Back in January, I took an early look at the 2013 elections in Houston. At the request of the folks at the Burnt Orange Report, who also printed my initial overview, here’s an update on the races in the city of Houston in 2013. Mayor Back in January, Mayor Parker had no declared opponents, though [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Mike Sullivan’
Mayor Parker kicks off her campaign
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 [...]
Transition, schmansition
Don Sumners, ladies and gentlemen. “There is no transition,” said lame-duck Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners. The occasionally cantankerous 73-year-old anti-tax taxman said he and his two predecessors came in cold, and [Tax Assessor-elect Mike] Sullivan will have to do the same. “Frankly, I guess, it’s a little bit of bitterness on my part that he [...]
Endorsement watch: Martin and Sullivan
The Chron can’t quite believe that Steve Stockman is on the verge of being foisted on us again as a member of Congress, so they do what they can by endorsing his opponent, Max Martin. Max Martin is a credible, if long-shot, candidate. Martin, a retired pilot who now owns an education software business in [...]
30 Day finance reports, Harris County candidates
Here’s a look at the 30 day campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates. All reports can be found by going to the Harris County Clerk campaign finance reports page. Candidate Office Raised Spent Loans Cash ========================================================== Garcia Sheriff 192,670 120,957 0 388,197 Guthrie Sheriff 158,700 48,633 171,000 98,152 Alessi Sheriff 1,019 2,007 700 1,719 [...]
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 [...]
Three for E
There will probably be more when all is said and done, but at this time there are three candidates running for District E this November. The candidates are: Lonnie Allsbrooks – Former owner of Beer Island bar in the Heights. Ran for At-Large Position 1 council seat in 2009. Moved to Kingwood earlier this year. [...]
Here come the city bonds
For your approval. Houston voters will decide in November whether local governments can borrow more than $2.7 billion for schools, parks, libraries and public safety. City Council OK’d its portion of that total Wednesday, a $410 million package of bond measures. The crowded and costly ballot during a presidential election has some questioning whether voters [...]
July campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates
You know the drill by now. Office Candidate Raised Spent Cash Loans ============================================================ Sheriff A Garcia 47,025 41,900 357,818 0 Sheriff L Guthrie 70,176 75,646 33,075 157,000 Sheriff C Pittman 11,309 11,566 5,217 24,000 DA M Anderson 73,888 60,980 33,371 0 DA L Oliver 0 150 0 0 County Atty V Ryan 56,571 33,047 145,606 [...]
Sullivan submits his resignation
As promised. Councilman Mike Sullivan submitted his resignation Wednesday, fulfilling a promise he made to leave Council if he won the Republican primary in the county tax assessor-collector race. He did win on May 29. His resignation is effective on Jan. 1, which is the day he would have to leave Council anyway if he [...]
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 [...]
Sullivan confirms he will step down in January
There will be one more election on the ballot this November. Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan confirmed Thursday that he will submit his resignation next month as a result of his victory in the Republican Party primary for county tax assessor-collector, keeping a promise he made before Tuesday’s election. Sullivan said his resignation will be [...]
GOP results, Harris County
Bullet points for all these result posts, I was up way too late last night. See the numbers here and the chat transcript from last night here. – You could have sold me on any result in the GOP DA primary going into yesterday, but I definitely did not expect such a wide margin. Mike [...]
Chron overview of the Tax Assessor primary
Having just reported on the vehicle registration problems at the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office, the Chron now writes about the GOP primary for that office. A Houston Chronicle story Friday reported Sumners’ staff is working overtime to process a backlog of auto registrations so motorists are not ticketed for driving with expired decals. [Challenger [...]
Endorsement watch: Sullivan for Tax Assessor
The Chron made its first primary endorsement on Friday, and I just now noticed. The [Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office] is, or should be, the quintessential service department – run with the customer’s satisfaction uppermost in mind. For almost half a century, the late Carl Smith was the agreeable face of the office, the boss [...]
