The two had a debate on October 25, that was published on Twitter by theeagle.com, a local news paper. They used the hashtag #tx17debate. Chet Edwards is on Twitter at @chetedwards. Bill Flores is on Twitter at @Flores4Congress.

With less than a week to go this doesn’t bode well for Edwards or other Democrats around the country. Even Democrats who voted for Obama might switch to elect Republican Representatives, thus putting the breaks on Obama’s run-away spending train. A lame-duck session – in his first term – has huge implications and looks really bad for President Obama, Democrats and the country. All the past 2 years have served to do is increase debt and taxes. The economy is in shambles, housing may not recovery, people can’t afford to get sick or injured, and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

Aside from the facts, there sure is a lot of mud-slinging ads on TV for this election. I’ll be glad when November 2 is past.

Texas Secretary of State website lists Important Dates for 2010 Elections in Texas:

• Primary election day: March 2, 2010
• Primary runoff day: April 13, 2010
• May uniform election date: May 8, 2010
• November uniform election date: November 2, 2010

The Secretary’s website also lists What is on the ballot.

U.S. Congress:

First, look at the congressional district map for Texas. I live in the 17th congressional district for the U. S. House of Representatives; south central Texas including Waco and Bryan.

Senators:

• Sen. John Cornyn (R) Next Election: 2014
• Sen. Kay Hutchison (R) Next Election: 2012

Representatives (District 17):

• Rep. Chet Edwards (D) Next Election: 2010

Election Candidates:

• Chet Edwards (D)
• Rob Curnock (R)
• Timothy Delasandro (R)
• Bill Flores (R)
• Dave McIntyre (R)
• Chuck Wilson (R)
• Richard B. Kelly (L)

Texas Legislature:

I live in the Senate’s 5th district and House’s 14th district.

Texas Senate (District 5):

• Steve Ogden (R) Next Election: 2010

Election Candidates:

• Steve Ogden (R)
• Ben Bius (R)
• Stephen M. Wyman (D)

Texas House (District 14):

• Brown, Fred (R) Next Election: 2010

Election Candidates:

• Fred Brown (R)
• Rick Davis (R)
• Gerald “Buddy” Winn (R)
• Blanche Brick (R)

Texas Governor:

Rick Perry (R) Next Election: 2010

Election Candidates:

• Rick Perry (R)
• Kay Bailey Hutchison (R)
• Debra Medina (R)
• Larry Kilgore (R)
• Bill Lawrence (R)
• Koo-Hyun “John” Kim (R)
• Felix Alvarado (D)
• Bill Dear (D)
• Farouk Shami (D)
• Bill White (D)
• Alma Ludivina Aguado (D)
• Clement E. Glenn (D)
• Star Locke (D)
• Jeff Daiell (Libertarian)
• Kenneth Griffin (Libertarian)
• Steve Nichols (Libertarian)
• Fran Cavanaugh (Independent)
• Les Sanderfer (Independent)
• Kevin Still (Independent)
• Clement Glenn (Independent)
• M.J. “Smitty” Smith (Libertarian)
• Ed Tidwell (Libertarian)
• David Carpenter (Independent)
• Curtis “Tank” Hartfield (Independent)
• Kenneth Richardson (Independent)
• John Roland Ross (Independent)

Here is some interesting news. Texas Senator Steve Ogden (R-District 5) is Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. This position has an automatic seat on the Legislative Budget Board (LBB). The LBB decides, among other things, the State’s support to public universities. So, one of the people that lowered property taxes (temporarily) and raised cigarette taxes (permanently) in the name of education* will help decide how that money is spent. It’s good to be in Finance.

* From Steve Ogden’s website, I’m Proud of What We Accomplished in the Special Session: ”Other tax changes included revising the calculation of sales tax on used cars and raising the cigarette tax by $1 per pack effective January 1, 2007.At the end of the day,this means state tax revenues will now fund about half of public education, up from approximately 38 percent today.”

Finding information on candidates a few weeks ago was like pulling teeth, but I thought it was important enough to publish these links for reference.

• Offices up for Election in 2006
• General Election – Candidates Side by Side