We’re done with the 2019 Houston election cycle, but there are still things we can learn from the January 2020 campaign finance reports that city of Houston candidates and officeholders have to file. Other finance report posts: My two-part look at the State House was here and here, Harris County offices were here, statewide races were here, and SBOE/State Senate races were here.
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
====================================================
Turner 359,567 780,735 0 293,503
Peck 1,075 17,435 5,000 72
Davis 4,000 14,164 0 139,068
Kamin 24,158 93,810 0 18,717
E-Shabazz 14,394 18,965 0 2,145
Martin 14,600 48,754 0 148,989
Thomas 20,263 21,642 0 11,675
Travis 9,850 70,904 21,000 51,484
Cisneros 15,050 44,687 0 24,169
Gallegos 16,850 46,055 0 76,776
Pollard 4,525 25,007 40,000 1,882
C-Tatum 16,250 8,520 0 71,747
Knox 6,900 29,075 0 4,302
Robinson 11,625 82,515 0 40,735
Kubosh 14,770 31,570 276,000 94,540
Plummer 71,168 83,491 21,900 11,068
Alcorn 21,535 76,313 0 16,374
Brown 1,650 102,340 75,000 14,128
Bailey 0 2,400 2,600 70
Jackson 43,845 18,338 0 28,343
Buzbee 1,903 460,888 0 63,531
King 29,925 161,047 420,000 11,567
Parker 0 38,750 0 26,184
Laster 0 12,579 0 162,209
Salhotra 24,010 75,837 0 9,060
Sanchez 40,056 92,678 0 10,636
Edwards 499 109,812 0 89,987
HouStrongPAC 0 10,000 0 51,717
Nominally, this period covers from the 8 day report before the November election (which would be October 27) to the end of the year, but for most of these folks it actually covers the 8 day runoff report to the end of the year, so basically just the month of December. In either case, this is the time when candidates don’t raise much but do spend down their accounts, as part of their GOTV efforts. For those who can run for re-election in 2023, they will have plenty of time to build their treasuries back up.
Mayor Turner will not be running for re-election again, but it’s not hard to imagine some uses for his existing (and future) campaign cash, such as the HERO 2.0 effort or the next round of city bonds. He can also use it to support other candidates – I’m sure he’ll contribute to legislative candidates, if nothing else – or PACs. That’s what former Mayor Parker has done with what remains of her campaign account. Nearly all of the $38,750 she spent this cycle went to the LGBTQ Victory fund, plus a couple of smaller contributionss to Sri Kulkarni, Eliz Markowitz, and one or two other campaigns. Tony Buzbee has restaurant bills to pay, and those endless emails Bill King spams out have to cost something.
Others who have campaign accounts of interest: As we know, Jerry Davis has transferred his city account to his State Rep campaign account. I’ve been assuming Mike Laster is going to run for something for years now. The change to four-year Council terms may have frozen him out of the 2018 election, when he might have run for County Clerk. I could see him challenging a Democratic incumbent in 2022 for one of the countywide offices, maybe County Clerk, maybe County Judge, who knows. It’s always a little uncomfortable to talk about primary challenges, but that’s what happens when there are no more Republicans to knock out.
Other hypothetical political futures: Dave Martin could make a run for HD129 in 2022 or 2024, or he could try to win (or win back) Commissioners Court Precinct 3 in 2024. If Sen. Carol Alvarado takes my advice and runs for Mayor in 2023, then maybe State Rep. Christina Morales will run to succeed her in SD06. If that happens, Robert Gallegos would be in a strong position to succeed Morales in HD145. Michael Kubosh wasn’t on my list of potential Mayoral candidates in 2023, but maybe that was a failure of imagination on my part. As for Orlando Sanchez, well, we know he’s going to run for something again, right?
You may be wondering, as I was, what’s in Amanda Edwards’ finance report. Her activity is from July 1, since she wasn’t in a city race and thus had no 30-day or 8-day report to file. Her single biggest expenditure was $27K to Houston Civic Events for an event expense, and there were multiple expenditures categorized as “Loan Repayment/Reimbusement” to various people. Perhaps she has transferred the balance of her account to her Senate campaign by this time, I didn’t check.
Most of the unsuccessful candidates’ reports were not interesting to me, but I did want to include Raj Salhotra here because I feel reasonably confident that he’ll be on another ballot in the short-term future. The HISD and HCC Boards of Trustees are both places I could see him turn to.
Last but not least, the Keep Houston Strong PAC, whose treasurer is former Mayor Bill White, gave $10K to Move to the Future PAC. That’s all I know about that.
Charles: Houston City Council Member Dave Martin lives in neither HD129, nor Harris County Precinct 3.