First, the big Elections project continues to creep slowly along. As promised, everything will be based on those people that are willing to put themselves forward for election to the various positions around Harris County and the State of Texas. The biggest thrill was seeing a set of pages created for Congressional District 25, which includes portions of the counties of Colorado, Lavaca, Fayette, Gonzales, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays and Travis. Why? Because I didn’t create it! Richard Willette, aka CbR in some places, created an account, found a candidate he liked and created the page. BTW, the candidate he found, Dr. Donna Campbell, is worth your consideration, especially since the incumbent is Democrat Lloyd Doggett.
Second, we received good response from the several sets of candidate questions in which the candidates were able to offer complete responses in their own words without my snarky commentary. It seems that voters enjoy hearing directly from candidates, so we are going to try to do more of those.
Which leads me to the third update. Today marks the first day of “Op-Eds” on Big Jolly Politics. Brenda Z. Page, currently a candidate for the Republican nomination in CD-18, talks about the need for a higher level of citizen involvement if we are going to turn this country around. If any candidate or opinion leader or just a working stiff wishes to get a message out, we are very much open to that. Email me for more info. I think that publishing Op-Eds will give us a broader view of what is happening around us. It is easy to become insulated and narrowly focused by reading only that with which we agree in the first place.
You also probably noticed the big black box in the upper right column. It contains a counter, letting people know how long it has been since the Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill promised to open a satellite office on the East side of the county. Many people have questioned his sincerity in doing this, particularly since they have had trouble paying the rent at their current location. I personally think that he is sincere and will get the office open by mid-January. The clock is a way to keep pressure on and awareness up.
So that’s the latest update on Big Jolly Politics. It has been a fun few months of branching out and I’m looking forward to a very busy, but hopefully productive, 2010.