runoff election results

Burnt Orange Report has projected the following races in today's primary runoff election:

Democrats
Railroad Commissioner: Mark Thompson
32nd Congressional District: Eric Roberson

Republicans
22nd Congressional District: Pete Olson

That's right, the Republicans rejected Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who only received around 31% of the votes in her party's primary. The Republicans will now send Pete Olson to face off against the incumbent, Democrat Nick Lampson.

In a surprising turn of events, Mark Thompson defeated Dale Henry in the Democratic runoff race for railroad commissioner. In the run-up to the election, Henry's campaign revealed that Thompson had not voted between Nov. 1996 and the March 2008 primary in which he was a candidate.

Savannah River Ecology Lab Closing Investigated

From Michael's Notes comes another chapter in the now familiar litany of science sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. This one deals with the closing of the Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL) in Georgia.

For 56 years, the SREL has been documenting the effects of the Savannah River nuclear site on the surrounding environment, including the effects of low level radiation. But last year, the DOE (Department of Energy) decided to drastically reduce funding for the lab, essentially forcing its closure. Despite intensive lobbying, no amount of leverage seemed able to reverse the decision.

Michael speculates on what might be behind the government's insistence on shutting down one of the nation's premier research labs for wetlands ecology.

Why cut off funding for SREL? Did they discover everything that needed to be learned about how nuclear site activities affect wetlands and wildlife? No, but one line of research looked at the environmental effects of coal waste. Although it is a nuclear site, steam generation for the operation is coal-fired. And so, coal fly ash - containing many toxic heavy metals - is released in the area. The research was reportedly showing how these contaminants could have devastating effects on amphibian populations. According to a “Friends of SREL” website, the U.S. produces 126 million tons of coal waste annually, and coal is already under fire as a major source of greenhouse gases. The coal industry cannot welcome more bad press about coal. Reportedly, coal industry lobbyists threatened legal action. So, one presumes that Big Coal got on the phone to Cheney, and next thing you know, no more SREL.

Is it possible that the DOE had ulterior motives in the decision to close the SREL? Congress has launched an investigation, which is currently being undertaken by Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX 22nd) as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment in conjunction with the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. A hearing is currently expected sometime in July.

For more about the SREL, visit Save the Savannah Ecology River Laboratory.

who is emil reichstadt?

We don't know either.

But he's apparently ready to take on Sen. John Cornyn. Reichstadt is the first Democrat to throw his hat in the ring for the 2008 Senate nomination.

Here's a quick run-down of information gathered from Reichstadt's press release: Reichstadt is an Arkansas-born 58-year-old Democrat that once attended Southern Methodist University and knew Willis D. Tate. He is a former Army JAG officer (stationed in Germany during the '70s and '80s) who supports a strong military. He also supports bipartisanship and cleaning up the environment. He currently practices law in Dallas.

Sounds good, right? But who is he? I guess time will tell. Everybody's got to start somewhere, but it does seem odd that this guy's first foray into the political arena is a bid for his party's nomination to the United States Senate.

Could he really pull it off? It's going to take a lot of fundraising! He'll have to edge out bigger names that are being thrown around, if those campaigns come to fruition (i.e. Nick Lampson, Rick Noriega, Bill White). He may also face Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who ran against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2006, and may have her sights set on Cornyn's seat in 2008.

So, Emil. It's going to take more than an announcement. Show us what you've got.

the delay strategy

Can Texas Democrats use Tom DeLay as a strategy in this year's midterm elections, even with the absence of DeLay as a candidate or even an incumbent?

There on the screen was Tom DeLay – 30 feet tall, flickering in black and white like the man who wasn't there in a film noir.

For political activists intent on highlighting the message of political corruption in this year's House and Senate races, it did not seem to matter that Mr. DeLay was actually no longer a candidate and soon won't be a congressman, either.

To the crowd that gathered Friday night for the premiere of The Big Buy, a documentary about the former House majority leader's precipitous rise and fall, Tom DeLay is still big box office.

"DeLay becomes a symbol," said Glenn Smith of the liberal advocacy group Drive Democracy. "And the symbol floats free of his particular circumstance in or out of power. That's a political fact."

The Democrats couldn't have asked for a better Republican poster child. Tom DeLay, the embattled U.S. Representative from Sugar Land, Texas, has become the face of political corruption. As President Bush witnesses an erosion of his conservative base (yes, even in Texas), more and more people are also opening their eyes to the Republican leadership that has railroaded the Bush agenda through Congress.

Some Republicans have suggested that Democrats stop harping on DeLay now that he has agreed to resign from office this summer, months before the midterm elections take place. Democrat Nick Lampson, a former U.S. Representative that was ousted from his seat due to DeLay's redistricting, is running for DeLay's vacant seat in the 22nd Congressional District of Texas. Lampson's campaign has heavily focused on Tom DeLay and his gerrymandering, elitist, neo-conservative ways.

It's clear, though. American voters won't tolerate people like DeLay anymore. Even the conservative pundits are catching on to the new political tides (for example, Bill O'Reilly thinks he may have been "a little unfair" to Hillary Clinton). Texas Democrats, especially Nick Lampson, cannot stop talking about Republican corruption or its king... Tom DeLay. They need to employ "the DeLay strategy" from now until November. Texans are smart people and they will recognize that it's time for a little "House-cleaning." DeLay left of his own accord, but we'll have to vote out his cronies on our own.