As many of you know, Texas House District 144 was changed dramatically during the recent redistricting process. See Greg Wythe’s TX Political Almanac for changes to the district but in a nutshell, the plan theoretically elects a Democrat because it now has a much larger proportion of SSRV’s (Spanish Surnamed Registered Voters). But Republicans aren’t going to give up this district without a fight. Or at least I hope they don’t because it remains a VERY winnable district for Republicans. So I decided to drop by Republican candidate David Pineda’s campaign headquarters and get a feel for the candidate and the campaign.

First off, I was happy to see that the headquarters was attractive, had a lot of space, and had volunteers actively working on a hot Thursday afternoon. You’d be surprised how many times I drop by unannounced at someone’s campaign headquarters and the doors are locked. So that was a very good sign. I gathered most of them up and convinced them to come outside for a photo:

We spoke briefly about the campaign and the issues that Mr. Pineda is running on. I’ll go into more detail about his campaign after I’ve been around him a few times. The purpose of this visit was to introduce myself and to get a general feel for the campaign. I also did a quick check of campaign finance reports for Mr. Pineda and his Democratic opponent, Mary Ann Perez. He had just under 50{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the Cash on Hand that she did as of their last filing. That obviously needs to increase but it is a good sign – we aren’t dealing with an unfunded candidate.

He’s young and has a lot of energy. He told me that he knocked on 8,000 doors leading up to the primary, which led to his victory over a much more established, although formerly Democratic, opponent. And he thinks that TLR will continue their support – one of his platform issues is to protect the tort reform that we currently have in Texas. So that is another good sign. And I spoke to Mark McCaig and his STOP-TLR pac isn’t going to support Ms. Perez, although other trial lawyer groups probably will. Another good sign is that in the primary, more Republicans voted than Democrats (2,467 – 2,202).

That’s the good news. The bad news is that this district really suffers from Jared Woodfill’s lack of leadership regarding precinct chairs. Of the 37 precincts in the district, only 13 of them have precinct chairs. And don’t give me that nonsense about precincts that have no population – these precincts are fully populated and NEED to be harvested by the Harris County GOP. The fact that only 35{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the chairs are filled should be an embarrassment to the party but I’m sure they’ll just say that no purists exist or some other bs answer. If you are one of the 13 precinct chairs in 144, Mr. Pineda needs your help! Get involved with his campaign and help Republicans keep that seat!

Like I said, I’ll be finding out much more about Mr. Pineda and hopefully you will too. He is having a celebration at his campaign headquarters on August 18th. Be there if you want to help Republicans win and if you are tired of empty rhetoric from party leaders about outreach to Latinos. This is a real opportunity to not only reach out but to win!