You can always count on January and July for campaign finance reports. This roundup is going to be a little funky, because all of the candidates filed eight-day reports for the March primary, and a few also filed 30-day and eight-day reports for the July runoff. I’ll note those folks, because it means that some of the comparisons are not really apples-to-apples. But this is what we have. The July 2019 reports are here, and the January 2020 reports are here.
Kim Ogg, District Attorney
Mary Nan Huffman, District Attorney
Ed Gonzalez, Sheriff
Joe Danna, Sheriff
Christian Menefee, Harris County Attorney
John Nation, Harris County Attorney
Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor
Chris Daniel (SPAC), Tax Assessor
Rodney Ellis, County Commissioner, Precinct 1
Michael Moore, County Commissioner, Precinct 3
Tom Ramsey, County Commissioner, Precinct 3
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
===================================================
Ogg 64,109 223,775 68,489 29,698
Huffman 30,455 58,215 0 11,385
Gonzalez 37,352 28,320 0 73,959
Danna 56,446 26,240 0 8,490
Menefee 24,236 32,768 0 11,680
Nation 0 0 0 0
Bennett
Daniel 1,302 51 25,000 1,705
Ellis 53,835 575,804 0 3,029,506
Moore 156,790 245,110 0 96,832
Ramsey 346,150 49,829 0 308,942
Both Ogg ($385K) and Gonzales ($317K) had plenty of cash on hand as of January, but they both spent a bunch of money in their contested primaries; Ogg needed to do so more than Gonzalez took the wise approach of not taking his little-known opponents lightly. I expect they’ll raise enough to run their campaigns, but as they’ll benefit from the Democratic nature of the county, I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be big moneybags. I haven’t seen much of a campaign from Huffman as yet, and Joe Danna is a perennial candidate who gets most of his contributions as in-kind. What I’m saying is, don’t expect a whole lot from these races.
The same is largely true for the County Attorney and Tax Assessor races. Christian Menefeee had a decent amount raised for his January report, so he’ll probably take in a few bucks. I know absolutely nothing about his opponent, who doesn’t appear to be doing much. I don’t know why Ann Harris Bennett hasn’t filed a report yet, but he’s never been a big fundraiser. Chris Daniel has always used that PAC for his campaigns, and he had a few bucks in it as District Clerk but not that much.
Rodney Ellis brought a lot of money with him from his time as State Senator when he moved to the County Commissioner spot, and he will continue to raise and spend a significant amount. If previous patterns hold, he’ll put some money towards a coordinated campaign, and support some other Dems running for office directly. The race that will see the most money is the Commissioner race in Precinct 3. Michael Moore was in the Dem primary runoff, and the report you see is from July 6, which is to say it’s his eight-day report. That means the money raised and spent is from a 22-day period, which should give a bit of perspective. Both he and Tom Ramsey will have all the resources they need.