Yesterday I made an inquiry with the Elections division of the Secretary of State’s office, to ask how many candidates had filed for the special election in SD06. They kindly forwarded me a scan of all eight candidate applications, which you can see here. (Stace and PDiddie reported on this yesterday afternoon. The only mainstream media coverage of which I am aware came from La Voz.) Here’s what I can tell you about the eight candidates, listed in alphabetical order:
Carol Alvarado – Facebook – Twitter
Alvarado is the State Rep in HD145, in her third term. She served three terms as Houston City Council member in District I before that.
Bray was the Republican nominee for SD06 in 2012, winning 29% of the vote. He was Chief of Staff for District A Council member Helena Brown before resigning in April.
Susan Delgado – No website, Facebook page, or Twitter account, as far as I can tell.
Delgado was once the mistress of the late Sen. Gallegos. She subsequently ran against him twice, as a write-in in 2004 and a Libertarian in 2008. Despite that, she lists her party affiliation as “Democratic” on her application.
Sylvia Garcia – Facebook – Twitter
Garcia was County Commissioner in Harris County Precinct 2 for two terms, and before that she was Houston City Controller for three terms.
Martinez is a first time candidate, who once worked on the staff of former Council member John Castillo. Here’s a NewsFix report on him.
The webpage is for Olmos’ most recent candidacy, as a Republican for SBOE 4. She runs for a lot of things – HISD Board of Trustees in 2011, and HD 143 in 2004, 2005 (special election), 2006, and 2008. The Facebook page is her personal page – the Facebook link on her candidate page is broken; though there is a Twitter icon next to it, there is no link to a Twitter account.
Reyes served one term on League City Council, from 1994-97. As noted by Stace and PDiddie, he did not fill in the party affiliation field on his application.
Selva was the Green Party candidate for CD29 in 2012.
As of Friday, there were no 30 day finance reports yet. We know that Garcia and Alvarado both had healthy amounts of cash as of July. Of the candidates that had to file reports for 2012, neither Bray nor Olmos reported any significant funds on their 8 day reports from October; I did not find any finance reports for Selva on the FEC webpage. The sheer number of candidates almost certainly guarantees a runoff, but I don’t believe it changes the dynamic from what we’ve all known it to be since the beginning, that this is a two-way race between Alvarado and Garcia. PDiddie thinks Bray has a shot at the runoff based on his showing in November, but I don’t buy it. Bray got the votes of the people in SD06 who showed up to vote for Mitt Romney or Ted Cruz and then stuck around to vote downballot, as well as the straight ticket R vote. Neither is in play in this race. The only people who will vote are those who a) know there’s an election and b) have a reason to vote for one of the candidates. Unless Bray, or any other candidate not named Alvarado or Garcia, can raise the money to reach people who will vote for him, or gets a boost from an outside party like the Harris County GOP, who is actually going to show up for him? I think he’s a step ahead of the rest of the pack due to his candidacy in the previous election, but as PDiddie correctly notes the R vote will likely be split between him and Olmos. I think it’s an Alvarado-Garcia runoff in March, and any other outcome will surprise me.
I’m seeing ads for both Garcia and Alvarado on cable, even though I live in western Pearland far outside SD06. I’m surprised they’re spending their ad money in a way that isn’t targeted more specifically SD06. Comcast can target ads to specific neighborhoods, though I don’t know how granular it is. Any thoughts on that?
Oddly enough, if you’re seeing it in Pearland, that IS an indicator that they’re targeting their ads. The Comcast cable market zone that includes Pasadena (and I think Baytown, also) has also covered northern Brazoria County for a long time. It was maddening when I wanted to target ads for a countywide race. But for SD6, I think you’re realistically limited to 2-3 zones and at least two of them I know of are zones that have far more population outside of the SD6 portion.
In your profiles of the candidates it would have been interesting to have added to the list of races Dorothy Olmos has been involved in her race for Harris County Commissioner Pct. 2 in 2010 against Jack Mormon or that Bray is or has been in the Texas Air National Guard. In see a lot of yrd signs and big signs for Carol Alvarado, few are out for Sylvia Garcia and one on Loop 610 for Olmos. My friend Karen has recieved in her mail box five cards for Alvarado including a Christmas Card that featured a color photo of a five yr old Alvarado on Santa Calus’ lap at Gulfgate Mall in 1972. Christmas Eve Karen also recieved a card from Olmos meant for Pct. Chairs.
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