Texas Two-Step: No Longer a One-Party State

Natasha Chen

"John McCain may take the Lone Star state in November, but beneath the surface, Texas Democrats are poised to win back the state legislature and roll back nearly two decades of Republican domination. One surprising battleground is in Williamson County."

Round Rock ISD SAT scores lead state, nation

04:09 PM CDT on Thursday, August 28, 2008

KVUE.com

Texas students' scores on the SAT may be down, but in Round Rock ISD, scores are up.

According to district officials, Round Rock ISD students earned an average score of 1618 on the SAT in 2008, compared to 1588 in 2007. The average SAT score in Texas was 1473 and the national average was 1511.

“We are pleased to see our test scores increase in every subject matter,” said RRISD Superintendent Dr. Jesús Chávez, in a news release. “One of our district goals last year was to improve student performance in math and our increased scores are reflective of our efforts. RRISD has consistently been above the state and national SAT average and we will strive to maintain this trend.”

On average, Round Rock ISD students earned 560 in math, 536 in reading and 522 in writing. District officials said math scores increased the most from last year.

A perfect score on the SAT is 2400, after the writing test was added in 2006.

Transmission Lines

Oncor Electric Delivery Co. and LCRA Transmission Services Corp. have recently submitted applications to build 12 acres of high-voltage electricity transmission lines. The 30 steel structures would become the tallest in Williamson County. I oppose this because of its adverse impact to the development of Hutto and the irregular manner in which these applications have been processed.

No other small city in Texas has had one of these massive industrial facilities deliberately placed inside the city, countering the city's natural plan of growth. These transmission lines are not necessary to meet the needs of Hutto or Williamson County now or in the foreseeable future. It doesn't make sense that such a facility would be located in the city of Hutto's inner growth area, so close to schools, churches and homes.

The residents of Hutto are willing to work to find a solution that suits all parties and are being ignored.

Diana Maldonado

Candidate, House District 52

info@dianamaldonado.com

Round Rock

Rose, Maldonado, Kleinschmidt hold cash edge

By Laylan Copelin | Friday, July 18, 2008, 09:18 AM

Central Texans Patrick Rose, Diana Maldonado and Tim Kleinschmidt start with a cash advantage in their respective legislative races.

No surprise that Rose, a Democrat from Dripping Springs seeking his fourth term, has $807,809 in the bank because he has a reputation as a fund-raising machine. His Republican opponent, Wimberley businessman Matt Young has only $27,272, including a $16,094 loan.

But Maldonado, a Round Rock Democrat, may raise a few eyebrows with $129,740 cash balance. Her opponent, Georgetown Republican Bryan Daniel, reported $32,421 at the start of their fall campaign to replace retiring Rep. Mike Krusee as one of two Williamson County state representatives.

Maldonado had the advantage of being unopposed in the Democratic Primary while Daniel had to survive a four-candidate primary and run-off.

In another Central Texas open seat, Republican Tim Kleinschmidt, a Lexington lawyer, holds a slight advantage over Democrat Donnie Dippel, a La Grange rancher and businessman. They are facing off to replace retiring Rep. Robby Cook for a House district that includes Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, Lee and part of Brazos counties.

Kleinschmidt reported $41,988 in cash while Dippel has $29,161.

Show Me the Money

July 17th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

While many of you are enjoying summer vacations and trying to stay as far away from politics as possible, we’ve been picking through the semi-annual campaign finance reports over at the Texas Ethics Commission website, and all this money is making us feel a little dirty. In Texas, there are no limits on how much an individual or PAC can contribute to a candidate. Each election cycle, fat-cat donors like homebuilder Bob Perry typically spend more money on pols than most of us earn in a year. And the races are only getting more expensive.

Even some lawmakers have been heard grumbling that things have gotten out of hand. Raising money is time-consuming and cuts into the business of legislating. Plus, no one likes begging — even politicians. It’s an obscene system, but even the most reform-minded pols have to raise - and spend - oodles of cash just to mount a viable campaign. Dollars don’t win elections all by themselves, but they sure do help.

With that in mind, we’re revisiting some of the key House races we profiled in May to see how the candidates are doing on the money front. Here’s a batch of four. We’ll be back tomorrow with more...

