Greg calls this story about the GOP primary for Harris County Treasurer "the race for the most meaningless countywide office". He's certainly right about that, and I agree that the story does a decent job of conveying how meaningless the Treasurer's job is, but it doesn't go quite far enough. Here's what I mean: Go do an archive search on Chron.com for the name "Jack Cato" and the period 2004-05. Want to guess how many hits I got? Four: One for Orlando Sanchez's announcement that he wants this do-nothing job, one for Cato's participation in a charity auction, one on the fall of Dan Rather that quotes Cato the former TV news guy, and one about the need for a photographer in a JP court. Two years, four stories, not one of which has anything to do with the official function of the County Treasurer. Do a similar search for "Paul Bettencourt" or "Beverly Kaufman" and you'll see the difference.

So, the only thing you really need to know about this particular race is that there is exactly one candidate who is campaigning to do what needs to be done to the office of Harris County Treasurer, and that's abolish it. That person is Richard Garcia, the Democratic candidate, who is running unopposed for his party's nomination. If you fancy yourself a believer in smaller government, here's a unique opportunity to act on that belief. Your choice this November couldn't be clearer. Richard Garcia's your man.