eventFrisco ISD only removing a fraction of supposedly explicit books challenged by a Texas lawmakerThe Texas power grid’s performance during the summerThe State Board of Education voting to comply with the state ban on teaching critical race theoryThe Texas pensions that invested in companies deemed “fossil fuel boycotters” by the comptrollerGovernor Abbott’s Republican primary opponents supporting him ahead of NovemberRochelle Garza pledging her support for legal abortion and her criticism of Ken PaxtonA Republican state senator coming out in favor of certain gun restrictions and abortion exceptionsRepublican Railroad Commission primary candidate Sarah Stogner endorsing the Democratic nomineeA Republican judge denying Paxton as attorney general has the right to prosecute election fraud

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here on the Texans' weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Paxton's reaction to claims he ran from a courier serving him a subpoena, the indefinite suspension of a San Antonio City Council member, Houston hosting its second gun buyback event, Frisco ISD only removing a fraction of supposedly explicit books challenged by a Texas lawmaker. The Texas power grid's performance during the summer. The State Board of Education voting to comply with the state ban on teaching critical race theory. Texas pensions that invested in companies deemed fossil fuel boycotters by the comptroller. Governor Abbott's Republican primary

opponent supporting him ahead of November. Rochelle Garza pledging her support for legal abortion and her criticism of Ken Paxton. A Republican state senator coming out in favor of certain gun restrictions and abortion exceptions. Republican Railroad Commission primary candidate Sarah Stogner endorsing the Democratic nominee. And a Republican judge denying Paxton as Attorney General has the right to prosecute election fraud. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here with Brad, with Hayden, with Rob, and with Hudson, who's joining us remotely this week. Gentlemen, I have some exciting news I'm going to share right off the top of the podcast.

My roommate is getting a puppy today. Like a little dachshund puppy. And I am so excited that when I go home from work today, probably this puppy will be in my house. I have been thinking about this puppy non-stop for the last like three weeks so now you'll have a dog to greet you at work and at home and at home and what will the puppy's name be that's the thing she doesn't know it's a little dachshund it's brown and black adorable um and like archibald is in the running so it can be Archie basically she just loves like old man names for dogs which I totally agree Bernard

Wilson so she can be like Wilson that's in the running so we don't know she wants to see how he reacts but I'm just excited to have a little stubby legged little dachshund walking around is it a puppy or is it it's a puppy like

eight week old puppy yeah so that's all i can think about today literally all i can think about today so if i'm distracted blame the puppy on that note let's go ahead and jump into the news this week. We've got quite a bit of stuff to run through here. So why don't we start with you, Hayden? Attorney General Ken Paxton was accused of fleeing his home to avoid being served with legal documents. Why was Paxton served with a subpoena in the first place? Just a heads up for everybody. All of my stories this week are about Ken Paxton. And I don't know how it ended up that way, but somehow this is the week of the Paxton, so let's get right to it. Ken Paxton, our Attorney General, was served with a subpoena in a case that began when a group of pro-choice activists sued him to protect out-of-state travel for abortion. This was after the Human Life

Protection Act went into effect following the 30-day period after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Paxton was being asked to provide testimony in this case, and the U.S. District Judge on the case, Robert Pittman, had permitted this subpoena. But after the confrontation that we're about to talk about, Pittman quashed the subpoena, in other words, canceled requiring Paxton to appear in court in this case. And he sealed the affidavit that contained the allegation that Paxton tried to flee his home to get away from being served this court document. Wow. Who made the accusation and what was his account of what happened? Well, this was a courier or a process server that was hired to physically take this document to

Attorney General Paxton's home. And the process server, Ernesto Herrera, gave an account in the court filing of what he believes happened when he got there. Senator Angela Paxton came to the door and told him that her husband was in a hurry to leave and that he could not hang out and wait for him to give him the document. And he claims that as he was speaking to Senator Paxton, he saw Attorney General Paxton enter and leave the room. After he was told by Senator Paxton that Attorney General Paxton could not come to the door, he went back to his vehicle, and the words that he used in the affidavit was per his client's instructions. So apparently, according to him, he was instructed not to leave, even though she told him he wasn't available.

So he went and waited in the car, and then this is what he said happened. Quote, at approximately 9.40 a.m., the garage door opened up and I saw Mr. Paxton exiting the garage. He was wearing a white shirt and dark pants and carrying a suit jacket in his hands. I walked up the driveway approaching Mr. Paxton and called him by name. As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and ran back inside the house through the same garage door in the garage, end quote. Excuse me, the same door in the garage, end quote. And he put in the court document, ran in all caps, bold. And he continued, quote, at approximately 9.47 a.m., Angela came out and

opened the driver's side and rear side door behind the driver of the truck. She then got inside the truck and started it, leaving the rear door behind the driver's side truck. She then got inside the truck and started it, leaving the rear door behind the driver's side open. A few minutes later, I saw Mr. Paxton ran from the door inside the garage towards the rear door behind the driver's side. I approached the truck and loudly called him by his name and stated that I had court documents for him. Mr. Paxton ignored me and kept heading for the truck." And then the affidavit concludes with Mr. Herrera ignored me and kept heading for the truck end quote and then the affidavit concludes with Mr. Herrera claiming that he left the court documents outside the truck and that the Paxtons did not get out but instead left in that vehicle and just one more note he also said that while he

was waiting and it was approximately an hour and a half that he waited because he got there just after 8 a.m. Another vehicle arrived at the home. He didn't speculate what this vehicle was. Personally, I'm going to say it probably was some type of security that Paxton called or somebody else to help him with the situation. But another vehicle, he said, did arrival. He was there. So he said he left the documents there and Paxton and both of the Paxtons left. So what was the attorney general's response to all this hubbub? He had a very interesting statement shortly after this.

