There’s a whole lot of candidates of interest for state offices. I’m going to break them down into several groups, to keep things simple and the posts not too long. Today we will look at the candidates for statewide office. This will include the statewide judicial races, and both Republicans and Democrats. I have previously done the Harris County reports.
Roberto Alonzo, RRC
Chrysta Castaneda, RRC
Kelly Stone, RRC
Mark Watson, RRC
Ryan Sitton, RRC
Amy Clark Meachum, Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Jerry Zimmerer, Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Nathan Hecht, Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Kathy Cheng, Supreme Court, Place 6
Lawrence Praeger, Supreme Court, Place 6
Jane Bland, Supreme Court, Place 6
Brandy Voss, Supreme Court, Place 7
Staci Williams, Supreme Court, Place 7
Jeff Boyd, Supreme Court, Place 7
Peter Kelly, Supreme Court, Place 8
Gisela Triana, Supreme Court, Place 8
Brett Busby, Supreme Court, Place 8
William Demond, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3
Elizabeth Frizell, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3
Dan Wood, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3
Gina Parker, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3
Bert Richardson, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3
Tina Clinton, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 4
Steve Miears, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 4
Kevin Yeary, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 4
Brandon Birmingham, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9
David Newell, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
===================================================
Alonzo 1,500 8,458 7,340 3,840
Castaneda 46,297 42,196 26,000 46,297
Stone 25,331 23,465 3,875 3,018
Watson 750 3,762 0 750
Sitton 480,850 154,832 378,899 2,514,759
Meachum 139,370 42,854 0 119,067
Zimmerer 10,680 22,213 20,000 45,251
Hecht 296,168 146,575 0 531,660
Cheng 1,315 41,200 84,167 8,129
Praeger 1,280 5,227 10,000 1,280
Bland 335,707 73,945 0 277,965
Voss 100,696 135,076 100,000 169,470
Williams 55,154 105,936 0 59,074
Boyd 134,844 100,193 177 562,533
Kelly 30,527 7,037 0 50,963
Triana 100,970 39,710 0 106,577
Busby 260,378 129,825 0 542,918
Demond 4,250 5,050 5,000 3,599
Frizell 1,000 988 0 11
Wood 6,490 68,592 0 41,291
Parker 58,195 82,247 25,000 21,055
Richardson 52,975 21,690 4,500 35,207
Clinton 0 10,216 25,000 4,944
Miears 0 3,750 0 0
Yeary 14,355 11,203 3,004 6,245
Birmingham 29,770 16,375 10,960 25,003
Newell 8,879 7,370 0 1,391
Railroad Commissioner is not a high profile office and not one for which a bunch of money is usually raised, though Ryan Sitton has clearly made good use of his five-plus years on the job. If you’ve listened to my interviews with Chrysta Castañeda and Kelly Stone, you know that I’m a little scarred by goofy results in some of our statewide primaries in recent cycles. Strange things can and do happen when people have no idea who the candidates are, as the likes of Grady Yarbrough and Jim Hogan can attest. On the plus side, I’d say three of the four candidates running in this primary would be fine – Castañeda and Stone are actively campaigning, Roberto Alonzo is a former State Rep, you can have confidence they’ll do their best. As for Mark Watson, at least I could identify him via a Google search. It’s a low bar to clear, you know?
I don’t often look at finance reports for judicial candidates – there’s just too many of them, for one thing, and they usually don’t tell you much. None of what I see here is surprising. The Republican incumbents have a few bucks, though none of their totals mean anything in a statewide context. I’m guessing the Dems with bigger totals to report had cash to transfer from their existing accounts, as District Court or Appeals court judges. It’s possible, if we really do see evidence of the state being a tossup, that some PAC money will get pumped into these races, for the purpose of making sure people don’t skip them. Everyone has to be concerned about the potential for undervotes to have an effect on the outcome, in this first year of no straight ticket voting.
As for the Court of Criminal Appeals, well, the money’s on the civil side of the house. It is what it is. I’ll be back with the Lege next, and then the SBOE and State Senate after that.
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