We may or may not have City of Houston elections this year, but we will definitely have Harris County elections next year. Here’s a brief tour of the finance reports for Harris County officeholders. First up, Commissioners Court:
Rodney Ellis
Jack Morman
Steve Radack
Jack Cagle (PAC)
Name Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=================================================
Ellis 283,394 336,611 0 2,012,250
Morman 17,500 48,609 48,863 1,700,320
Radack 4,000 47,466 0 1,419,710
Cagle 560,528 270,065 0 599,774
Lee 0 0 0 3,769,900
Locke 0 81,475 0 16,672
Jack Morman will likely be a top target in 2018 – he has one announced opponent already, and will almost surely have others – and no one can say he isn’t ready for it. I expect that cash on hand number to be well over two million by this time next year. Money isn’t everything, and returns on more campaign cash diminish beyond a certain point, but whoever runs against Morman will have some ground to make up to be able to get a message out and a ground operation going. Meanwhile, the campaign coffers of the late El Franco Lee have more in them than Morman and Rodney Ellis combined, and I still have no idea what’s happening with that. I have some suggestions, if anyone administering that account is curious.
Next, the countywide offices that are on the ballot next year:
Ed Emmett
Stan Stanart
Chris Daniel (PAC)
Orlando Sanchez
Name Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=================================================
Emmett 72,000 116,700 0 177,800
Stanart 1,100 8,272 20,000 22,956
Daniel 25,800 28,866 0 4,336
Sanchez 1,250 21,813 200,000 214,820
Trautman 0 554 3,029
I skipped the offices that were just elected, because life is short. Ed Emmett’s modest total is further evidence that he was not originally planning to run for re-election next year. I feel confident that he’d have more cash in his coffers if that had been the idea all along, and I also feel confident he’ll make up some ground before the next reporting deadline. Diane Trautman would be up for re-election to the HCDE Board, but as we know she is going to run for County Clerk, so I’m including her here. I’ll be interested to see if any money pours into this race. Orlando Sanchez has had that $200K loan on the books since at least the July 2014 report. I still don’t know where he got the money for it, or why he apparently hasn’t spent any of it since then, but whatever.
Here are the Constables:
Alan Rosen
Chris Diaz
Sherman Eagleton
Mark Herman
Phil Camus
Silvia Trevino
May Walker
Phil Sandlin
Name Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=================================================
Rosen 16,500 53,719 0 237,908
Diaz 5,600 26,127 0 10,479
Eagleton 0 18,426 102,550 2,132
Herman 10,000 8,713 0 248,578
Camus 0 1,259 0 4,650
Trevino 3,500 6,892 0 142
Walker 28,166 16,935 0 23,475
Sandlin 1,500 20,451 0 56,265
All of the Constables, as well as the Justices of the Peace in Place 1, were on the ballot last year, but as I have never looked at these reports before, I figure what the heck. Alan Rosen has always been a big fundraiser. Sherman Eagleton survived a primary and runoff, which is what that loan money is about. I presume all of the action for Mark Herman was in late 2015 and early 2016, after he got promoted and needed to win a primary. I’d have to check to see if Silvia Trevino raised and spent a bunch of money early on and then took a break, or if she just relied on name recognition to win. She did win without a runoff, so whatever she did do, it worked.
Finally, the JPs:
Lincoln Goodwin
Laryssa Korduba Hrncir
Richard Vara
Armando Rodriguez
Name Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=================================================
Carter 2,000 5,041 129,878 1,316
Delgado 1,500 0 0 0
Stephens 1,770 2,192 44,886 61
Goodwin 0 680 115,000 80,730
Ridgway 0 1,200 0 16,414
Vara 1,635 500 9,787 1,523
Green 1,700 236 0 1,684
Williamson 2,436 4,551 0 66,762
Name Raised Spent Loan On Hand
=================================================
Patronella 40,665 3,574 0
Risner 37,365 9,680 0 84,532
Coffey 50,125 26,323 0 64,906
Hrncir 910 999 0 13,681
Williams 0 0 60,000 13,396
Rodriguez 0 0 0 2,219
Burney 0 0 0 902
Ditta 0 4,248 2,000 18,914
The Place 1 JPs were elected last year as noted, while the Place 2 JPs will be up next year. David Patronella’s form did not list a cash on hand total. For what it’s worth, all three groups (Constables and the two sets of JPs) have the same partisan mix, five Dems and three Republicans. I don’t have any further insights, so we’ll wrap this up here.
They could use el franco lee’s campaign money to create a county public bank which could finance infrastructure and public safety. just like other cities and states