The Chron finally gets around to making an endorsement in the HCDE race for Precinct 1, Position 6.
Erica Lee
If you’ve never heard of the Harris County Board of Education, don’t feel bad. Even among people who care about school boards, this one maintains a low profile.
We’re pleased, though, that the sleepy board has attracted two unusually well qualified candidates. In the Democratic runoff for Position 1, Precinct 6, former Houston City Councilmember Jarvis Johnson faces Erica S. Lee, a promising political newcomer.
[…]
For the job, we endorse Lee, who combines real-world teaching experience with an impressive policy background. She taught first grade at HISD’s Lantrip Elementary before studying public policy at Duke University. After that, she served on a team that helped New York’s Gov. Eliot Spitzer prepare a $21 billion education budget – a budget that brought universal pre-K classes to New York kids.
Lee’s energetic campaign and long, wide-ranging list of endorsements – among them, the Houston Federation of Teachers, the Harris County AFL-CIO, Houston GLBT Political Caucus and Area 5 Pasadena Democrats – indicate both how seriously she takes the job and how well she’d be able to build coalitions to support our county’s schools. These days, our schools need all the help they can get.
You’d think an obscure office is one that the Chron would want to educate voters about, but never mind. I had wondered if the Chron would get to the races it had overlooked for the runoffs, and I’m glad to see they’ve at least covered this one. I also wholeheartedly agree with their choice – Erica Lee is a super candidate who has clearly done her homework about this job, and I will happily vote for her next week. But I’m a little curious about the Chron’s contention that the runoff for this seat features “two unusually well qualified candidates”. I’d have said that about the first round, when Reagan Flowers was also on the ballot, but with all due respect what exactly makes Jarvis Johnson “unusually well qualified” for this particular office? I’m not aware of him having a background in education, and I don’t recall him speaking about education matters while he was on Council. I tried to do some research about Johnson’s credentials, but there’s nothing to be found. He still has no campaign website, though if you Google him you can find his old Congressional campaign website and his long-dormant blog. His Facebook page has no mention of anything more recent than his Council service, and the only Twitter account I could find was from the Congressional campaign. I could live with the lack of an online presence if he had an active and visible campaign for this office, but it’s not active and visible to me – I’ve seen one email about a campaign event, and that’s it. Maybe he is “unusually well qualified” for this office, but if he is he’s doing an unusually good job of keeping it under wraps. Better to vote for the person whose unusually good qualifications are out there for all to see, and that person is Erica Lee.
Theres been some changes in this race,apparently their are alot of voters in this district that remember that erica lee’s mother, sheila jackson lee backed hillary clinton instead of barack obama and that has cost erica lee a mountain of votes,from what my sources tell me,jarvis johson wins this election by 56% to erica lees 44%
if i was a betting man, i would put my money on jarvis johnson to pull this out for the win………………
joshua ben bullard
Hey Kuff – am I missing something, or has Jarvis Johnson never filed a campaign finance report since entering this race?
David – I haven’t checked the July reports yet, but he had not filed any as of the May primary election.