The November election season for City of Houston offices is now officially open. Matt Stiles has the list of Monday morning first-in-line filers, plus a pretty good accounting of who else is out there. Couple names to add to his sheet, one of which I spotted on the City Secretary master list: Tom Nixon, the guy who nearly out-wingnutted Roy Morales in the May special election for At Large #3, has thrown his hat into the ring for At Large #5. Joining him there, according to an email I got yesterday, is a fellow named Jose Trevino, described in the email as "an educator and former HISD Area Superintendent for the Southeast and Central Districts. [...] also the Austin High School Principal and is currently a TEA monitor and educational consultent." You now know everything about him I do. By my count, that makes four hopefuls for the one open At Large seat, with Jolanda Jones and Zaf Tahir being the early (and in my opinion, frontrunning) entrants.

Several candidates have already been busy touting endorsements for their races. The Houston GLBT Political Caucus announced its endorsed candidates last week. James Rodriguez in District I has been touting his recommendation by the Houston Police Officers Union. John Marron recently received support from former Council candidate Andy Neill. Both Marron and Rodriguez sport an impressive list of prominent backers, though I note with some amusement that one name - that of "Hon. Billy Kelly" - is on each list. Either there's more than one such Billy Kelly (I have no idea who that is), or somebody has his wires crossed somewhere.

The filing deadline is September 5, two days after Labor Day. In previous years, people have jumped in, out, and over to other offices just before the deadline, so consider at least some of this to be written on sand until then. And please, let's all remember what happened to Ray Jones in May. No excuses for incorrectly filed forms this time, people, or for filing so close to the deadline that there's no time to fix a boo-boo. Get 'em in now so this doesn't happen to you.