CM Andrew Burks
There are so far three races in which an incumbent Council member faces at least one credible opponent. The first is in At Large #2, where CM Andrew Burks is in his first term. As you know, CM Burks has a fascinating story. He had run for office – mostly but not exclusively Houston City Council – multiple times, enough that it’s hard to keep count of how often. He made it to a couple of runoffs, most recently in 2009 against then-incumbent Sue Lovell, but never won a race. Until 2011, of course, when he bested former State Rep. Kristi Thibaut in a runoff, having survived a field of nine candidates to get there. CM Burks is a native Houstonian, an Air Force veteran, and small business owner. Here’s our conversation:
You can see all of my interviews as well as finance reports and other information on candidates on my 2013 Election page.
What charles kuffner doesnt tell you,is that in the 20 years this man ran for office here in Houston,he never allowed him to interview on this site,it is only after he was elected and it would clearly be a biased stance on kuffners part that charles has now finally allowed candidate andrew c burks jr the opportunity to speak,I would hope with the election of Mr Burks it has inspired kuffner to change in the future in a more positive way.
changing the city of Houston
one candidate at a time,
joshua ben bullard
Thanks Charles for this interview with the Reverend Burks and all the interviews you do and have done in the past to keep your readership informed. I was not aware that you had a policy of not allowing interviews with certain candidates on this site, either because you did not favor them or did not want to bother with it – and of course the reason for that is OfftheKuff is a contribution of yours to the public without compensation and probably with less bias than any other blog. As I recall, since you started this journey back in the last decade, you have been the leader in giving fair, even handed copy to candidates and issues.
I congratulate you sir and a word of advice to those who criticize – no one forces you to read or comment Charles Kuffner’s OfftheKuff and if you don’t like what is printed here, go out and start your own blog with your own dime and effort and print whatever you like. That’s the beauty of the whole experience. Don’t like it – do it yourself with your own rules and see if your readership agrees with you and folks look forward to opening your page every single day. Charles blazed a trail for blogging in this town – and a damn fine one if I may so – that a lot of us have followed along and behind – none with the results Charles has gotten.
Carl, thank you for the kind words. Mr. Bullard is misinformed – I have no such “policy”. What I do have is a finite amount of personal bandwidth to do the dozens of interviews I do each year. I do make judgments about how best to use my limited time, and what the value is of spending some of that time with this candidate or that. Sometimes my judgment is a little off. I make no apologies about that.
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