And I want to read portions of the statement because it goes to how unusual this situation is. And we're weeks away from an election and the attorney general claiming that he's being confronted and a process server claiming that he's being confronted and a process server claiming that he's trying to get away from being served a legal subpoena. Paxton said, quote, here are the facts. A strange man came onto my property at home, yelled unintelligibly and charged toward me. I perceive this person to be a threat because he was neither honest nor upfront about his intentions, end quote. And then he went on to talk about threats against public servants and said, quote,

He called this guy suspicious and erratic. And then he said that the media should not have promoted his narrative of events. And he also said, quote, he is lucky the situation did not escalate further or necessitate force, end quote. So more or less, the attorney general is saying that he believed this man was a threat to his and his wife's safety, and that it could have even ended with a gun-related confrontation because of what he believed to be this individual accosting him at his own home. Radically different accounts of what happened. And as I said, Pittman, the federal judge on the case, ended up making it a moot point as far as the subpoena goes but this is all just a few

weeks before paxton faces his democratic and libertarian opponent on the general election ballot spicy stuff and interesting to know to note that the entire time the paxton camp and just republican circles have said you know a lot of this is going to come to a head with scandals the attorney general has faced right before the election. So interesting to watch this happen now. Now, how much validity is there to that? Who knows? But spicy nonetheless to watch all of this go down right as we're nearing the general election. Hudson, let's go to you.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg has suspended a city council member. Talk about spicy. Who was it and why did he suspend him? So the mayor suspended Mario Bravo of District 1 for an outburst directed at Anna Sandoval, another fellow council member. So Bravo is still able to attend city council meetings, but he has been temporarily removed from his committee assignments. Now an independent investigation is pending to determine what Bravo's final punishment should be. So he could be fully removed from his committees, all of which Sandoval currently sits on, and this would essentially eliminate his influence to change policy through the city council. There also could be a censure vote by the council to

formally condemn his actions, but the most extreme punishment would be a recall, but that would have to be done through a vote of his constituents. Got it. When did the outburst take place and what was the reasoning? So the outburst took place at a September 15th city council meeting where they finalized the fiscal year 23 budget. Bravo vehemently disagreed with the prospect of returning the $75 million windfall from the CPS energy revenue that was higher than they had expected. And they're going to return that back to ratepayers that passed in the budget. And it's going to come in the form of a rebate back to ratepayers on their December bills. So Bravo instead proposed a large scale weatherization initiative to prevent the damage caused by extreme weather like winter storm Yuri. So Sandoval did not agree with his proposal and is more closely allied to the mayor who wanted to give the money back to rate

payers. So during the meeting, Bravo publicly berated Sandoval and called her out specifically, but not the policy itself. He used her by name, also called out the mayor. And so his actions even forced the city legal advisor to reprimand him in the meeting. And it was just a very chaotic situation as they were about to vote on the $3.4 billion budget for the city. So interestingly, Sandoval and Bravo had previously dated. And prior to the meeting, before they all met, he accused her of betrayal in a semi-public place and reportedly told her that her lack of support for his proposal was illustrative of why they did not have children together okay on the spicy level i think this earns like a three peppers three star it is it is pretty spicy

it's so spicy and like the kicker at the end oof oof it's just no bueno but we so appreciate you covering that for us and i love local drama i love it so much oh my gosh well it's so different not working in politics and instead like reporting on it because it's so it's it changes from like oh gosh to like oh give me more you're right that local drama is the best local drama is so fun well thank you hudson for that rob Rob, we're going to come to you. Speaking of local news, tell us about this gun buyback program in Houston. What was the event and how many guns did it collect? So on July 29th, the city of Houston hosted a gun buyback event. People could turn in their guns for up to $200 in gift cards. It ranged from 50 to 200, depending on the kind of gun that you were turning in.

It was supposed to run from 8 a.m. to noon, 12 p.m., but according to one of the people at a press conference on Monday, they had people lining up until 6 a.m., and the thing actually ended up continuing until 7 p.m. They collected around 800 guns and distributed nearly $100,000 in gift cards. This is part of Mayor Sylvester Turner's One Safe Houston program, which is funded by $53 million in money from the American Rescue Plan, 1 million of which is going to the gun buyback. In a press conference on Monday, the mayor said that they had expected to get closer to like three or 400 guns. So they were pretty pleased for getting all these guns. Talk to us about how the event went overall. Was it smooth? Were there criticisms? Have they learned any lessons for the next event

that they plan to hold? Sure. So Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg actually criticized the event for being no questions asked because people could show up and turn in the gun for a gift card without like having to explain where they got it or anything like that. Because as the mayor said, they just want to get the guns off the streets. Right. So D.A. Ogg said that this might allow criminals to dispose of guns that they use in crimes. The Houston police chief, Troy Finner, said that HPD would be checking, though, to see if guns were used in crimes that had Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said that HPD would be checking though to see if guns were used in crimes that had been turned in. They're going to see if they had but it doesn't explain they wouldn't be able to necessarily trace it back though to the people who turned them in

if they were not the legal owner of those guns. The first event also allowed people to turn in 3d printed guns to the buyback. Some people, which was documented on Twitter, were able to print guns for cheap and actually turn them in for a profit. So some people made a little bit of cash off of this. And Chief Fitter said that this will not be happening at the next event. He actually said, you know, you can turn them in, but we're not giving you any money for them. Interesting. So the new event that for the next one, besides that, they also said they're going to have more than one line because at the first event, the next one Besides that They also said They're going to have More than one line

