Big Scandal, Big Money, and Big City ICE Showdowns - Episode 24

With Brad being on the road, Cassi joins Richie this week to talk about U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales' resignation, U.S. Senate fundraising numbers, and the big dogs going after the big cities for their ICE policies. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is me on my I the game.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Stop.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Rick Perry, if you're listening to this, call me.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

No, this is actually just Richie after one iced coffee that I'm I'm with the MD on our desk over here.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Well howdy everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. It's your host here, co-founder, Jonathan Ritchie. And uh Brad is looking much, much nicer today, I have to say. I mean, what a what a vision, what a picture. Uh no, today we have Cassie with us. Welcome onto the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Thank you. It's it's great to be back. It's been a minute, but I think that we all just enjoy watching you and uh Brad chat uh for these podcasts so much. So there hasn't really been a good reason for me to join until Brad decided to, I don't know, go up to Cincinnati.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Flee the state to go up to Yankee land. Uh and maybe tilt that up towards your case a little bit more just in case.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

No, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Um and so yeah, Brad is up in Ohio. Um I don't know why anybody would go to Ohio. I don't even know what state Ohio's in. Um yeah, I think he's up there for a wedding or whatever. He sends us pictures of whatever patio he's out.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

We got a picture of a margarita that he's enjoying.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Yeah, I can't imagine what an Ohio margarita is. What do they put, like pasta in it or something? Uh just horrible scenes, horrible scenes full of fear and loathing, scandal, and uh the terrors that creep in around you. So uh but all things work together for the good of those who love him, and so that Brad's absence means that Cassie and I get to have our podcast debut together. Um so we've got a lot to talk about, a lot of good things are I don't know if we could say good things are happening, a lot of things that are good to talk about are happening. Um a lot of news. A lot of news.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Texas never really disappoints on the news front. I think that I wanted to start by talking about who the latest um elected official to to no longer be an elect an elected official is, and I think his name starts with a T.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Uh Tony Gonzalez, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:23

The end of the line for Tony Gonzalez happened uh at the beginning of this week where he uh filed his and announced his resignation. Um this has been a long time coming. Obviously, uh, you know, last year there was it kind of started with one of his staffers or former staffers who committed suicide by setting herself on fire. It came out that they had had an affair. He denied it for a long time, but then that woman's husband, you know, released texts confirming it, showing it, and then uh very recently another staffer came forward and released texts of him uh pursuing her romantically. And Tony Gonzalez married six kids uh in a very tough primary fight against Brandon Herrera, who had challenged him last cycle as well, and came within like 500 votes of beating him. They were going into a runoff as well. And then there's been a lot of discussions up in DC about you know the sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, and Eric Swalwell out in California running for governor. Uh, he had his entire political career detonated basically last week as well, as a pretty coordinated rollout of just years and years of Oppo folder on him and uh things with his staffers and stuff like that. And so now that there was one on both sides of the aisle, they were going to move forward to expulsion uh things, and then both Swalwell and Gonzalez was like, all right, let's let's resign here. Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

So Gonzalez's last day was Tuesday as a member of the House, uh U.S. House of Representatives, and he's no longer Brandon Herrera's the de facto GOP nominee for CD23, right? Yes. Uh okay, right, right, right. And so what we have now though is a little bit of a wait and see in terms of whether not so much whether, but when the governor is going to be calling a special election for this seat to fill the remainder of former representative Gonzalez's term.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, and I think there's there could be, I'm not there's a lot of intricacies about this because Gavin Newsom immediately set a special to replace um Swalwell. And so they're going to use that. And obviously Newsom and Abbott uh go at each other quite frequently. Um both people that are viewed as possible contenders for 28. Um obviously both some of the most in influential, powerful governors in America, they go tit for tat all the time. And uh Newsom immediately calls it, but of course Swalwell's seat is a very safe seat for Democrats. So there's not much of a risk, and Democrats tend to always do pretty well in these special elections. Uh that seat, 35, is a seat that is much more vulnerable for Republicans. It is a Republican district, but it's certainly one that could be a toss-up.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Oh, with the Gonzalez seat? Yeah, the Gonzalez. Yeah, 23. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Um and uh there's certainly a worry that if they call a special, a Democrat uh would win that. And then going into November, that could be a Democrat hold uh versus one that is much more probably evenly matched in November. Uh because obviously Republicans in Texas are still reeling from the uh SD9 special election, super special election, the specialist election of all time, uh, where Taylor Remett uh won and beat, and they're gonna have a rematch in November, but that uh sent shockwaves to the Republican establishment and very much is something that is top of mind for everybody with this seat. And the margins in the U.S. House of Representatives are razor thin. I mean, one or two on any given day, depending on if people resign or I don't know, have some medical emergency. I mean, it is the math up there is very, very difficult for Republicans in order to maintain a majority. And there's a lot of calculus that's going to be going into when or even if, and I think because we're might be close enough to November that there might not be a trigger forcing a special election, they could just wait it out, but that means that you know that entire district goes without representation, which includes the Big Ben district, which goes into building a wall down there or not a wall. So there's a lot of questions. And then if there isn't, you know, if if Abbott, if there's a way, uh and Abbott decides not to fill the remainder of that seat, you know, that's going to be something that Republicans can be attacked on in November. And there's a lot of considerations to go to go into it.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah, I mean, I know that once it was official that that Gonzalez was stepping down, uh, you know, a lot of people were looking to the CD 18, the Houston area CD 18 uh seat that I believe was left open by the governor for more than half a year in 2025. Oh well. Um and I think that there's been some speculation about whether that same uh that same or a similar playbook could be uh you know present here for the CD 23 race, especially just to your point, as DEMS have continued to to overperform in some of these special elections. Um I think Brandon Herrera weighed in, right, and he said that he wasn't necessarily anticipating anything before November.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

