Hello Fort Worth and welcome to another episode of the Fort Worth Freedom Review.

If you are new here, the Freedom Review exists to inform and educate the Fort Worth and Tarrant County community about the values and the functions of civic engagement, the goings-on of the local City Council, the Mayor, and the County Commissioners Court as well as important news stories from our community and from the greater Texas community including state political issues. 

 My name is Anthony Sosa and today with me we have Christopher Rose and myself to start us off for today, then Thomas Moore joins us shortly after we begin to discuss the 2021 City Council candidates for Fort Worth. We are going to go through all 8 districts and discuss who has announced and then run down any available information we could find about them and provide it for you guys. . 

All of the resources used for todays episode will be provided below in the show notes. 

 As always, please subscribe and sign up for our newsletter and get updates on FW political news and deep dives into local issues. We are currently a volunteer organization, if you would like to get involved or want to contact us you can reach us at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter at @FWReview. This podcast is made possible by The Justice Reform League, a Fort Worth based non-profit. If you wish to support us and this podcast, please go to www.justicereformleague.org  and click on the Donate button. 

Music by Anthony Sosa

Info:

https://fortworthbusiness.com/government/tarrant-county-elections/

Map:

https://www.pjhstudios.com/blog/2011/12/19/fort-worth-city-council-rep-twitter-representation/ 

District 2

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-2-2021 

• https://twitter.com/BazingaJen 
• https://sarduyfordistrict2.com/jens-policy-platform/#justice

• https://twitter.com/carlosfloresfw 
• https://ballotpedia.org/Carlos_Flores,

District 3

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-3-2021 

• https://fortworthbusiness.com/government/crain-council-seat/

District 4

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-4-2021 

• https://www.votetarawilson.com/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/votetarawilson

District 5

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-5-2021 

• https://www.fwdistrict5.com/profile.html
• https://www.rickyvazquezforcitycouncildistrict5.com/

• https://twitter.com/GynaDistrict5 
• https://gynabivens.com/meet-gyna-bivens/

District 6

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-6-2021 

• https://twitter.com/drjared4fw 
• https://www.drjaredwilliams.com/

• http://www.jungusjordan.com/contact
• http://www.jungusjordan.com/about
• https://ballotpedia.org/Jungus_Jordan

District 7

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-7-2021 

• https://twitter.com/VoteLassiterFW 
• https://votelassiterfw.com/ 

• https://twitter.com/zebpent 
• https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/organization-forms-to-combat-fwisd-transgender-bathroom-policy/287-197393792 
• https://tfn.org/anti-lgbt-bar-sex-ed-texas/
• https://texasscorecard.com/metroplex/possible-fort-worth-council-candidate-has-business-deal-with-city/ 

• http://leehenderson.org/ 
• https://www.keranews.org/news/2019-07-16/fort-worth-board-votes-to-remove-member-for-inflammatory-social-media-posts 

District 8

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-8-2021 

• https://twitter.com/votenettles 
• https://www.facebook.com/VoteNettles/ 
• https://www.chrisnettlescampaign.com/ 
• https://ballotpedia.org/Chris_Nettles

• https://twitter.com/KellyAllenGray1 
• https://twitter.com/KellyAllenGray 
• https://www.kellyallengraycampaign.com/ 
• https://voterguide.dallasnews.com/2019-municipal-elections/candidates/715/ 
• https://ballotpedia.org/Kelly_Allen_Gray 

• https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherForD8/

District 9

• https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citysecretary/district-9-2021

• https://twitter.com/FPBerrios 
• https://www.fernandoperalta.com/

Texas Legislature and Gov

Not Every legislative day is a work day. 

One month in they have met only a handful of days. Session will reconvene Feb 9th.

The first month is usually slow but blame the pandemic. 

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/29/texas-legislature-pandemic/ 

Census #’s delayed due to pandemic. Special session to be called in late summer.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/27/census-texas-redistricting-special-session/ 

Both houses propose similar budgets

• Both proposals were 119.7 B$ for the next 2 fiscal years. (last session there was a 7B$ differential)
• Both plan to fund 70$ to convert the STAAR test to online statewide.
• Rainy Day Fund 10B$
• TX economy is doing better than most, but still bad. No need to tap into RDF means no pressure to legalize marijuana or casinos .

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/21/texas-budget-2021/ 

Gov Abbot still telling legislature to punish cities who cut police budgets by withholding tax revenue. (like Austin, state takeover of police also mentioned)

 “Texas is a law and order state and were going to ensure we keep it that way.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/21/greg-abbott-police-funding-reforms/

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/12/03/greg-abbott-austin-state-police/