Part 1 in this series covered Greg Wythe, David Ortez and Stace Medellin. Part 2 showcased John Cobarruvias and Charles Kuffner. For Part 3, I've got Dr. Richard Murray and Nancy Sims.
Prof13: Dr. Murray is a political science professor at the University of Houston and the Director of Surveying for the UH Center for Public Policy. He is the real deal; the rest of us are just pretenders! We count on Dr. Murray for his surveys, as well as his data analysis. His latest post included this:
For the statistically inclined, here are some numbers from representative precincts across the city in 2003 to use for comparisons this year . . .
All of his loyal readers thought, "here we go!", and we dug into his statistics about past early voting patterns.
Mayoral Musings: Nancy Sims is Senior Vice President at Pierpont Communications. Prior to Pierpont, Nancy had her own public affairs and political consulting firm for 15 years. She has definitely added an expert voice to the Houston mayoral race blogosphere. Her latest post is a gem - the first in a series - An Insider's Look Into the Campaigns. I couldn't agree with this more:
The way a candidate builds their campaign team and operations is a reflection of how they might govern.
First up is her inside look at the Annise Parker campaign, where she has this to say:
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 just seems to be the complete package. Her experience as Controller brings an enormous advantage considering the realities of the economy, the city budget, and the projects that need to be addressed.
Off the Kuff - My buddy and fellow TexBlog PAC board member, Charles Kuffner, the Godfather of Soul . . . err, the Texas Progressive Blogosphere, writes Off the Kuff as well as a Houston Chronicle blog called Kuff's World. His interviews with the mayoral candidates will be published in October and the good news is that October is almost here! He recently commented on Parker's first TV ad and graded is a "B". Read all of his mayoral postings at this link, including commentary on polling, endorsements and Brown's ads. Oh, wait. I forgot Roy Morales (as I am wont to do). Kuff blogs him, as well.
Follow these bloggers on Twitter: @bayareahouston and @offthekuff. Follow my Houston mayoral tweets as well - @museblogger.
I'm having a ball following the Houston mayoral candidates and I've been terribly impressed to see from the get go how much each one of them wants it and how hard they are working to earn votes.
When I talk about the frontrunners, I'm talking about Annise Parker, Peter Brown and Gene Locke. Yes, I will avoid mentioning Roy Morales, for the most part. He's lost three times city-wide, twice to Melissa Noriega and once to Peter Brown. He'll get the teabagger vote on November 3rd, as well as some of the other conservative vote, but those voters will have to find another candidate for the runoff.
There are some other terrific bloggers reporting on the mayor's race - too many for one post, so here is Part One:
Greg's Opinion: Greg Wythe asked that all the mayoral campaigns put their mail pieces up on the internet and one campaign responded - Peter Brown. Of course, that may be because Peter's the only one with mail. We'd all love to comment on the many TV ads from the campaigns, but (again) since Brownis the only one on TV, Greg is doing a great job covering whatever freemedia exposure they are all getting. Greg is also going to be a good one to watch anytime you are wondering what the number crunching looks like. When the rest of us (OK, just me) get too lazy to do the math, we ask Greg, and turns out he's already done the work.
David Ortez: There's a new, talented blogger in Houston - yay! David claims he's getting too busy studying for the LSAT to blog much (sad!) but when he does post on the mayor's race, it's always a must read. He's been keeping track of who is running a mobile campaign, and even took this photo of what happens when you sign up for Brown's mobile campaign. I like his analysis of Brown's ads, maybe because we are in agreement! He was the only one evaluating the campaigns' social media strategies early on, where he gave the advantage to Parker. I first took notice of David when he participated in Gene Locke's social media summit. Here's a YouTube of his reaction to that event. Please put down those law books and post more often, David!
DosCentavos: Oh, my. It was this post that caused the Houston Chronicle to take notice of Stace Medellin. Stace, John Cobarruvias and I were at the Latino Mayoral Debate where Gene Locke stated that when he was mayor there would be a Hispanic museum. Stace wasn't impressed, and blogged it. Three paragraphs of that blog post made it into Bradley Olson's Chron blog. I was a little surprised that Locke's senior consultant, Kim Devlin, took this shot at Stace over those three paragraphs:
Medellin is only trying to deflect attention from the candidate he's endorsed trying to buy a grassroots endorsement for herself.
If Locke were to end up in a runoff with Brown, the Locke campaign might want Medellin's support, but I imagine they've pretty much closed that door. Stace has blogged prolifically about the mayor's race including posting the great photos he took at Parker's filing rally, commentary on keeping the candidates accountable for their promises, and analyzing the poll numbers.
Follow these bloggers on Twitter: @gregwythe, @davidortez and @2centavos. Follow me @museblogger. I'll be back with more in Part Two soon.
