DICKINSON — The Daily News hosted a forum for Galveston County Sheriff candidates Wednesday night at the Barber Middle School auditorium, located at 5651 FM 517 East. The event was open to the public and streamed live to the Internet.

The six Republicans and one Democrat seeking to be sheriff came together to answer questions posed by The Daily News and its readers.



Special thanks to the Dickinson School District for helping to make this event possible.

Three days after Precinct 1 County Commissioner Patrick Doyle announced he would not seek re-election, there are now five candidates seeking the office. Four are Republican and one is a Democrat.

First up, League City attorney Winston Cochran filed to replace Doyle as the Democratic Party nominee. No one else filed as a Democrat so Cochran, who in 2010 ran for Congress in District 14, will be the nominee.

Things are not so clear for the GOP. Ryan Dennard, whose been running for the Republican nomination for the county commissioners since January 2011, now has three opponents.

As expected, longtime Pct. 7 Justice of the Peace Mark Foster of Kemah resigned from office and tossed his hat into the ring for county commissioner. Texas City dentist Bill Chuoke had already formally filed for office after running a campaign for several months.

And Maryanne Rogers of Crystal Beach switched from her original plan to run in Precinct 3 and joined the race for the Precinct 1 GOP primary. Rogers had filed in Precinct 3 when the original redistricting map had the Bolivar Peninsula in Precinct 3.

The new map switched Bolivar back into Precinct 1.

Also Tuesday, the GOP held the ballot draw to determine what order the candidates would be on the ballot. Dennard will be atop the ballot followed by Chuoke, then Rogers and finally Foster.

Early voting begins May 14 and primary day is May 29.

GALVESTON — The Daily News hosted a forum for mayoral candidates at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ball High School auditorium, located at 4115 Ave. O. The event was free and open to the public. The event was streamed live to the Internet.



The four candidates for Galveston mayor — incumbent Joe Jaworski and challengers Beau Rawlins, Greg Roof and Lewis Rosen — participated in the forum. Mainland Editor TJ Aulds served as the forum's moderator.

The format consisted of opening statements from candidates, questions for the candidates as developed by the newspaper’s staff and readers, followed by closing statements.

Galveston Mayoral Forum



Special thanks to the Galveston Independent School District and Joe Tramonte Realty for helping to make this event possible.

Monday night was ballot-drawing night for the Galveston County Democratic and Republican parties in advance of the May 29 (we hope) primaries.

Related links: Galveston County Democratic Party ballot order
Galveston County Republican Party ballot order

As always, candidates in contested races wanted to be first on the ballot. Some see it as an advantage to getting elected if your name is above the rest of your opponents.

But in Galveston County, is that necessarily true?

We did a quick check on the 2010 primaries and pulled the three contested local races from each party's primary. In each case, the candidates listed No. 1 on the ballot won two of three contested races.

Most instances show it was close calls. We've listed the in the order the candidates appeared on the ballot.

Galveston County GOP Primary 2010
County Court No. 1
George Schilter 30%
John Grady 70%

District Clerk
Jason Murray 59%
Tina Longcoy 40%

County Commissioner Pct. 2
Kevin O'Brien 50%
Joe Giusti 49%

Galveston County Democratic Primary 2010
County Judge Court No. 2
Steve Baker 42%
Suzanne Schwab Radcliffe 57%

County Clerk
Doug Godinich 51%
Brandy Chapman 49%

Justice of the Peace Pct. 3
Sonny James 62%
Keith Bell 37%

In the November 2010 general election, the Republican candidates all drew the top spot on the ballot and in the 11 local contested races, the GOP candidates won every race including county judge, all three county courts, probate judge, district clerk, county clerk, county commissioner Pct. 2 and the district court races.

Last week reporter Christopher Smith Gonzalez reported on the fact that La Marque school district trustee Shirley Fanuiel did not completely fill out her candidate form for the upcoming trustee election, and her seat might be vacant after the May election.

Related story: LMISD trustee seat could be empty in May

Fanuiel did not fill out her birth date or her occupation.

With the backing of the secretary of state's office, school board secretary Joe Cantu said he doesn't plan to certify Fanuiel eligible for the upcoming election. The Daily News obtained a copy of the application for place on the ballot that's in question.

The secretary of state's office confirmed to The Daily News as well 1) It is up to the election officer whether to accept the application. In this case that appears to be Cantu and 2) Once the filing deadline has passed, an application may not be amended.

You can check out the application for yourself.

Shirley Fanuiel's application for place on ballot.

After saying that the differences between the state and those opposing the legislatures redistricting plan were "insurmountable," even though the two sides are not that off on some of the maps. The state's senatorial, state house and congressional district lines are at question in the lawsuit.

More on this story from The Texas Tribune.

The federal panel hearing the arguments Tuesday in San Antonio indicated that an April primary would be nearly impossible for the state. One judge suggested that Texas move its primary to the summer.

That of course would leave Texas with a diminished role in the Republican nomination for president. On the local front it also means candidates for county seats are in limbo.

The arguments over the state maps seem to also be putting on delay a Galveston federal panel's decision on Galveston County's county commissioner and justices of the peace/constables maps.

So if you are a candidate, patience is now a real virtue. If you're a voter, I wish I had better news.

Two federal court decisions connected to redistricting in Texas were handed down Friday. The Supreme Court of the United States rejected redistricting maps for congressional and state legislature lines a federal judges' panel in San Antonio created.

At about the same time, a three-judge panel here ruled that the county's redistricting maps could go forward. But the judges said if the department of justice doesn't act on those maps by Tuesday, they would step in again and find a "remedy" to challenges to the maps for constables and justices of the peace and the county commissioners precincts.

Confused?

You are not alone. The Supreme Court is not going to hear the state case until Jan. 9. That could threaten the March primaries. Some worry that the decision could push the primaries off to the summer.

Stay tuned, there's bound to be more confusion.