Another change that our new term limits law has wrought.
Houston elected officials who become a candidate for another elected office are now automatically required to resign their current seat, uncharted territory for city officeholders who previously had not been subject to the so-called “resign-to-run” provision of the Texas Constitution.
The requirement that has long applied to county officials also covers officeholders in municipalities whose terms are longer than two years. Voters extended the terms of Houston elected officials to four years, from two, last November, triggering the change.
The “resign-to-run” clause pertains to those with more than one year and 30 days left in their terms who announce their candidacy or become a candidate in any general, special or primary election.
The provision does not appear immediately to affect three City Council members – Dwight Boykins, Jerry Davis and Larry Green – who have expressed interest in the late Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee’s seat, because it would not kick in until Democratic precinct chairs select someone to replace Lee on the November ballot.
[…]
Executive committee nominations aside, a memo sent Tuesday by City Attorney Donna Edmundson and obtained by the Chronicle defines “announcing candidacy for office” as “making a written or oral statement from which a reasonable person may conclude that the individual intends, without qualification, to run for an office.”
Edmundson added: “A statement made in a private conversation does not constitute an announcement of candidacy for the purposes of the ‘resign to run’ provision. Likewise, a statement indicating an interest in an office is not considered an announcement of candidacy.”
[Mark] Jones said the new rules further constrain elected city officials.
“Previously, they effectively could have their cake and eat it, too, in that they could run while keeping their City Council position,” Jones said. “Now, they’re going to have to actually make a hard choice, which in some cases may be a risky move.”
Yes, but let’s not go overboard. Not that many people that would have been affected by resign-to-run took advantage of their prior exemption from it. Going back a decade, I can think of six sitting municipal officeholders who were also candidates for other offices. Three of them were in the last year of their final term – Bill White in 2009, Wanda Adams in 2013, and Ed Gonzalez in 2015 – and thus had less than a year and a month remaining in office. Only three people would have had to resign to run – Shelley Sekula Gibbs, who ran for Congress in 2006; Adrian Garcia, who ran for Sheriff in 2008; and Mike Sullivan, who ran for Tax Assessor in 2012. Sekula Gibbs and Garcia resigned after winning their November elections, thus triggering special elections to succeed them the following May, while Sullivan resigned after winning his primary, which allowed the special election to fill his seat to happen that same November.
The rest of the story is about filling Commissioner El Franco Lee’s spot on the November ballot, and it’s mostly stuff we already know. The main thing here is that this change probably won’t have much effect, though it could alter how some incumbents view the rest of the election cycle. If anyone decides to run for something in 2018, we’ll know.