From the Inbox: Amy Peck Announces Candidacy for Houston City Council District A I am very excited to announce my candidacy for Houston City Council, District A. Over the last few years, I have been asked to run again by many people in the district, and I am honored to accept the responsibility that comes [...]
Posts Tagged ‘District A’
Brenda’s back
But will Helena Brown be in trouble? Brenda Stardig will launch her campaign Saturday to retake the District A Houston City Council seat that she lost two years ago to Helena Brown. The announcement came Sunday in the form of an invitation to a family “campaign kickoff” barbecue from 4-7 p.m. at the American Legion [...]
One year of Helena
The Observer‘s Emily dePrang takes a look at CM Helena Brown, one year after her upset win in District A. When she took office, Brown made waves for her nearly satirical level of budget hawkery. She made simplistic government-bad, free-market-good speeches that evoked The Colbert Report to justify voting against funding meals for the elderly, [...]
Two for I
Yeah, we’re still two weeks out from the start of early voting for 2012. But that hasn’t stopped two people from announcing their candidacies for City Council District I next year. Graciana ”Graci” Garces, chief of staff for District I Councilman James Rodriguez, is running to succeed him next year when he’s termed out. If [...]
Gearing up in District A
And they’re off. It appears unlikely that former District A Councilwoman Brenda Stardig will get a one-on-one shot at a comeback from her 2011 loss to current Councilwoman Helena Brown. “It is my plan to run for District A,” Amy Peck, district director for state Sen. Dan Patrick, told me Monday. Stardig has said it [...]
That Press story on CM Brown
So I’ve thought about that Houston Press story on CM Helena Brown and her relationship with William Park. There’s much to contemplate here, but I’m going to focus on three things. 1. What were they thinking? I’m not talking about the voters, I’m talking about the three people who served as Council Member in District [...]
Stardig v Brown II?
It’s not too early to start stocking up on popcorn. A rematch between District A Councilwoman Helena Brown and former Councilwoman Brenda Stardig next year is looking increasingly likely. Stardig attended Wednesday’s Council meeting, so I asked her about her plans. She said, “It’s highly possible” that she’ll try to win the seat back next [...]
Don’t draw broad conclusions from muddled evidence
I have a number of issues with the analysis presented in this Chron story about what happened in the runoffs and What It All Means. The results illustrate a continuation of a national trend of anger and frustration toward government during the worst economic stretch since the Great Depression, political observers said. In short: Voters [...]
Eight day runoff finance reports
Seven of the eight campaign finance reports for the runoff have been posted; all but Jack Christie’s were available online as of last night. Let’s have a look at them. First up, District A: Candidate Raised Spent Loans Cash on Hand ==================================================== Stardig 74,103 42,308 0 81,023 Brown 13,840 13,340 0 4,409 Helena Brown may [...]
Runoff early voting totals, Day One
Early voting for the city of Houston runoffs began yesterday, and you can see the Day One totals here. I don’t have a daily EV record from the 2007 runoffs, but I note that the total early vote from the 2007 runoff was 11,374, and the total absentee and in person votes yesterday was 4,519, [...]
Early voting for city runoffs begins today
You remember that we have runoff elections for four Houston City Council positions, right? Well, early voting starts today and runs through next Tuesday, December 6. Here are the early voting locations that will be open for the runoff. Early voting will run from 7 AM to 7 PM each day except Sunday the 4th, [...]
Runoff overview: District A
I don’t remember there being a Chron overview story for the District A regular election, but now that it’s in overtime we get an overview story about the race between CM Brenda Stardig and challenger Helen Brown. Better late than never, right? Just a few thoughts about the article. First, it’s a little silly to [...]
Looking ahead to the runoffs
The runoff election for the city of Houston will be Saturday, December 10. It’s going to be an extremely low turnout affair – as was the case with the general election, I expect the runoff to have about the same level of turnout as the 2007 runoff, in which 25,382 ballots were cast. Look at [...]
Early voting for city runoffs begins today
You remember that we have runoff elections for four Houston City Council positions, right? Well, early voting starts today and runs through next Tuesday, December 6. Here are the early voting locations that will be open for the runoff. Early voting will run from 7 AM to 7 PM each day except Sunday the 4th, [...]
More thoughts on the Council elections
One district at a time… – I confess that I did not see the District A result coming. Helena Brown did raise a decent amount of money since entering the race at the filing deadline, about $22K through the end of October, which makes me wonder how she might have fared if she had gotten [...]
2011 Houston results
Let’s go through the races… – Mayor Parker won with a shade under 51%, with none of her opponents cracking 15% on their own. Obviously, this is not a position a Mayor with no serious opposition wants to be in, and it won’t surprise anyone if one or more potential opponents for 2013 are on [...]
Your annual reminder that every vote matters
HISD Trustee, District III results, with 38 of 38 precincts reporting: Manuel Rodriguez 2,401 50.25% Ramiro Fonseca 2,377 49.75% There were 653 undervotes in this race, and turnout in the district was 11.61%. Fonseca carried Election Day by 78 votes, but had trailed by 102. At one point during the count, the Clerk had Fonseca [...]
