(Thanks, Kuff! Houston readers, what are your thoughts on this November's elections? - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
Howdy. This is Charles Kuffner from Off the Kuff, and I was asked by the fine folks at BOR to write an overview of the 2011 Houston municipal elections. What follows is my effort to summarize it all for you. For more information, please see my 2011 Election page, which contains links to interviews I have conducted with the candidates (more are to come), campaign finance reports, and endorsement lists. On to the overview...
The odious King Street Patriots(not patriots) are having the grand opening of their brand new headquarters up on 290 just south of I-610 ( 7232 Wynnwood Lane) on Monday, May 16, 2011. It's from 7-9 p.m. Here's a blog post about the opening. http://www.kingstreetpatriots....
RICK PERRY is coming to the event. We should welcome them and Gov. Goodhair with hundreds or thousands of protesters.
Early Tuesday morning, the Travis County Clerk's office conveyed 250 pieces of voting equipment to Harris County. Travis County Commissioners approved the loan agreement to help Harris County after its entire election inventory was lost in a warehouse fire on August 27.
Since the devastating fire destroyed all of that county's equipment, the Texas Secretary of State and counties across Texas have rallied to offer support for the voters of the state's largest county. Charles Kuffner noted the assistance in post last week remarking on the breadth of support.
The first batch of election equipment which totals 875 pieces comes from Ft. Bend and Tarrant County. Harris County has accepted assistance offers from 14 counties and one city. Together, the assisting counties are providing 2,146 pieces of electronic voting equipment and accessories, including 399 Judges Booth Controllers (JBC) 1,104 eSlates with booths and 278 Disabled Access Units with booths. Additionally, counties are providing 4,056 booths, 1,675 ballot boxes with accompanying locks and keys.
At this point, the assisting entities include Bexer, Brazoria, Comal, Dallas, Denton, Ft. Bend, Galveston, Gregg, Grimes, Jefferson, Lubbock, Montgomery, Travis, Tarrant and Wharton County, the City of Friendswood, and Arapahoe County in Colorado.
(Great live coverage from a big event in Houston. Broad coalition of Texans working for clean air and water! - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
Hey all, We're live at the Discovery Green in Houston, moments from kicking off the Great Texas Clean Up Festival, what is being touted as the largest environmental event in Houston in decades. That's right, decades!
We'll be updating between acts and speakers, bringing you all the action and all the fun.
Juan Parras of Tejas (tejasbarrios.org) is calling the event a success before it even starts, simply because "it's brought a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds together to fight for environmental justice."
The speakers' lineup is pretty long and pretty deep- expect some food for thought from Houston Director of Sustainability Laura Spanjian and Representative Ana Hernandez, representing a large portion of the Houston area. We'll give you their comments when they happen!
From the unverified rumor-mill: there are Tea Party protesters nearby.
From the verified rumor-mill: there's a woman working for BP public relations going around with a flip cam asking people if the entire oil industry should be penalized for the spill. Spin much? We're onto you, sister.
Note: It's currently 105 degrees, but we've still got a turnout from people concerned with cleaning up Texas and having a good time (at the same time, of course). We'll be right back!
BP has a long history of cutting corners and ignoring basic safety guidelines, and now the survivors of the Deepwater Horizon explosion are publicly confirming that BP ordered shortcuts on the day of the blast.
On a related matter, BP and the other oil companies are now proposing that tar sands oil production can help replace dangerous offshore drilling. This is a giant step in the wrong direction. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would carry toxic tar sands oil across the Ogallala Aquifer and 32 Texas rivers and streams. Given the gulf oil disaster, can we really trust BP and the big oil companies when they claim that tar sands oil spills are unlikely?
The Houston Chronicle editorial board shines a spotlight on this controversy in today's paper:
But the process of approving new pipelines coming into this area must be undertaken with great care. We share the concerns of local Sierra Club officials that such care is not evident in the approval process for the proposed Trans- canada Keystone XL Pipeline, which has two destinations on the Texas Gulf Coast, one in east Houston and the other in Port Arthur.
We share their worry about proposals to use a thinner-than standard pipe (0.465 of an inch versus 0.515) and run the cargo through at higher-than-stan-dard pressures (80 percent of design strength versus 72 percent). Surely, concerns about cutting corners raised by the BP spill ought to mean a belt-and-suspenders approach on pipe thickness and pressures on this project.
