One year after for Orlando

Has it really been a full year since Orlando Sanchez was swept into the office of County Treasurer with a promise to actually do something with that otherwise useless office? Boy howdy, time does fly. Well, since I like to keep my promises, let's take a look back and see what if anything ol' Orlando has done to justify his existence.

Let's start with Chronicle coverage. We'll just look forward from my mid-year update, so as to save a teeny bit of time and space. Here's the sum total of Orlando's mentions in the paper of record:

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4364207

Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: Thu 06/14/2007
Section: ThisWeek
Page: 4
Edition: 2 STAR

A new park for Crosby

STAFF

CONSTRUCTION began this month for Crosby Park, 419 Hare Road. The park will include two lighted parking lots with 96 parking spaces, one regulation sized and one youth-sized soccer field, two lighted football fields and a soccer practice field. Present during the park's June 6 ribbon cutting ceremony were Laura Huff of Crosby Football league, left; Keith Key, vice president of Crosby Youth Football League; Precinct 3 Constable Ken Jones; Joanye Henderson, Precinct 4 chief of staff; Tina Mc Griff, founding board member; Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole; Harris County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez; Dennis Johnston, Precinct 4 Parks and Recreation administrator, behind Sanchez; Kim Brode, field representative for congressman Ted Poe; and Jimmy Turner, president of East LK Houston Youth Association.

At least we know he's a conscientious ribbon-cutter!

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4407455

Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: Sun 08/19/2007
Section: B
Page: 1 MetFront
Edition: 4 STAR

POLITICAL POWER / Looking for Hispanic leaders / Despite population growth and voter drives, Latinos are underrepresented

By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA
STAFF

THE chant echoed across the country in spring 2006 as hundreds of thousands of Latinos marched and rallied for immigrant rights: Today we march, tomorrow we vote.

It was a powerful sign to legislators of the yet-untapped potential of an emerging Hispanic voting bloc. Latinos heralded the moment as a political reawakening.

[...]

In Harris County the number of elected Hispanic political leaders has not kept pace with Latino population growth, said Harris County treasurer Orlando Sanchez.

[...]

Orlando Sanchez, a Cuban-American Republican, was a two-time mayoral run-off candidate who tried to become Houston's first Hispanic mayor. He said having Latino candidates run for mayor piques the community's interest in politics.

Nothing about the actual function of the Treasurer's job there.

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4416442

Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: Sun 09/02/2007
Section: B
Page: 1 Metfront
Edition: 4 STAR

A 26-month mayor's race

By RICK CASEY
Staff

There was, once upon a time, a quaint notion that Labor Day marked the beginning of campaign season for November elections.

[...]

The last sitting city councilman to win a mayor's race was J.J. Pastoriza.

You don't remember him? That's because he was elected in 1917 and his legacy was limited by a fatal heart attack less than three months after he took office.

More recently, Chris Bell, Orlando Sanchez and Michael Berry have mounted mayoral races as council members, and have failed.

And that's it. No other mentions in the Chron for the last six months of 2007. So once again, I must conclude that whatever it is Orlando Sanchez is doing as County Treasurer, it's not anything the Chronicle thinks is newsworthy. The same is basically true for the blogs - other than this Isiah Carey post about who should be the next Mayor, and this Prairie Pundit post which is basically a transcription of a Jared Woodfill op-ed arguing that the GOP loves Hispanics, there was nothing that didn't reference one of the news articles I've cited. In other words, whatever it is Orlando Sanchez is doing as County Treasurer, it's not anything the local blogs think is newsworthy, either.

(This post, from the 2006 Treasurer's race, greatly amused me. Yes, by all means, "the Republican Party should do all it can to get him in front of larger audiences and in higher offices." He can run on his record of service as Treasurer.)

Now having said all that, I must note that some credit is due. There is one non-ribbon-cutting task that Orlando has accomplished as Treasurer that I can see, and it's an update to the County Treasurer website, and I'm not just talking about the photo of Our Man Orlando or his biography, both of which are exact copies from his campaign site. There do appear to be some new links there, to things like budgets, outstanding checks, and other helpful links. Nothing that should have taken a competent web designer more than a day - hell, I'm an incompetent web designer, and I doubt it would have taken me more than a day - but it is an accomplishment, and so I duly note it. Well done, Orlando!

So there you have it, one year in the life of Orlando Sanchez, County Treasurer. Tune in next year at this time to see if anything new has happened to him.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 07, 2008 to Local politics