Saying dumb things isn’t one of them. As the council considered a proposal Wednesday to accept $3.1 million in federal funding for childhood immunizations, Councilman Jack Christie voiced his opposition to the measure, apparently conflating it with flu vaccinations. “I’m going to vote against this,” Christie said before the 15-1 vote. “You don’t die from [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Jack Christie’
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 [...]
The discussion is closed
I don’t know about this. The mayor and city attorney are floating the idea of shutting the public out of some City Council discussions. Houston is unusual, perhaps even unique, among Texas cities in requiring that its council always meet in public. On Thursday, City Attorney David Feldman unveiled a proposal to authorize closed-session discussions [...]
Budget amendment time
Now that Mayor Parker has formally submitted her proposed budget for fiscal year 2013, it’s time for Council members to submit their amendments for consideration. I’m going to start at the bottom of the story with the two proposals that intrigues me the most. Two members called for a November election to amend the city’s [...]
Council approves Mayor’s crime lab plan
It’s a done deal. City Council has appointed a nine-member board to oversee the city’s crime lab, the first step in yanking it from police department control and setting up a publicly funded non-profit corporation to do evidence testing. The vote was 15-2. [...] Though Council members supported the mayor’s proposal to try to insulate [...]
Feeding the homeless
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this. Mayor Annise Parker is asking the council to adopt rules that would require organizations and people who feed the homeless to register with the city, take a food safety class, prepare the food in certified kitchens, serve only at three public parks, and leave those parks [...]
Council agrees to red light camera settlement
At long last. City Council approved a payout of at least $4.8 million Wednesday to settle a lawsuit and take down Houston’s controversial red-light cameras, finally ending a legal battle that began after voters banned the devices in a referendum 15 months ago. The cameras were turned off and outlawed by council in August but [...]
Huts for the homeless?
I like the sound of this. At-Large Position 5 Councilman Jack Christie used Wednesday’s pop-off to pitch an idea to his colleagues: huts for the homeless. Christie distributed a printout describing small huts built by a group called Mad Housers in the Atlanta area. Christie said he learned about Mad Housers through a friend whose [...]
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: [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 overview: At Large #5
The fifth time is for all the marbles. Again. For the fifth time since 2007, counting general elections and runoffs, Jolanda Jones and Jack Christie are running against each other for the At-Large Position 5 seat on Houston City Council. Christie is a Republican, a resident of the Memorial City area and white. He makes [...]
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, [...]
Back and forth in At Large #5
Did you think this would be a slow holiday week? Not when there’s a runoff looming. So far this week, the Jack Christie campaign has released a letter from the former public policy director for CM Jolanda Jones that ripped her up one side and down the other. The next day, the city’s Office of [...]
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, [...]
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% [...]
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 [...]
The 8 day non-filers
Eight day campaign finance reports were posted on the city website on Monday and Tuesday. As of today, the following candidates do not have an 8 Day report available: Amanda Ullman, Mayor James Partsch-Galvan (*), At Large #1 Elizabeth Perez, At Large #2 Rozzy Shorter, At Large #2 Gordon Goss, At Large #2 Brad Batteau, [...]
Eight day finance reports, part II
Finishing what I started… – Fernando Herrera‘s report appeared on Tuesday. He raised $15,835, spent $27,185, and has $242.87 on hand. There were several expenditures on signs and a couple for “Advertising” that didn’t give me much of a clue about what kind of advertising they may be – there were two items totaling $4060 [...]
Chron overview of At Large #5
In addition to their belated endorsement in the At Large #5 race, the Chron now has its overview story of the race up as well. At-Large Position 5 Councilwoman Jolanda Jones arguably finds herself running as the upstart in her own re-election campaign. Opponent Laurie Robinson has raised nearly four times as much money in [...]
Endorsement watch: Bell for Jones
Former Council Member and Mayoral candidate Chris Bell has endorsed Jolanda Jones for re-election, writing his own letter of support for her, which you can see here. Normally, I’m not that interested in this sort of personal endorsement, but since I noted the unexpected endorsement of Jones’ opponent Jack Christie by former Mayor Bill White, [...]
Endorsement watch: White for Christie
This came as a surprise to me. Former Mayor Bill White has endorsed Jack Christie for the At-Large 5 City Council seat. It is the only endorsement the ex-mayor has made in this year’s city elections. White sent out a letter explaining his endorsement, which you can read here. I have been told by the [...]
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 [...]
Interview with Jack Christie
Next up in At Large #5 is a familiar face, that of Jack Christie, who is on his third run for this office. Christie came very close to winning in 2009, ultimately falling by 1500 votes in the runoff. He is a chiropractor who has served on the Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees and [...]
A closer look at finance reports: Elected officials
In addition to contributions from PACs, there was another class of donor that I thought was worth highlighting: Elected officials and candidates for public office. Basically, the idea is to see who “the establishment” is supporting, to see what we might learn from that. So without further ado, here’s a Google spreadsheet with all the [...]
Inspector General cites CM Jones
Ouch. Houston City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones used city employees to help run her personal law practice and instructed her staff not to meet with investigators looking into her alleged misconduct, the city’s inspector general has determined. For three of the six findings, Jones could face misdemeanor criminal charges. In a June 2 memorandum to Mayor [...]
A very early look at 2011 fundraising
A couple of weeks ago I took an early look at the 2011 city elections, but there was a key ingredient missing in that analysis: Money. The fundraising season for city candidates, which has been closed since last January, will open again on February 1. Let’s take a look at where various cast members stand [...]
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 [...]
Runoff precinct analysis, At Large Council races
Continuing on with the precinct analyses from the runoff, here’s a look at the City Council At Large races. First up, At Large #1: Dist Derr Costello Derr% Cost% ==================================== A 7,200 8,160 46.9 53.1 B 5,737 4,859 54.1 45.9 C 9,001 9,870 47.7 52.3 D 11,804 7,487 61.2 38.8 E 5,754 9,154 38.6 61.4 [...]