And then there's the Keystone cargo itself: 500,000 barrels per day of heavy, high-sulfur tar sands crude from Canada. The Sierra Club folks say the refinery process for the tar sands could put air quality here at risk. Would it? We need to know. Hearings on the project are scheduled for 7 p.m. this evening in Channelview.
Please spread the word about the tar sands public hearing tonight, and let's make our voices heard and stop this mistake before it's too late. Refining tar sands oil causes 3x more air pollution than conventional oil, and it would further degrade our air quality in Texas.
If you can't attend tonight's hearing, then please go online and register your public comment before the July 2nd deadline. To learn more about the threat from tar sands pollution, go to the Sierra Club site or watch the video below.
(Sierra Club is working hard to protect our air and water in Texas. If you can be there on Tuesday, you need to be there. - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
There are times in history when regular people have paused in what they're doing to fight for a cause bigger than themselves. We've walked out of classes when necessary. We’ve taken a personal day or called in sick in order to be at the place where a major change is being made. No matter how big the challenge, Texans always rise to the occasion.
This Tuesday, February 2, we have another historical opportunity to make change.
The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting an important public hearing on ozone air quality standards, and we have a real opportunity to clean up our air and set good policy that will last decades.
The Sierra Club and the Clean Air Texas Coalition encourage you to travel to Houston this Tuesday for this important EPA hearing. Please play your part in creating a desperately-needed change at this pivotal moment in history. Texas families have the right to clean air, and now is the time to stand up and make your voice heard!
We know that the big oil, coal and chemical companies will be well represented. So let’s show the powerful pollution lobbyists that we won’t be intimidated. Let’s show that regular Texans are willing to take time out of their day to stand up for clean air. There are only three public hearings across the country, so let’s take advantage of this opportunity to make real change.
If you can't travel to Houston, then please go online and submit your public comment in support of stronger ozone air quality standards.
(The next meeting by the Texas Forensic Science Commission is on Friday, January 29 in Harlingen, Texas. The previous 11 meetings have been held in Austin, Dallas, Houston or San Antonio. So yes -- Rick Perry's hand-picked puppet is doing everything he can to avoid public scrutiny on this very important issue in the middle of Perry's hyper-political campaign. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Texas has seen more than its share of controversy surrounding forensic science in recent months.
Most recently, the Houston Chronicle reported that an audit of the Houston Crime Lab’s fingerprint division identified problems in more than half of the 548 cases selected for review.The problems discovered were serious enough to lead the authorities to require that more than 4000 violent crime cases from the past six years be reanalyzed—a process that no doubt will be very costly for the city of Houston. According to the Chronicle, the Latent Prints Comparison Unit suffers from “significant deficiencies with staffing, a lack of proper supervisory review, inadequate quality control, technical competence inconsistent with industry standards, insufficient training and inadequate standard operating procedures.”The Houston Police have confirmed that a criminal investigation into misconduct by at least one employee of the fingerprint unit has been opened.In addition to the shoddy work that was done, the unit faces a backlog of some 6000 cases.
In the battle between internal campaign polls there now appears to be agreement from both camps in Houston that Annise Parker is leading going into the December 12th runoff election.
Previously, it was leaked that Gene Locke's internal polling showed Annise with a 43%-39% lead and 18% undecided. Today, Parker's campaign released their internal poll showing a similar number of undecided voters, but a larger margin over Locke.
A recent Lake Research Partners survey of likely voters in Houston's upcoming mayoral runoff shows that City Controller Annise Parker holds a strong lead over former City Attorney and lobbyist Gene Locke. In our recent survey, among likely voters with previous participation in past city runoff elections, Parker leads with 47 percent (37 percent strong) to 34 percent for Locke (27 percent strong). A fifth of voters (19 percent) remains
undecided.
Parker holds this large lead even though the poll simulated high turnout among African American voters. The sample was comprised of 54 percent Anglos, 30 percent African Americans, and 12 percent Latinos. Parker remains the best-known and liked candidate in the race and she maintains her lead even under a simulated attack.
Only a substantially negative campaign from Locke can interrupt her momentum. Sixty-seven percent of voters have a favorable impression of Parker and 62 percent think she has done either an excellent (21 percent) or good job (41 percent) as City Controller. Fifty-seven percent of voters hold a favorable view of Locke.
