Harris County countywide candidates' 30 day finance reports

Here, as best as I can collect them, are the 30 day out campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates.

Candidate     Contrib      Expend     Cash

==========================================

Mincberg      156,542   1,268,257   82,593

Emmett        331,870     174,618  726,603


Bradford       77,455      69,126   74,062

Lykos          79,397     114,003   21,138

Garcia         26,000      40,150   19,332

Garcia PAC    122,579      33,483  164,778

Thomas        218,377      57,110  763,467

Trautman       51,516      15,699  121,625

Bettencourt         0      10,518  116,469

Ryan           12,171      12,573    5,628

Stafford       13,000      26,155   35,001

Jackson         2,843       3,669    8,094

Chang          26,310      36,766   93,569

I'm skipping the HCDE Trustee races here, as neither Debra Kerner nor Jim Henley had more than $4K on hand, and neither Stan Stanart (no report as of yesterday) nor Mike Riddle (report turned in Wednesday but not available online till today) had reports I could see. A few comments about this:

- Unlike the state campaigns and their TEC reports, these are all scanned images, so it's a lot more work to get what you want. I didn't go back and check for July cash on hand numbers, but you can get some of that information here.

- Ed Emmett outraised David Mincberg this time around, but Mincberg has spent a ton since July, with a lot of it going to TV ads. He's been on the air for weeks, while Emmett has only recently gotten started. I've talked about how having a lot of cash on hand at this point doesn't mean quite as much if you haven't been spending all along - there's only so much you can do in three or four weeks. In this case, having less cash on hand is less of a problem for Mincberg than it might normally be precisely because he's been using the cash he had.

- I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more money raised and spent in the DA race. You'd think if nothing else, the fact that it's an open seat - to say nothing of how it got that way - would have been a greater draw for donations. Regardless, the two candidates were about even in donations, with Lykos spending more and Bradford having more cash at the end.

- On the other hand, there has been a lot of money in the Sheriff's race, with Adrian Garcia picking up the pace from last time. There may be other PACs out there - that was the one I could find. Tommy Thomas has said he plans to run TV ads, and he's certainly in a position to do so. I still don't know what he'll say in them, but that's his problem. Garcia should have plenty to say, for however much he'll be able to say it.

- Either Paul Bettencourt has a PAC that I didn't find, or he's taking an awfully laid back approach to his campaign. Like Stace, I can't believe the local GOP will sit idly by - Bettencourt is the last guy they want to see unelected. Either way, it's nice to see Diane Trautman with more cash on hand than him.

- I still can't believe a two-term incumbent who went unopposed in 2004 can have such a small campaign account balance. I have to think that if Mike Stafford survives this election, he'll step it up a notch for 2012.

- Someone suggested to me a few weeks back that Theresa Chang would be the face of the local GOP ticket. Easy to see why: new blood, no known association to the scandals, etc. That may be a reason why she's doing as well fundraising for an office like District Clerk as she has.

That's all I've got. What do you think?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 10, 2008 to Election 2008