Yes, I know, there are no city of Houston elections this year. (Not yet, anyway.) But the candidates and officeholders have to file reports anyway, covering the period from their last report through the end of the year. That period may be from eight days before the December runoff, eight days before the November election, or even the July reporting period if they were lucky enough to be unopposed in November. It?s how you see what the candidates in contested races did in the last days before the election, and it?s how you see who hopped on the late train for a candidate who wasn?t necessarily expected to win. I?ve updated the 2011 Election page to include links to the January finance reports for current and now-former Council members. I didn?t bother with non-incumbents who lost in November or December because life is too short. Here?s a brief summary:
Candidate Raised Spent Cash on hand ================================================ Parker 64,329 260,317 1,272,794 RGreen 30,794 23,785 46,691 Costello 12,250 47,311 655 Burks 25,175 33,426 2,403 Noriega 4,326 14,600 14,108 Bradford 4,453 35,340 20,282 Christie 16,700 51,138 3,156 Brown 6,900 9,664 1,467 Davis 32,630 39,974 20,703 Cohen 24,008 67,375 6,413 Adams 13,100 27,687 59,572 Sullivan 8,200 14,629 53,641 Hoang 3,450 25,472 5,366 Pennington 89,025 167,555 123,326 Gonzalez 5,254 15,908 56,108 Rodriguez 4,729 26,456 21,328 Laster 20,563 23,314 20,473 LGreen 22,470 27,955 576 Lovell Jones 39,810 62,555 6,397 Stardig 13,450 45,176 36,956 Johnson Clutterbuck 0 22,199 38,223
The first thing to note here is the $1.2 million cash on hand Mayor Parker has. This is significant for two reasons. One, obviously, is that it?s the opening bid for how much a Mayoral wannabee will have to raise to be competitive with her next year. She will be able to add to that total this year, while anyone who has not filed a designation of treasurer will not; I will not be surprised if her COH figure tops $2 million in a year?s time. While this certainly isn?t insurmountable, the first question anyone who might want to challenge her is going to get from a potential donor is going to be ?How do you plan to raise enough money to compete with Mayor Parker?? Some of them will likely say ?Show me that you can raise some money first, then get back to me?, which needless to say makes fundraising that much harder. It?s a barrier to entry, and the higher it is the better off she?ll be next year.
The flip side to that is that she?s really lucky she managed to avoid a runoff. Not only because that meant she could sit on her cash rather than have to spend it in December, but also because by leaving that much cash in the bank she would have left herself wide open to criticism that she didn?t run as hard as she needed to going into November. Look at poor Brenda Stardig, who had a relative ton of cash on hand in her November 8 day report, mostly because she hadn?t run any kind of campaign up till that point. By the time she was forced to kick it into gear, it was already too late, and the money she had wasn?t of much good to her. This is the cautionary tale that the Mayor was fortunate to avoid.
As such, don?t be surprised by the small cash on hand totals that moneybags like Costello and Cohen posted. They emptied their weapons, left it all on the field, and otherwise engaged in all the suitable cliches when it counted. You don?t doubt their ability to replenish their coffers, right? I?ll check back again in July and again next January and we?ll see where they stand.
Of course, for Council members who have their eye on the next office, as CMs Adams and Sullivan do, the calculus is a bit more complex. Well, not for Sullivan, who was unopposed and was thus able to turn his current stash into a decent opening advantage. Adams also has an early financial lead in her race for State Rep, though as she had an opponent last year it wasn?t entirely without risk.
Since I mentioned the late train earlier, I will note that there wasn?t one I could see for Helena Brown. Her late donors list was short and familiar. As for Andrew Burks, his donors were African-Americans ? at least, all of the names I recognized belonged to African-Americans ? and the usual PAC and law firm suspects that generally give to all incumbents. Not quite the Republican rainbow coalition that may have helped him win the runoff, but a likely indicator that he?ll enter 2013 with a decent sum in his kitty. I will be very interested to see if the usual suspects latch on to Brown or not. They didn?t rush to do so after the election results were in.
Finally, we have the outgoing Council members. With the exception of Jarvis Johnson, who is running for HCDE Trustee, I don?t think any of them are currently angling for another office. Lovell has been interested in County Clerk, but didn?t run in 2010 and I have not heard anything to say she may in 2014. I don?t get a future candidacy vibe from Clutterbuck, Jones, or Stardig, but who knows. They could take a cycle or two off, do some backstage work or some such, and come back later. Johnson has not filed a report with either the city or the county, nor has he responded to my requests for an interview, so other than his candidacy for HCDE I have no idea what he?s up to.
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Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
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