Bill King makes an observation about Ben Hall’s chances in the upcoming Mayoral election. When Lee Brown was elected mayor in 1997, many pundits predicted that with Houston’s growing minority community, Houston had seen its last white mayor. That, of course, proved not to be the case as Bill White and Annise Parker defeated minority [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Gene Locke’
DOJ preclears Commissioners Court map
This came in late Friday. The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Harris County’s redistricting map for commissioner precincts, which has been the subject of a lawsuit from Latino activists since August. The approval, known as “pre-clearance” under the Voting Rights Act, means the Department of Justice has determined the court’s plan complies with Section [...]
Chron story on the interim Harris County map
Here’s the Chron story about the weekend order to implement an interim map for Harris County. As expected, the plaintiffs are happy about this. Of interest to me is the county’s response. Gene Locke, an attorney representing the county, said he thinks the judge’s interim plan takes a “minimalist approach to changes,” allowing the precincts [...]
Precinct analysis: 2011 At Large #5
Last but certainly not least, the race everyone is wondering about, At Large #5: Dist Robinson Jones Christie Ryan ======================================= A 17.10% 23.61% 48.91% 10.38% B 18.80% 73.00% 5.09% 3.11% C 25.07% 30.02% 35.57% 9.35% D 14.96% 73.56% 7.86% 3.62% E 19.97% 13.73% 54.51% 11.79% F 19.44% 30.45% 37.41% 12.70% G 14.99% 14.70% 61.81% 8.49% [...]
Precinct analysis: The 2011 Mayor’s race
I finally have a draft canvass of the 2011 Harris County vote. You know what that means. Here’s the breakdown in the Council districts for the Mayor’s race: Dist Simms Ullman Wilson Herrera Parker O’Connor ===================================================== A 4.41% 1.28% 16.31% 18.03% 41.89% 18.09% B 22.41% 3.02% 11.92% 12.71% 43.80% 6.14% C 1.65% 0.83% 9.11% 11.21% [...]
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 [...]
The alternative Commissioners Court map
Opponents of the proposed County Commissioners map have presented their version in the last public hearing on county redistricting. Democrat Sylvia Garcia was Precinct 2 commissioner from 2002 until this year, having lost to Republican Jack Morman in last November’s elections. Garcia, State Sen. Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) and others helped draft the alternative map and [...]
Redistricting on Commissioners Court agenda
Well, not quite, but if you look on Page 15 of the June 21 Court agenda you will see an item that says “Request for approval of an order adopting priorities and principles for redistricting of the four Harris County commissioner precincts and related matters as recommended by special counsel Andrews & Kurth”. This was [...]
HISD does its redistricting
Doesn’t get much easier than this. Houston ISD trustees today approved a preliminary plan to redistrict their positions in response to changing demographics. The plan, now available for public comment, generated no controversy among the Houston Independent School District board members, unlike the redistricting proposals for City Council and the state Legislature. “There’s no radical [...]
HISD redistricting on the horizon
This is likely to be a lot less contentious than other map-drawing exercises we’ve seen, but no redistricting exercise is ever completely bloodless. Gene Locke of Andrews Kurth told [HISD] trustees they should have a plan to submit to the Justice Department by this July. Redistricting is called for whenever there’s more than a 10 [...]
Locke and Lanier endorse Parker
More support for Mayor Parker’s re-election bid. Mayor Annise Parker on Wednesday scored the endorsements of her 2009 opponent Gene Locke and former Mayor Bob Lanier, two of Houston’s most prominent power brokers, as she prepares to ask voters for a second two-year term in November. [...] “She’s bringing the city together,” Locke said Wednesday. [...]
So will we have a Mayor’s race or not?
We’re now more than a month into the city election fundraising season, and as of this week the only person to file a declaration of Treasurer for the office of Mayor is the incumbent, Annise Parker. As of this time two years ago, all four major candidates had not only filed Treasurer’s reports but had [...]
January City of Houston campaign finance reports
In addition to state and federal officeholders/candidates, January 15 was also the deadline for City of Houston folks to file their campaign finance reports as well. As there are no elections coming up any time soon, I will not be going into obsessive levels of detail about them, but here are some highlights: – Annise [...]
Hail to the (interim) Chief
As expected, HPD Chief Harold Hurtt has quietly slipped out the door in advance of Mayor-Elect Annise Parker taking the reins of the city. Until she names his replacement, here’s who will fill in. Executive Assistant Chief C.A. McClelland will take over the reins at HPD, at least until Mayor-elect Annise Parker formally chooses the [...]
Runoff precinct analysis, Mayor’s race
All right, I now have a copy of a draft canvass report from Saturday’s election, courtesy of the Harris County Clerk’s office. As before, I will be going through it to see what I can learn from it. First up is a report on the Mayor’s race broken down by City Council districts. For comparison, [...]
Still more on Parker’s win
Hereare a couple of photo slide shows from the Annise Parker victory party on Saturday, from TPM and Hair Balls, the latter of which has some pix from the Gene Locke event as well. And BOR has a recording of a voice mail message President Obama left for Parker to congratulate her on her win. [...]
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 [...]
Mayoral miscellania
A few links of interest about the Mayor’s race. Because I know you haven’t read enough about it already. Nancy is ready for all the third-party attacks in the race to stop. Here’s an interview with Annise Parker at Open Left. Thanks to BOR for the tip. Signs, signs, everywhere there’s Gene Locke signs illegally [...]