I don't think he said anything explicit, but certainly the tone of it was highly doubt that there's gonna be something that happens tomorrow on it. Right. Um and that makes sense for for Republicans, why take that risk and go through all of that. So it's all gonna be, I think, pretty straight up politics from here on out with that. Uh and um I don't know. I don't think we'll know until everybody else does on it. Everyone else does, right.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

So you're if you had to put $10 down on whether the governor is setting a special election for the seat before November, you are saying ten dollars for yes or ten dollars for no.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

I would say ten dollars for no if it's legally possible not to call a special election.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I'm not super well versed on all of that.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I know. There are a lot of intricacies to state law and election.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

I know I was trying to look it all up when you know it's like does uh about like the U.S. Attorney General. So like say in the random hypothetical that Trump points Cornyn in to be the AG or whatever. I like the theories. Well, and then it also, you know, the counterfactuals force me to go look at the law on it, and then I scratch my head and I go, man, this is this is tricky. It is tricky. Six months before X, which is five days after this, and uniform election day versus because like, you know, there were some people that were like, Well, why don't they just put it on for the runoff? But you can't do that because that's a not a uniform election day. That's not because you have split ballots. Oh, I see. You have a Republican and a Democrat versus a singular ballot for everybody. So you can't actually do it on that day, is my understanding. Okay. Um so there would have to be a separate day on it. Right. Um, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

I believe um Bayliss Wa Wagner with the San Antonio Express News was had some helpful tweets on this where she was also trying to parse through the work through the um thing. So if if you are curious, like we are, I I know I'm going to be going to her Twitter um after we finish recording to see to help see if she can enlighten me on some of these um, I don't know, they're just very intricate.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Like to your point, I had no idea about that runoff situation where they couldn't have that as set the And I mean, you know, all the balance stuff is even changing, of course. You know, we're not really gonna go too much into it, but then in Dallas County that led to the, among other things, uh the resignation of Alan West as GOP county chair over his reversal of the Dallas County's paper ballot situation, which meant you only had precinct voting in Dallas, and Williamson had done that too, but then Williamson changed it, but they did it a different way than Dallas.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

There's just I mean, one of the most, I think, confusing and complicated aspects is like the election law and stuff. It is very, very intricate and uh a bear to to untangle. I mean, I remember sitting in some discussions uh over the years uh during elections and stuff, um and just listening to the attorneys go through all of the various little deals, and it's just like man alive.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

It's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

It's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

It's a lot. You know what else is a lot? The state sparring with cities again. State leadership. So true. Sparring with Austin, Dallas, Houston over this past week. Can you give us the top lines of what is going on?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

The top line is that last week, I think, Houston City Council passed an ordinance that codified their police policy for coordinating with ICE and federal immigration enforcement efforts. Uh, and it set uh it kind of limited the way that police are able to hold people who have an ICE administrative uh warrant or detainer requests and things of that nature, sets limits on, you know, how do you escalate that through uh police administration, how long uh you can wait for ICE and things of that nature. And whatever else. It passed, the mayor voted for it. Immediately after that, the Houston uh police officers union issue a very fiery statement, basically, you know, obviously condemning the motion, uh, and then also saying that they were going to not support anybody who voted for it. Of course, this was massive because the police union and the police uh in general have been a pretty staunch ally of Governor, I mean Mayor Whitmeyer.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Um Houston mayor, yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Yeah, Houston mayor. Uh and so this was a big deal, and then eventually the union walks that back. But then also the the mayor starts walking back his vote for the ordinance and saying, like, I was told this just codifies our uh existing policy and things of that nature. And then he gets hit uh uh by both the governor and the attorney general. Paxon opens up an investigation to see if this policy violates the anti-sanctuary city law, SB4, which was passed back in 2017. Um and then the mayor has his public safety office send a letter saying that they will freeze $112 million worth of public safety grants that have been given by the state to Houston because when you enter into those grants, the agreement that you sign with the governor uh office uh says that you will abide by basically ICE and DHS policy on these these matters. So you'll work with them. Oh, I see. And so the governor's office is viewing this ordinance as a violation of that contract, meaning that the the grants will be voided, and if the ordinance is not repealed by a certain date, it was supposed to be Monday of next week, so uh, but the governor then moved it back to the 22nd. And if that's not repealed by then, the governor will demand that Houston uh repay all of those grants, which Houston is already kind of in a tough spot fiscally right now, um, especially when it comes to its public safety budget, um, as far as I'm aware. And the mayor immediately was like, we've got to repeal it. You know, the governor Oh, he said that?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Yeah. In a in a public city council meeting.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah, so he said that publicly. Because and he was like, the governor is the final word on this. So if the governor's gonna pull us those grants, we've got to. And so he set an emergency special city council meeting that was supposed to meet today, Friday. Uh but after conversations with the governor's office, he said we're going to postpone it to Wednesday, the 22nd, uh, to give more time for more conversations. And, you know, he's got to get the votes to repeal it. And there have been a lot of voices in Houston on the city council that's like, we shouldn't repeal this, we should go to court over this, and stuff like that. So and then additionally, too, in Houston City Council, uh, you cannot immediately repeal something within 90 days of having passed it. In order to do that, you have to suspend the rules, which takes a two-thirds vote. So not only does he have to get a majority to actually repeal the new ICE policy, he's got to get two-thirds before that can even come to the floor, uh, which is probably a tall order. Uh at the same time, uh yesterday on Thursday, Paxton sued Houston, not over the public safety grants, but over that policy violating SB4.

