From the HISD runoffs:
Early election results showed Houston ISD school board candidates Kathy Blueford-Daniels and Patricia Allen with comfortable leads in their runoff races Saturday, as they aim to fill the final two seats on the district’s closely watched governance team.
With absentee and early votes counted, as well as 38 percent of precincts reporting, Blueford-Daniels, a retired postal manager, led City Council aide John C. Gibbs by a wide margin, mirroring her strong showing in the November general election.
Allen, a retired HISD administrator, appeared poised to break away from management consultant Matt Barnes after the pair each earned about 30 percent of the general election.
The two victors Saturday will join two newcomers who defeated incumbents in November’s general election. Judith Cruz and Dani Hernandez easily topped Diana Dávila and Sergio Lira, respectively, each earning about 64 percent of the vote.
Blueford-Daniels was leading by about 25 points as most voting centers had reported. Allen was up by about nine points. Congratulations to them both, and all the best in what should be a very challenging next few years.
And some very good news from the HCC races.
Monica Flores Richart
Early results in two Houston Community College Board of Trustees runoff races show Rhonda Skillern-Jones with a commanding lead, while Monica Flores Richart and Dave Wilson are locked in a tight battle.
With absentee and early-voting results tallied, as well as 38 percent of precincts reporting, Skillern-Jones, who has served on the Houston ISD school board for the past eight years, comfortably led longtime educator Kathy Lynch-Gunter in the race for District II. Skillern-Jones entered as a clear favorite after taking 45 percent of the general election vote to Lynch-Gunter’s 25 percent.
In District I, Flores Richart, a lawyer, held a slight lead over Wilson, who resigned from his HCC trustee seat in August and switched districts ahead of the race. Flores Richart nearly emerged from the general election with an outright victory, earning 48 percent of the vote to Wilson’s 32 percent.
[…]
The two winners will join newcomer Cynthia Lenton-Gary, who ran unopposed, on the nine-member board. A fourth new trustee will join the board next year if current HCC Board chair Carolyn Evans-Shabazz were to maintain her strong early lead Saturday in her Houston City Council race. Evans-Shabazz will have to resign her seat to join the council.
Flores Richart built on her lead on Election Day. May we never be cursed with Dave Wilson again.
Carolyn Evans-Shabazz is on her way to winning in District D, so we’ll have a new Trustee in her place early next year. With Neeta Sane running for Fort Bend County tax Assessor, we could have two new HCC Trustees before the 2021 election.
Neeta didn’t run for re-election. A new trustee will be sworn in for district 7 as well. Lots of change.
Great another Houston Police Officer who just so happens to live within Fort Bend County is running for Sheriff and because he is “HPD” (I guess we should all stand in awe!) he is somehow automatically qualified to run one of the largest Sheriff’s Office in the state of Texas. As if all this time the FBCSO has had no clue as to how to go about the business of enforcing the laws and serving the community in a professional manner. Has this guy ever been a supervisor, dealt with personnel, department and community issues as well as handle a multi million dollar budget! Let me guess he’s going to appoint somebody to do that. And coming from a municipality, exactly what does he know about running a jail where he is responsible for for all county prisoners. Again he’ll appoint somebody to do that. Is he bringing the current chief deputy of HCSO to run the jail or some 20 year burnt out sergeant with a chip on his shoulder. And the rest of the command staff…are they going to be low ranking individuals who also come from “HPD” or “HCSO” which makes them just as “QUALIFIED” as management because they come from a bigger agency and we will be blessed with their presence. This is gonna be fun to watch!