Because at the first event There was only one line For the cars Which is one reason Why it ran so late It'll be on Saturday October 8th At the Metro Park and Ride

At 11-050 Hardwind Drive In Houston, Texas It's supposed to run From 8 till 12 again That is 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. But they said You know Hours are going to be flexible

because last time it ran for so long. Wow. Who was at the press conference besides the mayor? So besides the mayor, there was Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis of the Harris County Commissioner's Court and U.S. Reps Al Green and Sylvia Garcia, as well as various other leaders from around the Houston area, leaders of fraternal organizations,

stuff like that. So Ellis and Mayor Turner both emphasize they've set aside a lot of funding for this program, for their law enforcement programs in general, because they're trying to beat back against claims that they've defunded the police. If I recall correctly, Ellis said that they had set aside around a billion dollars for Harris County to for for law and for criminal justice and law enforcement and things like that. So Sylvia Garcia made some interesting comments at the thing. She said that once you hear she said that she was trying to talk about how bad guns are and mentioned that um ar-15s are automatic weapons military style so modern ar-15s are not automatic they're semi-automatic weapons uh they're the semi-automatic version of the automatic military rifle the m16 which was standard issued to american troops in the vietnam war so they're not automatic weapons um she also talked about how in the United States, gun violence has

become the number one cause of death for children. So this is actually because from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, they talked about this how the deaths in children and teenagers related to car accidents have decreased significantly over the last 20 years. While there have been slight rises in gun violence over the years, it spiked in 2020, along with drug and overdose deaths, which could have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. So it's unclear as to exactly why it happened. But it's important to put that statement in context that gun violence has not spiked so dramatically. It's more so that gun deaths from motor vehicle crashes have decreased dramatically.

Wow. Well, thank you, Rob, for covering that for us and jumping on the Houston beat. Hudson, we're going to come to you. You wrote a story in August about books that were challenged in Frisco ISD libraries. Give us an update on that story. Yes. So Representative Jared Patterson challenged 28 books in Frisco ISD libraries that he claimed contained sexually explicit content. And we ran a story on what was actually in the books. So we found that there were books on this list that indeed contain sexually explicit content, some with more than others. And we found out last week that the district had finished its review process very quietly and had only removed five of the 28 on Patterson's list. So none of the 11 Ellen Hopkins books,

which contain sexually explicit content and depictions of drug abuse were removed. And the most overtly sexually explicit book that was not removed was All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson. So the book contains graphic descriptions of oral and homosexual sex, and we quote the book directly in our piece. And it wouldn't be right to directly quote it in the podcast, so I encourage you to read the article. It's pretty serious stuff. All Boys Aren't Blue is one of the most controversial in the country and is often an easy choice to remove from libraries as many would claim it does not have much redeemable value for high school age students.

Why did the district keep this book if it is so controversial? So that is exactly what I asked the district, given their policy that prevents obscene and harmful content from making its way into their libraries. In the policy, they penal code, the review committee determined that the book did not contain content that meets those definitions. Wow. So talk to us about what those legal definitions are in penal code. Yeah. So the harmful material is defined as that which appeals to the prurient interest of a minor in sex, nudity, or excretion, or is patently offensive to the prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors. And obscene material is that which the average person applying contemporary community standards would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex and depicts or describes patently

offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts. Wow. Well, Hudson, thanks for covering that for us. And yes, certainly, folks, if you want to kind of get an idea of what is in these books that are being criticized in public school libraries, definitely go check out the piece, but it is not for the faint of heart bradley you wrote a piece this week speaking of one of your white whales here recapping the power grids summer what are the highlights this is a white whale of mine i don't know that's news to me it is is it yeah um yeah well no obviously it is uh so first and foremost, what happened this summer is the grid passed the tests of the high temperatures and demand spikes that followed therein. ERCOT issued two conservation requests in July and one back in May, but never dipped into emergency conditions. The grid, at each of, every other time, and even at those times,

the grid had more than enough capacity to meet demand despite setting 11 all-time peak demand records during the summer. And so, obviously, everybody knows it was really, really hot. And especially during the later afternoon early evening as people are returning home from work flipping on the ac cranking it up that's when we see most days most electricity used in the state and so all throughout, that's why when you hear people talk about electricity needs, they talk about peak demand because it's most important when we need it the most, which is the points at which more and more electricity is being called upon to fulfill needs, whether it's AC or heat in the winter. Those are the points that the grid gets the most stressed.

And so despite all the hand-wringing throughout the summer, Thurcott Grid managed to pass the test every hour of every day. There was a lot of speculation about, well, are we going to have another collapse? We've seen that being used constantly in many different political campaigns um it's not going to stop like it's going to continue to be a thing but um it's those worries uh whether they were genuine or not uh did not come to fruition what's next for the grid well first we'll be in another winter before we know it, and that will bring with it all the anxiety and hot takes that have accompanied changes in temperature since the 2021 collapse. on the rise due to the new policies implemented by the state that operate the grid with more

caution things such as ensuring more backup generation whether it's through the the peaker plants that only come on that typically only come on for a few hours every year that's how they make their money when electricity prices are really high the state has brought those on in higher capacity as just an extra buffer they also trigger incent price increases which are incentives to get more uh more generators online earlier than they did before that way they don't have to dip into the reserves and so that along with various other components of this all kind of leading back to the fact that we're very reliant on on renewable power at the moment it makes up such a large portion of our grid and it's only growing and at times of peak demand that i was just talking about during those periods wind

especially is not very reliable we saw multiple times during the summer where it would produce at like two percent of its installed capacity solar on the other hand is much more reliable during you know the afternoon early evening because the sun is shining obviously now as you get into the evening, the sun sets. That's a different story. Wind usually picks up overnight when the demand for electricity is least apparent. But those are kind of the factors that are driving this.

