You remember that we have runoff elections for four Houston City Council positions, right? Well, early voting starts today and runs through next Tuesday, December 6. Here are the early voting locations that will be open for the runoff. Early voting will run from 7 AM to 7 PM each day except Sunday the 4th, when it will be 1 to 6 PM. You can go any time you want, as I expect you will be the only person voting whenever it is you show up. The over/under for turnout in this runoff is 25,000, which is to say about what it was for the 2007 runoff. Districts A and B, and At Large #2 and #5 are up.
Eight day finance reports are due Friday, so I’ll be checking for those and posting them along with anything interesting I find in them. The one remaining question is who the Chron will endorse in the District B runoff. They had endorsed Kathy Daniels for the November election, but she finished third. In the other races, they went with CM Brenda Stardig in A, CM Jolanda Jones in At Large #5, and Kristi Thibaut in At Large #2. You can debate how much endorsements mean, but whatever it is it’s surely more so in a low-profile, low-turnout race.
And low turnout it will be. Look at it this way: your vote never counts more than it does when there aren’t that many votes cast. This is your last chance to vote in 2011, so go make it count.
“paul” kristi thaubaut has decided to go extremly negative-i cant believe she has decided to attack her opponent so aggressivelly-i have asked my mom and brother and my friends to join me and cast a loaded wagon vote for andrew c burks in at large 2-he is the best canidate and deserves to lead our city,i hope you will join me and help him with some massive mailers.
“its time/this time,andrew c burks”, at large#2
voting for andrew c burks in at large 2
joshua ben bullard
I back burk.
I’ll vote for Burk too then. And Jo Jones.
Joshua, do you have any evidence for your claim that Kristi Thibaut has “decided to go extremly negative”? Because I am certainly not aware of any.
honestly charles-not trying to put you off but i can see now that my sources work at lighting speed,iam getting the info off the wire a day before the press,by tommorrow all the nasty mud that kristi is throwing will have hit the fan,and you will have your wants,in all fairness and for the record, i think it is a crying shame that canidate andrew c burks hasnt been interviewed for this postion on the site,ive gone back in the past over the years and reviewed the editorial abuse that andrew has had to fend off,its a down right shame,when he should have been elected years ago,and i am putting my foot down to this crazyness and stopping the abuse,the editorial bullying,the slander,i had my mom speak with burt levine over the phone today before i left to go load the wagon,i went and picked my group up and we all went and voted for andrew c burks at large 2.
respectfully submitted joshua ben bullard-2011
See Thibaut’s mailer this week with a photo of Burks (juxtaposes his black face with her white face) and description of his two dwi’s and time in jail. “perennial failed candidate” “thousands of dollars in civil judgments for unpaid bills”
Is the info on 2 DWI’s and civil judgements true?
amazing-where did you go charles kuffner-theres your negative u asked for-canidate kristi is flat out the wrong canidate for houston-she should be a shamed of her self for promoting the lies,i am sooooooooo dissapointed-i am going to start loading my wagon with random people and driving them to the poles to vote for andrw c burks-this kristi is disgacing houston.
joshua ben bullard
No one has answered Ross’ question about whether the allegations in that mailer (which I have not seen) are true or not. Do you know for a fact that they are “lies”, Joshua, or are you just assuming they are based on whatever it is that you like about Andrew Burks?
If the allegations are false, that’s one thing. If they are true, there’s nothing at all disgraceful about pointing it out. What would be disgraceful to me is if we could have a citywide election in which a candidate with such a history could be elected without voters having a chance to know about it.
Turns out at least part of this is easy enough to verify. Go to http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/eDocs/Public/Search.aspx, click on “Criminal”, put in “Burks, Andrew” for the Defendant, and see for yourself.
I received the mailer and the problem isn’t with the allegations (which I assume are true), but with the way in which they’re presented. Really the allegations are just an excuse to set up the more important (albeit not explicitly stated) racial contrast in the ad. Just look at the imagery: it’s all about contrasting white Thibaut (hey voters, she’s WHITE!) with black Burks (hey voters, he’s BLACK!). I’m pretty disgusted that she would stoop to this, especially since she could have won purely based on her qualifications. I voted for her last time around, but I’m certainly not going to in the runoff. Are clean elections too much to ask for?
Joshua – Burks appears to have convictions for two DWIs and theft by check, in addition to two civil judgments totalling approximately $26,000. It took less than two minutes to find the public records online.
