In our previous episode, we looked at the campaign finance reports for Democratic statewide candidates. Today, let’s have a look at the reports for candidates for countywide office in Harris County. I’m not going to get down to the Constable or JP level – I’m not aware of any interesting primaries, those districts tend not to be too competitive, and there are only so many hours in the day. Neither County Commissioner Jack Cagle nor Jack Morman has an opponent, so I’m skipping them as well. The real interest is in the countywide campaigns, so here are those reports.
County Judge
Ed Emmett
Ahmad Hassan
David Collins
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Emmett 28,600 119,244 401,209
Hassan 0 1,250 0
Collins 0 0 0
The only thing Judge Emmett has to fear, I’d say, is a 2010-style Democratic wave. Other than that, he should win without too much trouble. In the meantime, he will have plenty of campaign cash to spend on various things, including a $10K contribution to the campaign of Paul Simpson, who is challenging Jared woodfill to be Chair of the Harris County GOP, and $5K to the New Dome PAC. It’ll be interesting to see how much he spends on other campaigns from here on out.
District Attorney
Friends of Mike Anderson
Friends of Devon Anderson
Kim Ogg
Lloyd Oliver
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Anderson 0 29,730 36,739
Ogg 66,643 8,897 40,771
Oliver 0 0 0
The Friends of Mike Anderson PAC gave a contribution of $66,469.58 to the Friends of Devon Anderson PAC, which closed out the books on it. I presume Devon Anderson will commence fundraising at some point, and will have all the resources she needs. Kim Ogg has done a decent job fundraising so far, but it’s what you do with what you’ve got that ultimately matters. Zack Fertitta had $145K on hand as of his 30 day report in 2012, and we know how that movie ended. Early voting starts in three weeks, you know.
County Clerk
Stan Stanart
Ann Harris Bennett
Gayle Mitchell
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Stanart 16,400 19,398 45,969
Bennett 10,748 7,113 2,442
Mitchell 1,138 2,010 0
Stan Stanart has $20K in outstanding loans, which was the case in July as well. His fundraising came almost entirely from two sources – the campaign of County Commissioner Jack Cagle ($10K), and a Holloway Frost of Texas Memory Systems ($5K).
District Clerk
Chris Daniel
Friends of Chris Daniel
Court Koenning
Judith Snively
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Daniel 0 15,871 0
Daniel SPAC 31,843 24,166 20,859
Koenning 38,165 48,974 112,814
Snively 5,300 3,095 2,204
Still a lot of money in this race. Incumbent Chris Daniel’s PAC and challenger Court Koenning both have the same outstanding loan totals that they had in July – $74,500 for Daniel, and $50K for Koenning. Democrat Judith Snively has loaned herself $4K. I suspect we won’t see as much money raised in this race after the primary as we do before it.
County Treasurer
Orlando Sanchez
Arnold Hinojosa
David Rosen
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Sanchez 23,500 5,577 220,437
Hinojosa 0 1,250 0
Rosen 2,875 2,122 651
Orlando Sanchez’s eye-popping cash on hand total comes from an equally eye-popping $200K loan to himself. This leaves me wondering where he got that kind of money. Did he do really well for himself from 2002 through 2007, when he was in the private sector, or was he just that well off before he was elected Treasurer in 2006? Maybe someone with a journalism degree and some spare time should look into that. Google tells me that his primary challenger Hinojosa is a constable in Precinct 5. Other than paying the filing fee, he had no activity to report.
HCDE Trustee
Debra Kerner
RW Bray
Michael Wolfe – No report
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Kerner 0 810 329
Bray 135 0 135
Wolfe
Noriega 0 8,690 9,335
Sumners 0 750 0
Neither Michael Wolfe nor Melissa Noriega has filed a report with the County Clerk; Noriega’s report is from the Houston finance reporting system, for her City Council account, which will presumably be transferred at some point. Not a whole lot else to say except that everyone on this list has run for office at least once before, and with the exception of RW Bray has held office at least once. Who knew the HCDE Board of Trustees would be so popular?
113th District Civil Court (D)
311th Family District Court (R)
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Kirkland 55,065 6,806 35,963
Gray 35,000 30,209 4,791
Denise Pratt
Donna Detamore
Alecia Franklin
Anthont Magdaleno
Philip Placzek
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand
==========================================
Pratt 146,020 78,361 67,659
Detamore 0 2,591 0
Franklin 15,555 13,595 47,317
Magdaleno 7,562 11,519 299
Placzek 6,700 25,012 149
I’m not interested in watching all of the contested judicial primaries, but these two are certainly keeping and eye on. The 113th is shaping up as a rerun of the 215th from 2012, in which the candidate running against Steve Kirkland is being financed by one person. In this case, George Fleming and the Texans for Good Leaders PAC he runs gave all of the money that Lori Gray collected. I don’t know Ms. Gray – she has responded to Texpatriate’s Q&A, but as yet has not sent answers to mine; if she has a campaign webpage or Facebook page I haven’t found it – but I don’t care for lawyers with vendettas like Mr. Fleming.
As for Judge Pratt, she may have a gaggle of challengers this March, but she’s not feeling the financial heat at this time. She’s also doing what she can to stay in the good graces of the establishment, with $10K to Gary Polland’s Conservative Media Properties, LLC for advertising and $10K to the Harris County GOP for various things (I’m not counting the $2500 for the filing fee). We’ll see how much good it does her.
Still more state and county finance reports, plus the city reports, to go through, and the federal reports should start being posted on February 1. January is a very busy month.