Search this site

LIV's Luke Hayes, Bastrop pecan farmer with Liz Sumter Gajdos, independent candidate for Hays County Judge, August 5, Texas State University Family Farm Conference, San Marcos Though it's true that most everyone these days complains about politics and politicians, they -- we -- do little about it. How come? There's no place for voters to come together on the things we agree on. And, the parties simply won't allow it...until now, at least. LIV Hubs are a place for people from across party lines to discuss, debate and solve problems. LIV Hubs are being seeded as Texas is now in play between the major parties. Former Hays County Judge Liz Sumpter Gajdos (once elected as a Democrat) is running again, this time as an independent. Luke Hayes, a LIV active member, and Liz are planting seeds for LIV Hubs. What are voters considering splitting their tickets actually looking for?: people who won't play party politics and with big money donors with strings attached. Yesterday, Quorum Report reported the bitter split in the top brass of the Texas GOP (by a 29/28 vote) resulting in a failure to condemn two major Republican leaders -- John Cornyn and Sid Miller for not supporting the full GOP ticket. LIV is not a party or a PAC, but we are allowed as a 501(c)(4) nonpartisan organization to endorse candidates we believe are independent, regardless of their party. So far, with more to come, LIV has proudly endorsed! Trust Liz HAYS COUNTY: Liz Sumter Gajdos for Hays County Judge. We already know all about Liz's independence and principles. Years ago, she fought for Bastrop, Lee, Burleson and Milam county's water alongside her own in Hays County. What's more, her Democratic opponent in this election is on a roll to raise more than $60,000 from the AI data center and development industries. LIV has also endorsed 5 Austin City Council Candidates District 1 candidate, Steven Brown is holding this small donor fundraiser this Thursday. He's one of the best candidates we've seen in District 1 since Ora Houston, who also endorses Brown. See our full endorsement article with all their sites here. See the Visit home page for Katie's events today and tomorrow. We hope to see you in Austin on Sunday, September 27 for this Forward Party Event! Most of these City Council candidates and the very special Congressional District 10 Candidate, Caitlyn Rourk* will be speaking at the -- People v. Politics Film Screening and panels -- next Sunday. Reserve a free seat, as seating is limited. *LIV's interest in the CD10 race is the stark contrast between Caitlin Rourk, a veteran and "diplomacy first" advocate and her opponent, Chris Gober, Elon's Musk attorney for Ameria PAC that gerrmandered CD10 for himself!

Greg Abbott and Gina Hinojosa: Photo Credit: Texas Observer We love political coincidences. We love political consequences even more. What we love the most is a horse race! Why? Sometimes ordinary people win something even before the votes are counted. On September 17, the top-tier pollsters at the ReconMR Texas Poll released this poll conducted between September 8 - 11, 2026. The results make plain there is a dead heat in the Governor's race with State Representative Gina Hinojosa's numbers on the uptick against Governor Greg Abbott. The very same day the poll was released, the Texas Tribune reported the HUGE news, $12 billion in Medicaid funds restored to Texas hospitals, ending impasse with the feds. We can't wait to see what else gets thrown on the table by the Abbott (Trump) administration before election day, Tuesday, November 3rd. How about some local control? Abbott's pay-to-play regime ripped local control from Republican resistors to education vouchers. The control local governments need to keep AI data centers and gas plants galore from running amok. Did you know the people trying to live in beautiful Blue, Texas, a rural community in Lee County, were told they weren’t “affected parties” by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) unless they were within 526 feet of a 1200 megawatt gas plant? Thanks to the kit and kaboodle of legislators and statewide officials who work for "the lobby," while pretending to represent Texans, Texas is finally in play. Democrats would be wise to pay strict attention to what engaged independent voters want most. It’s very simple because most Democrats support this -- electoral competition that rests on fair petition access to the ballot. Texas is a festering mess of muck that won’t be cleaned up easily without the full enfranchisement of nonaligned, independent voters.

That's Lee Marvin drinking with his horse in the 1965 film Cat Ballou We are postponing our discussion with SAWDF's Andy Wier on water and industrialization to next Monday. We were a bit taken aback this morning when the Bastrop County Commissioners Court appeaed to violate the Texas Open Meetings Act after our warning. Then again, maybe we missed something. Tonight at 8 pm, we'll talk about what happened today at the Bastrop Commissioners Court. We will also share with your more about our testimony today focused on a number of open government -- or lack thereof -- practices of the County and what we can do about it. Are you asking, just who is steering this poor old horse to drink? Here's an excerpt from the Austin Business Journal's senior writer, Justin Sayers from his September 12 article entitled, Data centers swarm rural Cedar Creek, leaving neighbors on edge: Boom go the data centers in a woodsy part of Central Texas: "Perhaps no area is being hit harder by Texas' data center boom than Cedar Creek in Bastrop County. The Austin Business Journal has tabulated more than 5,500 acres of data center projects in the area. Some are nearing completion, others are just starting and the rest are in the planning stages – and it's widely believed other data center developers are circling." All of Texas is in this together, folks! Hope to see you at 8! RSVP

