Burnt Orange Report

In Houston politics, money is always in Style

By Jim Dallas

I'm currently in the market for a decent used cars with low miles and no accidents. But enough about me - let's talk about this week's edition of Houston Style, a local free publication which I was flipping through earlier on this wet and wild Friday evening. In this week's edition, Reverend Jackson asks, "would you buy a used car from President Bush?" To which the answer must surely be "no." Although the comparison makes me feel a lot better about the used-car salesman I've talked to recently.

More interesting for y'all, though, is Burt Levine's roundup of campaign finance reports for Houston city candidates. Unfortunately, Style doesn't publish it's columns online, but it's good to know some one is keeping up with the money game besides city hall bureaucrats. Moreover, Levine's column reminded me that, in fact, we are having elections in November, despite the relative lack of coverage in the H-Chron recently.

So what's up with political money in Houston? Here's a roundup:

* Despite having no serious opposition, Mayor Bill White has spent over $700,000 since January. According to Levine, this should give White well over $2 million cash-on-hand, more than sufficient for a White-out if an opponent more serious than Jack "Josey" Terence appears. Terence's only campaign expenditures so far include a $37 tab (for stamps, one would assume) at the post office and an $8 bill purchasing campaign materials at a local Family Dollar outlet. Nonetheless, BOR will be certain to count all the votes before calling this election for the Mayor.

* Peter Brown pretty much crushes the rest of the field for At-Large One. A good chunk of Roy Morales's campaign kitty (which, shall we say, is roughly the size of my car budget) comes from a self-loan. I was under the impression that the Republicans were going to be putting up a fight (this seat being currently held by Mark Ellis, who wants to be a state senator). Perhaps Peter Brown can breath a little easier? Unfortunately, I missed Brown's fundraising party this week, but he'll be speaking at the Harris County Young Democrats meeting on Tuesday of next week.

* Jay Aiyer has a whole heck of a lot more money than Sue Lovell in At-Large 2. That Aiyer would have more money doesn't surprise me. We'll have to see if money translates into votes, though.

UPDATE: Just after I noted that, in my humble opinion, the Chronicle had been awfully quiet, I got an e-mail indicating that Kristen Mack's latest column is about... campaign finance in city council races! I don't always get around to reading every page, but I feel really goofy about this.

But not nearly as goofy as "diapers" (who knows, maybe it's part of a creative strategy).