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San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

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Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for On the Record, I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with The Blue Wave, whatever you want to call it, the election results.

What they mean not just here in San Antonio, in Texas, but across the country.

And why that happened here.

To talk about that is Doctor John Taylor, PhD, the chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at UT San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Absolutely.

What's your first reaction to this?

Were you as shocked as some people?

I was definitely shocked.

I mean, I'm watching these things roll in on last night.

On Tuesday night.

It's just like, how why am I. It's just just I mean, adjectives are escaping me at this point.

But the polls had said this is a possibility, right?

They didn't say this was to the level of Vicki Goodwin beating Patrick and not just losing, but Governor Abbott.

Yeah.

Governor Abbott, I mean, a man who was viewed by many as the most powerful governor in the United States, who had three elections in a row of winning by 20 points.

And he gets beaten by a person he outspent almost 8 to 1.

Was it just Trump repudiation?

I think Trump was a lot of it.

In fact, Trump made the mistake of saying, just think of me on the ballot.

People did and they said no.

And so I think that was part of it.

But I think it's also 12 years of Greg Abbott exhaustion with Republicans wondering why they're not focusing on those issues, those kind of kitchen table issues, as it were.

Instead, they're doing things talking about Sharia law and transgender kids.

They're playing the culture war without talking about what are you going to do for me?

And that's a political science thing because it's about retrospective voting.

What have you done for me versus prospective voting?

What will you do for me?

And voters chose prospective culture war stuff like Sharia law had worked for so long, but I had it shocked me a couple of months ago when Greg Abbott's ad that ran for a long time was first about Sharia law and then about property taxes that are local, that they want to kind of blame the local people for those property taxes when the property values are going down.

And that seemed a little tone deaf.

It was.

And I think that's a great description of his entire campaign.

It seemed to be tone deaf.

In fact, you can make the argument and there are people probably watching saying, oh, you're full of it.

Taylor is that he was mailing it in.

In some respects, he was playing from the last, last election playbook.

He wasn't thinking about his legacy.

He wasn't thinking about what's he going to do next.

He talked about we're going to eliminate property taxes without talking about if you can eliminate property taxes, you're going to have to jack up sales tax as much as 25%.

Don't think they'll go over well with people, particularly when you don't have a state income tax.

He kept beating a wholesale over the head with.

But then again, it looks like it was just reverse coattails from Trump because it was across the country in Kansas, in South Carolina, you had some shockers in the Senate races, and here also in the congressional races as well as the state House.

What is going to mean in the state House?

Democratic.

Wow.

I mean, while the Senate state Senate is still Republican, although it's a much narrow margin now, but you've got a Democratic lieutenant governor in charge of that of that body.

I mean, this is the first time Democrats have had control of the state House since the loss in 2002, so many of them probably waking up today going, what are we going to do next?

How are we going to do this?

Many of them don't even have ideas about staff members at this point or space.

And on top of that, you've got a governor elect and a lieutenant governor elect who have to start scrambling right now to put together a legislative agenda for January.

And can they do anything with like the lieutenant governor is now Democrat, but the rules in the state Senate are that the state senators write the rules and they can limit whatever they could government they could they could eliminate much of of the new lieutenant governor's powers.

It's quite possible, but you're going to get a lot of opposition from Democrats, particularly with an enhanced minority status, making it more difficult, which means there may be a lot of room for compromise, which is a maybe a good thing for one.

Really.

Well, that would be nice, but I haven't heard anyone talk compromise in a long time.

What about the polls, whether they were accurate or not?

It seems like at least they were more accurate than the under counts of Republicans in the past.

I mean, they were they were accurate.

But but in a wave election, especially when you've got a lot of of of independent voters who have not necessarily been sampled or if they've been sampled, they're like, they're still undecided.

Those people all broke Democratic.

It is hard to measure when that last 24, 48 hours before the election takes place, that those undecideds have now broken with the Democrat, with the Democratic Party.

You know, the poll may show you with with the Democrat up 49, 50, 51, 49, but it ain't really that way.

And what do you think about, say, the tone deafness at that at the national level?

There was yesterday day before a couple of days ago, President Trump saying inflation is solved, which he said for literally that same line for all year.

Was it just Iran war or was it just tariffs?