unknown 16:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

While this is happening in Houston, Abbott sends letters to Dallas and Austin threatening the same thing. Y'all's ICE policy violates the contractual obligations behind uh the assurances you gave us to receive these public safety grants. You've received X amount. Um I think uh Dallas has received about 80 million, but that's split into two camps. One of them are just like, I guess, the normal, we can say, uh public safety grants. Uh but another big batch that is also grants specifically given for FIFA coming to town, the soccer tournament stuff to boost their public safety for that you know big international event, which there are going to be games in Houston and Dallas as well. And that's one of the big things that Mayor Whitmeyer down in Houston have been has been talking about is like we've got to have this stuff squared away for FIFA coming into town.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Um Okay, I have a question. Yeah. Did Austin and Dallas recently pot passed?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

So Austin did a few weeks back. Um so similar timeline is Houston. Yeah, similar. They were first on Houston, and from what I was told uh by sources, um the Houston one was viewed as much more egregious than the Austin one. And then I don't know when the Dallas one got passed, but it it's also viewed as not as bad as whatever the you know the Houston one was. Um and what's interesting to me, right, Houston has the most $112 million. Dallas has got, I think it's over 80 million. Austin only had 2.5 million. So they had very, very small uh size of grants compared to the other big cities. And of course, that could be for a number of reasons. I bet you Austin probably was like, you know, the more money you take from the state, the more you you're put into this type of position where they can pull the strings on it. But also you have DPS here and things of that nature. So I'm not it was just kind of an interesting thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

That is interesting, the big discrepancy in the yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

And of course, Kirk Watson, Austin mayor, uh issued a statement that was, you know, not necessarily defiant, but also just like this does not violate the contract. And so there's gonna be, I think, a lot of people watching. What is the different response of these three cities? Whitmeyer is getting raked over the coals right now by the left and and more progressive elements in Houston for being viewed as uh capitulating to the governor. Uh Watson is probably going to not capitulate, at least not the way that uh Whitmeier is viewed to have been doing. But of course, Austin doesn't have as much on the line as Houston does. Um and it will be interesting. And then, of course, up in Dallas, uh you have a Republican mayor. You have Eric Johnson up there who's been a very big proponent of public safety measures and increasing public safety uh and has been very vocal about like that's the reason why I became a Republican. Democrats don't want, they want to defund the police, I want to fund the police, et cetera.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

He's a former Democrat himself, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Um and so it will be a very, I think, interesting plot line to watch. Because I, you know, if I had to put money on it, I would bet Austin sues over that. Uh Houston will have to wrestle with one, they're already in court over this attorney general's suit, which is about SB4, not the public safety grants. Um, so that will not like whatever resolution is reached on that will not necessarily solve the public safety grant. So like even if they win the SB4 lawsuit, the governor could still probably freeze those grants, unless then they take that like legal win on SB4 and say, well, like if it's not violating SB4, then it's not violating this grant condition, and you improperly violated, so they could probably go back into suit. It's all stuff that's probably not going to be answered very quickly. Um but uh I think I'll be more interested to see how Dallas navigates it with the various different things that they're going through.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Um you may not know the answer to this question, so I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

It's okay. If I don't, I'll make it up. We're journalists, we can make up anything, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:55

We are not fake news, Richie.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Um what does the legal process for this look like? So you're saying you think that maybe the city of Austin as an entity, you know, you think that just writing on the wall looks like they're maybe going to be poor.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

I wouldn't be surprised if they they sued. I mean, this is a state thing, so it would go to a a local district court, which would be very favorable. You know, a Travis County district court would, I bet you nine times out of ten, probably side with the city over this, or at least issue a temporary restraining order, which would pause the 30-day requirement of repayment of these grants. Um and I would also expect a Harris County uh district court probably to do the same, and a Dallas County one if they wanted to. Um and at that point, then it puts a stop on the immediacy of it. Okay. Um, would be my thought on how this would play out. Now, of course, sure, you went on a district court level, but then that goes up to your state appellate court, um, which I I'm not sure which one that might go to the 15th Court of Appeals. It depends on what kind of bucket they put this in. Um because you have specialized appellate courts. Ultimately it will go to the the Supreme Court of Texas if it gets up that high. That's what I thought. Uh and then at that point, you know, I would put my money on the state winning versus the cities. Uh and at, you know, the cities probably realize this as well. So then at that point, if you're litigating this all the way up, you're not only probably going to end up having to repay the grants anyways, you're also burning through a lot of your legal budget. Um either through your city attorney's office or if you decide to hire outside counsel and stuff, and that's you know, it's it's it's expensive to fight in in court. Uh so that'd be my thought on it. I could see out of all the three, I could see Austin being probably the quickest one to fight. I could see Dallas probably being able to figure it out one way or another. Yeah, through meetings. And I think Houston might just be in a tight spot.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