It's a constantly fluctuating environment. And so it's a very difficult task to keep the grid balanced. But it did. Now now when you add in this extra caution everything comes at a cost and so that is something that we are seeing whether it's these the massive debts incurred from the winter storm or just the continuous necessity of having this additional power online it costs money money. Someone has to pay for it. And it's going to be the rate payers. That's why we're going to see utility bills up. So third, finally, the state is currently mulling over reforms to the ERCOT market,

which include how to adjust for the federal subsidies flowing to renewable generation developers. Those subsidies those subsidies put, uh, renewables at a financial advantage. If you are getting, uh, essentially free money, you know, if you want to characterize it as that from the government, you, the, the cost, um, the profit, the, the, the price you need to charge in order to balance out expenses is less. And so that is a reason why we have seen almost no thermal generation development in the state of Texas over the last few years. And we've seen so much renewables because financial incentives, especially from the federal government, but there are local incentives too. They're there for renewables and not nearly as much for, uh, thermal generation, more dispatchable

power. So, um, that is the general, uh, um, set of things, you know, it's, we're going to have this evaluation every season, essentially people are the people who, who want this to continuously be an issue because they want some sort of change radical uh change whether it's connecting to the federal grid or having giving uh um renewables more of a even more of an outsized footprint this is going to continue they're going to continue to be calling uh warning about collapses whether they happen or not. Thank you, Bradley. Hey, listeners, if you enjoy our podcast each week, subscribe to The Texan. We're not funded by corporate interest or big donors, so we rely on the subscriptions of Everyday Texans to keep churning out news. When you subscribe to The Texan, you'll get access to

stories like all the ones we've been discussing on this podcast as soon as they're published so that you can stay informed, up to speed, and ready to vote at the ballot box. A subscription is $9 monthly, but you can save by purchasing an annual subscription for $90, which comes out to just $7.50 per month. And right now, we're running a promotion. New subscribers will get a free long-sleeve t-shirt with this spiffy John Steinbeck quote. Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word. For more details, visit the texan.news forward slash subscribe or click the URL in the description of this podcast.

Now let's jump back to chatting about the stories from the week. Hudson, the State Board of Education met on Monday. Why did they convene? So the State Board of Education met Monday to amend the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies in order to satisfy the requirements of Senate Bill 3, which was passed last year as the critical race theory ban. So the decision to only amend the TEKS came on the heels of a failed attempt to redo the entire K-12 social studies curriculum. So last month, the standards failed because of content based opposition. Members of the public and the SBOE criticized the proposed standards for their lack of Texas history courses, lack of American history in favor of world history, and the

characterization of American history. Additionally, critics claim that some of the TEKS contained concepts related to critical race theory, like institutional racism. Are the amendments to the TEKS as drastic as last month's proposed changes? No, the amendments that were discussed on Monday only satisfy the requirements of Senate Bill 3, which require an emphasis on media literacy and evaluation of bias and information sources. The law also stresses the importance of civic duties in teaching democratic processes as foundational aspects of the American society. So the amendments indeed meet those requirements and are only 20 pages long compared

to the over 700 pages of drafts discussed at the previous meeting. Did the board vote to move the changes forward? Yes, the vote passed on party lines eight to five. The Democrat members of the body tried to stall the vote by proposing a number of additions to the TEEX, including new historical figures and concepts like climate change to world geography. So their efforts were unsuccessful, and Chairman Kevin Ellis continually reminded the members that the goal of the meeting was not to completely overhaul the TEEX, but only to tweak them slightly. So when are the TEEKS going to be completely changed? That process will start in January of 2025, as they are legally required to change them that year. But for now, they will remain the same. And Texas history courses will continue in Texas schools for the next couple of years, at least. Got it. Well, thank you so much, Hudson. Bradley,

you have an update on the pensions and fossil fuel boycotters story. Talk to us. So as of Friday last week, the state's various pensions had responded to the comptroller's inquiry about investments in the 10 financial companies deemed to be boycotting fossil fuels, fossil fuel investments. The most notable of those is black rock um the states turns out the state's two largest pensions teacher retirement system and the employee retirement system reported direct or indirect investments in all 10 companies a direct investment would be a stock holding an indirect investment would be um investments through a managed account like through if blackrock has a um a fund an etf fund that then invests in various different entities um that is something that the portfolio manager runs overseas now that is also included in this but um it's not a direct holding holding like you would if you just personally bought stock directly.

So the Texas County and District Retirement System and the Texas Municipal Retirement System both had zero direct investments in those companies but had indirect investments in all 10. Divestment for those entities will now begin and that capital will begin to be reinvested in other places, other entities. And those reinvestments must be reported by January 5th, 2023. How much money are we talking about? So while the total dollar value varies based on stock prices and how much they fluctuate, so at any given time, it could change. But when I calculated it yesterday, the teacher's retirement system had $687 million in stock holdings

in those 10 companies, the vast majority of which, like $608 million of it, was in BlackRock stock. The employee's retirement system has only $40 million in stock holdings in those 10 entities. The others, I wasn't able to um a hold of financials for them but um yeah each of those will have would have you know millions of dollars although how many millions whether it's hundreds or tens or single digit millions would vary based on which one but that's a lot of money and that all has to be moved essentially to comply with