Was it just gas prices or accumulations of things over the past couple of years?

I think the accumulation of things think of particularly in Texas, the impact of Trump and harsh immigration policies and the enforcement of it.

That absolutely played a role in what happened in Texas on Tuesday.

If we're talking about nationally, though, affordability.

Trump kept claiming it's a fake, fake name, a fake issue and kept talking about how wonderful, how rich were getting out.

But the average person who is suffering at the gas pump, suffering at the grocery store is not seeing that.

And he didn't seem to see that and then kind of lashed out, called Governor Greg Abbott a rhino after that.

Hilarious.

Well, what is going to happen to the Republican Party nationally as well as in Texas nationally?

I mean, we're already seeing the scrambling of people away from Trump.

Ron DeSantis, the other day, the governor of Florida already looks like he's posturing for 2028.

He called the president gas last.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we see the same thing from Ted Cruz, just again, to try to find distance at the state level.

Republicans have suffered what is essentially an extinction level event.

This wasn't a blue.

This is an El.

And the reason for that is because they got wiped out across the board statewide.

You're talking about people at the state offices, not governor lieutenant governor, who are potential gubernatorial candidates in the future or Senate candidates.

They now have to to back away for at least 2 to 4, even six years.

And in that respect, it gives the Democrats an advantage.

But does this blue wave have legs?

Was it just at the surface?

I mean, I think it's a protest vote, but if Democrats don't deliver, I could see it going the other way in two years.

I think you're quite right.

And this is this is where, again, the Democrats have got to be, I think, smart in what they're doing state and nationally.

This is why they shouldn't necessarily go after Trump for impeachment initially at the state level.

He also knows that she shouldn't be going with culture war issues.

For example, don't talk about transgender to this point.

With all due respect, don't talk about reproductive rights at this point.

Instead, focus on education vouchers and health care.

Those issues that do resonate with the majority of voters.

How much do you think that played a part in this?

I mean, vouchers cost $1 billion and the first biennium is going to cost $4 billion.

It was projected to if they go with it.

And Abbott kind of purged some of the rhino Republicans as he would call them.

Right.

Because of that.

And I've heard country club Republicans and old, you know, that there are Republicans who were pretty bitter about the way the party had gone.

Oh, yeah.

As someone who's the son of a country club Republican, I understand that you think about how.

121 Markel Hood two years ago, Greg Abbott and Jeff.

Yes dumped horn of money into that race.

What happens beats a slightly more moderate, but not by much Steve Allen and what happens.

And it was all just because.

All because of vouchers.

And two years later, many of those state reps that Abbott pushed in for vouchers are now out, including LaHood, and that nobody really saw.

Did anybody see that there were there just not that many polls for that district?

There was nothing that was public.

However, maybe it's a case of vibe.

Again, I hate to use vibe for this sort of stuff, but living in 121 I do.

I mean, you drive around the district and you saw as many as many done signs as you saw the hood signs for a district that is already trending to be basically a purple district, it's now there.

And Rico signs, Talarico signs as well.

Again, this is all anecdotal.

My area where I live in San Antonio two years ago, you'd see probably 6 or 7 Trump signs, cruise signs, nothing.

I saw Ron Nurnberg and I saw tell Rico signs.

Do you think, speaking of Ron Nuremberg, I think he might have a little buyer's remorse because he didn't run for governor or senator.

Anyhow, that worked out.

He was toying with that idea.

But when Democrats hit the wave, I'm sure he's, you know, I'm going to be county judge.

But dang it, I could have been it could have been something.

It could have been.

Somebody could have been champ.

I mean, it's funny, Gina Hosa herself tried to recruit him, among others, to run for governor, and nobody wanted to do it.

And she said, fine, I'll do it myself.

And look where she is now.

Julian Castro, same thing.

I mean, exactly his time, with all due respect, may have passed when it comes to statewide office.

What about in two years?

How tough is it going to be for Democrats?

Democrats is going to be tough if you don't deliver, especially in an election year.

However, that's a presidential year in which there's not going to be an incumbent assuming that Trump doesn't resign or out early that election, Democrats are going to have to have a focus message, one that is focused not just on Texas, but nationally, obviously, among people who are going to be, I think, targeted immediately by Republicans.

