Fifth Most Liberal
Today is the first day of summer, but you know that.
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One of my best friends and client, State Sen. Carol Alvarado, is the fifth most liberal member of the Texas State Senate.
Mark P. Jones, the Political Science Fellow at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, came out with his biannual ranking of Texas State Senate members, and he has Sen. Alvarado at number 5. The Dean is number 6.
Here is the Trib article on the ranking: Analysis: The 2023 Texas Senate, from right to left | The Texas Tribune.
The featured photo today is Sen. Alvarado and the H-Town fire chief from last December.
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Working on The Dean’s campaign for H-Town mayor, we see articles written about the race. We saw one the other day that described The Dean as a “conservative labor Democrat.” Huh? And the writer of the article was from H-Town. Oh, brother.
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State Sen. Carol Alvarado posted this yesterday on a bill that she passed this session. See this:
Police departments across the state are reporting lower recruitment numbers every year. That’s why I’m proud to have authored & passed SB 252 w/ Ryan Guillen in the 88th #txlege!
Lawful permanent residents who’ve been honorably discharged from the military & are on the path to citizenship can now become peace officers. I am grateful for the support from law enforcement across the state & from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Special thanks to Philip A. Cortez, Victoria Neave for Texas State Representative & Hubert Vo for their efforts on this issue.
Houston Police Officers’ Union Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, CLEAT TMPA Dallas Police Department Dallas Police Association FOP 716 Harris County Sheriff’s Office Bexar County Sheriff’s Office
She kept this under the radar for obvious reasons.
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This is a KHOU-TV Channel 11 news story that came out a couple of days ago:
HOUSTON — The announcement that Houston City Council Member Michael Kubosh is dropping out of the race for Houston City Controller comes two days after KHOU 11 Investigates began asking Kubosh about questionable campaign finance expenses.
Kubosh had pledged to be a “budget watchdog” and “fight for transparency at City Hall and its budget” in his bid for city controller. He dropped out of the race Monday for health reasons, days after KHOU told him it reviewed nearly 1,700 pages of his campaign finance reports and cross-referenced those with social media posts made by Kubosh and his family members.
The analysis reveals thousands of dollars of expenses that appear for personal use, which is not allowed under Texas Ethics Commission rules.
In a February 2022 YouTube post, titled “Mike’s 71st Birthday at Marvino’s Italian Steakhouse,” Kubosh is seen thanking family members for attending his birthday celebration.
“We’re family, don’t ever forget that,” Kubosh said in the video.
His campaign finance report shows a $634.84 “food/beverage expense” at the same steakhouse in the same timeframe.
Another YouTube video in August 2022 is titled “Christopher Kubosh 41st Birthday Celebration” and shows several Kubosh family members singing at a Mexican restaurant.
It too shows up on his campaign finance reports — a $216.50 food and beverage expense in the same timeframe.
There are also several YouTube videos from a June 2022 family vacation in Wyoming in which Michael Kubosh, his wife Glenda and brother Randall Kubosh attended. KHOU discovered corresponding campaign expenses during the same timeframe as that vacation.
They include a $420.64 rental car charge and $168 for airport parking. Both items are labeled as “travel in district.”
“It’s a huge problem,” said Anthony Gutierrez, Executive Director of the non-profit watchdog Common Cause Texas.
“An officeholder may not use campaign contributions for family, entertainment or recreation, period… That is exactly what Mr. Kubosh seems to be doing.”
KHOU shared with Gutierrez a list of 20 questionable campaign expenses and corresponding social media videos. They include other expenses for family meals, and airport parking charges during out-of-state trips. The items span six years of Kubosh’s nine-year city council tenure and total $7,754.76.
“This is purely entertainment and recreation,” Gutierrez said. “And that’s exactly the thing that ethics commission said you can’t do this with your campaign dollars.”
I must hand it to the Channel 11 investigating team to be able to match social media postings to personal expenditures. Nice work.
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We got back to winning last night.
The homie ends this afternoon.
