Here’s a brief look at the July campaign finance reports for candidates in area State House races of interest.
HD23 Raised Spent Cash Loan
Wayne Faircloth 8,320 31,139 36,655 30,000
Bill Wallace 0 0 507 20,500
Craig Eiland 0 0 30,160 0
Craig Eiland 57,770 80,685 74,922 0
Faircloth and Wallace are in a runoff to take on Rep. Craig Eiland, whose red-leaning district is a rare pickup opportunity for the GOP. Bear in mind that candidates who had a competitive primary had to make an 8 day report for it, so their reporting period began May 21. Candidates like Eiland that had no primary opponents last reported in January, so they had much more time to raise funds for this report. If you’re wondering why Eiland is listed twice, it’s because he has both a regular candidate/officeholder report and a specific purpose committee report.
HD26
Jacquie Chaumette 16,461 35,730 39,079 0
Rick Miller 19,312 10,281 12,262 1,000
Vy Nguyen 6,150 1,008 7,650 0
HD26 was not drawn to be a competitive district, but it could become one after the DC court issues its long-awaited redistricting opinion. Vy Nguyen has been in this race from the beginning, however many maps ago that was, and I believe will do better than the district’s numbers predict. She’s smart and energetic and has a good future.
HD85
Phil Stephenson 3,925 21,965 3,127 20,000
Dora Olivo 4,312 2,349 3,991 2,150
The new Fort Bend district that spreads southwest into Wharton and Jackson Counties doesn’t seem to have drawn much financial interest so far. Olivo is a former State Rep who was defeated in the 2010 primary by Rep. Ron Reynolds and should have some fundraising capability, but a brief look through some previous report suggests this was not a strong suit of hers.
HD134
Sarah Davis 75,593 75,836 99,603 0
Ann Johnson 161,389 15,985 138,837 0
Once again a marquee race for Harris County. I have to say, Davis’ totals are distinctly unimpressive, and her burn rate is potentially troublesome for her. Lot of money spent on consultants and printing. Mostly, I’m stunned by her relatively meager haul, less than half of what challenger Ann Johnson took in. Maybe I’m just used to the prodigious totals that her predecessors, Ellen Cohen and Martha Wong, used to rack up. Both of them eventually lost, so consider this Exhibit A for “Money Isn’t Everything”, but it’s still strange to see a targeted incumbent get doubled up by a challenger. I can’t wait to see what the 30 Day reports will look like in this one.
HD137
MJ Khan 9,700 649 15,689 10,000
Gene Wu 40,157 39,895 40,310 50,000
Jamaal Smith 23,545 12,546 13,705 0
Like I said before, I don’t quite get what MJ Khan is doing. Maybe he’s just keeping his powder dry, I don’t know. I still don’t think state issues are a driving passion for him. We’ll see.
HD144
David Pineda 38,500 21,593 27,802 0
Mary Ann Perez 47,803 20,283 57,254 0
This may be the most competitive races in the state, with both parties getting their strongest candidate for November. One thing I’ve been meaning to comment on but haven’t gotten around to yet is Mary Ann Perez‘s amazing showing on Election Day in May. She collected 67% of the vote on E-Day, more than half of her final total, to vault past the 50% mark in her three-candidate race and avoid a runoff. Whatever she had going for a ground game, it worked. I suspect a good ground operation will be key in November as well.
That’s all I’ve got. Texas on the Potomac has the local Congressional roundup, Kos has a national view, and I’ll take a look at county reports in a separate post.
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