I have not seen this mailer, so I can’t comment on its appearance. But let me ask, is it just a photo of Thibaut next to a photo of Burks? If so, I’m not really sure what the problem is. What is it about the photos that upset you? Please help me understand.
noel and charles-for gods sake kuffner i quess i need to barrel it home”again” i know why you didnt interview andrew c burks for this site- and i know why you havent even opened his web site on this site, even today its blank-and here comes noel freeman to save the day-
shes going negative because she is down in the polls-THIS IS FACT,andrew c burks is houstons pick, hands down,
i have studied this race in the at large 2 and clearly,clearly andrew c burks is the clear choice,
noel and charles need to vote andrew c burks for at large 2 in the run off.
just for the record charles and noel-you two are outside the scope on this one-reaching to say the least.
with respect joshua ben bullard
jesus christ noel-“theft by check”????????????????? its a small over draft on some groceries for gods sake,what is wrong with you noel???where in gods name do you come up with this slander??
just go vote andrew c burks at large 2 run off and all is well,see you at the polls noel joshua ben bullard…………..
Slander? In order for something to be slanderous, it has to be false. Burks’ convictions are a matter of public record. I’m not registering an opinion on the matter one way or another, but rather answering the question posted by multiple commenters asking if the information was correct. You, yourself declared that the information about his convictions was untrue, and you are wrong – the information is, in fact, true.
You sure do get worked up easily.
noel-let me give it to you plain peanut butter sandwich-with no jelly-you see those district a numbers are threw the roof-now take along look noel with your buddie charles-do you know why those district a numbers are threw the roof?????????? because when you”brenda stardig” are elected as a district council member you are to do as you are instructed by your voters of that district-now let me break it down for you so your can see this in small parts noel-district a told stardig what to do-she gave them the brush off and now they have showed in mass numbers at the polls in district a to not only vote helena brown in office but to also send a strong message that if you dont do our will as the voters who have elected you, then we vote your bum out in the streets-
now noel-because the voters of district a feel they have been robbed by stardig there also pushing andrew c burks in at large 2 because after all hes demonstrated that he will take a run off position in any city of houston race for the remainder of his life-now allow me to show you and charles how this works-if burks doesnt win then he will make the run off again and again and agian and again and again and again and a again-and you and charles will always have only a single canidate to vote for-not two-do you see where i am going with this”noel”???????? now let me turn your attention to the heavy turn out in district b-burks takes 97percent in the district b run off-now lets take a look at jolanda jones run off race-well you know the rest of the story…
i called it early-if there was ever a time the moon,sun and stars have ever lined for andrew c burks its now,and this time he has the passion of the people behind him.at this time i want to offer a number of apologies to mr andrew c burks that he may not recieve from anyone else-but- our long over due,andrew-i should have backed you in the general election,i want to apologize to you that i was never able to convince charles kuffner to give you an interview on this site as he went out of his way to interview all the other canidates-with the exception of you and rozzy shorter,i am sorry this interview was never giving to you,i should have done better and worked harder to convince charles kuffner that your voice and vision counts like everyone else,my apologies,andrew c burks as you are a ware i am a lifetime democrat but i must offer my apology on behalf of your opponent kristi, in moments of despertion she felt the need to raise her hands and strike with negative force against a wonderful positive camp that you have run-she has taking it apon herself to attack positive rehabiltation of an amazing person named andrew c burks that against all odds was able to turn tradgedy to triumph and i commend you andrew c burks and i voted for you.
the dream, is the drive
“its time/this time/andrew c burks at large # 2″run off
respectfully submitted joshua “ben” bullard
What, exactly, does Brenda Stardig have to do with Andrew Burks’ criminal history? And if you are a “lifelong Democrat,” why did you vote in the Republican primary in 2006?
Joshua seems to be psychic. Perhaps he should have his own blog since he’s so in the know, instead of commenting on nearly every post in this blog.
The District Clerk’s records have some interesting public records pertaining to Mr. Bullard as well. They shed some good insight into his manner of posting, particularly his $1.5 million lawsuit against METRO.
There is no way in a Thibaut-Robinson runoff would Thibaut have done up a mailer with a photo of Robinson on it. Her Burks mailer is a pure, cynical appeal to racism. Thibaut had my vote because I perceive Burks as being a bit nutty. She lost me with the racist campaigning. But where’s the outrage from her supporters? Ellen Cohen? Rodney Ellis?
Kuffner, you should track this down. Wanna bet it went to Republican voters only?
If someone would send me an image of this mailer, I’ll give you an opinion on it. I can’t judge what I’ve never seen. Heck, if someone would just answer my question above about what the mailer looks like, that would help.
Am I the only one who remembers Andrew Burks welcoming Steven Hotze’s endorsement in the 2009 runoff against Sue Lovell? If we want to talk about cynicism, let’s start with a self-proclaimed “lifelong Democrat” embracing Hotze.
As someone who usually votes Republican (I did vote for John Whitmire, Loren Jackson, and a couple of other qualified Dems), I would disown my mother for embracing Hotze. We epitomizes just about everything that’s wrong with the Republican Party leadership.