It does sound like the mayor of Houston is is in a tight is just in a tough spot when you're having to, you know, act as essentially the middleman between finding some sort of common ground between what the state is coming in and saying uh needs to happen and then obviously managing your city council.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Uh what I could see being a I don't know. What I could see possibly the out being there is and this would not make the people that are already mad at him happy down in Houston, but he could direct the city attorney to file suit against it. Uh or he could ask the uh he could probably ask the governor to sue Houston and then they could enter into an agreement in which it nullifies the city ordinance. Oh, and then the 90-day And then the 90-day thing probably doesn't matter, and then also he doesn't have to whip up the votes. That could be an interesting roundabout. That's interesting. Now, of course, if you do that, you could you you risk uh maybe having outside parties intervene. You could maybe have one of the city council members intervene in that lawsuit and say this is a collusive settlement or something. Like anytime you go into a courtroom, you're going to lose some of your determin like your independent uh determinative abilities. Like there's a lot of stuff that can happen. And the judge could reject the settlement too, you know. Oh, right. Uh so if you get into uh but of course Harris County also has more Republican district judges as well. Um so there's a lot of things that could happen. There's and that's where it makes it very interesting uh in the fact that we have these things, because I think we can probably expect uh lawsuits to be filed by the AG's office over SB4 against Austin and Dallas as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

I would not be surprised if that were to happen.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

And then you know, we'll just the game's afoot, really, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

It's just a matter of watching the dominoes fall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

And you know, it's just there's a thousand different ways that these things could probably work out. Right. And each city, you know, people always, I think from the outside, like to lump the big cities into like one you know, big thing, you know, all these, you know, blue, whatever. Uh but they all have very different characters, uh characteristics. Obviously, the people leading them are very different, but even the system of government in those cities are very different. Houston has a strong mayor system, Dallas has a weak mayor system, where you know, he is ultimately one vote out of city council. He doesn't have like a V, like he just doesn't have as many procedural tools available to him in Dallas as Whitmire does in Houston. Uh they don't even have the same number of city council members on their councils. And Austin's different as well. And so uh it it provides, I think, a very fun for us fun, for them not so much, uh opportunity to kind of pop the hood on these different large municipalities, which have budgets bigger than small countries. You know, we're talking billions and billions of dollars in this, in these different city governments. Uh and uh when they start having to wrestle and navigate through these waters, um, it's a very interesting opportunity, I think, to go look at, okay, how does Texas government actually work? Um and it should be it should be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah. Uh well, you know, talking about how different they are, one thing that these three mayors all have in common with each other is that they all are former members of the legislature.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

All serve together, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Two of the three, you know, are longtime, longtime members of the Senate, right? So, you know, to what extent do those relationships that they made at the legislature, which obviously carried into their tenures now as as mayors?

SPEAKER_02 27:11

And that's something that Whitmeyer has made a very strong point about when he was running for mayor. Like, I have these Austin connections. So, you know, they're not going to bother us as much. Now they are bothering. Is he able to leverage that? And of course, he was able to get an extension already on the deadline for repealing it. Uh but while he was talking to the governor's office, the AG's office sued.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Um, okay, which I did have a question. When you were running through that hypothetical of Whitmire asking the governor's office to go ahead and sue so that they could enter into an agreement and nullify the local city ordinance.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

I yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Just in terms of a hypothetical. I'm not, you know, uh trying to put you on the spot or say that that's actually what's going to happen.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

If that's what we're theorizing with here.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

This is me on my eye the game.

unknown 28:03

Stop.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Rick Perry, if you're listening to this, call me.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

No, this is actually just Richie after one iced coffee that I'm I'm putting on the on our desk over here.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Um just naturally that's cooped up.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

What would that do to the AG's suit over SB4?

SPEAKER_02 28:24

So that would that's be a totally separate. Now there would there would be some, I think, potential for if you know one of those tracks were because like if the governor, I mean if the mayor were to, in a separate lawsuit over the PSO funding, uh enter into a consent degree or judgment or whatever that said the policy adopted by city council violated the terms of the PSO grant, then I think the AG's office could walk into court and say, look, they even admitted here that this was and vice versa could probably happen as well. Right. Uh but they would, I don't think they would be consolidated because there's a different legal basis for both of them.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Okay, so we're not okay, okay, I see.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

