Unlike the November election, the Chron wastes no time in handing out endorsements for the December 10 runoffs. In half of the races, they get to stick with the person they touted originally: Jay Aiyer in City Council At Large #2, Ana Hernandez in HD143, and Daisy Maura in HISD9. In the others, their first pick didn’t make it this far, so they made new choices: Jarvis Johnson in City Council District B, Anne Clutterbuck in District C, and Natasha Kamrani in HISD1. I hope they run a reminder of these recommendations when voting actually starts.
PDiddie has a request for Hittner and Clutterbuck supporters in District C: “All the good folks who voted for Mark Lee and Herman Litt might want to know who to vote for on December 10th. Would someone like to give them a reason to?” If you thought November was a lot turnout election, you ain’t seen nothing yet. If you have a stake in who wins that race, it should be worth it to you to give your person a plug to anyone who’s listening, because every vote really will matter. Leave a comment there or here for your preferred contender.
Early voting runs from November 30 to December 6. Don’t miss out.
Clutterbuck is a moderate Republican with federal legislative experience. I was leaning towards Clutterbuck, but after listening to them debate each other at the candidate forum at Rice the other night I’m definitely voting for her, mostly because I can’t stand George Hittner.
Hittner’s answers at the forum didn’t seem to have that much depth and he seems way out of his league. I’ll give you an example. At one point Hittner was asked whether the city should extend health benefits to partners of same-sex city employees. He responded with a boilerplate Republican line about small government, after which Anne Clutterbuck pointed out that Houston had voted to amend the city charter to ban health benefits for same-sex couples in 2001. She also noted that she had voted against that proposition and that if the voters rescinded it, she’d extend those benefits. Kudos to her for saying that in a room filled with mostly GOP primary voters.
There were three or four other instances where Hittner obviously didn’t know what Goldberg and Wong, who moderated the event, were talking about where he did the same thing: fell back on GOP-truisms where they clearly had nothing to do with the question he had been asked.
I’m not that excited about voting for Anne Clutterbuck; she’s a fiscal conservative and a Republican. But Hittner’s youth, inexperience (his website biography proudly notes he was an Eagle scout), conservatism and connections make me very leary of him; if I was cynical, I’d say the only reason he’s gotten this far is because his dad is a federal judge with the connection in Republican circles to raise a heck of a lot of money.
Mark Lee just endorsed her (as did the Houston GLBT Political Caucus), which makes me less worried that her moderatation might be a screen. Taking in all that, I’m voting for Anne Clutterbuck.
That endorsement of Daisy Maura over Larry Marshall has got to be the weakest thing I have ever read. He is far superior and is not only a former teacher and long time proven administrator but is also a business builder and a reformer which is wht scares the comicle.
The Houston Chronicle doesn’t seem to carry much weight in Districe B. Their general election endorsee got hardly any votes. It’s a shame, that district could use excellent representation.
I also attended the forum at Rice University and thought that both Anne and George did a good job, though I was already leaning toward Anne. I was pleased to see how well she did.
Today I became convinced. I received from the Conservative Republicans, an offensive Ad endorsing George…I don’t mind the group endorsing one candidate over another, but this one is “slimy”. I feel their comments about Anne varied from distortions to slanderous lies. This PAC group has no problem playing dirty politics, never mind civility or truth. And they claim to be good Christians. Maybe this is just Panic time in their camp.
I like Steven Hotze as a doctor, but he should be ashamed to put his picture & name on that Ad.
I checked the Harris County Republican Part screening questions and Anne said she was against extending same sex benefits to domestic partners and that doesn’t square with her answer at the forum.
Face it, we Dems don’t need John Culberson and Bill Archer’s clone running our District! Culberson is just a right wing nut job but Archer’s pet bill was to go to a national sales tax which we all know sock it to the poor.
At least Hittner’s father was a Democratic State Judge and Vince Ryan is on his team, which leads me to believe he will be a neighborhood advocate.
There is no one registered to vote in Harris County with the name Chapel and a male first name other than Brett, Freddie, Gilbert, Luke or Tommie. No Bill. No William. Anyone trust this guy’s opinion? (I won’t weigh in on any issues here. I will tell you I a Clutterbuck supporter, not active in either party, but I won’t play games trying to sway you by pretending to be something/someone I am not.)