I have written numerous times about the ongoing battle between Mayor Parker and the Houston Firefighter’s Relief and Retirement Fund, which is to say the firefighters’ pension fund. After I noted a legal victory by the city in its attempt to get more information from the fund, I was contacted by a representative of the [...]
Posts Tagged ‘interviews’
Interview with Carol Alvarado
The special election in SD06 to succeed the late Sen. Mario Gallegos is Saturday, January 26, and early voting for this election begins Wednesday, January 9. There are two serious candidates in this race, former County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and State Rep. Carol Alvarado. I published an interview with Commissioner Garcia on Monday, and today [...]
Interview with Sylvia Garcia
The special election in SD06 to succeed the late Sen. Mario Gallegos is Saturday, January 26, and early voting for this election begins Wednesday, January 9. There are two serious candidates in this race, State Rep. Carol Alvarado and former County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. I will publish an interview with Rep. Alvarado on Wednesday, and [...]
All the interviews for 2012
As we begin early voting for the November election, here are all the interviews I conducted for candidates who are on the ballot as well as for the referenda. These include interviews that were done for the primary as well as the ones done after the primary. I hope you found them useful. Senate: Paul [...]
Interview with Ann Harris Bennett
To wrap up my interviews for 2012, today we have Ann Harris Bennett, the Democratic candidate for Harris County Tax Assessor. Bennett is a former Court Coordinator and was the Democratic candidate for Harris County Clerk in 2010 – you can see what I wrote about her, and listen to that interview here. Suffice it [...]
Interview with Vince Ryan
We return to non-referendum races as we enter the last week before early voting. For the first of my last two interviews I have for you a conversation with Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, who was elected along with Sheriff Adrian Garcia and a slew of other Democrats in 2008. Ryan, who was recently endorsed [...]
Interview with Richard Schechter
The last bond referendum I’ll be discussing is the one that’s received the least attention so far, and that’s the HCC bond referendum. This isn’t terribly surprising, since HCC Trustee elections tend to be low-profile as well, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Indeed, given how much the HCC system has grown in [...]
Interview with Mayor Annise Parker
It’s bonds and more bonds this week, as we discuss the remaining referenda on the ballot. First up is the city of Houston bond package, which by law will be broken out into five separate propositions for your approval. Proposition B, the one having to do with parks and recreation, is easily the highest profile [...]
Interview with County Commissioner Steve Radack
To wrap up my series of interviews relating to the Metro referendum, I spoke to the person with whom Metro Chair Gilbert Garcia brokered the deal on the GMP reauthorization: County Commissioner Steve Radack. Commissioner Radack is a strong advocate of the General Mobility Program and a critic of light rail. I suspect that if [...]
Interview with Sue Lovell
Former Council member Sue Lovell was not directly involved in the current Metro referendum, but as the past Chair of the Transportation Committee on Council under Mayor Bill White, she was instrumental in the creation and adoption of the city’s operating agreement with Metro, which is what authorized Metro to begin construction on the 2012 [...]
Interview with Gilbert Garcia and Christof Spieler
Continuing the discussion of the Metro referendum, today’s interview is with Metro Board Chair Gilbert Garcia, and Board Member Christof Spieler. Garcia originally proposed a referendum that would continue the GMP but freeze revenues for the member entities at 2014 levels, with Metro getting all of the revenue increases above that. After an alternate measure [...]
Interview with David Crossley
This week I’m going to take an in depth look at the one contentious referendum on the ballot, the Metro referendum. The purpose and the language of the referendum is whether or not to reauthorize the General Mobility Program, in which Metro turns over 25% of its sales tax revenue to Harris County, the city [...]
Interview with Terry Grier
In addition to the many races for office this year, there are several referenda on the ballot that are worthy of your attention. I will be conducting interviews to discuss them as well. The first one up is the HISD bond referendum, and for that I have a conversation with HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. As [...]
Interview with Brad Neal
Also up in the northern parts of Harris County is HD150, home of the notorious Rep. Debbie Riddle, for whom I trust no introduction is necessary, though this is a good start if you need it. Opposing The Riddler for a third time is Brad Neal, whom I interviewed in 2010 after not having the [...]
Interview with Cody Pogue
Running for office is always a challenge, but some challenges are bigger than others. HD127 up in the Kingwood area is a particularly large challenge for a Democratic candidate. Cody Pogue has undertaken that challenge. Pogue, who can trace his Texas roots back to Sam Houston and the Battle of San Jacinto, is a teacher [...]
Interview with Vy Nguyen
Fort Bend County is one of the most diverse places in America, with roughly equal shares of Anglo, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian populations. It’s fast-growing, now with three full State Rep. districts and a part of a fourth, and becoming more and more blue – President Obama received 48.5% of the vote in 2008, and [...]
Interview with Ann Johnson
Harris County has been a hotbed of interesting legislative races over the past decade, with five incumbents losing general elections in State Rep. contests since 2004. Two of those victories by challengers occurred in HD134. Trying to make the third time a charm is Democrat Ann Johnson, running against freshman Sarah Davis. Johnson is an [...]
