You know what January means around these parts. There’s lots of action in Harris County, so that’s where we’ll begin. Here’s my summary of the July 2021 reports as a reminder. Let’s dive in.
Lina Hidalgo, County Judge
Ahmed Hassan, County Judge
Georgia Provost, County Judge
Erica Davis, County Judge
Kevin Howard, County Judge
Maria Garcia, County Judge
Martina Lemon Dixon, County Judge
Robert Dorris, County Judge
Randall Kubosh, County Judge
Naoufal Houjami, County Judge
Hector Bolanos, County Judge
Oscar Gonzales, County Judge
Alexandra Mealer, County Judge
Vidal Martinez, County Judge
Warren Howell, County Judge
George Zoes, County Judge
Rodney Ellis, County Commissioner, Precinct 1
Adrian Garcia, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
George Risner, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Gary Harrison, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
John Manlove, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Jerry Mouton, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Jack Morman, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Daniel Jason, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Richard Vega, County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Tom Ramsey, County Commissioner, Precinct 3
Jack Cagle (SPAC), County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Ben Chou, County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Ann Williams, County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Clarence Miller, County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Lesley Briones, County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Gina Calanni, County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Jeff Stauber, County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Teneshia Hudspeth, County Clerk
Stan Stanart, County Clerk
Marilyn Burgess, District Clerk
Desiree Broadnax, District Clerk
Chris Daniel (SPAC), District Clerk
Dylan Osborne, County Treasurer
Carla Wyatt, County Treasurer
Kyle Scott, County Treasurer
Eric Dick, County Treasurer
Stephen Kusner, County Treasurer
Name Raised Spent Loans On Hand
======================================================
Hidalgo 900,323 424,448 1,400 1,488,652
Hassan 200 2,461 0 0
Davis 50,114 10,143 21,852 59,970
Howard
Provost
Garcia, M
Lemond Dixon 196,977 109,175 0 90,294
Dorris 0 68 0 68
Kubosh 15,075 9,051 60,000 7,165
Houjami 1,390 592 0 147
Bolanos 0 0 0 0
Gonzales 2,475 3,432 500 0
Mealer 60,049 15,464 0 15,840
Martinez 514,585 86,782 100,000 516,134
Howell 1,450 7,075 0 375
Zoes
Ellis 264,000 181,904 0 4,192,308
Garcia, A 587,885 364,783 0 2,119,825
Risner 3,250 1,899 0 51,550
Harrison 5 2,191 0 0
Manlove 19,452 4,285 0 68,870
Mouton 29,100 2,916 0 26,283
Morman 45,749 66,119 0 165,834
Jason
Vega
Ramsey 236,900 185,263 0 581,035
Cagle 285,673 501,923 0 1,119,432
Chou 80,590 4,133 0 77,490
Williams 2,600 1,250 1,250 1,450
Miller 5,293 10,560 0 10,336
Briones 244,974 60,571 0 229,258
Calanni 5,540 0 0 5,540
Stauber 0 1,250 0 0
Hudspeth 26,464 10,395 0 19,376
Stanart 0 3,054 0 8,053
Burgess 24,169 26,475 0 17,222
Broadnax 9,649 9,538 0 110
Daniel 11,875 1,393 25,000 12,264
Osborne 2,440 622 0 2,202
Scott 7,900 20,489 14,000 1,410
Dick 0 1,489 0 0
Kusner
If you don’t see a linked report for someone, it’s because there wasn’t one I could find on the harrisvotes.com page. The information I have here is current as of last night. It’s possible someone could still file a report, these things do happen, but I wouldn’t expect much from anyone who hasn’t by now.
There are items of greater substance to discuss, but I can’t help myself: Naoufal Houjami was a candidate for Mayor in 2019 – if you don’t remember him, it’s probably because he got a total of 565 votes, for 0.2%, finishing last in the field. He has filed a finance report as a candidate for Harris County Judge, but he is not listed as a candidate for either primary, according to the Secretary of State’s Qualified Candidates page. (The Harris County GOP candidates page doesn’t have him, either.) The first two pictures I saw on his webpage were one with him and Greg Abbott, and one with him and Sheila Jackson Lee. Go figure. He is fully supporting his friend George P. Bush for Attorney General, so you make the call. This is way more than you ever needed to know about Naoufal Houjami.
Anyway. Barring an unlikely late and lucrative report from Georgia Provost, who wasn’t much of a fundraiser as a City Council candidate, incumbent Judge Lina Hidalgo outraised all of the other candidates for that position combined. Erica Davis claimed $70K raised on the summary page of her report but just $50K on the subtotals page – I suspect the $70K number was a typo. She had six total donors listed, two of whom gave $25K each, one who gave $196, and the others gave $19.12 apiece. Vidal Martinez was the other big fundraiser, though as John Coby notes, almost 70% of his donations came from 14 people who each ponied up at least $10K. For sure, it’s all green, but that’s not exactly grassroots support. As for Alexandra Mealer, I’d been wondering about her because I’ve seen multiple signs for her in my very Democratic neighborhood. Turns out she’s also my neighbor, now living in one of the historic houses. That explains a lot.
I included the two Commissioners who are not on the ballot just as a point of comparison. Adrian Garcia is obviously well-equipped for battle. George Risner presumably had a few bucks in his account from his time as a Justice of the Peace, but his candidacy for Commissioner does not seem to have drawn much support so far. Jack Morman also had some coin still in his bank and drew more support on his attempt to come back, but he’s nowhere close to Garcia. For Precinct 4, Jack Cagle raised a reasonable amount, though as you can see not an earth-shaking total, with Lesley Briones coming close to him. He has a tidy sum in his treasury, but it’s less than what he had in July thanks to how much he spent. Gina Calanni didn’t raise much – to be fair, there isn’t that much time between the filing deadline and the finance reporting deadline – but her report showed $40K in pledges, which are noted as transfers from her State House campaign account.
None of the other offices tend to raise much. Chris Daniel has a personal report as well as the SPAC report. The non-SPAC account reported no money raised and $1,151 in expenditures.
Finally, someone named Stephen Kusner filed a finance report for Treasurer in July but is not on either ballot and has no report for January. I’m just making a note of that here in case anyone who looked at my July summary is wondering what happened to him.
I’ll take a look at some state reports next, and Congressional reports later. Let me know if you have any questions.
What makes a politicians job warrant such a high salary??
Aren’t they pleased “to serve” the community….those salaries need to be capped at about 50k per year…..
robert, you don’t think politicians should even get paid median income? do you think that lowering their pay below that of teacher will improve or government?
it’s not the salary that’s corrupting. it’s everything else.
The FBI paid very high salaries from the beginning to reduce the potential for corruption. The other way to reduce the potential for corruption is to put the heads of corrupt politicians on stakes outside the office building. As Marcellus Wallace said in Pulp Fiction “get medieval on their ass”
Joel,
Did you see what the county positions are paying….then look at this:
https://houstontx.gov/housing/flyers/ami/2021/AMI-2021-Final-060721.pdf