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Dallas vote recount hearing set, Cruz quarantines himself, West picks up endorsement

Good morning!

Here are the top political headlines from Austin, Washington, the campaign trail and Dallas.

Points from Austin

1. Amid fears of the spread of the new coronavirus spread, Texas lawmakers cancelled several high-profile committee meetings on gun policy and public education this week. The Senate Committee on Transportation even delayed a hearing set to take place in late April, citing COVID-19.

2. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last week blasted Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush for mismanaging state efforts to restore the Alamo, saying that the project in downtown San Antonio “is badly off track.” Bush spokeswoman Karina Erickson said Bush welcomes Patrick’s suggestions — and in fact, already has incorporated some into his plans to “reunify” now-divided pieces of the “sacred ground.”

3. A Texas civil rights group called the secretary of state, Texas’ top election official, to work with local officials to resolve the voting issues Texans faced on Super Tuesday. Attorneys from the Texas Civil Rights Project are demanding the state work to eliminate long lines caused by shortages of elections workers and problems with machines.

4. Nearly a week after this year’s primary elections in Texas, it remains unclear why the secretary of state’s website did not show polling locations for some areas of Denton County for at least half the available voting hours last Tuesday.

5. In a federal lawsuit, Democrats are pushing back against the end of straight-ticket voting in Texas, arguing the change is unconstitutional because it will disproportionately affect black and Hispanic voters. The lawsuit against the Texas secretary of state was filed by the Texas Democratic Party, the Webb County Democratic Party and the Democratic campaign arms of the U.S. Senate and House on Thursday.

6. In an era where enlightenment and technology should make it simpler to conduct state elections., the most advanced democracy in the world doesn’t make it easy for residents to vote, Gromer Jeffers writes.

Bob’s Breakdown

Robert T. Garrett is the Austin bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News. A fifth-generation Texan, he has covered state government and politics for decades. Here, Bob offers his take from the Capitol.

  • “You may all go to hell and I will go to Brazoria County.” – Speaker Dennis Bonnen, channeling his inner Davy Crockett in an op-ed column Sunday.
  • It’s pretty clear that Bonnen, R-Angleton, is having trouble adjusting to what soon will be — for him — life after the Legislature. On the day after Super Tuesday, he says he read a story in The Facts, a Brazosport newspaper that’s the largest in his district. It “included a description of me that is flat out untrue,” he recounted in his op-ed. Just what did his hometown paper say, you ask?
  • We tracked it down, in a story on the five-way GOP primary in House District 25. In that district, winning the May GOP runoff is probably tantamount to winning the seat. Here’s the offending paragraph: “This is the first time a person besides Speaker Dennis Bonnen will have the Republican nomination for Texas House District 25 since 1996. Bonnen announced he wouldn’t seek re-election a week after Michael Quinn Sullivan released a recording of Bonnen offering him media access in exchange for targeting 10 sitting House Republicans in the March primaries.
  • In the op-ed, Bonnen said reporters “lapped up [Sullivan’s] accusations and insinuations like kittens at a saucer.” But at least three other people, while not finding Bonnen guilty of a crime, concluded that the transcript of Bonnen and his sidekick Rep. Dustin Burrows’ conversation with Sullivan “supports the inference that Bonnen and Burrows agreed to ask Sullivan to target certain Republicans.” They were former Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips and former Reps Patricia Gray and Will Hartnett, who were hired by the House General Investigating Committee to help it review the so-called “Bonnghazi” scandal.
  • Late Monday, Sullivan responded with a series of tweets. “Am I the bad guy here, or is he?” the conservative activist concluded, referring to Bonnen. In comments under his op-ed, Bonnen scrapped with an anonymous reader, saying, “I am breaking my silence.” At 10:05 a.m. Tuesday, he’s going on conservative Lubbock talk show host Chad Hasty’s program. OK, he’s breaking his silence. But is he sorry for anything – other than the end of his 12-term tenure? Tune in here and decide for yourself.

Points from the Trail

State Sen. Royce West laughs as Cristina Tzinztun Ramirez endorses him in the Democratic runoff for U.S. senator during a press conference on Monday, March 9, 2020, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
State Sen. Royce West laughs as Cristina Tzinztun Ramirez endorses him in the Democratic runoff for U.S. senator during a press conference on Monday, March 9, 2020, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)(Nick Wagner)

1. Labor activist Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez of Austin has endorsed Dallas state Sen. Royce West against MJ Hegar in the Democratic runoff for U.S. Senate. She cited not just liberal views but diversity considerations as another factor in her decision.Tzintzún Ramirez, a Latina, said West, an African American, could do a better job than Hegar, who is white, at “being able to build a multiracial coalition that speaks to the diversity of this state, that is able to unite black, brown and Asian voters.”

