goolsby not happy about having to campaign

Our friends over at Capitol Annex brought our attention to a little scoop involving good old Dallas Republican Tony Goolsby.

The uncouth state representative apparently said the following to the Associated Press: “I’m up to my ass in a damn campaign. This is the only job I’ve got and I’m trying to save it. Obama’s got people coming from the rafters.”

Folks, we've been hearing that Republicans across the state are sharing the same sentiments. They weren't expecting to have to defend their seats, but the Democrats are building a huge momentum.

We've said it before-- we're expecting some serious surprises and upsets on election day!

el paso and the rio grande valley, listen up!

The following is from Capitol Annex:

Believe it or not, more than 40 blogs--exclusive of "mainstream media" blogs were credentialed to cover this weekend's Texas Democratic Party convention. From Amarillo to Pittsburg and from Houston to Waco, the TDP convention was covered from every direction by a wide range of blogs ranging from old standards like Off the Kuff, BOR, Brains and Eggs, Texas Kaos, and Capitol Annex to blogs with national scopes like MOMocrats and the Asian American Action Fund Blog. Plus, we were joined by blogs new to many of us like Mean Rachel and So Sioux Me. We even had a record-number of Panhandle bloggers including Job's Anger and Panhandle Truth Squad.

But, one thing was missing: bloggers from the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso.

We, as Texas bloggers, know there are progressive bloggers in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley.

What we'd like to do, however, is connect with progressive political bloggers in these two areas.

If you are a Democratic or Progressive blogging about politics in El Paso or the Rio Grande Valley, please email me at vince.leibowitz@gmail.com or leave a comment in this post. We'd like to identify as many Progressive bloggers across Texas as we can.

Even if you aren't a progressive blogger from El Paso or the Valley, we'd like to know about your blog (Waco, Lubbock, Marshall, Tyler, wherever!). Email us, drop us a comment--something--so we can continue to increase our inventory of Texas progressive bloggers.

trinity parkway will proceed as planned

Via Capitol Annex, we learn that "with all but a handful of Dallas precincts counted late Tuesday, a ballot measure to kill the high-speed highway inside the Trinity River levees was losing by a 53-47 margin."

We reported earlier that the early voting totals indicated this result, but now it's official.

The much-maligned and oft-discussed Trinity toll road will proceed, per the voters of Dallas.

Update: View a DMN video here of Council Member Angela Hunt of the "Vote Yes" camp conceding defeat and pledging to hold the mayor and his supporters accountable for each of the promises made about the project.

We missed it earlier, but TxSharon at Bluedaze has a post up covering September's meeting of Project Farm Team. The mission of the farm team is to encourage, support and train Democratic candidates to run for public office in Denton County.

The farm team speaker's this month was Vince Leibowitz. Vince is a professional writer and political strategist who owns Capitol Annex, a political weblog dedicated to Texas news and politics. As a longtime Democratic activist and the former County Chairman of the Democratic Party of Van Zandt County, Vince understands the challenges facing democratic candidates in this state.

Vince shared his experiences and vision for the political netroots in Texas.

Leibowitz also spoke about strategies to increase participation on the country level, and how to get important information to voters. One of his suggestion was that each precinct have its own blog to help distribute information.

For more information, or to join the farm team, click here.