She showed me her manifesto, I had no reply
I got nothing. District E Councilman Mike Sullivan, until January by far the Council’s most conservative member, was so outflanked from the right by a Council newcomer Wednesday that he found himself uttering into his microphone: “I am not a communist.” The energy company Entergy is proposing raising rates on 1,500 of his Kingwood constituents [...]
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, [...]
January finance reports: Harris County
January is a very busy month for campaign finance reports, since they are due for all levels of government. I’ve been busy updating the 2012 Primary Election pages for Harris County and elsewhere in Texas with reports as I can find them. Here’s an overview of some races of interest in Harris County. I’ll have [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Sullivan files against Sumners
I was writing a long candidate update for the weekend on Friday that’s pretty much junk now, but not every election is affected by the SCOTUS stay ruling. One such election is for Harris County Tax Assessor, where on Friday Houston City Council Member Mike Sullivan officially filed to take on Don Sumners in the [...]
Eight day reports, part 1
The eight day finance reports started getting posted on the city’s campaign finance page yesterday. I’m still working through putting them on my 2011 Election page, but here are a few highlights so far: – Next to Mayor Parker, the big spender in October was CM Stephen Costello, who made full use of his deep [...]
More 30 day finance reports for City of Houston races
Following up on yesterday’s report, here are the interesting, odd, and questionable things I’ve seen in the rest of the 30 day campaign finance reports. Mayor Parker raised $469K, spent $526K, and maintained $2.3 million on hand. She appears to be gearing up to start airing ads – I saw two expenditures totaling nearly $49K [...]
Sumners v Sullivan?
Well, this would be entertaining. County tax assessor-collector Don Sumners thinks Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan may be preparing to take a run at him in next year’s GOP primary, and Sullivan isn’t denying it. Sumners took a swipe or two at Sullivan without referring to him by name at a recent Greater Houston Pachyderm [...]
A closer look at finance reports: PACs
Having taken the time to download all of those campaign finance reports for the city of Houston elections, which you can view on my 2011 Election page, I wanted to see what I could learn from all this data. So I spent a little time going through all the reports to sort contributions and expenditures [...]
More on the red light camera ruling
I said before that what happens next with the red light camera ruling is a political decision. Here’s how that’s shaping up. City Attorney Dave Feldman said Friday’s ruling will force the city to choose from canceling the contract with American Traffic Solutions — which might cost the city $16 million — or keeping the [...]
CM Hoang accused of forging names on petition signatures
This is just bizarre. In the heart of Asia Town in southwest Houston, some homeowners in the Turtlewood Square subdivision say they’ve been robbed. They were not robbed of their belongings, but rather their good names. “Definitely homeowners [are] scared, shocked, angry,” said Jenny Lu. Sue Tsai, another neighbor, agreed. “This is really underhanded,” she [...]
Jones and Sullivan name their delegates
As we know, CM Jolanda Jones gets to pick a fellow Council member to represent her in the meeting on Monday to determine if any formal action will be taken against her. Yesterday, she picked CM Brad Bradford to be her advocate in the process. Originally, the city said that the other two people on [...]
CM Jones speaks about the OIG report
She didn’t say much, however. Councilwoman Jolanda Jones said Monday she believes she “will have acted within the acceptable standards of conduct” once all the facts are out concerning an Office of Inspector General investigation that found she used city resources to benefit her private law practice and then lied to investigators about it. She [...]
Sullivan files complaint against Jones
And the process gets started. A day after declaring he would not do so, Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan filed a complaint against Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, seeking possible discipline following the release of an Office of Inspector General report that concluded Jones had used city employees and resources to benefit her private law practice and [...]
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 [...]
The Empty Lot Primary
This is an awesome idea. A political consultant is launching a Web site aimed shaming political candidates into limiting the posting of signs to addresses where the residents actually endorse their candidacies. Greg Wythe’s emptylotprimary.tumblr.com invites people to submit photos of campaign signs at empty lots, empty buildings or other locations where there is no owner or resident [...]