It's going to be Katie Padilla Stout.

She was fortunate to have seriously flawed opponent.

I don't think Republicans who make that mistake in 2028.

What about the delivering on the promise?

Our Republicans are just going to be obstructionist?

Is Trump going to just say veto?

And so you can't get anything done.

You can't run on a record.

There's no record of run, no record to run on.

I mean, that's the thing Trump has been saying, yeah, he's going to veto everything.

And then he's backed away a bit from it.

After after he saw how many House seats the Democrats captured and captured the Senate, I think knowing full well that if he tries to veto everything, not necessarily going to get overrides, but you're going to create a gridlock situation that actually is bad for his party and not for the Democrats.

Do you think that some of the Republicans now nationally are kicking themselves for not talking to Trump and saying, hey, listen, you you know, you're not hearing it.

You're in a bubble.

But people aren't happy with this.

I would say that's definitely think about Greg Abbott.

Did Greg Abbott go on the campaign trail with Donald Trump?

I mean, when he's here in San Antonio?

No, I mean, he showed up in Dallas for that mid mid midterm convention.

But in general, Greg Abbott, while he appreciated Trump's endorsement, initially stayed away from Donald Trump, other Republicans, as we got closer to Election Day, Mays, Middleton, Dan Patrick, among others, all of a sudden, their endorsements by Trump kind of went away.

Would it have made a difference had any of those people?

Abbott, Patrick Paxton debated?

I don't think it would have made that much of a difference.

It would have been nice to see, just for the purposes of people to see it.

I think it's interesting because I got the impression that Abbott was really worried that Gina Hosa would have have a great time debating him, and he didn't necessarily like that.

Paxton.

There was no way he was going to debate versus Talarico.

It's just wasn't going to happen.

What's going to be the first thing they look at in the legislature killing vouchers or scaling them back?

If not that, I think maybe Medicare, Medicaid that we've got to we've got to put Texas on that.

Health care is a very popular and important issue for the state.

I think we will see scaling back of vouchers.

The question is how much are we going to see a complete repeal?

I'm not sure we will do any of that without the state Senate.

And that's the thing.

You've got to, again, compromise or at least some sort of consensus about that.

But let's not forget the voucher issue, along with the data centers, AI and data center issues linked to water played a role in lower than expected Republican support in West Texas and in rural areas.

And what about the change in the demographic in Texas?

A lot of people made a big deal about Dallas-Fort worth area, Collin County, Denton County, suburbs going swinging in a big way.

That was fascinating to watch because the thought was Tarrant County was the key to everything.

Kept saying, If Tarrant County is blue, Republicans are going to lose statewide.

They did.

But the Collin County and Denton County, especially counties that have been trending somewhat Republican, but not by a lot.

Those went blue as well.

And and particularly with Collin County, when you've had issues with with people who hold H-1b visas and attacks on them, all the tech firms that are within within Collin County, especially, that played a role as well.

Well, thank you very much.

A lot to talk about, a lot to study over the next couple of years.

Doctor John Taylor, PhD, chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography, UT San Antonio.

Thanks.

Pleasure.

You may have heard that starting this month, if you live in Bear County and you register your car or reregister your car, you will have to go through vehicle emissions testing for the first time here to talk about that.

And what it really means is Doctor Kristen Brown, who is an assistant professor of environmental engineering with UT San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Of course, this is something that Bear County has fought for years, and we used to hear about noncompliance, and we don't want to get into that.

And if we got to a certain level in terms of was it ozone or particulate matter, that we would have to have this.

And finally it came.

What was that threshold?

What is it that we we got into that were worse at that we used to be.

Yeah.

So this is specifically about ozone.

So ozone is kind of one of the very traditional air pollutants that we've been regulating since the 70s.

San Antonio and Bexar County has actually done a better job than other big cities, populous counties.

We have managed to keep our air cleaner for longer, but we did end up getting high enough concentrations.

It's kind of a complicated calculation of it's like the third highest day on an eight hour average, but we got above that concentration for a couple years in a row.

And so that says that what we were doing already is not keeping our emissions or our concentrations of ozone low enough.

And, you know, we want to be able to still go out and play on the playground or do your yard work.

