LIV News! Should independents vote in the primary? ICE Melts Our Wallets • Bettencourt's bad bets for Lt. Dan on data centers • Water Hearing Report!

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If you're a member or donor to LIV, you can email us for a private view of last Monday night's meeting HERE.

This Monday @8 pm, we are holding a members/donors only meeting to discuss, "Should Independents Vote in the Primaries, if so which one and for whom?" Join LIV and join us!

ICE Melts Our Wallets Thanks to Two-Party Meltdown

The fight between the Ds and Rs on immigration related to DHS/ICE funding decision has, for the moment, led to a partial shutdown. The only good news is that America is figuring out how we got into a booby trap with the butt ugly "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB). The administration's step-and-fetchers in the GOP locked and loaded a new paramilitary style Immigration and Custom Enforcement Agency (ICE).

At our LIV forum last Monday night, no one said we don't need immigration reform. But no one wanted militarized streets with a fiscally bloated ($75 billion), unaccountable, ill-trained, masked police force with too much money in its pocket.

Now, during the shutdown the only agencies that have to worry are FEMA,TSA and the Coast Guard. ICE is sitting pretty with funding for four years. Yes, American taxpayers have been had!

To be fair, it wasn't just the Trump Administration that got us into this mess. The booby trap was set over the last 40 years with mounting federal debt that -- we believe -- couldn't be handled in a two-party system. When Perot left the building, many experiments with independent politics and parties also failed. LIV is designed to learn from our best teacher -- failure -- as do scientists, engineers and smart businesses.

Wake up and smell the coffee, folks!

Check out this recently released piece by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in "What Would a Fiscal Crisis Look Like?" America is on its way to being broke. This administration's actions are pressing pedal to the metal, pissing off our allies, much less countries fearing U.S. militarism will target them if they haven't already.

For us, there's no way out without opening up our political system to competitive elections, and the competition of ideas that accompanies them.

Elections across the country are -- thankfully -- more competitive at least in the primaries because independents are aware that they can settle the score in contested races.

We are also hopeful about independent candidates seeking ballot access in Texas with petitions starting on March 4. That's the day after the primary election.

Remember, Texas holds an open primary. Primary voting in the major parties starts on Tuesday, February 17. Election day is Tuesday, March 3

Note: Our nonpartisan municipal elections are in May or November.

Voters can go to the polls starting next Tuesday and pick a Republican or Democratic ballot.

Please note if you vote in the primary, you may not be able to sign a petition for an independent candidate. But, anyone can gather signatures.

HERE is where you can find your sample ballot.

Who's running in the primaries is on the Secretary of State's portal HERE. CAUTION: The SOS still does not clearly include minor party candidates (Libertarians and Greens) or the independents in the same useful portal, but they're not on the ballot until the November general election.

An independent (no party) candidate running for any statewide office, however, has an enormous petition hurdle. Mike Collier, who filed to run as an independent against Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, will have to gather over 81,000 signatures in 114 days from voters who did not vote in the primary. Petitioning for independents starts on March 4, the day after the primary UNLESS there's a runoff, in which case independents must wait until the runoff to petition, giving them just 30 days to collect signatures.

Our minor parties in Texas -- the Libertarian Party and Green Party -- will have candidates on the November ballot after they nominate candidates at their conventions on April 11.

Recommended Reads:

Politico on Federal Judges (even Trump appointees) rebuke administration's immigration policies HERE