It’s the time of the season for Mayor Parker, who has a serious challenger this time, but also a stronger hand to play. In her tenure, Parker has given teeth to the city’s historic preservation rules, broken a deadlock with Harris County to help build the Dynamo stadium, gave scandal-ridden Metro new leaders and revised [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Election 2011’
Endorsement watch: Planned Parenthood gets an early start
From the inbox on Friday: Today the Board of Directors of the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast ACTION FUND Inc, (PPGCAF) voted to endorse the following candidates for the November City Election. Each of the endorsed candidates has demonstrated a strong commitment to the health and well being of Texas women and families. PPGCAF encourages all [...]
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 [...]
Hall is in
It’s on. Former Houston City Attorney Benjamin L. Hall III announced his candidacy for mayor Wednesday, choosing a slogan of “Hall for All!” and emphasizing his ability to unite people. Hall said he filed a form designating a campaign treasurer late Tuesday, the first formal step in his bid to unseat Annise Parker this fall. [...]
A first look at the 2013 elections
It is 2013, right? So while we have the SD06 special election and the new legislative session to worry about, it’s not too early to start talking about the 2013 elections. Let’s start with a peek at the campaign finance reports from last July of the Houston officeholders who will be on the ballot this [...]
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, [...]
City wins Census recount
It’s official: The city of Houston really did have 2.1 million people as of the 2010 Census. The U.S. Census Bureau has adjusted the city’s 2010 population from 2,099,451 to 2,100,263. The difference is only 812 people, but it’s enough to push the city over the 2.1 million mark, a threshold for adding City Council [...]
Sumners for Controller?
Yeah, I don’t know about that. County tax assessor-collector Don Sumners, who lost his bid for re-election in the May GOP primary, said Wednesday he is considering running for city controller next year. “The part that has to be decided is whether I can actually win. I’m not a spring chicken,” said Sumners, 73. Controller [...]
Ben Hall is a definite maybe for Mayor in 2013
I know, I’m as excited as you are. Former City Attorney Ben Hall, long rumored to be considering a run for mayor, said Tuesday that “It’s more likely than not” that he will run for mayor next year. Hall has been most prominent recently as the attorney for Chad Holley. The black teenager was fleeing [...]
District E overview
Here’s the Chron overview of the special election in City Council District E to replace CM Mike Sullivan. The establishment guy is David Martin, a member of the Humble Independent School District board. Until he resigned in August, he was one of Mayor Annise Parker’s appointees to the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. He has the [...]
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 [...]
After school programs
I see a lot of merit in this. After-school programs prevent crime, Councilman C.O. Bradford said, so some of them should be paid for by the police. “This sounds strange to hear a gun-packing, badge-toting, 24-year cop talking about this,” said Bradford, Houston’s former police chief, but he proposes hiring 20 fewer police officers in [...]
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 [...]
Can ban lawsuit moves back to Comal County
From last week: Travis County District Judge Scott Jenkins removed two state agencies from a lawsuit filed against New Braunfels by a coalition of businesses over the law banning disposable containers on the rivers — popular tubing routes. Jenkins dismissed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas General Land Office from the suit. [...]
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 [...]
The Mayor’s 2013 budget
What a difference a year – and better sales tax receipts and a better real estate market – makes. Mayor Parker has unveiled her budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, and it promises no service cuts, no layoffs, and no tax increase. Last year, the city issued 764 pink slips and cut services as budget [...]
It’s all about Helena
Apparently, we have been living in Helena Brown’s world all this time. District A Councilwoman Helena Brown has voted against spending money on the renovation of a women’s shelter, a street’s reconstruction, the purchase of a police boat, payment to caregivers for the chronically ill, a study on people at risk for HIV infection, gas [...]
More fun with Helena
When I saw the headline about a clash between Mayor Parker and an unnamed Council member, I was pretty sure I knew before I clicked the link which Council member it was. I was right. District A Councilwoman Brown tried to replace one of the mayor’s appointees to the Spring Branch Management District, accusing him [...]