And this was when, you know, back in the 80s, when the population here was less than half of what it is now, they were worried about this finally came.

Not really.

A surprise.

Where do where does ozone come from?

Most of it.

So ozone is kind of a complicated pollutant because we don't actually emit ozone.

So there's not a single source.

It is formed through chemistry that happens in the atmosphere.

So there's two main components.

So one of them is what we call VOCs which is basically stuff that has a smell.

So if you think about.

Organic compounds.

Yes volatile organic compounds.

So these are just gases that typically have a smell.

So if you think about walking through a forest that's VOCs are like freshly cut grass.

That's a contributor.

But also like if you think about filling up your car and it smells like gasoline, you know, some of that gasoline, the volatile part means it's that gas is turning into a vapor that you're smelling.

That's part of why in the summer, you'll sometimes see the road signs that say, you know, hey, wait until later tonight to fill up your car.

It's to reduce that coming out.

So that's one of the ingredients in ozone.

And then the other one is not.

So these oxides of nitrogen.

And that tends to come from combustion.

So anytime you're burning something that can be, you know in a factory or in a power plant, but it's also burning gas in your car.

And so that's what this new regulation is looking at.

And anytime you say ozone, people have been confused forever, because what I thought the hole in the ozone layer is a bad thing.

But then the ozone we have in the atmosphere or is a is a bad thing.

How does this how does that work?

Yeah.

So that is one of the really ozone has so many confusing things about it.

But that's definitely one of them.

So there's kind of a little reminder that you can do is that ozone is good up high and bad nearby.

And so ozone still has the benefits of blocking UV radiation, which gives you sunburns and skin cancer.

So ozone is always going to do that.

And so as long as it's really high up in the atmosphere, it's great at doing that.

But once it's nearby and we're breathing it in, then it can have a lot of issues.

It makes your lungs really angry.

So, you know, if you know someone that has asthma, a lot of asthma is particularly worsened by that or any other respiratory lung conditions, COPD, anything like that is likely to be made even worse with ozone.

And you're looking at different parts of town.

You're doing some research on on what where it's worse in San Antonio and not just ozone as well.

Yes.

So I am a lot of my current research is looking at variation in air quality across San Antonio.

So that research is mostly looking at particulate matter, which is basically tiny bits of solid stuff.

So ozone is a gas.

Particulate matter is what we're talking about.

That like pollen would be really big for a particulate matter.

So we're talking really small things that again when you breathe them in they're not great for your lungs.

And that tends to be a lot more variable because it's these little solids floating around in the air.

And so you can have parts of the city that have much worse air quality than others.

So that is a lot of my current research is trying to figure out that pattern across the city.

Ozone, because like I said, it kind of chemistry happens up in the air to create ozone.

So that is a little bit more uniform across the city.

So this is going to help whatever neighborhood you're in.

You're probably going to get better air quality.

If we can get our ozone concentrations.

Do you think that will make a difference Mark difference that we could notice when we get the emissions testing going?

Yeah.

So we get the emissions testing.

You know, most people other than you have to go do this thing, pay like $18.

It's not going to be a huge impact on you because most cars are going to be fine.

It's just a small percentage of cars that kind of contribute more than their fair share that we are looking at, and so being able to have that small percentage of cars reduce their emissions should bring down concentrations, because this is not a new idea that San Antonio came up with.

Most big cities have emissions testing because it does work.

Bottom line, do you think it'll be worth it for us long term, health wise and environmentally as well?

Yes, absolutely.

And it's you know, sometimes people hear environmental engineering and they say, oh, you're doing all this stuff to help the environment.

What about me, really?

Environmental engineering is making sure that the environment is good for our health and protecting human health.

And so this is a measure that has been proven in other places to make us healthier.

Well, thanks very much.

Doctor Christine Brown, UT, San Antonio's assistant professor of environmental engineering.

Thanks for coming in.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Data centers have been in the news, not just this week with a big issue in the elections, but also San Antonio City Council came up with some new data center regulations after talking about them for a year here to talk about what actually happened to what it means.

Jasper Kenzo Sandin, who is business reporter for the San Antonio Report.

Thank you very much for coming in.

The council was looking I guess it's been a year since the mayor said she wanted these written up, but there were still four different proposals that they were looking at.