the state law now this um this list is constantly evolving companies can be added and subtracted as the comptroller deems necessary and appropriate um so we'll see probably an update to the list early next year um if there are any changes and so um that's kind of where it stands at the moment um i'm not really sure how much this is this specific thing is going to be an issue in the session next year um the law here seems pretty set and it's more in the bureaucracy's hands now but there are going to be other pension related issues especially related to esg the esg movement uh in the in the session next year especially regarding like proxy voting that i've covered before so something to keep in mind it's very technical um but it's very important and it involves texas's most prolific uh industry essentially the oil and

gas industry thank you bradley let's keep talking to you about another piece um you wrote on governor abbott's gop primary foes and their view of the general election has changed a little since the primary which although customary very interesting nonetheless give us a preview yeah it's certainly interesting to hear um even though pretty much expected what the responses would be. So I spoke with four of Abbott's primary challengers, and three of them indicated they would vote for Governor Abbott, mostly in opposition to O'Rourke himself rather than voting for Abbott. Former GOP chair Alan West was the only one that said he wouldn't be voting for Abbott. Former GOP chair Alan West was the only one that said he wouldn't be voting for Abbott. Additionally, I spoke with former state rep Jonathan Stickland, who explained his rationale for getting involved in the gubernatorial race against O'Rourke. And

on behalf of the incumbent he hoped to unseat, he also said he will be voting for abbott and he's not exactly a fan of the sitting governor and so his pack is getting involved they plan to put seven figures towards various campaign activities including a tv ad in dfw hitting o'rourke and other statewide democrats so something to watch for uh while that number is going to be likely a drop in the bucket in terms of the overall money spent by the governor since he is a prolific fundraiser and said he planned to spend uh like 100 million dollars to quote put the final nail in the coffin of beto o'rourke um that's still a significant amount of money and uh it's nothing to sneeze at absolutely very very worth the read to make sure to go to the texan.news and read all the behind the scenes drama i love reading the

statements from the different uh primary challengers the governor faced very interesting to read so thank you for that hayden um speaking of a statewide democrat running for office this year who is rochelle garza and what is her stance on abortion? Rochelle Garza is an immigration lawyer and she recently had her daughter and she stated that that is one of the reasons that she is running and inspired her to seek public office. She is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and is focusing her campaign on reinstating, restoring, however one wants to characterize it, abortion rights in the state of Texas. She is not running for a legislative position, obviously, but she described the Attorney General's office as the queen on the chessboard, and she said she would use it to, quote, protect choice in the state of Texas. And this is in light of the recent law enacted in Texas that bans virtually

all abortions unless it is necessary to save the life of the mother or prevent serious bodily impairment. What does Garza have to say about Paxton's actions on border security? And these were all comments made at the TribFest, correct? They were. And not everything I'm saying are remarks that were made at TribFest. But I attended a panel with Rochelle Garza, Mike Collier, and Jay Kleberg, three Democratic nominees for statewide office in Texas at TribFest, which was an event here in downtown Austin held by the Texas Tribune.

And she spoke on abortion rights, but she also spoke on border security. And she conceded that illegal immigration is a strain on border towns. But in the past, she has, with her words, minimized, in a way, illegal immigration. She said that, quote, the real crisis is the lack of health care and price gouging by energy companies, end quote. And she derided Paxton for having an event in the Rio Grande Valley with Fox News and accused him of blowing illegal immigration out of proportion. Paxton, for his part, has sued the Biden administration at least nine times, and there are two other lawsuits the state of Texas is involved in regarding illegal immigration. Garza pointed also to the myriad allegations that have been brought against Paxton. We touched on those briefly a few minutes ago, including the 2015 indictment against him for state-level securities fraud charges for which he has not been convicted or tried, and Paxton has denied any

wrongdoing. This is a little bit interesting because of the electoral dynamics, but abortion and border security are being described by both sides in different ways because of the polling. Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of polling and kind of an idea of what we're looking at here come November, how likely is it that Paxton will be reelected? and Mark Ash, and then 8% were undecided. So it is very much a competitive race. Garza does have a real possibility of unseating Paxton. And border security, according to this same poll, Republicans are polling well on border security. People like their policies. Republicans, excuse me, likely voters, however, are not necessarily pleased with the new abortion ban. So abortion is a winning issue for Democrats if they're running on loosening the existing restrictions. Voters do not support the Democrats' position of abortion on demand through nine months of pregnancy. I'm not sure that all Democrats take that position. I know that Brad asked the gubernatorial candidate at one point, Beto O'Rourke, if he supported any exceptions. I don't remember his exact answer, but it was...

He said it should be left entirely to the woman, so no legal restriction. Yeah, likely voters do not support that, but they also don't support Republicans' new law either. So Democrats are running more on abortion than border security because voters like what Republicans are doing on border security. All of that to say, there are lots of wild cards in this election, lots of strong issues that have had major developments like Operation Lone Star and on abortion, Roe versus Wade being overturned, and all of that is fresh in the minds of voters and the attorney general's race is important because Garza's right. It is a very powerful position in the state of Texas and the polling is showing Paxton in the lead, but not by that much. So it is a competitive race and Paxton's ouster is a real possibility. Ooh, spicy. I give that a 2.5 level spice rating.

2.5. 2.5. Not bad. Yeah. I'll take it. Right in the middle there. Thank you, Hayden. Okay. Hudson, Senator Robert Nichols made some interesting comments at the Chirp Fest. What did he have to say? So at an event called Previewing the 88th, Nichols, a sitting state senator, sat on a panel with Pete Flores, Kevin Sparks, and Phil King, three candidates for state senate. So at the event, the men discussed their legislative priorities for the upcoming session and covered a number of issues like the border and the power grid. But Nichols surprised many in the audience from his comments on guns, abortion, and school choice. Regarding guns, he said that he would be open to raising the age to buy a firearm to 21, claiming that most mass shooters in recent memory have been between the ages of 14 and 19.

