Around the Capitol / On the Move
Alison Brock, former COS for former Rep. and current Houston mayor Sylvester Turner has joined Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s staff, replacing Ben Barkley. She will focus on education issues.
Allison Billodeau recently moved from Governor Greg Abbott’s Budget and Policy division to work with Walter Fisher as the Deputy Legislative Director
Coby Shorter, who served in many capacities around the Capitol for Governor Perry and most recently was the Deputy Secretary of State, retired from the state on last month.
Lobby/Association News
Les Findeisen, longtime Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Relations at the Texas Trucking Association, is retiring from that position next month.
Bruce Gibson, former Rep., lobbyist and COS to Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is joining the Texas Association of Business as its Sr. VP for Advocacy and General Counsel.
Brooke Rollins, CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) for more than 15 years has taken a position in the White House of American Innovation and will be leaving the TPPF.
Texas Star Alliance lobbyist Karen Reagan has been named to the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Business.
Kyle Kamrath has been promoted from Associate Director to Director of State Governmental Affairs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
State Agency News
Carmen Tilton, longtime health care staffer for Sen. Carlos Uresti has left that office and will move to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Calvin Green has been named the new Deputy Executive Commissioner for Performance at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Green has served as HHSC’s director of Regulatory Policy, Rule and Training since 2013.
Former San Angelo Mayor Alvin New has been appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to the Texas Transportation Commission.
Shout Outs
Congratulations to Riley and Sam Carlson Stinnett on the birth of their son, Sonny Wayne, born in late January.
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Congratulations to Fmr. Rep. Mark Homer and Mandeep Chatha-Homer on the birth of their twins, Sabina Kaur and Preet Vincent in early January.
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Congratulations to Shelton and Heather Green on the recent birth of their son Sutton Handley.
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Tom Luce, longtime public policy advocate, particularly in the area of education reform, will be honored in April with the 2018 Linz Award, one of Dallas’ oldest and most respected civic honors.
Happy Birthday!
February:
27 — Dwight Clark
28 — Fmr. Sen. Bob Glasgow, Rep. Phil King
March:
1 — Amber Pearce, Nora Cox Belcher, Sen. Jose Rodriguez
3 — Rep. Dennis Bonnen
4 — Amy Bresnen
5 — Marie Aycock, Ted Delisi, Rep. Sergio Muñoz, Fmr. Rep. Clint Hackney, Sen. Bob Hall, Rep. Jay Dean
7 — Sen. Chuy Hinojosa, Rep. Armando Walle, Fritz Reinig, Carlos Truan, Lyndon Olsen
8 — Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, Ross Ramsey
9 — Sen. Charles Perry
10 — Rep. Wayne Faircloth
11 — Jason Stanford. Sen. Jose Menendez
14 — Jason Modglin, Ellen Williams, Robert Eckels, Rep. Rene Oliveira
15 — Teresa Spears, Michael Wilt, Rep. Erwin Cain, Ashley Morgan, Rep. Gary Elkins, Rep. Brooks Landgraf, Rep. Justin Holland
16 — Warren Van Eschenbach
18 — Sen. Kirk Watson, Mark Vane, Sara Tays
19 — Rep. Rick Miller
20 — Peggy Fikac, Amy DeWeese, Fmr. Rep. Jim Jackson
22 — Frank Santos, Sam Carlson Stinnett
23 — Ben Melson, Rep. John Wray
24 — Rep. John Zerwas
25 — Mike Toomey, Rep. Lyle Larson
26 — Bee Moorhead, Jim Harrison, Stephanie Schmutz Simpson, Rep. Jason Villalba
27 — Rep. Ina Minjarez
29 — Frank Galitski, Rep. Dennis Paul
31 — Katrina Daniel
In Our Thoughts
Former Rep. Neil Caldwell, one of the members of the “Dirty Thirty” in the early 1970’s passed away recently. Caldwell represented Alvin and after he retired from the Legislature went on to become a district judge and the state artist of Texas.
Former Rep. DeWitt Hale, a Democrat who served in the Texas House and represented Corpus Christi for 26 years, died recently at the age of 100.
Condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Lori Nines, who passed away earlier this month. Lori worked in the Governor’s office and on former President and Governor George W. Bush’s White House staff.
Condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Ann Quirk, who passed away earlier this month. Ann was involved in Republican politics beginning in the late 1960s, first in Bexar County and then statewide. She was energetic, passionate and devoted to electing Republicans and at the time she began was one of the few women working in statewide Republican campaigns.
Condolences to the family and friends of Debbie Gunn, who passed away earlier this month. Debbie worked for former Rep. Bill Carter and former Sen. Carlos Truan.
Condolences to Polly Ross Hughes and her family on the passing of her mother, Polly, earlier this month at the age of 94.
Condolences to the family and friends of Eileen Campbell, former manager of Governmental Relations and VP for Public Policy for Marathon Oil, who passed away in late January.
Politics
The Texas Tribune will let you try your hand at picking winners and losers in upcoming primary races. Here is the link for you to become an expert prognosticator and win tickets to the Tribune Festival in September and a behind the scenes tour of the LBJ Library.
The March primaries are just around the corner and the Texas Tribune has compiled a comprehensive list of every race on the primary and general election ballots next year.
Lobbyist Dana Chiodo has a service, Texas Candidates, you can access (some parts for free, others require a subscription) that provides in-depth information about the candidates and each of the races on the ballot.
Texas Impact is tracking the endorsements of statewide organizations for House, Senate, and Statewide offices. They’ll be adding to it as they come across groups’ announcements, and statewide organizations can send Texas Impact their endorsements at endorsements@texasimpact.org
http://texasimpact.org/content/using-endorsements-make-sense-candidates
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Miscellaneous
The Texas Tribune will host a Trivia Night, on March 2 at the Driskill Hotel.
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Mary Scott Nabers of Strategic Partnerships has a new book out, “Inside the Infrastructure Revolution, A Roadmap for Rebuilding America”.
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The 8th Annual Spice for Life, benefiting Young Texans Against Cancer will be held this Saturday at Stubb’s BBQ. Several of the teams will have members from the Capitol community.
Upcoming Dates of Interest
Last day of early voting: March 2, 2018
March primary: March 6, 2017
Runoff election: May 22, 2017
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Below are links to several podcasts on Texas politics and what’s happening at the Capitol:
- The Texas Tribune presents “Tribcast”
- The Houston Chronicle presents “Texas Take, the Podcast”
- Texas Standard presents their podcast daily
- Matt Mackowiak presents “Mack on Politics”
- Craig Casselberry comments on current events on Texas Business Radio
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