Interview with State Rep. Craig Eiland
We now move into the State Rep. races, and as with the Congressional portion of my interview series I’m very pleased to kick things off with a distinguished veteran lawmaker. State Rep. Craig Eiland has represented House District 23 since first being elected in 1994. (I goofed and said District 21 in the intro to [...]
Interview with John Courage
If you’re following the State Senate elections, there’s probably only one you’re paying attention to now that the primaries are over, and that’s Sen. Wendy Davis’ re-election battle in SD10. As important as that race is for many reasons, I think there need to be a few more eyes on the race in SD25 as [...]
Interview with Tawana Cadien
CD10 remains the strange barbell-like district that stretches from Austin to Houston that it has been since the DeLay re-redistricting of 2003; it was part of the Republicans’ previous failed strategy of defenestrating Rep. Lloyd Doggett. Originally seen as too Republican for a Democrat to bother contesting, it had achieved near-swing status by 2008 thanks [...]
Interview with Candace Duval
Texas is unfortunately full of lousy Congressmen. Lamar Smith of CD21 has been on that list for over 20 years. Candace Duval is running to take him off it. Duval is an entrepreneur and realtor who once worked on the staff of Comptroller Bob Bullock. She now resides in Austin. Here’s what we talked about: [...]
Interview with Max Martin
The one new Congressional district to reach into Harris County is CD36, which stretches from Clear Lake and eastern Harris County up to Polk, Tyler, Jasper, and Newton Counties. Max Martin is the Democratic candidate running in this new district against retread wacko Steve Stockman. Martin is a retired pilot who started out as a [...]
Interview with Jim Dougherty
One of the effects of redistricting was to take CD02, which used to run from Kingwood out east into Jefferson County and move it entirely into Harris County, where it now runs southwest into Spring Branch and inside Loop 610. The first Democrat to take on this oddly-shaped district is Jim Dougherty. Dougherty is a [...]
Interview with Rep. Gene Green
Let’s get this round of interviews off with a strong start with a visit with Rep. Gene Green, who has been a fixture in local politics for a long time. First elected to Congress in 1992, Rep. Green was elected to the State House in 1972 and to the Senate in 1985. Rep. Green is [...]
Fall interview season begins tomorrow
I know that we just finished the primary runoffs, but we’re also now more than halfway through August, so it’s time to start doing interviews with candidates for the fall. I’ll be up candid, I don’t know exactly how many interviews I plan to do. For the most part, I don’t anticipate re-interviewing candidates that [...]
Interview with State Sen. Wendy Davis
I didn’t have the room in my schedule during the TDP convention to contemplate trying to arrange a bunch of interviews, but if there was one person I hadn’t spoken to this cycle that I really wanted to it was State Sen. Wendy Davis. Elected in 2008 in a red-leaning district, Sen. Davis quickly established [...]
Interview with Rose Meza Harrison
I know that I said when I did that last interview that it would in fact be the last interview for the primary election, but as is often the case it turns out there was more to do. I was contacted by the campaign of Rose Meza Harrison after that came out to see if [...]
Recap of all my interviews so far this cycle
To say the least, there was a lot of uncertainty at the beginning of the year when I was planning out my interview schedule for the primary election. There were no maps for the State House, State Senate, and Congress. We didn’t know if the primary would take place in April, May, June, or later, [...]
Interview with Domingo Garcia
My last interview for this primary cycle is with another one of the leading contenders in the crowded CD33 primary, Domingo Garcia. Garcia is an attorney and activist who served for eight years on the Democratic National Committee beginning in 1988. He was elected to Dallas City Council in 1991 after leading the fight to [...]
Interview with Ronnie McDonald
One of the more interesting candidates in a race that isn’t currently considered top tier is Ronnie McDonald, who is running in the redrawn CD27 against first term Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold. McDonald has been a trailblazer for much of his life, having been elected the first African-American yell leader at Texas A&M, and then [...]
Interview with Sylvia Romo
One of the most closely watched Congressional primaries this cycle will be in the new CD35, the district to which Rep. Lloyd Doggett moved after redistricting and the second interim map made his CD25 hostile territory. In this Austin-to-San Antonio district he will face Sylvia Romo, who announced her candidacy in that district very early [...]
Interview with Joaquin Castro
Texas will elect at least six new members of Congress this year, as there are four new seats and two members have retired. Contested primaries may produce other new members, but for sure there will be six new faces. We don’t know who most of them will be yet, but one name we can pencil [...]
Interview with Anthony Troiani
I have one more interview in CD34 today, and will be back next week with three more interviews. I’m still working on getting more lined up. Today’s subject is Anthony Troiani, who is currently serving as City Commissioner At Large A in Brownsville. Troiani is a Marine Corps veteran and attorney who has also worked [...]
Interview with Ramiro Garza
Next I have two interviews from a seat that’s new in number but not really in composition. CD34 is the updated version of what was CD27, now with no incumbent, and as an open seat it has attracted a large field of candidates. My first interview from that field is with Ramiro Garza. Garza was [...]