As always, we appreciate the fine work of our friends at the Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund for producing this important water report, • 512.545.4779 • www.simsborowaterdefensefund.org There are two remaining Public Hearings on the Proposed Desired Future Conditions (DFCs) for aquifers within Groundwater Management Area 12 [GMA-12]. POSGCD - Tuesday, September 15, 2026 @ 5:30pm LPGCD - Wednesday, September 16, 2026 @ 3:30pm Claire Marks from LPGCD was quoted about the DFC process in the August 13 Giddings Times & News: The DFCs we set today help answer an important question: What do we want our aquifers to look like in 50 years? Your voice plays a role in that answer… we encourage you to stay informed, attend a hearing, and be part of the conversation about the future of groundwater in our region. Read the remainder of SAWDF's important report here.

L to R: LIV proudly endorses Steven Brown (District 1), Neha Shah (District 3, David Weinberg (District 5), Jeffrey Bowen (District 8), and Katie Kam (District 9). Click on their names to visit their websites. LIV proudly issues our Austin City Council endorsements. City Council races in Texas are nonpartisan. Austin holds its council elections in November. LIV used a 70-point scoring system to evaluate candidates based on 7 questions addressing the Council’s “secret” vote for a 400MW power plant, the Austin Convention Center, Dogs Head and AI data centers (thanks to Julie Oliver’s short video), petition rights and communications with lobbyists. See the questionnaire here. No on Prop G: It harms your right to petition. It’s on your ballot with 9 other measures we'll tell you more about soon. Prop G could effectively kill citizen initiative petitions by employing a highly manipulative scheme to limit placement on the ballot to only even-year November elections. From the Austin Free Press, July 31 edition: Environmentalist Robin Schneider said voters approved the August 1992 Save Our Springs water-quality ordinance with “high turnout.” But the council’s delayed implementation of it let developers grandfather numerous projects under the lenient former rules. “The SOS petition shows the dangers of a council that will not put things on the ballot in a timely way,” she said. “Sometimes we all need to be held accountable, and accountability delayed can be accountability denied. LIV is a nonpartisan membership association for independent (not aligned with a single party) voters, not a party or political action committee. District Map for Austin City Council

Deception, deceit and dysfunction of party machines has voters -- especially independents -- in search of a new horse to ride. Might that be a movement to split their tickets? Look here, folks. If Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and State Senator Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) who chairs the powerful Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce, can't get the PUCT to hold their horses on moving forward with the highly controversial 765kv power lines Texas landowners are up in arms about, who can? LIV has long called him King Greg, He and his team have been caught playing tricks on Will King Greg Abbott use his emergency powers to kneel to regular Texans? Texans' local control, having heeled to his billionaire donors affecting rural, suburban and urban Texans. It is well-established that many conservative rural Republicans are ready to switch their horses in the Governor's race. See Politico article, "'We are not a bunch of woke Marxist liberals here': Rural voters scramble Texas election." Can their numbers make a difference? There are approximately 8+ million Texas independent voters. Texas independents do not salute any single party. When we vote, we are open to considering candidates from both major parties, the minor parties (Libertarian and Green) and the very few who made it to the ballot as "independents" with no party affiliation. Click to hear Austin activist, Julie Oliver tell it! We can't let Democrats off the hook either! Democrats, like Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and his dutiful city council, four of whom are on the ballot in November, are playing data center dancing games with real estate and data center developers. Watch local Austin and Democratic activist, Julie Oliver, nail them on the Dog's Head development giveaway the current Council is trying to bury like a bone! You should also find this page on Dog's Head at Save Our Springs Alliance helpful on the impact of the development on the Colorado River. Are Texans ready to switch horses? LIV will soon be announcing endorsements in some local, state and federal races through a bottom-up process involving our members.

Jason Wolff, independent for Bexar County District Attorney, brings love and a big following of young people to the criminal justice system. What's the GOP so worried about that they filed a petition lawsuit to remove Jason Wolff from the November ballot, as they seek to stop a three-way competition for DA? The GOP lost the highly qualified former Republican Judge, Jason Wolff, just like they're losing independents across the state of Texas. Wolff is attempting to give Bexar County voters a nonpartisan independent meaningful option. Wolff said to the San Antonio Report about this case: “Every circulator and each signature collected were real,” Wolff said. “The Republican candidate and party, not the voters whose voices matter, are trying to limit Bexar County’s choice for district attorney. They will not be successful." For LIV this case is all about electoral competition. We wish independent candidate Jason Wolff the very best in his quest for ballot access. The case goes to court tomorrow on Tuesday, September 1. It wouldn't surprise us if the Judge immediately rules from the bench.

