It’s late January, so you know what that means: It’s campaign finance report time again. The reports of the greatest interest will be for the city of Houston, but I’ll be checking in on HISD, HCC, and Harris County as well. The July 2022 reports are here, the January 2022 reports are here, and the July 2021 reports are here.
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
====================================================
Hollins 547,027 469,141 0 1,062,754
Edwards 567,005 195,257 0 1,044,338
Whitmire 1,148,015 249,142 0 10,100,086
Kaplan 465,180 177,578 200,000 1,164,527
Peck 10,750 13,940 0 20,729
Jackson 2,500 14,965 0 14,971
Kamin 52,080 12,255 0 238,337
Scarbrough 0 0 0 14,810
E-Shabazz
L Dixon 0 254 100 254
Thomas 43,996 11,310 0 89,042
Huffman 5,850 3,624 0 35,012
Castillo 37,448 1,037 10,000 41,935
G Lindner 4,503 0 0 4,503
Martinez 78,605 6,130 0 52,187
Pollard 17,350 15,412 40,000 718,379
Sanchez 30,140 4,201 20,000 25,938
C-Tatum 14,250 13,687 0 155,691
Hellyar 65,854 6,772 0 44,710
Coryat 5,626 4,063 0 1,562
Bess 0 0 0 0
Carter 85,926 9,456 4,000 78,768
Cooper 23,977 17,631 0 9,189
Plummer 4,125 10,309 0 24,741
Morales 12,900 417 5,534 18,016
Alcorn 155,301 28,187 0 306,273
Martin 8,250 12,493 0 161,851
Kubosh 22,900 3,612 196,000 54,289
Wolfthal 43,812 16,683 0 24,953
Flickinger 0 1,933 50,000 0
Turner 228,862 186,942 0 842,484
Cisneros 250 7,215 0 31,128
Gallegos 21,787 13,500 0 133,471
Knox 16,175 20,914 0 14,231
Robinson 44,894 27,296 0 271,624
Brown 0 5,404 75,000 29,316
Laster 0 3,254 0 147,138
I have collected all of the reports for the people listed above, and you can find them in this Google Drive folder. I decided not to link to all of them individually just because it was more work than I felt like doing. Omitting that means I don’t have a complete listing, with full names and the office they are seeking, of all the candidates. I’ll be sure to at least mention everyone of interest later in the post.
I’ve grouped everyone in the table above as follows: First are the Mayoral candidates, then the candidates for district Council offices, listed in alphabetical order by office – Amy Peck is District A, Tarsha Jackson is District B, and so on. The open offices are Districts E, H, and I. There are so far two challengers to incumbent Council members, and I have indented their names to indicate them – Daphne Scarbrough (yeah, the same person who was a leading opponent of light rail on Richmond Avenue, here to scourge us again) is running against CM Abbie Kamin in C, and Ivan Sanchez, who was a Democratic candidate for CD07 in 2018, is running against CM Ed Pollard in District J. Martina Lemond Dixon is running in E, Mario Castillo and Janette Garza Lindner (2021 candidate for HISD district I) are running in H (my district), and Joaquin Martinez is running in I. The one person that did not have a report filed as of Friday was District D incumbent Carolyn Evans-Shabazz.
The next group is for the At Large seats, of which #s 1, 2, and 3 are open. Nick Hellyar, who ran for At Large #4 in 2019, is running for #2, as are Marina Coryat and Danielle Bess (former candidate for HD147 in 2022), and Twila Carter and Dannell Cooper are running for #3. No one has yet filed a finance report saying they plan to run for At Large #1. You can be sure that will change, and that all of these fields will be much larger by the time the filing deadline rolls around. Indeed, they may already be larger, as there are two candidates who didn’t specify an office in their reports; I’ll get to them in a minute. As above, a candidate opposing an incumbent is indented. Yes, that’s our old buddy Roy Morales running against CM Letitia Plummer in At Large #4.
Next we have the two term-limited Council members who are now running for City Controller, and following them are two candidates who did not specify an office on their report, Leah Wolfthal and Fred Flickinger. I met Leah Wolfthal at the January CEC meeting for HCDP precinct chairs, and I thought she told me she is running in At Large #2. Her website just says “for At Large City Council”, so better not to make any assumptions. I’ve put her in this group for that reason.
Everyone after that is not running for anything, from Mayor Turner to the four CMs to Controller Chris Brown. Former CM Mike Laster, who termed out in 2019, still has a decent amount of cash on hand. I assume the four people in this grouping who remain with over $100K on hand have some plan, perhaps vague and unformed but still existent, to do something with it. What that may be is not known to me, and possibly to them, at this time.
The Chron picks a few highlights from the Mayoral portion of the reports. The one thing I will add to that is that I must have missed Lee Kaplan’s July 2022 report, because I was surprised by his cash on hand total. Kaplan raised about $850K in the last period, which combined with a small amount of spending gives him the cash on hand total he has now. I have included Kaplan’s July 2022 finance report in that Google Drive folder as well.
There are candidates now who have not yet filed a finance report, and there are people who will be candidates that have not yet formally announced their candidacies. The July finance reports will tell us a much more complete story, though even then there will be room for more, as the filing deadline is not until August. This is what we know now. If you have anything to add, by all means please do so.
$10,000,000 just sitting in a campaign account is just obscene, meanwhile, people on the street or families wondering where their next meal is coming from, smh
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