Would be my thought. And of course, I know we have some lawyers listening to this that are much smarter than me. So if I said something dumb, I'm sorry. Email. Mia culpa, Mia Culpa, Mia Maxima Culpa. I'm just a boy. Oh my god. Just a boy, just shooting the bull, you know. Uh everyone, we'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over 20 years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and gets results. Go to LowyLawfirm.com to find out more and get a free consultation. Adam, of course, is very well known on Twitter for his commentary and observations on Texas politics, so be sure to give him a follow as well. Thanks to our sponsor, the Lowy Law Firm.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Oh, okay. Well, so yes, so separate things happening, but all very extremely closely connected.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Yeah, they're all connected, they're all dealing with the same actions by these cities that are trying to walk a tightrope between appealing to their more liberal voter base and activist base in those cities, but also trying not to get into hot water because none of these cities necessarily want this fight with the state. Um because it's expensive and it, you know, it's it takes up, and they certainly don't want to lose in court as well, because they're trying to move the ball far enough down the field in their view without getting called a penalty, you know. And it was very interesting. Like uh I was listening to El Paso City Council wrestle through this as well, uh, and they're dealing with two different things that they're looking at, which is how do we adopt a policy that prevents federal law enforcement officials from entering city-owned establishments to conduct immigration uh enforcement efforts? And then also, how do we adopt a policy, a zoning policy that would prevent DHS from purchasing and using a warehouse in El Paso for uh deportation uh things? Because DHS has purchased a warehouse in El Paso County that they're gonna be using as a part of this very much juiced up deportation apparatus. Uh but they had their, you know, police department come in, they had their zoning department come in, they had their city attorney's office come in, and their responses were very telling of just uh we can't stop them. We could institute a policy that requires any city employee to immediately alert their superiors, department heads, in the city attorney's office over this. So we have like attorneys on on standby for if there's something that we can sue over happens, uh, but we can't unilaterally bar them. And then the zoning person said, you know, like it's technically state and federal law more or less preempts the city on putting limitations of the state and the federal government from purchasing land in the city. But what we could do is set up a system to where it requires public notice, so it's a special use category. But it was a very kind of interesting discussion between the city council and their staff of like, okay, these are the things we want to do, come up with the way to do it. And the staff's like, I don't really think we can do it to the way that you're wanting to do it. Because nobody wants to get into hot water, I think, with the with the state on this. Uh and they're a little bit boxed in. So they're trying to walk a tightrope where nobody even knows where the tightrope is yet. And that's one of the things that litigation will clarify, you know, uh one way or the other.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Uh at some point.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

At some point. That's the one thing about litigation, it very rarely moves quickly.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

So if you want an answer tomorrow, you're not going to get it. Uh but you might get a temporary restraining order, you might get, you know, anything. There's a wide variety of once it gets into a courtroom where it will go and where it'll end up. But that conversation with the El Paso City Council, I thought was interesting because they're looking at all these other cities getting, you know, hit with the bark on. And it's like, okay, how do we tiptoe around this? Where do we have room to maneuver on this and where are the landmines? Uh and we're seeing other cities step on the landmines for sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Right. Right. Oh my goodness. Okay, that was a lot, but I'm happy that we ran through it. So I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

And if I got it wrong, I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm trying.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

I was going to say email us, call us, text us, text me. Want to know any perspectives.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Fax me. You can fax me statutes that I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

See, uh, grab Richie at Cap Cafe when he goes to pick up his inevitable second cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Find me at a variety of establishments in downtown Austin.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Uh okay. So there obviously is a lot of money tied up with the various different legal pursuits that we just finished talking about. Let's talk about a different type of money, which is campaign fundraising. Yeah. Just we got the latest round of numbers this week. Um do you want to run through top lines or shall I?

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Well I'll let you. I feel like I've been. The people are getting tired of hearing my voice. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Well, I think that uh one of the biggest things that of course everyone is all eyes on U.S. Senate race. Uh we already have a Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate uh in State Representative James Talerico, who brought in, I would, I think it's fair to say, uh, a whopping $27 million uh during the first quarter of 2026, um, which includes 10 million uh since the primary. Um that has set a new record, a new national record, actually. I national underscore, unsc underscore that word, national record for a Q1 haul. And uh Yeah, I mean he's pulled in Talerico has pulled in over forty million dollars since since launching his US Senate run, um, which is really I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

That's only there's there's hardly any words that can be said about it just because it's so much.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Right. Um okay, but I think the necessary second bullet point to this is that Taller Rico has 9.9 million cash on hand as of the end of March, which you know is shows that he's spending a lot of his money.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

He's spending a lot of money to make a lot of money. Uh which is, you know, I I was talking to a Republican operator on this, and he says uh his analysis was that Tal Rico is spending his money very smart because this is building out his list, this is building out his donor base, and this is getting people activated that then he can go back to later in it. And so, you know, the crack a couple eggs to make an omelet uh isn't it and you know if you look online, there's a lot of people, even on the the Democrat side of Twitter, who are like, where's Talerico? We haven't seen him, because he hasn't been as uh public-facing, I think, as he was obviously when he was in the primary against Jasmine Crockett. But what he has been doing is raising a ton of money. And that's uh, you know, what you have to do. Right. Now his cash on hand at the end of quarter one places him behind Colin Allred's cash on hand when he was going up against Cruz. But it places him above Beto's cash on hand when he was going up against Cruz. Um Yes.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

And just again, for historical context, I think a lot of people, right, are drawing parallels and Beto. Yes. And he but Beto raised $36 million in the third quarter of 2018 in his run against U.S. Senate.

