For the most part, it’s way too early to start thinking about the 2014 Harris County elections – we have a legislative session and a city election cycle to get through first – but since January 15 is a reporting deadline for county officeholders, I figure I may as well have a peek at who [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Harris County Treasurer’
County asks about exemption from drainage fee
Interesting. County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez has asked County Attorney Vince Ryan for an opinion on whether the county has to pay the city of Houston’s new drainage fee. Sanchez already has his own opinion. “You’re getting a government, the city of Houston, starting to dip into multiple jurisdictions’ pots,” Sanchez said. “At some point, you just have [...]
Endorsement watch: Mistakes are made
The Chron has decided for some unknowable reason to endorse County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez for re-election. Sanchez contends the treasurer’s office provides a vital checks-and-balances function on county spending, and that it would be a mistake to phase it out, even though he concedes it has been “emasculated” by Commissioners Court in recent years and [...]
Chron overview of the County Treasurer race
With this story, the Chron has overviewed all of the countywide races. The main issue to discuss, of course, is just what exactly is it that the Treasurer does. Four years ago, [incumbent Treausrer Orlando] Sanchez’s Democratic opponent advocated eliminating the office, which would require a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment. This year’s Democratic [...]
Interview with Billy Briscoe
We turn our attention now to Harris County races, and we’ll start with the race for what I have called the least useful office in the county, County Treasurer. This is partly a reflection of the office itself, whose powers were mostly stripped by Commissioners Court in the 1990s, and partly a reflection of the [...]
Overview of the Tax Assessor primary
We’re a bit more than three weeks out from the start of early voting, so it’s time for some overviews of the contested primaries on the ballot. Here’s the first one, for the Republican race between County Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez and former County Treasurer and now-retired employee of the Tax Assessor’s office, Don Sumners. [...]
Three views of the Treasurer
Since posting this entry about the Democratic primary race for Harris County Treasurer and my views of that office, I’ve gotten some interesting feedback that I thought was worth sharing. First, if you go back to that post, you’ll see a comment from Chad Khan, one of the candidates, who says: In 2006, Mr. Richard [...]
Two for Treasurer
As of today, there are two declared Democratic candidates for Harris County Treasurer – Chad Khan, a three-time candidate for State Representative, and attorney Billy Briscoe, whose press release is beneath the fold. As you may recall, I spent a lot of time in 2006 arguing for the abolition of the office of Harris County [...]
Quan considering a run for County Judge
Miya has the story. Former City Council Member Gordon Quan is THISCLOSE to throwing his hat in the ring for Harris County Judge. I heard the rumors a few days ago, but confirmed with Quan this morning. [...] When we spoke earlier today, I asked him what prompted him to consider challenging Ed Emmett. He [...]
At least now we know what he does with his time
Apparently, Orlando Sanchez, our do-nothing County Treasurer, is a closet urbanist. I’ll direct you to Greg for a thorough review of Sanchez’s vision for Washington Avenue, to which there’s not much to add. I will note that Sanchez continues to be two-faced about light rail, and that he managed to write this entire piece without [...]