So he said that he does not think that people under the age of 21 have the mental or emotional capacity to legally purchase a firearm. What did he say regarding school choice and abortion? So Nichols interestingly said he does not agree with the governor on the issue of school choice and said plainly, I love my governor and I'm going to vote for him and I encourage everyone else to vote for him, but I think he's just wrong. Nichols said that school choice would hurt small rural school districts who rely on funding from property taxes. And he mentioned that his district is predominantly rural and it would negatively affect them disproportionately to other areas

of Texas. His most surprising comments were regarding abortion. So Nichols said that if he had the opportunity to vote for a bill that would allow for abortion in the case of rape, he would vote yes. He said that very clearly. His position on the issue made the rounds on Twitter and the Texas media. In one group, the Texas Right to Life PAC has since suspended their endorsement of Nichols. It's a pretty interesting story here. Absolutely. And Right to Life is one of the bigger, more prominent and influential pro-life groups in the state. So that endorsement being rescinded is certainly news. I'd give this like a 3.3 on the spice level. I don't know why I'm just into ranking them now,

but I think this is pretty darn spicy. Where do you put my pension piece on the spice level? Yeah, we didn't hear a McKenzie spice rating on that one. 0.0001. I give it... Boring. I give it a... Your pensions...

Well, it's not that it's not spicy. She's trying not to hurt your feelings no i don't really care about brad's feelings a lot of the time is that probably very true yeah i'll noodle on it let me go back and read your points and see how spicy you made it on the pod i'll i'll base it off in that um bradley okay this is actually very spicy um talk to us about a surprising endorsement in uh one of the spiciest if not the spiciest race in texas this year i wasn't very surprised um so sarah stagner uh the second place finisher in the gop race for railroad commission against incumbent wayne christian she endorsed democrat Democrat Luke Warford in the November

general election. The reason I would say it's not surprising, even though if you don't haven't paid much attention to the race, you might think it's surprising, is that Stogner, that's not shot at you, I'm just saying. Stogner has maintained this kind of anyone but Christian position, especially in comments on social media. She's been very pointed with the incumbent both during and after her race concluded. But until this week, she hadn't given the official endorsement of the opponent yet so she said in the endorsement of warford wayne christian has proven he is not looking out for our economy or our environment our oil and gas industry is vital and texans need someone on the texas railroad commission who is actually interested in doing the job in a transparent responsible and ethical manner uh stagner says in another part of the quote that

she's a lifelong republican i talk about that in the piece if you want to read it in more detail uh check out the piece but uh in short her views on issues are not really orthodox republican um she varies quite a bit take on on the life issue on guns guns, things like that. And so responding to her endorsement, the Christian camp told me, for months, Sarah Stogner lied to voters about her party affiliation and political beliefs. Now that Republicans have rejected her radical agenda,

it is no surprise she would support her party's nominee. And so while this is definitely a notable development, this race has been so weird that it is among the least shocking developments in this race, I would say. So yeah, there you have it. I have no idea if the endorsement, if the Pumpjack endorsement is to carry Warfarin to victory.

But it's just another another data point along this trend line of just bizarre political rhetoric and actions in this race. Absolutely. Brad, that's the last time I'm going to try and set up a segment for you so well and instead just brad's like well it's actually not surprising well i wrote in here not but not surprising i did i did not read that portion that is really funny i tried to tee it up for you but i mean we're both you know brad we're just too nice to each other yeah that's definitely the problem if y'all are too nice to each other i can't imagine what it would be like if y'all were mean to each other

oh brother oh brother okay well hayden i'm gonna talk with you now. Okay. Go for it. Oh my gosh. I'm all ears. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided that Paxton will not get another chance to argue in favor of a state law giving him the power to prosecute ballot fraud. What was the court's reasoning? Tell us about your last Paxton story of the day. Well, mine's boring compared to what Brad just talked about. Although it is about ballot fraud, so maybe not too boring to a So maybe not. I don't think it's that boring. Yeah. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is all Republican, rejected Ken Paxton's request that they reconsider their decision that he is not allowed to prosecute election fraud in the state of Texas. Does that mean that no one is allowed to prosecute election fraud? No, it does not.

County and district attorneys prosecute crimes in Texas, and they always have. The state statute in question gave the attorney general the ability to prosecute crimes specifically under the election code. So it didn't give him the authority to prosecute all crimes, just violations of the election code. So it didn't give him the authority to prosecute all crimes, just violations of the election code. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided in December that that is unconstitutional, that the legislature cannot delegate the authority to the AG to prosecute crimes. This was not part of last year's election reform law. This was an existing law. And in fact, the legislature built last year's Election

Integrity Act with the assumption that the AG would be allowed to prosecute violations of the law. And now he is not able to do that. The court reasoned that it was a violation of the separation of powers for that law to exist and that it should be tossed. And in deciding not to reconsider, the judges did not give a reason for deciding not to reconsider, the judges did not give a reason for deciding not to reconsider, but there was one judge who gave a concurring opinion, even though there was no main opinion, in which he said that it would politicize the office of attorney general too much, that someone could prosecute someone for a political reason and essentially make up charges based on that person's political views. And he pointed out that, as I talked about a few moments ago,

