District F was a three-way race, with challenger Steve Le leading first-term incumbent Richard Nguyen. Kendall Baker ran as a HERO hater, and finished third overall but did manage to come in first or second in nine precincts. I thought I’d take a look at those precincts to see if they’d tell me anything about how the runoff might go.
Pcnct Le Baker Nguyen Turner King Other Yes No
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0298 196 180 146 84 238 272 202 395
0509 19 32 14 15 10 59 36 58
0559 198 181 175 259 117 294 274 399
0566 99 162 137 175 86 240 210 277
0620 189 219 164 105 303 280 229 466
0627 194 115 109 138 77 272 179 295
0814 62 67 54 94 20 104 84 130
0971 3 5 1 5 1 3 4 5
1000 28 29 27 42 10 45 29 60
“Yes” and “No” refer to the HERO vote. The bulk of the “other” votes went to Adrian Garcia, who finished second overall in F. Beyond that, there’s not much of a pattern to detect. Baker did well in a couple of precincts where Bill King did well, presumably where there was a decent share of Republicans who voted the Hotze slate, and he did well in a couple of precincts where Sylvester Turner did well, possibly because of a decent African-American population. What happens to these voters in the runoff is anyone’s guess.
As for Le and Nguyen, the bulk of the remaining precincts was won by Le. Here’s a summary:
Le Baker Nguyen Turner King
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3,292 1,865 2,535 2,399 1,755
654 440 702 501 247
Richard Nguyen
CM Nguyen won a plurality in Fort Bend, though there weren’t many votes there.
If you’re a supporter of CM Nguyen, there’s not a whole lot here to feel optimistic about. While the No vote on HERO tracks pretty closely to the combined Le/Baker total in those precincts where Baker did well, there’s a falloff between the Yes voters and the Nguyen voters. This to me is a sign of a candidate who is not very well known; given that Nguyen won in a surprise two years ago on a mostly shoe-leather campaign, that’s not much of a surprise. He won far fewer precincts than Le, and he won them by a smaller amount. I see two bits of good news for him. One is that he had $38K on hand as of his 8 day report (Le had $6K on hand, but he’d also loaned himself some money and likely could do more of that), so at least he ought to have the resources to reach out to voters. The other is that as Sylvester Turner won this district, and Bill King came in third, he can try to cleave himself to Turner and hope to catch a coattail. I make Le the favorite here, but Nguyen does have a chance, and if the HCDP wants to do something in the runoffs as its previous email announced, this race ought to be a priority for them.
In J, CM Mike Laster got more than double the votes of his closest competitor, Jim Bigham, who snuck into the runoff a mere 28 votes ahead of anti-HERO candidate Manny Barrera. The precinct data tells a pretty simple story here, as not-close election data often do. Laster won or tied for first in 27 of 32 precincts (the one tie had only 15 votes cast; he and Bigham each got 6). Of the 27 precincts Laster won, Bigham finished last nine times, and third six times. He was first only once, in precinct 426, where he finished exactly two votes ahead of Laster; Barrera and fourth candidate Dung Le each won two precincts. I have no idea what a path to victory for Bigham looks like. Turner also won in J with King coming in third, so Laster simply running as the Democratic candidate works for him. Anything can happen, of course, but anything other than a Laster win would be a big surprise.
I didn’t do a detailed analysis of H, even though it’s my district. The battle lines are less clear here, since Karla Cisneros and Jason Cisneroz were both pro-HERO and aren’t terribly far apart on many policy issues. If there’s one thing to watch for, it’s that a Karla Cisneros win would mean only one Latino member of Council for the next four years. There were plenty of lamentations about Adrian Garcia’s performance, but this seems to me to be a bigger issue. Will Latino leaders rally around Jason Cisneroz? For that matter, will Roland Chavez, who didn’t miss making the runoff by much, endorse a candidate? One could also note that right now there are only two women on Council, with three in the At Large runoffs. A Karla Cisneros victory would even things out a bit on that score. I could see this one going either way.
It doesn’t matter if all Latinos rally behind Jason, the white vote will carry Karla over. One thing I have noticed over the years that there is not much difference between white republicans and white democrats when it comes to voting for Latinos, they don’t. There are exceptions by both parties but they are exceptions.
By the way since the LGBT endorsed Karla, I don’t expect all the Latino elected officials, they are not leaders, to support Jason.
As to District J, the district I ran in, I believe you are correct in the analysis, and if it makes anyone feel good, I intend to vote for Mike Laster which I believe is a much better person than Jim Bigham.
As to F, I don’t see a path for Nguyen to win, he should know his constituents better than he does.
Where does laster stand on the revenue cap and tirz?
Just want to share an anecdote about his opponent whose last name ends in s, as in Serpent. When a fellow teacher and I were knocking on doors many years ago, 2003/4?, she answered. When I asked for her support of the HISD Magnet Cluster Centers, she said, “That should not be the responsibility of HISD.” WHAT? ?! ! SHE WAS CULPABLE FOR THE DISMANTLING OF THE ELEMENTARY MAGNET PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN. Urban children were robbed of participating in People Places, Port of Houston, Career Center, Literature Center, Wildlife Discovery Center , etc. Shame on her. SHAME! Don’t let La serpiente srike again!
Same as Jim Bigham, assuming Bigham hasn’t flipped on those two issues also. They are both for TIRZ in fact one of Bigham’s closest advisers told me, “If they have one we want one” that is aTIRZ for the Gulfton area.
Bighman was in favor of the Rain Tax and removing the Revenue cap during the first part of the campaign.
Bigham talks about the jobs he had but does not tell us what he does now. He is unemployed according to a friend of his and probably in need of a job. From what one of his advisers told me he helps his wife with a pet grooming business that they own.
If Bigham wins we may be stuck with him for 8 years, Laster has four years left. There is very little difference between the two but Laster is honest or was honest during the debates, which a lot more than I can say about Bigham. In fact Bigham told me to take down my website because he did not like it. Well I have changed what I have there but I make it clear that Jim Bigham is not a person of principles. http://mannybarrera.com/