A tour of the July campaign finance reports

In addition to City of Houston elections, this past July 15 was also a reporting deadline for state and federal campaigns. I’ve put together this Google spreadsheet that details a number of legislative, SBOE, and statewide races, to serve as a point of reference. I skipped the top of the ticket for the statewides because that data is pretty well known at this point. For the non-statewides, I used the following criteria for inclusion:

– Incumbents who are likely to face competitive races in November, or races that could be interesting under the right circumstances. Where a potential or declared opponent is know, I included that person’s information as well. I don’t consider this to be a comprehensive list, just a snapshot in time.

– Incumbents who are or may face primary challenges. So far, the only assured primary challenger is Eric Johnson in HD100, running against Terri Hodge. Lon Burnam may have an opponent. Joe Crabb has had primary challengers for the past several elections. Kino Flores is under indictment. Allen Fletcher is a freshman who won a nasty primary and is inept and scandal-tinged. I could be wrong, but these guys strike me as likely targets in March.

– Incumbents who are or may be running statewide. I don’t know if there will be a domino effect resulting from a KBH resignation or not (you know what I believe, but who knows what KBH will do), but Dan Branch sure is gearing up for bigger things.

– Incumbent State Reps who may aim to fill a State Senate seat made open by a statewide-running incumbent. That’s Dan Gattis and the Travis trio of Eliot Naishtat, Mark Strama, and Eddie Rodriguez.

Of interest is the races where the incumbent doesn’t have that much in the bank. That includes the SBOE seats, and the statewide judicial races. Frankly, I’m a little amazed at how empty these coffers are. Historically, there’s not a lot of money in these races. There are some great opportunities out there for Democrats if we reach for them.

Anyway, take a look and see what you think. If there’s a race I should have included but didn’t let me know.

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