power could change hands at the attorney general's office very soon. So opponents of the decision ought to bear in mind, according to Judge Walker, that this power could be misused by both political parties. Yeah, absolutely. So what was Paxton's response to the court's decision? Obviously, Paxton was not pleased, and he ripped into the judges and said that this decision could empower what he referred to as radical liberals on the county level. And he's referring to the DAs of Harris County, Dallas County, Travis County, the Democratic district attorneys that he believes will not prosecute election crimes and will more or less turn a blind eye to it. But he said, quote, the CCA's shameful decision means local DAs with radical liberal views have the sole

power to prosecute election fraud in Texas, which they will never do. The timing is no accident. This is devastating for the integrity of our upcoming elections. Time for the Texas legislature to right this wrong, end quote. And Judge Walker pointed out, and I believe Judge Slaughter talked about this too, if the DAs want, not the DAs, if the public wants the AG to be able to prosecute election crimes, they can elect representatives in the legislature who will propose a constitutional amendment to allow that instead of enacting a statute that contravenes our state's constitution. So that was the court's reasoning, but Paxton is still not happy with their decision absolutely thank you hayden for covering that let's move on to the tweetery section of this podcast um rob let's start with

you what did you see on twitter that caught your eye so what i've been seeing on twitter is all of the absolutely crazy stuff coming through on hurricane ian um the i believe it was the city of naples florida parts of it were just underwater uh the i think the craziest thing though was that in i believe it was the charlotte bay area you could actually see the ocean recede and continuously receding as the hurricane was coming in and was sucking up the water right so there were areas of the beach that were normally totally underwater that were completely uh visible but was also crazy as seeing just videos of people sitting in their homes with water up to their waists and people walking around.

It sort of reminds me of Hurricane Harvey a few years ago here in Texas when I was in Houston for that. It seems just like a really bad hurricane. Hopefully we'll be able to recover from that quickly. Yeah, absolutely. Some of the footage is absolutely, absolutely crazy. So certainly prayers to Florida and just folks who are being hit so hard by the hurricane. It sounds like in a lot of ways too, it was kind of, it hit in kind of the worst possible way. A lot of weather, a lot of meteorologists are saying that they couldn't really imagine a worse hurricane for the point at which it actually hit land. So we'll keep an eye on that for sure.

Hayden, what did you see this week? Yeah, definitely arts going out to the people in Florida. I have some relatives in Florida and I've been checking up on them today. But hopefully everything turns out okay. I know there have been fatalities and that's tragic. And so our prayers are with them. But on Twitter, what caught my eye was the Republican Party of Texas chairman reacting to TribFest. We talked about that a few moments ago.

But Matt Rinaldi tweeted, Perhaps next time don't do that. And I don't know if he had commented on Tribfest prior to this, but it was interesting that Rinaldi is seemingly acting as a type of disciplinarian for people in the Republican Party and reprimanding them openly for participating in the Texas Tribune's event over the weekend, much of which was focused on Roe against Wade and abortion rights. So Rinaldi's reaction was that they should not have participated in this event. Many Republicans didn't, and the ones that did, Speaker Phelan participated. But as Hudson reported, Senator Nichols talked about adding exceptions to the abortion law. So certainly could be fairly characterized as being more favorable ground for Democratic candidates. And Rinaldi was reacting to that. Yeah, absolutely.

Hudson, talk to us about your tweet. So I saw something this week and it's kind of regarding the it's the first student loan forgiveness lawsuit that we're seeing, like one of the first major lawsuits. And the issue was, is it someone had to be able to show that they were going to sustain an injury from this lawsuit. And so at the Pacific Legal Foundation, they an attorney that works there was already under a publicly funded program for student loan forgiveness. And the addition of this new program is going to add a new tax burden to him. And so that's the issue that they're coming to the court with that's going to allow them to challenge this. And essentially, what they're saying is that the executive branch can't can't unilaterally forgive 500 billion dollars worth of loans without congressional approval but i think it's interesting that they're going at it from this angle showing in

a specific injury to a lawyer that works for pacific legal foundation in order to bring the case to federal court yeah well thank you for that bradley what did you uh spot this week i spotted i spy with my little eye something hurling through space oh okay into another thing hurtling through space wow nasa this i think it was this week or late last week successfully ran a satellite into an asteroid crashed into it um just based on that description you think it was done on accident but no it was done on purpose they were testing the capability to uh try and serve as like a defense against an asteroid veering towards the earth um rather than you know nuking it like in the movie it was armageddon or is that the other that's the one about the core i don't know there's one movie where they try and nuke an asteroid

that's coming to earth there's another one where the core is about to explode and i think that involves nuclear weapons too i'm jealous of the person whose job it was to push the button or whatever they did to crash the satellite into the asteroid that sounds like a fun job it it's certainly an interesting strategy and it's not out of place as i said on twitter uh in um you know a lego set i would just run run thing build legos and then run them into each other that was like my entertainment when i was five or six and that's exactly this strategy to defend the earth so interesting that i was on to something wow way back then yeah me and a bunch of other children leave it to brad to give himself credit. Really, this is my accomplishment.

Got it. And I wish you would recognize that. Mac, I wish you would recognize it. Okay, fair. I recognize it, Brad. Oh, thank you. You have contributed an invaluable resource to our national security. You know what they say about ideas?