It was bound to start up again at some point- attacks on Houston Mayoral candidate Annise Parker, not based on any critique of her policy positions or campaign plans, but on her being a lesbian. Granted, Annise has been an out elected official for multiple elections and has hardly made the issue anywhere close to central as part of her campaign this year, but that won't stop the anti-gay forces from spinning a web of lies.
Houston Chronicle: A cluster of socially conservative Houstonians is planning a campaign to discourage voters from choosing City Controller Annise Parker in the December mayoral runoff because she is a lesbian, according to multiple ministers and conservatives involved in the effort.
The group is motivated by concerns about a "gay takeover" of City Hall, given that two other candidates in the five remaining City Council races are also openly gay, as well as national interest driven by the possibility that Houston could become the first major U.S. city to elect an openly gay woman.
Another primary concern is that Parker or other elected officials would seek to overturn a 2001 city charter amendment that prohibits the city from providing benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees.
"The bottom line is that we didn't pick the battle, she did, when she made her agenda and sexual preference a central part of her campaign," said Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, numbering more than 200 senior pastors in the Greater Houston area. "National gay and lesbian activists see this as a historic opportunity. The reality is that's because they're promoting an agenda which we believe to be contrary to the concerns of the community and destructive to the family."
Eye roll.
The worst part is her opponent Gene Locke is courting the same awful people.
He appeared at the Pastor Council's annual gala last Friday and was encouraged several times by State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, a featured speaker, to stand for conservative values.
Locke has also met with and sought the endorsement of Dr. Steven Hotze, a longtime local kingmaker in conservative politics and author of the Straight Slate in 1985, a coterie of eight City Council candidates he recruited who ran on an anti-gay platform.
Houston deserves better. Our city has a well-earned reputation for tolerance and openness. We don't need inflammatory appeals to folks' worst instincts.
We've been here before. In 1997 a small-minded ballot initiative would have ended the city's affirmative action program that helped minority and women contractors. Mayor Bob Lanier went on the air in an ad that bluntly stated his opposition to a proposal that would "turn back the clock to the days when guys who look like me got all the city's business."
Lanier couldn't have been more clear: Discrimination is just not right.
It was a powerful moment of leadership. The referendum went down to defeat, and news outlets around the country marveled that a "wealthy white developer" had taken the lead on affirmative action.
It's time for another such moment of leadership.
...
The rhetoric of people like Steven Hotze and Dave Welch carries a high cost. Their support should not be purchased at the price of bigotry.
Only three weeks remain until polls open in the city of Houston for voters to choose a man or woman to succeed Bill White as mayor of one of this country's largest cities. Yet, of the voters who even realize Bill White will soon vacate the office, many surely remain undecided still. Sure, many activists are aligned somewhere due to various loyalties, but the general voters have been given little differentiation to work with in order to make a good decision.
It's no wonder, too. Of all the candidates, only three are active with a strong pulse. Annise Parker, Gene Locke, and Peter Brown are all also Democrats whose policies compare closely. If you are an absolute stickler for Democratic credentials, you might back Annise Parker, but all three are just as Democratic as their predecessor. If you particularly care about a certain policy area, you might support someone else.
Really, voters need every available method to distinguish the candidates. So, I thought I would discuss a method I once used to decide between candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Each candidate, while similar on policy, probably will be significantly different in their potential styles of governing.
For the task of painting a picture of these candidates' styles, I will look at two different sources. First, I will review basic biographical information for each of the candidates. Then, I will also look at the great Insider's Looks into the Campaigns from Mayoral Musings with Nancy Sims.
Annise Parker:
With Annise Parker, I first noticed that she really cares about Houston government. She ran for City Council twice unsuccesfully before finally winning a seat in 1997, and the current City Controller has served in elected Houston office ever since. She is the only candidate for Mayor who can say she has served constituents in Houston government for more than a decade. Although that might be the most important piece of biographical info, the most known might be that the candidate is openly lesbian. Her activeness in the LGBT community might not show us much regarding how she leads, except she probably ran into a few problems along the way that might translate into toughness. Finally, Parker worked in the oil & gas energy for two decades -- at the very least, she has knowledge of the industry, which could prove helpful in any clean energy initiatives she could attempt as Mayor. She also has a powerful public record of fiscal responsibility, which is probably buffered by that business experience.