Did the City of Bastrop caught? Watch Rep. Shelby Slawson (R-Granbury) artfully question the Mayor and City Manager starting at 10:17:00. "Foundations such as BHEF [Barbers Hill Education Foundation] are holding/spending tax dollars, and lax oversight (not subject to Texas Public Information Act records or open meetings laws) is a prescription for disaster. I also wonder what other basic financial controls are missing? And does anyone else think it’s absurd that school boards even consider such schemes to outsmart the state and avoid recapture payments? This tells you how dysfunctional our school funding system has become in Texas." Mike Collier, financial auditor and Independent Texan. The Texas House Committee on Oversight, Select held an marathon 11-hour+ interim hearing on Wednesday, August 26, focused on Education Foundations, the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) and the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA). The committee hearing notice and this Texas Dispatch article Counties Call the Public Information Act Weaponized; Transparency Groups Call It Toothless gives a decent pro and con overview. We also watched the scrutiny given to the decision by the Bastrop City Council to hold a "retreat" 140 miles away in Fredericksburg. Mayor Ishmael Harris' testimony, as well as Bastrop City Manager Sylvia Carrillo's, made clear that the "retreat" was really a two day meeting with a two page agenda. Though no action was taken at the meeting -- which would have been a clear violation of TOMA -- it's seems to us that the City of Bastrop did get caught violating the spirit of it. What was of equal interest to us is the guy who alerted the media about the City of Bastrop's lapse in judgement. It was none other than State Rep. Stan Gerdes. Gerdes got caught too. This is how Gerdes operates, including using social media to throw his weight around. And for what purpose, really? To deliver to the GOP establishment attacks on local control. We most appreciated the testimony of Kelley Shannon, the Executive Director of the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation, starting at 6:10:00. Here's our challenge to independent voters of Texas. Let's say you are confronted with similar violations of the spirit or intent of TOMA and TIPIA. Do you care enough to do something about it? LIV is here to help you take appropriate action. In the meantime, choose your officials wisely in this election. Do they care about open government and fair play or do have ulterior motives?

, Attendees at today's Bastrop Commissioners Court expressed concern today about Pacifico, EdgeConneX and mass industrialization without their notification or consent. We hope you good people across the state dealing with this problem can learn something from the mistakes made along the road to local control. This morning, the Bastrop Commissioners Court passed this data center resolution, something we at LIV supported along with the Commissioners Court. But it was, well, just weird with the Court taking one step forward and two steps back today. I believe it was their attempt to limit public comments, triggering some in the audience to get rowdy and surly. Both "sides" missed the point. The point was a friendly amendment to the resolution offered by Elgin resident and attorney Nick Lealos, and Cedar Creek resident Merrie Santana and some of the leading organizers of the recent Pacifico Town Hall, along with.many other fine residents of Cedar Creek. They asked the court to reach the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on their behalf and ask TCEQ to pull Pacifico’s pending minor air quality permit application and convert it to a major air permit application. The latter permit process would invoke a more robust TCEQ review with the possibility of stronger pollution controls, a public hearing, and the opportunity to contest the permit before an independent administrative law judge. (We wrote about that last Friday, Are you fighting a power plant and data center like Bastrop?) Bottom line, making this request is clearly something the Court -- either the County Judge or three commissioners -- can still do. In other words, we need to find out if this was just a bump in the road to local control by hanging in there! Since they didn't pass the amendment today, the Judge or any three of the four commissioners may call a special meeting with 72 hours notice and pass a resolution to send to TCEQ. If you want them to do this, send them a polite and respectful email. Remember, it's not a time to get angry (though we understand people, including the court, are human). But, please for the love of god, don't get angry, get organized. In fact, if you were one of the people who got sideways with the court today, we suggest you reach them, apologize and try to have a real conversation. If they refuse, at least you tried. We will have a few additional thoughts to share during tonight’s members-only meeting about how LIV missed a beat in this process too. ___________________ LIV's comments today that we had to file instead of speak today -- just like the last meeting, as the Court limited options to speak to our elected officials.