30 day finance reports for City of Houston races
The 30 day campaign finance reports for City of Houston elections were due last week, and they are now mostly up on the city’s campaign finance report website, with a large number showing up today. Already I’m seeing questionable, curious, and interesting things in the reports. Some highlights so far: Helena Brown, the late-filing candidate [...]
Endorsement watch: Stardig
The Chron gets off to a surprisingly early start in the endorsement game by backing Brenda Stardig for a second term in District A. We believe City Councilmember Brenda Stardig has proved her mettle in her first two-year term and deserves to be returned to represent this dynamic district. We endorse Stardig for re-election to [...]
Tuesday late filers report
This is a semi-regular tracker of late campaign finance report filings for City of Houston elections. I’ll keep this up until either everyone has filed, or we all get sick of it and I move onto other trivial obsessions. With that said, here are today’s contestants: 1. Andrew Burks, District D. Burks actually filed his [...]
Precinct analysis, District Council races
In addition to the five citywide runoffs, there were two runoffs in district Council races, in A and F. In each case, they were run in territory that, judging by the citywide results, were modestly (F) or very (A) friendly to Republicans, and in each case the Republican candidate won. But that’s about where the [...]
Initial thoughts on the runoffs
I’ll go through them one race at a time, with the unofficial vote totals minus Montgomery County for each. Once I have precinct results, I’ll go through those and do a more detailed analysis. Mayor Annise Parker – 81,971, 52.78% Gene Locke – 73,331, 47.22% This was perhaps a bit closer than one might have [...]
Endorsement watch: Another takeback
Got a press release yesterday from Lane Lewis announcing that he had won an endorsement that had previously gone to his opponent. HARRIS COUNTY COUNCIL OF ORGANIZATIONS RESCINDS STARDIG ENDORSEMENT Houston, Texas – City Council District A candidate Lane Lewis has earned the endorsement of the Harris County Council of Organizations (HCCO) after the HCCO [...]
Eight days out finance reports, District Council candidates
To wrap up our tour of the finance reports for the city runoffs, here’s a look at the two District Council races. First, District A, in which Lane Lewis is up against Brenda Stardig: Candidate Raised Spent Loans Cash PAC $$ PAC % =============================================================== Lewis 42,439 33,765 0 19,401 8,250 19.4 Stardig 41,495 41,638 0 [...]
District F runoff overview
Here’s the Chron story on the District F runoff. The condensed version of Al Hoang’s vision for Sharps town’s shopping center echoes a Reagan-era foreign policy pronouncement: Tear down this mall. Mike Laster’s recent work on Sharpstown Mall is more analogous to Vietnam War-era peace talks. Mall owners can use someone to help them decide [...]
District A runoff overview
Now that we’re into the runoff season, it looks like the Chron will finally do a bit more in depth coverage of the races that are still unresolved. Yesterday, they ran this overview of District A and the remaining candidates Lane Lewis and Brenda Stardig. Lewis, 42, a community college instructor and Democrat who lives [...]
Khan has an announcement
Council Member and candidate for Controller MJ Khan has an announcement to make tomorrow. From his press release: Who: Councilman M.J. Khan, Candidate for Houston City Controller What: Press Conference on a major announcement from the M.J. Khan for City Controller campaign. When: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. (after City Council has adjourned) [...]
Endorsement watch: ABCDEFG
I’ve been hard on the Chron lately for being so lackadaisical about getting to some of their endorsements. In my opinion, they should all be done before Early Voting begins, or else their value erodes. So I’m pleased to see that they have made their endorsements for all contested District Council races today. This means [...]
34 > 20, and other campaign finance news
I’ve added two more candidate reports to my campaign finance report spreadsheet, Robert Kane and KA Khan, both in District F. Each of them had filed paper reports instead of electronic reports. You can see a list of such reports here, and you can see scanned PDF copies of their reports here: for Khan and [...]
So who will the Republicans vote for in this election?
This article can basically be summarized as “Republican voters in Houston have a choice between three serious candidates who are all Democrats, and Roy Morales, and neither of those choices is particularly appealing to them”. I’ll put aside my sense of schadenfreude for a moment to make a couple of observations. One is that all [...]
Lawrence forms exploratory committee for Commissioners Court
Houston City Council Member Toni Lawrence, the one term-limited member of city government who hadn’t announced a run for somethinge else yet, has now announced that she is forming an exploratory committee for the presumed-to-be-open Commissioners Court seat in Precinct 4. From her press release: Today, former Cy-Fair high school teacher and current Houston City [...]
Interview with Jeff Downing
Next up is Jeff Downing, who is running in District A. Jeff is an attorney who runs his own firm, after having been a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s office. He was an intern in the White House during the Clinton administration after graduating from Texas A&M. Jeff resides in Oak Forest. Download [...]
Interview with Alex Wathen
Moving back to candidates for office, today I bring you a conversation with Alex Wathen, who is running in District A. Wathen is an attorney who has his own firm, where he specializes in bankruptcy law. He was the Republican candidate for Justice of the Peace in Harris County Precinct One, Place 2, in 2002 [...]
Interview with Amy Peck
Next on the interview list is Amy Peck, who is running in District A. She is a UT graduate who got a ME.d in Counseling Psychology from the University of Houston at the age of 22. She works as constituent services liaison for State Sen. Dan Patrick, having previously worked for State Sen. Jon Lindsay. [...]