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 ‘Orlando Sanchez’
The Mayor and the firefighters
Despite the tone of this, I wouldn’t make too much of it. While looking for tens of millions of dollars through a combination of cuts, deferrals, savings and fee hikes, Mayor Annise Parker repeatedly has identified the Houston Fire Department as one of the largest of budget bogeymen. Whether describing an intransigent pension board, a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Locke v. Brown
So here’s the new Gene Locke ad: Everybody noticed the pause, right? Hey, if the electorate isn’t paying close attention to the details, you may as well make the most of it where you can. And here’s the Chron story about Locke taking to the radio to attack Peter Brown: The 60-second spot, the first [...]
And the rest
The Chron devotes a fairly long article to the three candidates for Mayor you’ve probably never heard of. It’s fine to give a chance for everyone to be heard, but with the election a month out and the sum total of the Chron’s non-Mayoral coverage being one story on the Controller’s race, I have to [...]
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 [...]
A tale of two Orlandos
Orlando Sanchez, speaking last week in a Statesman article about the statewide ambitions of Houston Mayor Bill White, who beat him soundly in the 2003 runoff: He doesn’t discount him but suggests White has gotten a free ride in his hometown. Lately, Sanchez has questioned a lack of promised light-rail construction under White, a failure [...]