 * Diana Maldonado-Bryan Daniel. District 52, Round Rock. These two are fighting over the Williamson County seat vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock). The district is close to evenly split between Ds and Rs. Maldonado is leading the fundraising contest so far. Over the past six months, she’s raised $145,000 to Daniel’s fairly anemic $41,000. Maldonado has $130,000 in the bank; Daniel has about $32,000. Maldonado is certainly feeling the love from Austin’s liberal establishment and education groups. The Education Austin PAC chipped in three Gs while Education Round Rock COPE gave up $2,000. Annie’s List, an organization that raises money for women Democrats, gave her $25,000. Daniel is leaning heavily on business PACs for his money, and they’ve contributed almost $22,000 to his campaign so far, more than 50 percent of total contributions. Dallas radioactive waste titan Harold Simmons has given Daniel $4,000; Bob Perry gave $2,500; and the Tom Craddick-tied Empower Texans has contributed $1,386 of in-kind “voter contact” work.

by Forrest Wilder

Defending Diana

Dear editor,

Regarding Holly Hansen's May 27 letter to the editor: I know former RRISD board member Diana Maldonado and I consider her to be a friend.

I recently met Bryan Daniel at the Austin Community College victory party at El Matador and he was also very nice and I hope to be able to call him a friend also.

Since many readers are new to the community over the past six to eight years, I would like to clarify two items for your readers and Ms. Hansen.

First, billions of taxpayer dollars were not spent by RRISD on football stadiums.

Second, Diana had nothing to do with the athletic complex project.

Two bond packages totaling approximately $468 million dollars have been voter-approved in RRISD over the past eight years.

The athletic complex was part of the February 2000 bond package.

The complex is revenue positive. It brings in enough funds to retire its own debt and contributes over a half a million dollars to the budget each year for the use of all kids of RRISD. This is unheard of.

Voters approved the athletic complex bond three years before Diana took office. Stadium construction started in October 2002.

Maldonado became a board member in May 2003.

The first event held there was Sept 5, 2003 when McNeil High School played Westwood High School in a football game. All decisions were made on this project, pre-Diana.

Each year many volunteers give thousands of hours on committees to help the community with no personal gain in mind.

Having served on and chaired three of the last four RRISD bond efforts, I respectfully request that Ms. Hansen verify her points before she attempts to use fantasy as fact for her political needs.

Touting inaccurate information as fact is harmful and is a disservice to both political parties, both candidates, and the community as a whole.

If Ms. Hansen has a solution to the issue of more people with children moving into the RRISD area, which creates even greater demand for more infrastructures, I would love to read about it in this paper as she responds to my facts and viewpoint.

Rodney Howard

Round Rock

[He'll] cross party lines for Maldonado

Dear editor,

I was amazed by the recent letter to the editor (May 27) concerning Diana Maldonado (Democratic candidate for District 52 State Representative).

She is mentioned as a free-spending liberal.

I guess she is considered a free-spending liberal when she is a strong advocate for children and felt the addition of additional schools would eliminate the overcrowding in classrooms and schools.

I guess you could very easily include Raymond Hartfield with that same statement. In my opinion both are leaving the board and both were outstanding.

If Diana Maldonado approaches the Texas House like she does the board position, we all will be better served.

She doesn't have an "R" after her name, but instead has a "D." I know that I will cross over my party line and make the decision for the person who has demonstrated commitment.

I hate to pay taxes, but if our schools were overcrowded we would suffer.

Instead of Round Rock schools being noted as one of the best, it would be deemed very negatively.

The people selling their homes now would only see them depreciate more. Even if you don't have children attending schools, the impact is great.

A school district and its community are either thriving and progressing or depressed and regressing. I prefer to be in a community that cherishes our children and continue to grow.

Thank you Miss Maldonado and I hope others will look not at your party affiliation, but your character.

Sean Young

Round Rock

Lone Star Project

District 52 
Incumbent: OPEN - Bryan Daniel (Krusee)
Democratic Challenger: Diana Maldonado
Location: Williamson County – Central Texas
Kerry 2004: 38.7%
Moody 2006: 47.8%
DPI 2008: 42.2%

Diana Maldonado, former President of the Round Rock Independent School District Board of Trustees, is particularly well-suited to run for the open seat vacated by Mike Krusee. District 52 lies just north of Austin in a rapidly growing part of the state that continues to become more Democratic. Maldonado has been endorsed by Annie’s List and continues to be a strong fundraiser. Her opponent, Bryan Daniel, needed a run-off to win the Republican nomination for the seat and has never been elected to office.

