I find this a little hard to understand.
Rep. Sylvester Turner is thinking about running for Mayor of Houston, again. His press folks just confirmed to me that he’s “thinking it over” and will make a decision in two weeks. You’ll remember that six years ago, Turner failed to make the runoff against Bill White, coming in third behind Orlando Sanchez.
He ran for Mayor before that as well, if you remembered what happened then, you’ve truly been around for a while.
Yes, I’m old enough to remember the 1991 Mayoral race and its aftermath, of which KTRK was a key player (scroll down a bit). I can understand why Turner might be thinking about hanging up his spikes in the Lege, but I don’t honestly see how there’s room for him in this race. The Chron talks to him about this.
“There have been some people that have asked me to take a look at it,” he said, declining to provide names. “Some have been elected officials and some have been community folk … I’m not interested in trying to dangle something out in front of people, but I will take a look at it and make a firm decision fairly soon.”
Turner said he was approached about three weeks ago and promised potential supporters he would “take a look at it” after the legislative session concluded, which it did earlier this week.
“It’s no mystery to anybody my interest there in terms of the city of Houston. That’s clearly there,” he said. “I’m not trying to dance on the stage or have people speculating. I have not gone to anybody and said, ‘What do you think?’ I will take a look at how this race has unfolded, whether people are looking for another option and whether or not people think that I would be a good fit for where the city is at this time.”
Throwing his hat in the ring “is a remote possibility for me now,” he said.
Professor Murrary has an in-depth look at Turner’s motivation and chances, and suggests that while anything is possible, it all seems unlikely. I’m definitely in the same boat as he – never say never, and maybe Rep. Turner sees something I’m not, but I have my doubts about his potential candidacy. Marc Campos, who was on Turner’s 2003 campaign, sees it more positively for him. What do you think?
UPDATE: Nancy Sims has both the best blog post title on this subject and the teasing suggestion that Turner may not be the only “surprise” Mayoral candidate in the wings. Hmmm…
Someone of course would benefit by his pulling away votes from Gene Locke. Which probably explains why he may go ahead and run. Which isn’t hard to understand at all. He does someone a favor, they return the favor later.
Rumor is Bob Lanier is still solidly behind Gene Locke and like it or not Lanier still has immense power in this city and so no doubt Locke will have the largest campaign war chest. Money doesn’t buy elections but it helps. In this case, it may buy the election. It depends on whether another African-American enters the race. And so it appears someone is worried enough that they want another African-American to enter the race. Not to win but merely to ensure Gene Locke doesn’t.
This is going to be a nasty race as well as an interesting race.
Did Sly just kill 500 million funding for solar with a procedural move?
why is this not getting any coverage?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lege.php?/floorpass/comments/faint_glimmer_of_hope_for_solar_incentives/#When:19:16:29Z
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