Did they come down on the most strict about regulations or what they mean?

In a word, yes.

There were a lot of.

Options on the table for City Council over the last couple of weeks, and they've been considering to them, they've been adding them.

But but this boiled down to essentially one question.

Should data centers be built by.

Right.

Which means if a data center comes in and it meets all the city's requirements for building in a certain area, it can build in that area?

Or should these be built on a case by case basis, where council members can review each proposal, bring in residents, and then make an individual decision for each data center?

And council members chose that letter option.

They chose to regulate data centers on a case by case basis.

This will require data centers to seek something called the specific use authorization, and that will require them to go in front of council Ancer questions and then get a decision from council members about whether they can or can't build.

And all of these had all the proposals that said in what is it, commercial or industrial areas only where that hadn't been the case in the past, that the zoning could have happened anywhere because people are complaining.

I don't want them in my neighborhood, in my backyard.

Data centers had still been zoned.

But this these rules make it so.

Data centers are how to put their own thing in the city's zoning.

Rules, not like any other warehouse or business.

Exactly.

Before, data centers had been part of a larger category, and they've been confined to certain zones.

But those rules hadn't been specifically targeted towards data centers, and the concerns residents have had around noise, around construction.

And these rules really set data centers apart and said, hey, these are what these are.

This is where they can go.

And like you said, that's primarily industrial and commercial areas.

Even then, if a data center wants to build in one of those areas, they'll have to go in front of council and get.

And they indicated that what they're going to be looking at when they go case by case is water, power, noise and setbacks, that kind of thing.

Yes.

I think it is important to note that these rules don't cover water and power use.

Those are things that are, in a sense, up to the state to legislate that that will go through CPS and Saws.

Those are questions city council members still plan to ask, because they have heard from community members that they care.

Data centers aren't always required to answer those questions and say, hey, this is how much power I plan to use, this is how much water.

But I think council members seemed to really smile upon the idea of getting that information.

And they'll have the final say ultimately here.

And we don't know what the election means for all of this, because in the past or right now, counties have no land use, zoning, whatever, and it can happen anywhere, as we've seen in a number of counties around San Antonio.

But that could change.

We don't know whether the state legislature would take that up.

I think everything you said, there's absolutely correct doing my job for me, but that's that's true.

We don't know.

We'll see what the state legislature does.

We'll see what new decision makers in Austin decide to do.

I think it is important to note this has kind of been a bipartisan issue.

Greg Abbott came out and put a moratorium on data center development.

But the key here, I think, in a large part, is what can happen in unincorporated parts of counties.

Cities have the ability to make land use rules and decide where things should and shouldn't go.

Counties don't have that.

So so far, a lot of county authorities have tried to not regulate data centers, but push them in certain directions by offering incentive packages and deals and and trying to entice them to build in certain areas.

If state officials decide that county should have more authority, that could change.

We've seen folks in Bear County, the Bexar County Commissioners Court, who make decisions, by and large, for the county, be interested in that, should they have that authority.

But whether or not they get it will be up to state lawmakers.

And this was not unanimous.

You had Mark white and Misty Spears more business interests saying, you know, we're we could be giving up money on the table.

They're going to go elsewhere.

They might as well spend that money here.

But that didn't fly.

In terms of the council.

It was definitely a long and complicated meeting.

There were four options on the table that sort of took these two questions.

Should data centers be built by right whenever they meet requirements and or should they be built on a case by case basis and and landed in various ways between those two options.

And you had sort of council members clearly trying to go through these with a fine tooth comb and really hone in on where they wanted to be.

Data center developers wanted something more stable, those by right rules where they know exactly what they need to do to build where they want to.

And I think a lot of community advocates and folks who are critical of data centers really wanted more transparency, a greater ability for community members to come in and ask questions and get answers, because that is something we've seen frustrate people who live near data centers, is they just weren't always aware until these things were kind of springing up in their backyard.

Well, thank you very much.

And come back when we know more about what the legislature is going to do.

Although that could be a long time.

Jasper.

Kenzo.

Sam Dean, business reporter.

The San Antonio report.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for having me, Andy.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can download them as podcasts as well.

Just go to KLRN.org Inaugural I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.