Travis County has been trending an ever-deeper shade of blue. In the past four years, Democrats picked up three formerly Republican House seats. Is Austin’s conservative law-and-order neighbor to the north, Williamson County, now headed in the same direction?

Democrat Diana Maldonado will soon find out. She’s pursuing the District 52 seat of state Rep. Mike Krusee, the Round Rock Republican who eked out a narrow victory in 2006 against an underfunded and relatively unknown Democratic opponent. Krusee, who is set to retire after 16 years, had a tumultuous final session. In May, he stood alone as the House voted 139-1 to approve a moratorium on his pet project: new toll roads. Then, in the session’s waning hours, Krusee delivered an inspired jeremiad against Speaker Tom Craddick, invoking Ronald Reagan and Thomas Jefferson. More recently, Krusee was arrested for driving his BMW drunk in Williamson County, jeopardizing his chance at a coveted appointment to the powerful Texas Transportation Commission.

As much as Maldonado would like to run against Krusee, her opponent is conservative Bryan Daniel of Georgetown, a vice president and member of the board of Agricultural Workers Mutual Auto Insurance. Boosted by cash from agricultural interests, Daniel fended off three Republican challengers in the primary. He’s a standard-issue, establishment GOPer: pro-life, pro-business, anti-tax, etc., who looks his clean-cut part as a suburban dad and businessman. Daniel honed his political chops in D.C. as a staffer for Lubbock Republican Congressman Larry Combest. Upon moving back to Texas in 2001, he became the Texas state director of rural development for the U.S Department of Agriculture. Daniel says he has “a lifelong affinity for folks who work the land to provide us with food.”

While Daniel serves up the usual boilerplate about low taxes and the virtues of the private sector, he wisely parts company with Krusee on the Trans-Texas Corridor. He says he’s opposed to foreign ownership of highways and believes “the jury is still out” on the three toll roads now open in Williamson County.

“I just don’t think we should toll roads that have already been paid for with tax dollars,” he says.

Still, Maldonado will try to lump Daniel with Krusee. “The last thing Williamson County families need right now is another foot soldier for the out-of-touch extremists in the Legislature,” she said in an e-mailed statement to the Observer.

Maldonado, former Round Rock ISD trustee and president and a government efficiency expert with the Texas Comptroller’s Office, is playing up her skill at bringing together citizens of different political stripes under a banner of sensible transportation policy and better public schools. (Full disclosure: Several members of the Texas Democracy Foundation, which publishes the Observer, have contributed to Maldonado’s campaign.)

Maldonado promises not to be a Democratic supporter of Craddick. “We need to get away from the cronyism and the bullying that has gone on for a while,” she says of the speaker’s rule. Empower Texans, a PAC with ties to Craddick, endorsed Daniel in the primary and has spent about $1,100 on his behalf.

As in many other suburban parts of the state, Democrats in Williamson County appear to be ascendant, bolstered by shifting demographics and newly energized by the presidential race. In Williamson County, about 50,000 people voted in the Democratic primary this March, compared with 8,100 four years ago. If Maldonado can harness those winds of change, she may well join just six other Hispanic women—out of 150 members—in the Texas House. —Forrest Wilder

Listen to what one Williamson County voter had to say about Diana Maldonado-

[He'll] cross party lines for Maldonado

Dear editor,

I was amazed by the recent letter to the editor (May 27) concerning Diana Maldonado (Democratic candidate for District 52 State Representative).

She is mentioned as a free-spending liberal.

I guess she is considered a free-spending liberal when she is a strong advocate for children and felt the addition of additional schools would eliminate the overcrowding in classrooms and schools.

I guess you could very easily include Raymond Hartfield with that same statement. In my opinion both are leaving the board and both were outstanding.

If Diana Maldonado approaches the Texas House like she does the board position, we all will be better served.

She doesn't have an "R" after her name, but instead has a "D." I know that I will cross over my party line and make the decision for the person who has demonstrated commitment.

I hate to pay taxes, but if our schools were overcrowded we would suffer.

Instead of Round Rock schools being noted as one of the best, it would be deemed very negatively.

The people selling their homes now would only see them depreciate more. Even if you don't have children attending schools, the impact is great.

A school district and its community are either thriving and progressing or depressed and regressing. I prefer to be in a community that cherishes our children and continue to grow.

Thank you Miss Maldonado and I hope others will look not at your party affiliation, but your character.

Sean Young

Round Rock