unknown 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Ted Cruz. And I think that's the most ever raised in a quarter. Right, right. Calorico is the most ever raised in quarter one, I believe, is what the stats are there.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Uh so jumping over to the Republican side of the U.S. Senate race, uh longtime incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn uh raised nine million uh during the same time period, and he has eight million cash on hand. Um and then uh Paxton, the the Texas AG, raised two point two million and has two point six million cash on hand. So again, just interesting.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Uh what's yeah, a lot of and of course there have been a couple of polls that have come out on that runoff, which is still, I think, the most focused on Senate runoff in in the history, I mean in the in the country. Um and you know, in the first round, Cornyn beat Paxton, which was unexpected by a lot of the people. Very few polls had that as the outcome, but his cost per vote was many times higher than Paxton. So Cornyn had to to spend a ton of money between him and the supporting Pax to reach that number. Paxton didn't have to spend near as much to reach the number he reached. Right. Uh in the recent polling, there's been some uh polling that shows Cornyn uh in Paxton basically dead even, with Cornan a little bit up, and then there was a poll that came out, I think was it this morning or or yesterday, that had Paxton up by about eight points. And that's what most people's betting favorite is, is that you know, runoffs generally favor the who's considered the more conservative candidate. That would be Attorney General Paxton, and therefore Paxton has a national advantage going into a runoff. Uh but Corny has spent a ton of money. Uh and Paxton has started to spend as well. And uh, you know, we'll s we'll see, you know, it's not over to the polls closed.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

To the polls closed. Which is almost a month away, actually. The runoffs. Oh wow, is it you know, May 22nd, I believe, April 17th today. You're going to be listening to this April 18th. At least that's when the podcast comes out. Yeah, you can't do that. Hopefully you're listening to this over a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Yeah, a cup of coffee. Listening to the birds chirp on your back. Green weather has been. Other than it's been raining, but we need the rain.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Mosquitoes are already back. It's not very fun. Mosqueters. Yeah. Okay, so there's one more race that I think is worth highlighting on the money front, and then I know everybody is absolutely clamoring to hear about your somewhere in Texas.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

My Odyssey. My trials and tribulations.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

So this one's for CD34, uh US rep uh Vicente Gonzalez, and Republican challenger Eric Flores. I think that this is uh a seat that Republicans are viewing as a hopeful, if not likely, pickup come November. Um but both, you know, both candidates posted really large halls for the first part of this year. Um they're both uh sitting at around uh, you know, uh I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Gonzalez has a large cash-on-hand advantage of 1.8 million uh to Flores' 440,000. But again, like they are both showing an ability to bring in the money where it matters. So uh yes, CD34 is is one of the five districts that was redrawn by Republicans last year, and Flores, you know, won his crowded primary outright against Myra Flores and others, thanks to backing from Trump. So it's just gonna be interesting to see what this means on the money front uh in the coming months. Um, you know, also Gonzalez did have, I think, two competitive challengers the past the past two cycles, and he has he has won both of those times. So again, to your point about Paxton and Cornyn and who's bringing in more of the momentum, um, that's interesting about the the long time incumbent.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

And money's not everything, but it is a lot.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

It is something. It is something. Yeah, it's no, it really is. It really is. So um okay, so if you haven't already, I would encourage you to just open up Richie's fault line from this week, which is stranded and saved in Texas USA. Um in which he just describes in I don't know if the right word is eloquent. Of course you're writing is eloquent, but oh stop, you're gonna make it like kind of like the I I I felt a little bit on edge while reading it because I was like, your car broke down in the middle of nowhere, and it was a Sunday, and you didn't really have anywhere to go, and there were no no clear answers on what had happened to your car. So I was a little bit just as a very type A person, I was like, what's gonna happen to your car? But you're here now.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

I'm here now.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

You're here now, so obviously you made it back okay. Can you just give us a little bit of story time?

