Obama's New Ad And Romney's Dash For The Cash In Texas

A week after Texas GOP primary voters gave him the delegates needed for him to secure the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney comes to Texas looking for campaign cash. Romney is scheduled to deliver his core argument, "that he knows how to create jobs and as president he would revive the struggling economy," Tuesday afternoon at a Fort Worth office supply company. He then heads to a fundraiser at the old Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas on Tuesday night, before heading to fundraisers in San Antonio and Houston on Wednesday.

Texans have contributed more than $5.8 million to his 2012 campaign, and that doesn't include the millions of dollars in cash wealthy Republican have contributed to Romney-booster super PACs, including Restore Our Future and American Crossroads. The gate fee for Romney's Dallas fundraiser starts at $2,500 per person, and Donors who contribute $50,000, or motivate $200,000 from others, get a private reception with Romney.

We've Heard it All Before
Obama for America Television Ad

Meanwhile, President Obama's OFA campaign has placed a new television spot directly attacking Mitt Romney's core argument: that he knows how to create jobs and as president he would revive the struggling economy.

OFA's ad, which is running in nine battleground states, begins with a clip from Romney's campaign to become governor of Massachusetts and him saying that he knows how to create jobs. It then highlights that the state dropped to 47th for job creation under his tenure.

"One of the worst economic records in the country," a narrator says as headlines flash on the screen. The ad attacks Romney for losing twice the national average of manufacturing jobs and says he outsourced call center jobs to India.

The message: "Mitt Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts promising more jobs, decreased debt, and smaller government. By the time Romney left office, state debt had increased, the size of government had grown, and Massachusetts had fallen behind almost every other state in job creation. Romney economics didn't work then, and it won't work now."

The ad will run in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Voter Registration Cancellations

Houston Chronicle

More than 300,000 valid voters were notified they could be removed from Texas rolls from November 2008 to November 2010 - often because they were mistaken for someone else or failed to receive or respond to generic form letters, according to Houston Chronicle interviews and analysis of voter registration data.

Statewide, more than 1.5 million voters could be on the path to cancellation if they fail to vote or to update their records for two consecutive federal elections: One out of every 10 Texas voters' registration is currently suspended. Among voters under 30, the figure is about one in five.

Texas voter registration rates are among the lowest in the nation, but Texas pays nearly twice as much to cancel voters - 40 cents per cancellation - as it does to register new ones at 25 cents.

State and federal laws require the nation's voter rolls be regularly reviewed and cleaned to remove duplicates and eliminate voters who moved away or died. But across Texas, such "removals" rely on outdated computer programs, faulty procedures and voter responses to generic form letters, often resulting in the wrong people being sent cancellation notices, including new homeowners, college students, Texans who work abroad and folks with common names, a Chronicle review of cancellations shows.

The Secretary of State's office says it automatically cancels voters only when there is a "strong match" between a new registration and an older existing voter - such as full name, Social Security number and/or date of birth.

However, each year thousands of voters receive requests to verify voter information or be cancelled because they share the same name as a voter who died, got convicted of a crime or claimed to be a non-citizen to avoid jury duty.

In Harris County alone, more than 100,000 voters share their name with at least one other voter. The phenomenon is even more common among Hispanics.

Voters receive form letters generated by workers in county election offices that "therefore may be more subject to error," said Rich Parsons, a spokesman for the Secretary of State in emailed responses to the newspaper. Voters who fail to respond to form letters - or never receive them - get dropped.

Statewide, 21 percent of the people who received purge letters later proved they were valid voters, compared with 16 percent in Harris County, according to a Chronicle analysis of the latest U.S. Election Assistance Commission data. Other counties had higher percentages: 37 percent of voters who received removal letters in Galveston County were valid voters, 40 percent in Bexar County and 70 percent in Collin County.

Read the full story @ Houston Chronicle.

Texas State Democratic Convention And The SDEC

by Linda Magid

Delegates to the 2012 Democratic State Convention will assemble in Houston from Thursday, June 7 through Saturday June 9. One of the first items of state convention business that delegates will consider is who they will elect to serve on the State Democratic Executive Committee until the 2014 Democratic State Convention convenes.

But what is the State Democratic Executive Committee and what does it do, exactly?

TDP Chair Candidate Gilberto Hinojosa

By Michael Handley, DBN Managing Editor

Texas Democrats, who will attend the State Democratic Convention in Houston June 7-9, have an opportunity to change the direction of the party. Party chairman Boyd Richie is stepping down, and a new party chairman must be elected at the state convention on June 9th. Judge Gilberto Hinojosa is running to be the next chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, to bring that much needed change.

Last November this Blog published an article, "The Texas Democratic Party Needs A New Direction:"