It’s always easier to talk in the abstract
I have three things to say about this. The city of Houston has been papering over multimillion-dollar budget deficits for nine years by borrowing money, tapping its rainy day fund, selling buildings and just plain putting off bills to the future, according to city finance officials. [...] This year, Mayor Annise Parker has pledged not [...]
HISD Board renews Grier’s contract
It was not unanimous. The Houston school board on Thursday extended Superintendent Terry Grier’s contract through June 2014 in a split vote that signaled the controversial chief has bridges to build with the newer trustees. The five trustees who were on the board that hired Grier in 2009 supported the extension, expressing their confidence in [...]
January finance reports: City of Houston
Yes, I know, there are no city of Houston elections this year. (Not yet, anyway.) But the candidates and officeholders have to file reports anyway, covering the period from their last report through the end of the year. That period may be from eight days before the December runoff, eight days before the November election, [...]
Sullivan says he’ll step down if he wins primary
He’s hoping to defuse a campaign issue. Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan will submit his resignation in July if he wins the Republican nomination for Harris County tax assessor-collector in April’s primary, he said. The resignation would not be effective until January, when he would be sworn in as tax assessor if he wins the [...]
Brown v Rodriguez
I’ve been wondering how new Council Member Helena Brown’s style will play at Council meetings. I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Councilwoman Helena Brown and Councilman James Rodriguez squared off publicly Wednesday in the kind of bare-knuckled politics usually deployed in a back room. The outer layer of the onion had them [...]
Inauguration Day 2012
Tuesday was Inauguration Day for Mayor Annise Parker, City Controller Ronald Green, and all 16 members of Houston City Council. Annise D. Parker began her second term as mayor of Houston on Monday with a commitment to bring more jobs to the city and to tackle an ambitious to-do list that includes progress on public [...]
Runoff precinct analysis, At Large #5
Here are the numbers for the At Large #5 runoff between CM-elect Jack Christie and CM Jolanda Jones. As this was a rematch from 2009, I’m putting the 2011 numbers alongside the 2009 numbers, again with the caveat that they’re not really directly comparable. We work with what we’ve got, though, so here it is: [...]
Runoff precinct analysis, At Large #2
One of Santa’s election elves came by on Friday with a delivery of Harris County precinct data for the 2011 runoff elections. You can guess how I spent some of my weekend. Before I launch into the numbers, here are a few caveats about them. First and foremost, this is the first election under the [...]
Adjusting to the new Council
This is kind of a fluff story about the new Council – apparently, having two more seats at the table could cause some problems – but I couldn’t pass this up: “This infusion, effectively of new blood – of a whole bunch of people at one time – is going to change the dynamics,” said [...]
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 [...]
Christie, Burks, Davis, Brown
Those are your runoff winners. Jack Christie’s victory was the most dramatic, coming in his fifth attempt to defeat Jolanda Jones, an opponent he had forced into multiple runoff elections. Helena Brown was the other candidate who beat an incumbent, defeating Brenda Stardig by a 10 percent margin for the District A seat, according to [...]
Runoff Day today
Today is Runoff Day for the city of Houston. If you have not already voted in the City Council runoff elections, you have until 7 PM to do so. Go to www.harrisvotes.com and use the “Find Your Election Day Poll” option to determine where to cast your ballot. You don’t have to have voted in [...]
Runoff overview: District B
Here’s the final runoff overview story, for the District B race. The District B runoff election is a classic case of the candidate who touts his experience versus the newcomer who makes the case for a different approach. A vote for Alvin Byrd is the closest thing a voter gets to re-electing incumbent Jarvis Johnson, [...]
Final early vote totals for the 2011 runoff
Here’s the final early vote tally for the 2011 City of Houston runoffs. A total of 23,030 in person and absentee ballots were cast in Harris County. Add in Fort Bend and the absentee stragglers, and I figure maybe 23,500 total early votes. For comparison, there were 25,382 votes cast in total for the 2007 [...]
November was like 2007, December is more like 2005
Here’s the daily report for the first six days of Early Voting in the runoff. There have been 17,568 votes cast so far, with today still to go. That means there have been more early votes cast in Harris County than there were in the entire 2007 runoff, when 11,374 ballots were cast before Runoff [...]