Campos tosses a hat into the ring for Mayor 2015.
Laura Murillo
Laura Murillo, CEO and President of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, is telling folks she will be running for H-Town Mayor next year. I said this yesterday:
She would certainly be a fresh face. Being a Latina and the only woman in the race would help her. I think she could raise the money – certainly as much as the other three could. She is smart, articulate, and bilingual.
And:
Here in H-Town we kind of know who is seriously thinking about running for Mayor. Council Member Stephen Costello, State Rep. Sylvester Turner, and former Congressman Chris Bell are the ones most mentioned. We pretty much know what to expect from these three. They have all been around for a while if you know what I mean.
I can see folks getting excited about a Laura Murillo candidacy. She goes into the race with a built-in relationship and record working with hundreds of Latino business owners and professionals. They know her well.
Her going up against three veteran male politicians would certainly provide voters with a choice. A Murillo candidacy also means that the other three candidates will probably not be doing a whole lot of Latino voter outreach.
As noted, he teased this the day before. I’ve met Dr. Murillo a couple of times – I’ve been to at least one candidate forum at the HHCC – and I’m sure she’d make an interesting candidate. There are a lot of people who are at least thinking about running for Mayor next year – Campos’ list doesn’t include CM Oliver Pennington, who is as out there as any of the other three he mentioned. I don’t plan to spend too much time thinking about it until after this year’s elections are over. I will say that all of the wannabees will have lots of challenges to deal with, but also lots of opportunities. I’m going to need to see some big ideas from them if they want me to take them seriously. But not today. Y’all have till December or so to start getting it together. Be ready to hit the ground running.
Someone(s) is also pimping — err, promoting Carroll Robinson pretty hard.
If a Latina is going to have any chance at all, she better spend the next year getting her people registered because even though it is the largest ethnic group in the city, many can’t vote (and it is proven that certain groups vote almost exclusively for “their own” if such a candidate is running). She better also start working on outreach to the other major groups because it is likely that Turner, Bradford, or Robinson lock up most of the black vote (for the runoff). Bell has a far greater chance than Costello ever would, Costello amounting to the “spit in the wind” candidate equivalent of Bruce Tatro next year.
You left out Oliver Pennington, who has a base in District G. And who knows, maybe a Kubosh will run.
And what has happened about the rumored inevitable candidacy of Democratic Sheriff Adrian Garcia? Could it be that someone may have read the law and found out when he makes any move toward a formal candidacy, he is required to resign his office, thereby leaving to the Republican Commissioners Court the responsibility to appoint his successor – most definitely a Republican? Probably would not do a lot in his efforts to expand outside an ethnic base. Oh, btw…Ms. Murillo may have a slight problem….I have seen a copy of a voter registration that lists her home address in PEARLAND…..of course she could be getting advice from some of Dave Wilson’s folks! And then there is Ben Hall who has never quit running since his defeat at the hands of Mayor Parker. Nice guy, seemingly bright but boy did he run a bush league camapign that did not leave a good impression with folks. Early line….runoff with Turner and Pennington…and then Katy bar the door in the concluding act. JMO
Pennington has done absolutely nothing to distinguish himself during his term so I just don’t see that, even if he were to find a deep pockets group to support him (won’t happen). Hall didn’t just lose that last election either, he burned many bridges and is seen as unelectable for the near term by most. For a couple of reasons, I just don’t see Garcia running this time either, not just because he hasn’t done anything in office to stand out but voting dynamics as well as his own length of time in the office he holds for pension purposes.
There are a few others weighing their chances in the offing too, one of which will rely heavily on local and state GOP support, but they won’t announce any time soon.