If Pacifico Energy is truly listening to Cedar Creek residents, they should drop the plan to skirt around full public input with claims their 710MW gas-fired power plant will be a "minor source" air polluter. Call Sen. Schwertner and Rep. Gerdes to urge they get TCEQ to deny Pacifico a minor source air quality permit. Another Bastrop Town Hall was held last night focused on Pacifico Energy's plan to build a major gas plant and AI hyperscale data center in Cedar Creek, a rural and fast-growing residential community. At the same time Pacifico pulled their applications for tax incentives (good), this company is attempting to get around required full public input (bad) at the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This is a clear attempt at gaming the system with a series of multiple minor air quality permits that do not allow full public input, including public meetings and hearings and the opportunity to present their objections to the permit to an independent administrative law judge. WHAT CAN YOU DO? IT'S SIMPLE. Do this now or over the weekend. Apply this to your own gas plant and data center combos across Texas! Are you fighting a power plant and data center? Repurpose these instructions we wrote for Bastrop residents to reach your State Senator and State Representative. Find your reps here. Informal groups like LostPinesWatch.org are documenting what the oil and gas and data center lobbies are actually doing in publicly available documents. For Bastrop: Reach State Senator Charles Schwertner (‭512) 463-0105‬) and State Representative Stan Gerdes (‭(512) 463-0682‬) to request Pacifico Energy to go through the proper regulatory channels to be approved by the state. Right now, Pacifico is proposing a massive gas plant -- 710 megawatts -- that should be treated as a "major source polluter" Yet, they claim they won't run it at full capacity and therefore they are a "minor source" polluter that does not need public input. Don’t let them “bring their own power” for a data center by gaming the pollution rules. Respectfully request Senator Schwertner and Representative Gerdes (or your senator and rep) to reach TCEQ on your behalf to deny Pacifico a minor source air quality permit. We hope to see you at Monday night's meeting @8 pm for members only. Our discussion will focus on LIV development and the upcoming election in November. RSVP HERE For you Bastropians, we hope to see you at Monday, August 24 at 9 am at the Bastrop Commissioners Court meeting.

This 12-hour State Affairs Committee hearing was a doozy! We applaud "Mrs. T's" wise challenge the "China syndrome" dudes in suits! Houston area State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, aka "Mrs. T" Hot off the press at LIV News just before we hope to see you in-person or online at tonight's Pacifico Town Hall is this report. There are stilll seats left for the Pacifico Town Hall in Bastrop tonight. Here's the in-person Town sign in and there are plenty of seats, Or you can RSVP for the online option here. Twelve hours of testimony yesterday at the hearing held by the Texas House State Affairs Committee gave the industry suits all kinds of opportunity to land a punch for less regulation. Our read is that it backfired. Why? The deceptive AI data center industry, the oil and gas lobby's push for massive transmission lines (and what comes with it -- dreaded eminent domain land seizures) and security pro-war hawks are all in this together in one big crony-capitalist grab! The election is coming, folks, and the Governor is showing no signs of calling a Special Session or using his emergency powers to put a moratorium in place until the end of the next session -- May 31, 2026. That's the only real fix. This Quorum Report article from behind their paywall is a must read, as well as this letter from the big wheel industry players who, as usual, just want what they want. I attended yesterday's hearing and filed these comments for LIV with LIV's public comments to the Bastrop Commissioners Court on May 26 just before they unanimously voted for a trigger for SpaceX subsidies from state of Texas. Hang in there, Texas!

Joshua Biddle's De Jure Media blog on Substack Joshua Biddle is a local Bastrop writer with his own Substack platform at De Jure Media. We don't always agree, but Joshua works hard, is very smart and knows how to use AI to dig for information and how to verify it. Joshua wrote two articles we suggest you review if you, like us at LIV, do not support abatements for data centers and big tech titans pushing AI and other risky business that should sink or swim on their own dime. Here's tonight's Zoom RSVP for 8 pm. Take a few minutes to read Joshua's articles below and hop on Zoom at 8 to discuss them with us, PLUS the Texas State Affairs Committee hearing on August 19, the day before the Pacifico Town Hall. State of the People — Civic Report | Bastrop Ed., released today, Aug. 17 The Accounting Trick: How Data Center Abatements Shift the Tax Burden, released Aug. 10 Note: We have asked Biddle to make two slight adjustments in his post today. LIV supports the citizens putting on the Town Hall on the Pacifico project -- gas plant and data center -- happening this Thursday. This is not an LIV event, though we fully support the folks doing this event. The group is compiling information at LostPinesWatch.org. They're doing great work as concerned and informed citizens! Second, Biddle missed the Hearing Notice for the State Affairs Committee. His list might be updated by the time you read his latest posted above. Thanks to the work of many people who are standing up and doing due diligence on the tax abatements data center dance underway across Bastrop and the rest of Texas. We'll try to cover as much ground as we can tonight! Here's the link for tonights 8 pm meeting on Zoom.