2. Texas Sen. John Cornyn fired his opening salvo against his two possible general election opponents after the Democratic primary for his U.S. Senate seat, saying during a phone call with reporters last week that state Sen. Royce West and Air Force veteran MJ Hegar ”are trending toward the national democratic radicalism.” Both West and Hegar took issue with the statement.

3. After winning 10 states on Super Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden made the case that he was the one who could appeal to a broad base of Democrats searching for a presidential candidate who can unite them.But though the wins moved him into a clear two-man race in the Democratic primary with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Biden struggled with Latino voters, whom a Democratic nominee will need to beat President Donald Trump in November.

4. Democratic Party voters living in the 27th Congressional District nominated California resident Ricardo De La Fuente to challenge U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, even though De La Fuente was simultaneously running for Congress in California.De La Fuente, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, defeated Charlie Jackson by more than 20% of the vote in the Democratic primary. But Jackson, a businessman from Corpus Christi, said he intends to take legal action in order to “get De La Fuente kicked off the ballot and kicked out of the state of Texas.”

5. With more than 2 million votes cast in the March 3 primary, Texas Democrats are celebrating a surge in turnout that narrowly surpassed Republican turnout. Across the state, 2,076,046 Texans voted in the Democratic primary this year, 67,661 more than those who participated in the Republican primary. But the Republican Party of Texas said it’s not threatened by the surge, pointing to the 12.4% of registered voters who cast ballots in Trump’s re-election primary on Super Tuesday.

6. Jan McDowell, who in 2018 came within striking distance of flipping Texas’ 24th Congressional District, endorsed Candace Valenzuela in the Democratic primary runoff. McDowell had hoped to be the Democratic nominee again in 2020, however she came in a distant third in the March 3 primary.Retired Air Force Col. Kim Olson led the six-person field with 40% of the vote. Valenzuela captured 30%. Olson and Valenzuela will face off in late May.

7. Correction: The subject line of our newsletter email on Thursday incorrectly stated that Beth Van Duyne, who is seeking to represent District 24 in Congress, would face a runoff. In fact, Van Duyne captured more than 50 percent of the vote, and in November will face the winner of the Democratic primary runoff.

Points from Washington

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2020, file photo, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rides an escalator before speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. GOP Sen. Cruz said Sunday, March 8, 2020, he will remain at his home in Texas after learning that he shook hands and briefly chatted with a man in suburban Washington who has tested positive for coronavirus. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE – In this Jan. 29, 2020, file photo, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rides an escalator before speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. GOP Sen. Cruz said Sunday, March 8, 2020, he will remain at his home in Texas after learning that he shook hands and briefly chatted with a man in suburban Washington who has tested positive for coronavirus. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)(Patrick Semansky)

1. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced that he will self-quarantine this week at his Texas home because he interacted with a person at the Conservative Political Action Conference who has tested positive for coronavirus. Cruz said on Twitter that he had only a brief conversation and shook hands with the person. The interaction took place 10 days ago, he said.

2. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, said Monday he also interacted at CPAC with the person who subsequently developed COVID-19. Gohmert is the fifth lawmaker to confirm they interacted with the convention attendee who has tested positive for the coronavirus, but he is the first to not self-quarantine after being informed of the exposure.

Points from Dallas

Cheryl Miller holds a “Kim Brown for Judge" sign as she stands with other candidates signs in the parking lot of  Dallas County Government Center on Super Tuesday. Officials are seeking a recount after finding a discrepancy in the vote count.
Cheryl Miller holds a “Kim Brown for Judge” sign as she stands with other candidates signs in the parking lot of Dallas County Government Center on Super Tuesday. Officials are seeking a recount after finding a discrepancy in the vote count. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer)

1. Dallas County’s request for a recount of last week’s election after it discovered a discrepancy between the number of voters who signed in and the actual ballots counted will be heard by a district court judge today.The county’s election chief, Toni Pippins-Poole, filed a request to reopen the election late Friday after ballots from 44 vote tabulating machines were not included in the final tally that officials had submitted, according to court papers.

2. Dallas’ Park and Recreation Board last week interviewed three finalists to lead the city’s park department after its former director retired in October. The finalists, who were interviewed behind closed doors, are one internal candidate and leaders of agencies in two other cities.

3. At a recent town hall meeting. U.S. Rep. Colin Allred sought to reassure the public that officials from Washington, D.C., to Austin to Dallas are working together to keep North Texas “safe and healthy” as the new coronavirus makes its way across the country.

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Curious Texas, an ongoing project from The Dallas Morning News, invites you to join our reporting process. You can ask us questions about politics, the Texas Legislature or elections, and we’ll have our reporters answer them. Submit your questions here.

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