Tagged: Lloyd Doggett

Perry Sends Military Aid to Combat North Texas Wildfires

Governor Rick Perry is sending Texas Military Forces aircraft and personnel to help fight wildfires in North Texas. Fourteen local and volunteer fire departments have been fighting the fires.

Two large fires are burning in Palo Pinto County, about 75 miles west of Ft. Worth. Together, they’ve burned more than 3,000 acres. The dry conditions, terrain, and high winds have allowed the wildfires to spread quickly.

As of yet, there are no reports of injuries or homes lost.

Longtime Central Texas congressman Lloyd Doggett enjoyed a resounding victory over Democratic primary  challenger Sylvia Romo in newly drawn Congressional District 35.

With 33 percent of precincts reporting, Doggett has 68 percent of the vote. Opponent Romo called him earlier in the evening to concede.

Doggett pointed to overwhelming numbers in Travis and Hays County as key to his victory, running in a new district that winds into downtown San Antonio.

DC Questions Doggett's New District

District 25 in Texas newly-redistricted voting map is currently represented by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, and encompasses a large portion of Travis County.  But now, a federal court in Washington DC has questions about District 25 that could delay Texas 2012 primaries yet again.

The main issue is whether District 25 – which contains white, Hispanic, and African-American voters –  deserves minority protection under the Voting Rights Act or not. 

 The court asked for briefs by March 13 on District 25, and if they deem it a minority district deserving protection, that would send the map back to the drawing board, the Austin American-Statesman reports, with primaries falling well into the summer.

Texas only recently saw its primary date set for May 29.

With the sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) hailing from Texas, and Austin being a high-tech hub, there’s been plenty of local reaction to the internet blackout in protest of SOPA and the accompanying Protect Intellectual Property Act. We have reactions from several Texas lawmakers on the bills:

• Sen. John Cornyn writes on his Facebook page that “Texans have soundly rejected the ‘pass now, learn later’ approach that we saw with Obamacare, and the potential impact of this legislation is too far-reaching to ram it through Congress in such an abrupt way. Stealing content is theft, plain and simple, but concerns about the internet and free speech necessitate a more thoughtful, deliberative process.” This isn’t the first time Cornyn’s been pressed on the issue, as SOPA-opposed constituents met with his office earlier this week.

Longtime U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, has decided to run for reelection in Texas's 25th Congressional District.

That's the district he represents now, but the boundaries were dramatically shifted by the 2011 Texas Legislature to favor a Republican candidate.

The lines were altered again by a three-judge federal panel late last month. Then the U.S. Supreme Court stayed use of those maps, pending a hearing before the high court January 9.

Austin’s Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett calls Barney Frank’s decision not to seek re-election a “great loss.”  Frank, a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, announced today that he is quitting the U.S. House of Representatives after 30 years.

Frank is departing for a reason not unfamiliar to Doggett: redistricting. Frank would have had to run in a redrawn district that retained his hometown of Newton, Mass. but included more conservative enclaves nearby.

“I don’t have to pretend to be nice to people I don’t like,” Frank said during an afternoon news conference, according to the Boston Globe.

Until last Wednesday, Doggett was facing a tough re-election battle of his own. The Republican-dominated state legislature redrew political boundaries that left Doggett in a district stretching from Austin down to San Antonio. It would be a more conservative and more Hispanic district, and Doggett would have had to compete in a Democratic primary against political up-and-comer, State Rep. Joaquin Castro.