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Yeah, well, you know, it was your idea for me to write up the the trek back because you know I I keep you and Brad updated on uh most of the elements of my life, maybe too many at times. Uh and so, and obviously this uh applies to to work because it was not looking likely that I was going to uh make it back to Austin by Sunday evening uh and potentially by Monday. And at that point, God only knew when I was going to get back. So to set the scene, Brad and I had gone out to East Texas, as we've discussed on last week's podcast out in Nackydochius. Beautiful place. I'm an East Texas boy from Kilgore, and so Brad leaves Knack and comes back to Austin. I go up to Kilgore Longview area, where my uncle lives and grandmother and all of that. A lot of my cousins still live there, and spend the weekend out there with them. Lovely time. Go to the old hometown, Kilgore, Texas, population a little over 13,000 people. Uh, home to what used to be the richest acre uh on earth, is what it was called, because of all the drilling of oil that was done in the 1930s. And this is before you have kind of the regulations on derrick density and capture laws and stuff like that. Um, and so in one acre, there was dozens of oil derricks all drilling in. I mean, they would drill in through uh the foundations. Of a church, I think, in one instance. And in the area during Christmas, they light up these uh replacement kind of steel derricks. They were all wooden back then with uh these big stars and Christmas lights, and it's really you know nice and pleasant. Uh you go there now, there's no question that this is certainly not the richest acre on earth. The situation back in the 30s, though, was such that uh the governor, Governor Sterling, had to institute martial law. And so it was the Adjutant General Bill Sterling, who that's his book right there, because he was trials uh and uh trails of a Texas Ranger. He actually shot and killed my great-great-great-grandfather in Mission, Texas. That guy. So he was responsible of instituting martial law in East Texas during the 30s, during the big oil boom there. All this, whatever. I love Texas history. Yeah, um that's when my family lived in East Texas as well. So uh, anyways, have a good weekend out there. It's Sunday, go to church, get on the road. It's raining, it's wet, I've got four and a half hours to get back to Austin. I had just had my car service the week previous because one of those pesky little lights kept coming on uh of the battery. So I take it in, uh, my dad suggests, because you know, city boy, not a much car guy, uh, that it might be the alternator. So I walk in and very confidently say, please uh check out the alternator, you know, as if I knew anything. Anyways, they do this Austin auto shop, uh, and they tell me the alternator's fine, it was just a battery issue. They threw in a new battery, lights off, whatever. Cruise down to Tanakh, all over the place, totally fine. On the road back, the battery light comes back on. Go, hmm. It's interesting. Uh but it's an old car. This is a 2006 Toyota front forerunner. Used to be the family car. Uh my sister had wrecked it in the past. Throw her on the bus there. Um there are lights that just don't turn off, and it's fine. Uh, it's got 325,000 miles on it. A lot of miles. Uh and I keep driving. I'm thinking of stopping somewhere for lunch, but every place is full because people are getting out of church, so I just keep driving. Then all of a sudden, more lights come on. And then the radio goes out, and then the AC goes out, and then the lights go out on the dash, and then the uh speedometer little needle starts going to zero while I'm cruising down the road at 70 miles an hour, it starts going to zero and then bouncing back and zero back back, and then the gas pedal stops working. It's like ooh man. And I had just passed the town of Jewett, which has, I think, twelve hundred people, and I was entering into the grand metropolis of Mark Markey, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Which has, I think, about 140 people in it. There is one intersection uh on the highway with two gas stations and a restaurant that I was actually thinking about stopping at called the Branding Iron. Car dies. It is losing steam. I can't even turn on my hazards because there's no juice in the car anymore. Uh I am able to roll it into the gas station, which has two pumps. Um, and it's kind of busy right now. And so I immediately call my mechanic in residence, uh, Scott Ritchie, my dad, go, hey, I'm in a tight spot right now. He asks me to pop the hood. I I go out and he asks me to start looking at things, and I go, like, okay, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

But anyways, we more or less know it's probably the alternator. Because obviously I just got the battery, whatever. And then a very nice gentleman comes up behind me and uh asks in a uh very accented Spanish voice if I'm having any trouble. You know, say goodbye to my dad, talking to this gentleman about it. He tells me there's no mechanic in town. It's probably the alternator, and he gives me a jump with his truck, uh, and we do a little test, you know, where you take off one of the terminals from the battery, and if the car dies immediately, you know it's the alternator because it's not charging, so there's no whatever. We do all this, he lets me charge up my battery for a little while, and then we have a decision to make. Do I go on to Hearn, which is a little bit of a bigger town, and it's got an open O'Reilly's, or do I backtrack past Jewett to Buffalo, uh, which both ultimately very small towns, but they'd have an open O'Reilly's. Hearn is 30 minutes, Buffalo's 20 minutes, he very strongly, this gentleman, whose name I never was able to understand. Uh, and I felt bad to keep asking. Uh, these East Sexis ears, you know, not great. And my hair's so long, I can't hear anything, anyways. I know, I'm sorry. People tell me, people tell me. I know, right? I need to get a haircut. I just keep getting stranded. I can't do it. I probably could have if I got stuck somewhere. Um, but anyways, I backtrack, I turn the car around. Let's go to let's go back towards East Texas into Buffalo. I get exactly eight minutes down the road, car dies again. It's raining, there's now no intersection. I'm not didn't even make it to Jewitt. There's nothing. There's a little gravel easement on the side that leads into, I think, an oil and gas service entrance or whatever. I park there. It's like, well, what to do now? Uh and so I just decided to call up the auto parts store and like, hey, I'm in a tight spot. I need a battery. Uh I don't have any tools on me. My tool bag is actually here in the office. Uh can y'all help me out here? But it's Sunday, they don't have any delivery drivers. But the the lady who answered the phone tells me, you know what, I go on break in 30 minutes. I can bring you out the battery and bring my my ratchet set, and uh we can get it, we can get it changed if you don't mind waiting that long. It's like, ma'am, I'm not going anywhere. You've got nowhere to be all day. Uh so she very kindly comes out. We slap in the battery, fires up. Okay, we're back. Now what to do? Because I have no idea how long this battery will last, because it's not recharging. I've only got the juice that's on it. And so I look at the good old map. The closest town that has a uh auto full service auto shop open on a Sunday is Bryan.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

So that's only an hour away. Austin is still two and a half hours. So I ship off down to Bryan, make it to the shop, put it in, and uh they tell me it's gonna be a day. So I spend days stranded out in Bryan. And it's actually a lovely town. I got a chicken fried steak for eight dollars and fifty cents in downtown Bryan.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