KHOU/KUHF poll gives Parker a big lead
This was the top story on the 5 PM news. The final 11News/KUHF Houston Public Radio poll shows Controller Annise Parker has a 13-point lead over former City Attorney Gene Locke. In the poll, which was conducted this week by the Center for Civic Engagement at Rice University, likely voters pick Parker 49 percent of [...]
Holmes fibs about his donation history to Hotze
As we know, Ned Holmes, the finance chair for the Gene Locke campaign, made a $20,000 donation to Steven Hotze’s Conservative Republicans of Harris County PAC just before Hotze sent out his homophobic mailer to voters. Holmes claims that the timing is coincidental because he’s a longtime supporter of Hotze. How that’s supposed to make [...]
Locke backers funded Hotze
Nice. The finance chairman and a finance committee member of Gene Locke’s mayoral campaign helped bankroll the conservative political action committee that sent out an anti-gay mailer targeting City Controller Annise Parker and other municipal candidates earlier this month, according to Texas Ethics Commission documents. [...] Locke has been dogged by Parker, her supporters and [...]
The last debate
I’m not much of a debate-watching person, and we had company yesterday afternoon, so I did not catch the last Mayoral debate. (Judging by David Ortez’s liveblogging, it would seem a lot of people weren’t watching.) I don’t think events like these tell you much about a candidate that you didn’t already know, though there [...]
Not-quite-an-endorsement-but-close-enough watch: Roy for Annise
As we know, Peter Brown endorsed Annise Parker for Mayor fairly soon after the November election. That left the question about what, if anything, Roy Morales would do. Via Big Jolly, we now know the answer. Apparently, Roy sent out a short questionnaire to Parker and to Gene Locke. Parker responded, Locke did not. So, [...]
Parker leads in another poll
It’s a Zogby poll, so don’t get too excited, but that’s still four out of four since Election Day. While the race for Houston mayor remains too close to call, Parker’s 5.5 percentage point lead stems from advantages among several demographics, including women, whites, Hispanics and self-identified independent voters. Parker leads with 41.9 percent of [...]
Eight days out finance reports, Parker and Locke
Among other things, Friday was the eight days out campaign finance reporting deadline for the city runoffs. The Chron reports on the Mayoral candidates. Both sides aggressively asked for volunteers and donors before the Wednesday deadline. Election rules allowed Parker and Locke to go back to donors who gave the $5,000 maximum in the general [...]
Locke sorta kinda explains the Hotze endorsement
Here it is, for what it’s worth, which isn’t much. I guess if you can truly convince yourself that Hotze’s endorsement wasn’t about Annise Parker’s sexuality, you can believe it’s okay to accept it. I don’t know what there is to say about this that hasn’t already been said, so let me just refer you [...]
What the others are saying about Hotze’s endorsement
So here’s the Chron coverage of the Hotze endorsement. Of the many things I find unfathomable about this, here’s the item at the top of the list. Kris Banks, president of Houston’s GLBT Political Caucus, which has endorsed Parker, questioned why Locke did not distance himself from Hotze. “He came to us seeking our endorsements, [...]
Runoff EV report, Day One
I’ve updated my early vote spreadsheet from the first round to include the early vote totals for the runoff. Note that this is almost entirely City of Houston – there are a few Bellaire voters in there, and maybe a stray HISD Trustee vote or two from outside the city limits, but for the most [...]
Hotze endorses Locke
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for, and now it’s on its way to a mailbox near you, as local hatemeister Steven Hotze has endorsed candidates in all six City of Houston runoffs and sent a mail piece out touting his preferred slate. Martha has all of the scans of the mailers. Pay particular attention [...]
Locke releases his tax returns
On Wednesday, Mayoral candidate Gene Locke released his tax returns, about two weeks after Annise Parker released hers. I’m not sure what took him so long, since apparently there’s nothing particularly remarkable about them, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. He released them, and good for him for doing so.
Endorsement watch: For Annise
As noted yesterday, the Chronicle endorsed Annise Parker for Mayor in the runoff election. With city tax revenues eroded by the continuing recession, the next occupant of the office must be a prudent fiscal manager as well as a leader who can make hard decisions on spending priorities. That will require a detailed knowledge of [...]
Oh, and avoid Blakemore, too
We already know why you should stay away from Steven Hotze. But Allen Blakemore is the Horace and Jasper to Hotze’s Cruella de Vil, and the same warning applies to him as well. But don’t take my word for it, listen to a dissatisfied customer of Blakemore’s. In 2005 Hotze endorsed George Hittner in a [...]
He coulda been a contender
Poor Roy. “I thought we were bullied, personally,” Roy Morales told me this morning. The conservative mayoral candidate was describing a lunch-time meeting he attended Wednesday with Gene Locke’s campaign manager, Christian Archer, at the offices of political consultant Allen Blakemore. The meeting was an effort on Archer’s part to secure Morales’s endorsement. “I was [...]
More on that KHOU/KUHF poll
Here’s the full polling data for that KHOU/KUHF poll. Of greatest interest to me is the bit where they note that they asked people whether they’d voted in the November election; about 75% of them said Yes. Given that turnout for this election was about 20%, I find it impossible to believe that so many [...]