It's like a flame and each person can uh catch on to the flame a little bit and add their own to it um so really this all goes back to me playing with legos that's right that's where i lit the flame the spark as it were the spark aiden okay great i'm done okay my thing i want to talk about this week is not even a tweet it's just something fun that happened that i thought i would share um a loyal listener of our podcast is now former state representative james white um he resigned from his position earlier this year after he ran for agriculture commissioner in the gop primary and is now the director of the texas funeral commission is that am i getting the agency's name correct funeral services funeral services commission

there we go regardless he'll often chime in and let us know you know something funny he heard on the podcast but i forgot that that was something that he did and so i was sitting at dinner with my fiance last friday and got a text from james white and it just said i had an afro back in the day that's all it said and i'm sitting there going i'm trying very hard to know where this is coming from and it took me a few minutes and i just sent a screenshot to y'all i'm like what could this mean and i remembered brad talked about it was a chris chris harris in austin um oh he has an afro yeah and so james white heard that and was like hey by the way i had an afro back in the day it made me laugh so hard and i loved that he reached out to us so much so i said we're gonna need photo evidence and he said i figured that that's all he said no photo

came back he just said i figured that but he didn't send you a picture? No picture. Bummer. I know. So if you're listening, now Director White, Representative White, Chairman White, we'd love a picture. We need to commence a pressure campaign for him to produce photos of this afro. Maybe that's what we do on Twitter tomorrow when this comes out. We all need to tweet at him. Say maybe take a listen to this pod. make sure he listens to this podcast in particular james white's about what slightly taller than me i would say so let's say like five eight

and if he had an afro that would put him to quote the movie fletch that none of you have seen that you all should see that would make him8". And let's just say it's a six inch high Afro. 6'2 with the Afro. And I just I really need to see how big James Wright's Afro was. It could give you six inches I guess. It could. It could. Depending on the. That's why we need a picture. Yeah. And so I'm wondering if he missed his basketball career inches i guess it could it could yeah depending on the that's why we need a picture yeah and so i'm wondering if he missed his basketball career um after the afro disappeared because then on the

rosters his height is lower and he could have said you know i'm six two that's enough to be a shooting guard this has gone on for a while this has gone on for a long time regardless really i just wanted you to recognize my movie reference and only rob over there nodded and this is very disappointing i would like to disclaimer i have not seen the movie and i don't know what he's talking about okay i just nodded i just continue to marvel at mackenzie's seemingly limitless reservoir of frustration with brad disdain you mean i want to say i do like old movies i just don't see the old movies that you've seen okay frustration is a very kind word i really disdain is more accurate but i feel like with brad i can get away with being brutal because he's ridiculous and also i

not pulling any punches there whatsoever oh man but if i say it with a smile you can get away with a lot more you know devious that's right that just makes it passive aggressive you're right it's not a character boost in any way, shape, or form. You're right. I need to take responsibility for that. Okay. Now, for our fun topic, we're going to eat ice cream. We already have ice cream in front of us. This is the new

Blue Bell ice cream flavor, and Rob was amazing and brought it in this morning. Got it before the pod. I'm sorry, Hudson. Are we going to get a sponsorship from Blue Bell? I wish I could have some ice cream. Hudson, we're going to get ice cream when you come back into the office. We should have given you more of a

heads up so you could have gone out and gotten some and eaten it with us. We'll just tease you with our descriptions of how delicious it is. What flavor is this? This is salted caramel brownie. What was that, Hudsonson just give me a review right here yeah okay well it tastes like salt and caramel and brownie so there you go thanks thanks hayden you can't fault me

he says things like that. What am I supposed to do? The look of existential exhaustion that McKenzie had on her face when Brad said that. I can't wait to spend five hours in a car with you tomorrow. Some people use words to communicate. Brad, on the other hand, writes a poem and everything he says. Oh, that is so awful. That is not true at all true i don't like those words that was really good rob but it makes me angry also what else is really good this ice cream okay let's get into the ice cream brad not everything's about you gosh this ice cream

this ice cream is i haven't tried it at all. You guys take it. It's good. It is actually really good. I've almost finished mine. I've just been chowing down. I think I'm going to get some seconds. Oh, wow. We have a lot of dead air right now. You want to describe what you're tasting?

Well, Brad, I had been talking, so y'all could eat your ice cream, and I take one bite. Thank you for making the sacrifice. Oh, thank you. That was delicious. First of all, Blue Bell's ice cream is just so creamy and good. It is such a delicious consistency.

The flavor is amazing. And now I need to try one of the brownie parts. Y'all talk amongst yourselves. Well, I don't have the vocabulary to... Vocabulary? Well, I don't have the vocabulary to describe the hints. What do they call the wine tasters? Sommelier. Yeah, whatever that word is.

To describe all the various. This is so good. The smoky and oaky. The notes, the tasting notes. Yeah, whatever. It's rich. It's robust. There's just hints of summer in it. Yeah. But I do know ice cream and it's rich it's robust there's just hints of summer in it yeah but i do know

ice cream and it's good and that's my review i'm stopping myself from saying something derogatory toward you do it you don't taste as much because you can't smell oh my Now I'm going to get so many tweets. Is it because of COVID? No. He was born this way, people. It's a lifelong predicament. It's a bird.

It's a crossy bears. Yeah. Each day. It is truly my handicap. Hayden. If you ever like left the gas on and not realized it, like on your stove or something, because how would you be able to tell? Wait, that may be why my apartment exploded. Oh, yeah.

That would make a lot of sense. Interesting. Like this explosion of flavor from this ice cream. Oh, my gosh. I think they've had enough of us blabbering. Hayden, do you like the ice cream? I love the ice cream. I just got myself a little bit more.

Thank you, Rob, for retrieving the ice cream while we were happy to do it yeah well i have to i have to say i got it because a couple of weeks ago when i wasn't on the podcast i already tried this ice cream before this day stop it i did oh my gosh it was really good it's like you've cheated on our listeners it's just no bueno okay well folks i'm going to save you from our blathering our eating ice cream definitely go out and try this flavor it's delicious um and just from our bickering we can be disagreeable people sometimes yes okay great actually no no we can't be oh classic well folks thank you so much for listening and we will catch you next week

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