And it came with a cider two.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

Yeah, it's a big old well, I just got water, but I almost got a milkshake because it had the bluebell milkshakes there. It's just so it was uh it was a topsy churvy tale of being absolutely screwed by people going out of their way to help me out of the predicament that I was in. So it was really fun, it was really enjoyable to get to write about it. Uh, and then also, too, you know, when you're off the beaten, and I had taken that path specifically because I had not driven that route from Austin to East Texas before.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

So I'd even added a couple of bit of time just to go through a different part of the country side than what I was used to. So I didn't want to go through Waco, I didn't want to go through uh some of the other uh routes that were more southern, going closer to Houston, uh, which led to me getting stuck in Marquet. Um and uh yeah, you know, it was just it was kind of enjoyable. Beautiful, beautiful scenes. I mean, Brad gives me such a difficult time over this because I think cows are one of the most gorgeous sights you can ever see. They're God's immaculate machine. I mean, a cow has everything you need for life. Oh my gosh. It's got hide, it's got milk, it's got meat, it's got just about everything. The only thing it doesn't do is lay an egg. Um, and then you have chickens and other varieties for that. Uh but also, you know, it's still just old Texas. You've got the the you know oil pumps, the nodding donkeys, all of this stuff, and the people are just normal people. So it was it was really fun. I actually enjoyed the experience. Uh 10 out of 10 would recommend getting stranded in Texas.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

Please, if you are ever going to be road tripping again, make sure that your alternator does not work so that you can have an experience similar to Rivers.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

Brad's gonna Brad's gonna go sabotage my car every time we're going somewhere so that I I get to to write about some random experience and sidequest. I'm a big side quester. I love a good side quest.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

A good side quest is always a fun time, yes.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Uh I always give Brad a lot of grief because he'll go places and I'll be like, Well, what's the story? And he goes, Oh, there wasn't any story. Like, he's gonna come back from Ohio. And I hope you listen to this, Bradley. He's gonna come back from Ohio and not have any fun stories to tell.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Not a single one.

SPEAKER_02 53:43

I don't even drive home without getting a good story. I feel like a you know, a dog that like brings you a possum that it finds and lays it on your door. Like, if I'm going somewhere, I am going to come back with a tale to tell. Otherwise, I feel like I'm not doing my like patriotic duty as a good God-fearing citizen, you know.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Well, I'm glad that you're back, but I'm also glad that you had this experience because I thought that it was it was a great experience to not only tell, but to write about.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I I got a lot of a lot of people reaching out saying they they enjoyed getting to read about it. So it was happy I could entertain you all with my tales of And some little like Texas history mixed in.

SPEAKER_00 54:25

It was great. Yeah, like well, you know, you know you're a history buff and all that.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

I love looking at a map and then trying to determine, okay, what it and this is, you know, maybe I had a little too much Tylenol as a kid. Uh I love looking at maps. And then you can tell so much of the history of a town and its development by the way that the grid pattern of the streets is uh built. Um just from that. And then if there's a rail line there, it gives you some more. So like if you look at a map, it gives you so many clues. And then I'll go to uh the Handbook of Texas. That's a first edition from the 50s right there. But they, you know, the online has all of the things about all the various little towns. Uh, and then I'll go and and check to see if I got the basic outline correct on these little different towns. Um and so it's just kind of fun. The little things I do to entertain myself.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

Brad uh Jonathan Ritchie, certified Texan.

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

Brad Johnson, not certified Texan.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

Brad Johnson. He's never been to you have you been to a rodeo?

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Oh yeah. Okay, yeah. I'm I'm the Texan through and through. I know, I know. Two out of three.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

We're a majority Texas owned business. Yes. And then Brad.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

Well, thank you for inviting me on. It was getting to chat with you. And I hope that everyone listening has a great, wonderful weekend. Until I guess next week. Until next week. I probably won't be here. So it'll be it'll be Brad.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

Maybe. We'll see. But maybe the maybe the people will not want Brad back on because he's just I you know, he's not he's not as personal. What other things? We love Brad. I actually had to make a statement. Brad Johnson is one of my best friends. We enjoy each other's time together. And any suggestions or allegations that we hate each other. Rumors afoot. I know, rumors afoot that we're friends. Brad and I hate each other and we hate each other like a brother, you know, which means we love each other. But not that way. But not that.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

You guys are best friends. Period. End of sentence. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

Yeah, that's why we started a company together. So, well, I hope y'all have enjoyed this episode of Texas Bullpen. If you haven't yet, go to Texasbullpen.com, subscribe. Uh $20 a month or $200 a year. So for the cost of one martini a month or one dinner a year, you get daily news updates on the inside ball-knowing happenings of Texas politics inside the Capitol from uh yours truly, us here. Uh, you also get two uh weekly columns from Brad and I. And then on Saturday, we have our kind of Scoville scale where we rate the top five spiciest things that happen in Texas politics. So you will never have a lack for reading if you subscribe to Texas Bullpin. Our readers are not only the most educated, but I've told studies show the most uh beautiful readership in the state of Texas. And uh there's no superlative high enough for our lovely subscriber. So thank you so much. Hope you've enjoyed the episode, and we hope you have a lovely weekend.