Paxton Has Commanding, 30-Point Lead In AG Race, Says UT/Tribune Poll

[#TexasPolitics365]

Attorney General Ken Paxton has a 30-point lead in his bid to be re-elected Texas Attorney General in next year's Republican primary election, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll shows. 

Paxton has drawn a serious lineup of challengers, including Land Commissioner George P. Bush, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and Fort Worth state Rep. Matt Krause.

Paxton currently has the support of 48% of primary voters in the poll, with Bush far behind him at 16%. Krause and Guzman both polled below 4%.

Over a quarter of respondents, all registered GOP voters, said they have not thought about the primary enough to have an opinion on the AG race.

(Full story here.)
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UT Poll Shows Abbott Way Ahead Of Republican Rivals And Leading Democrat O'Rourke

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A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll shows Gov. Greg Abbott far ahead of his Republican rivals in the March 1st primary, and leading his likely Democratic foe for the General Election. 

 
Abbott is at 56%, with Allen West, the former Texas GOP chair and U.S. representative from Florida, in second place at 13%. No other challenger is in double digits (former state senator Don Huffines comes in at 6%) and 16% of primary voters said they have not thought about it enough to have an opinion.

Abbott also leads likely Democratic Contender Beto O'Rourke, who is not yet officially announced his intention to run in 2022.

The survey of registered voters found Abbott with a 9-percentage-point advantage over O’Rourke, 46% to 37%. Seven percent of respondents picked someone else in the hypothetical matchup.

Another hypothetical candidate, Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey, also polled badly in the survey.  Thirty-five percent said they had a favorable opinion of him, and 24% said they had an unfavorable impression.

A full twenty-nine percent said they had neither positive or negative feelings towards the actor, showing that he would have a lot of work to do educating voters if you got into the race.

(Full story here.)
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Bush Says Paxton Will Be Defeated As AG By A Democrat If Nominated

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George P. Bush has sharpened his criticism of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, warning Republican voters that a Democrat will beat the embattled incumbent, if he’s nominated for a third term in the March 1 primary.

Bush made the statement on a podcast for the Dallas Morning News.

The Land Commissioner is challenging Paxton, who is facing legal action by former employees of the AG's office. Paxton has sought to have the charges dismissed, saying they are politically motivated.

Bush faces Paxton and former Texas Supreme Court Judge Eva Guzman in the Republican primary race.

(Full story here. - Paywalled)
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Williamson County Reaches Settlement In Live PDF Case

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Williamson County commissioners signed off on a settlement Tuesday with a man injured by deputies during an arrest broadcasted on the now defunct “Live PD” television show.

Williamson County commissioners confirmed a $325,000 settlement with Ramsey Mitchell.

In a June 2019 broadcast, records show Mitchell’s car was stopped for “no front license plate.”

During the stop, while he was being patted down, Mitchell turned to run.

(Full story here.)
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Republican John Lujan Flips State House Seat That Went +14 For Biden Last Year

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While Democrats have been caught off guard by previous special elections in the San Antonio area, Republicans made clear from the get-go that they were gunning for the open seat in Texas House District 118. And Democrats took them seriously, seeking to show early on that they would not be upset in an overwhelmingly Hispanic district that President Joe Biden carried by 14 percentage points last year.

And yet Republican John Lujan captured the seat Tuesday, in exactly the kind of nationally reverberating outcome that Democrats were working to avoid.

(Full story here.)
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Abbott Has Commanding Lead Over Foes In New Poll

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Forty-two percent of registered voters surveyed in October by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy support former US Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke for governor in next year's election, just behind Gov. Abbott at 43%, who is seeking re-election.

Twelve percent said they are undecided, 12 months ahead of the 2022 general election. O'Rourke has not yet announced he will run for governor. 

Abbott, with 61 percent support among likely primary voters, held a more comfortable lead over Republican opponents Allen West, Don Huffines and Chad Prather, the poll found.

West, a former Florida congressman and former chair of the Texas Republican Party, was backed by 14 percent of likely GOP primary voters, while Huffines, a former state senator, and Prather, a conservative commentator, were supported by 4 and 3 percent, respectively.

(Full story here.)
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Abbott Asks Texas School Board Assn. To Root Out Inappropriate Books, They Decline

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Gov. Greg Abbott today sent a letter to Texas Association of School Boards Executive Director Dan Troxell to ensure no child is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content in a Texas public school. 

"A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries that are extremely inappropriate in the public education system," reads the letter. "The most flagrant examples include clearly pornographic images and substance that have no place in the Texas public education system. 

"You have an obligation to Texas parents and students to ensure that no child in Texas is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content while inside a Texas public school," he wrote.

TASB officials were confused upon receiving Abbott’s letter because their organization has “no regulatory authority over school districts and does not set the standards for instructional materials, including library books,” spokeswoman Theresa Gage wrote to media via email.

Many media outlets portrayed Abbott's letter as "vague" in describing the problems he had with sexual content in books, but throughout the summer, parents across the state and local school boards have read explicit passages from books either assigned to students in elementary grades, or widely available in their libraries. 

Some of the passages included graphic sexual encounters between two underage children.

(Full story here.)
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Progressive Group Political Director Calls Potential McConaughey Candidacy A "Sideshow"

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Mike Siegel, political director of progressive organizing group Ground Game Texas, called actor Matthew McConaughey’s potential Texas gubernatorial bid a “sideshow.”

“He’s treading extremely carefully right now to prolong this moment of fame and attention to make it seem like he’s a serious candidate for governor,” Siegel, a former congressional candidate, told Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

McConaughey, who hasn’t entered the race or announced a party affiliation, polled ahead of Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in a September survey conducted by The Dallas Morning News and University of Texas at Tyler.

But Siegel argued that it’s unlikely the actor would make it through either party’s primary.

(Full story here.)
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Texas Sues Biden Admin., Says Federal Worker Vax Mandate Is Unconstitutional

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Attorney General Ken Paxton, on behalf of the state, sued the Biden administration on Friday over its coronavirus vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

The federal requirement, which is set to take effect Dec. 8, calls on all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Texas lawsuit comes after similar suits filed by Florida and Georgia, along with several other states.

(Full story here.)
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New Sec. Of State Says 2020 Election "Not Stolen" But Wants Audit To Go Forward

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Texas’ new secretary of state says he wants to restore confidence in the state’s elections, but says the 2020 presidential election was not stolen.

In an interview Thursday, John Scott said there’s no question that Joe Biden is the president and that he has “not seen anything” to suggest the election was stolen.

But Scott stopped short of agreeing with a deputy under his predecessor who said the 2020 election in Texas “smooth and secure.” He did not want to get ahead of an election audit of four of Texas' largest counties, which he called his top priority.

(Full story here.)
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Operation Lone Star Nabs Over 7,000 Illegals On State Crimes

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More than 7,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested by Texas state agencies since Operation Lone Star began this spring, and thanks to the way the project works, not even the Biden administration can release them, reports the Western Journal.

Gov. Greg Abbott created Operation Lone Star as a counterpoint to the feeble attempts by the Biden administration to curb the flood of illegal immigration that’s inundating Texas border communities.

Although immigration violations are the sole purview of the federal government, Operation Lone Star arrests illegal immigrants for the state crimes they commit – from trespassing to drug possession. That means that the Biden administration cannot simply allow these illegal immigrants to be charged and then released into the interior of the U.S.

(Full story here.)
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