And from her journey to get elected to the city's highest office? Nancy Sims gives these thoughts:
So, what does this team and organization tell us about how Parker might manage the city? Volumes. I predict that she will seek expertise where she needs it. She will be loyal and true to the voters that elect her and will likely stand by her promises. She will be a leader and inspire those who work for her to perform to the best of their abilities. She is willing to trust others to accomplish their jobs without telling them what to do every step of the way. If Parker's campaign team is a reflection of her leadership style, Houston will be run as a finely-tuned machine.
Annise Parker's supporters can be confident that city government would be an efficient cog under a Parker administration. She was successful in business, and her campaign is being run like one. So would the city of Houston. I am confident Houston's economy would likely thrive under Parker, but my only concern is how many risks she would take with the city. Will Annise Parker bring the city into another level of prestige, or will she only keep it chugging along at the same level that Bill White has brought it to?
Gene Locke:
Gene Locke's life is also one of challenges. He worked through law school as a steelworker, but after his JD, his rise became quick. He went to Washington, D.C. to work as chief of staff for Congressman Mickey Leland. In 1995 Bob Lanier appointed him as City Attorney. Under the Lanier Administration, Locke led the negotiations for Minute Maid Park, Reliant Park, and the Toyota Center, the three prominent sports arenas for the city's three prominent professional sport teams. He currently practices law with Andrews Kurth LLP, but he has served as Special Counsel to Houston METRO and the Port of Houston Authority. Locke, though, has heard a fair share of criticism for the way he has conducted a lawyerly proceedings.
While a law career tells little about one's management style, a campaign can, and Nancy concludes this about his campaign:
What does this team tell me about how Gene Locke will govern? Lots! He will look for the best and brightest. I can envision Locke picking staff and department leaders that have experience, commitment and heart. He is a listener and will trust the experts to do their jobs well. His staff and department heads will trust him and believe in him. He will set clearly-defined goals for his team and for the city. He and his staff will all be working from the same page to keep Houston running. Based on early campaign changes, I would say Locke is willing to make hard decisions, even when it may not be popular to do so, if it is in the best interest of the city. If Locke's campaign is a reflection of the way he will govern, we can count on smart, dedicated leadership that keeps Houstonians top of mind.
Gene Locke could be a mayor that will get things done by negotiation with different agencies. He has connection with many of them, and he has succeeded with them before. Also, if he sees an opportunity to bring an important event, I suspect he might take it on head-first: that's what habitual leaders willing to take risks tend to do, especially if they have a loyal and intelligent staff. But all of these attempts would also chance the appearance of Locke's slick ways that can always create potential for trouble.
Peter Brown:
Peter Brown's life path to this election may be the one that began the most privileged. He attended the private St. John's School and then spent much time receiving three separate university degrees. Afterwards, he spent six years in the Army's active reserve, though, showing that he has thoughts for his community even if he grew up with amenities that others lack. His first degree was a Bachelor's in French Studies followed by a Master's in Romance Languages, but his preparation for city work really began with his last one. He received a Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Architecture, and Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Since, he has worked as an architect and urban planner, doing work in over 20 cities, including many years in Houston. In 2003 he was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, the highest designation for the organization. He was actually so good that he has been able to self-finance most of his political career. In two years he would be elected to the city council.
Peter Brown's history tells us a lot about his knowledge of cities - they are high and many. Unfortunately, his career gives little indication to his ability with budgets, his political tact, or any other managerial skill. Apparently his campaign gives us a similarly hazy forecast:
What does this team tell me about how Peter Brown will govern? It's a little tougher assessment than the Parker and Locke campaigns. It's my observation that if Brown will recruit a strong leader and trust them to manage the operations, he will have a well-run City Hall operation. If not, things might be a little chaotic. We will trust that the leader will be able to carry out Peter Brown's vision for Houston. His vision is a solid one and one that is gaining interest from voters. Brown will need to say "this is how I see it" and allow a team to implement the details. It may be a little hard for people who interact with City government to master accessing the Brown administration but we know that it will be well run. There will not be much opportunity for jockeying or schmoozing - it will be a "state your business" type of team and they will follow-through on their commitments. You may rest assured that a Brown administration will have a plan and implement it!
As powerful mayors go, they can be considered the continual designers of their cities. Peter Brown would be a gifted one at Houston's head. But Brown is an architect in training and practice; he is not a builder. If you trust he can get excellent builders, he may be, by far, the best candidate in the field. If you think he will have trouble with that, he may be the decided worst. (Ok, besides from Roy Morales!)
