Here’s a look at the 30 day campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates. All reports can be found by going to the Harris County Clerk campaign finance reports page.
Candidate Office Raised Spent Loans Cash
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Garcia Sheriff 192,670 120,957 0 388,197
Guthrie Sheriff 158,700 48,633 171,000 98,152
Alessi Sheriff 1,019 2,007 700 1,719
Oliver DA 3,125 6,213 0 3,125
Anderson DA 136,555 41,685 0 128,241
Ryan County Atty 24,775 79,799 0 88,714
Talton County Atty 24,922 3,952 39,250 15,286
Bennett HCTA 6,630 7,220 1,690 3,217
Sullivan HCTA 20,950 23,115 10,000 2,396
Trautman HCDE 1,685 2,704 0 8,090
Wolfe HCDE 100 750 0 109
EF Lee Com Ct 16,543 49,689 0 3,328,226
Maricle Com Ct 1,765 9,811 2,500 1,502
Radack Com Ct 39,750 28,403 0 808,390
McPherson Com Ct 0 0 0 0
Cagle Com Ct 197,106 129,312 0 203,657
Hammerle Com Ct 225 883 1,176 9
Rosen Constable 51,531 55,130 5,000 16,447
Danna Constable 18,800 15,852 0 2,568
Diaz Constable 31,750 34,163 10,815 31,837
McDonald Constable 1,645 2,151 0 0
Jones Constable 6,876 17,314 0 26,221
Cruzan Constable 31,970 7,506 552 20,720
E Lee HCDE 0 1,550 0 0
Pack HCDE 610 550 0 1,625
Mintz HCDE 0 0 0 0
Smith HCDE 500 0 0 530
My thoughts:
– You don’t need me to point out that the Sheriff’s race is the one where the money is. No other race is particularly close; one wonders how the DA race would have played out with a different result in the Democratic primary. Sheriff Garcia has 10 donors that gave at least $5,000 each – nine who gave exactly that amount, and Don McGill, who donated a whopping $50,000. Louis Guthrie has only six $5K+ donors, but each of them gave at least $10K apiece. It’s not clear to me why Guthrie has not spent more.
– Speaking of not spending more, I’m not sure why Mike Anderson is sitting on his cash like that, though I suppose he could be planning to unload it this month. I certainly expect Anderson to win, but given how he says he’d deal with losing, I’d not be taking any chances. A couple of mailers to Democratic voters reminding them of Lloyd Oliver’s idiocy and the fact that even the HCDP didn’t want him on the ticket might not be a bad idea.
– Again on the spending theme, the disparity between Vince Ryan and Robert Talton is notable. Maybe there isn’t much that can be done at the County Attorney level to overcome the predominant partisan tendencies, but we won’t know from this race.
– Wasn’t there more money in the Tax Assessor’s race last time? Checking the July and 30 day reports for Paul Bettencourt and Diane Trautman, the answer is Yes, there was more money in that race in 2008. Your guess as to why that is not the case this year is as good as mine.
– Given all this, that’s a lot of money in the Constable races. Again, you tell me what that’s all about.
– I have no idea why El Franco Lee needs $3 million in his campaign account. What in the world is he ever going to use it on? I can’t think of any good reason why anyone would want to add to that.
That’s all I’ve got. What do you see in these numbers?
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