Tag Archives: interviews

Interview with Isabel Longoria

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Following on to my interview with Chris Hollins, today I have for you a conversation with our brand new and first-ever Election Administrator in Harris County, Isabel Longoria. Longoria is a former legislative staffer who ran for City Council in … Continue reading →

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Interview with Chris Hollins

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

To put a bow on this long, strange trip that was the 2020 election season, I have a couple of interviews to bring you with key players from the election. The first is with Chris Hollins, the now-former Harris County … Continue reading →

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Early voting starts today for District B runoff

Posted on November 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

At long last, the voters in District B will get to elect a new City Council member. . Over the weekend we mailed out 12,000 mail ballots for the December Runoff Election. In person Early Voting starts Wednesday! #HarrisVotes #HouNews … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rep. Lizzie Fletcher

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I knew I wanted to talk to freshman Rep. Lizzie Fletcher this cycle, because there’s just so much to talk about. You know her story from 2018 – the crowded primary, the unprecedented amounts of money raised and spent, the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rep. Christina Morales

Posted on October 7, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I have focused mostly on Congressional candidates in my limited series of November interviews, but I did several State House races for the primary – Akilah Bacy in HD138, Ann Johnson in HD134, Sarah DeMerchant in HD26 – and I … Continue reading →

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Interview with Sima Ladjevardian

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Texas CD02 has a fairly short history of being centered in Harris County. It was redrawn in the Tom DeLay re-redistricting of 2003 to stretch from the north end of the county to Beaumont in order to oust then-Rep. Nick … Continue reading →

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Interview with Elizabeth Hernandez

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

How I proceed with doing candidate interviews can vary from election to election. The last couple of even-year cycles, I’ve focused more on the primaries than the general, because there have been so many highly competitive primaries. Even there, I … Continue reading →

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Interview with Julie Oliver

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

If the story of the 2018 Congressional elections in Texas was the unprecedented number of serious candidates and their equally unprecedented success at fundraising, the story of 2020 is how many of those Congressional races are seen as credibly winnable … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rashad Lewis

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Moving closer to my home base but staying in mostly rural territory, we visit CD36 where Rashad Lewis is running on the Democratic ticket. Lewis is a former city council member in Jasper, where he won as a write-in candidate … Continue reading →

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Interview with Hank Gilbert

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I will have a few interviews to present for the November election. Nearly all of the people I wanted to talk to in the greater Houston area were in contested primaries, and thus I have already interviewed them, but there … Continue reading →

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Interview with Sherrie Matula of Sisters United Alliance

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Sherrie Matula is a longtime Democratic activist (she was a founder of the BAAD Women club) and two-time candidate (for HD129 in 2008, and for HCDE in Precinct 2 in 2016, which she lost by 0.2 percentage points), but that’s … Continue reading →

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Interview with Teneshia Hudspeth

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, HCDP precinct chairs will be picking a nominee for Harris County Clerk, to run for Diane Trautman’s unexpired term. The leading candidate for this is Teneshia Hudspeth, who has worked in the Clerk’s office for fifteen years … Continue reading →

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Interview with Commissioner Rodney Ellis

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Normally, I do candidate interviews for elections, though I do branch out sometimes when there’s an issue or some election-adjacent matter I want to explore. It’s in that spirit that I bring you this conversation I had with Commissioner Rodney … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rep. Marc Veasey

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

When I came up with the idea to do a series of interviews about redistricting, Rep. Marc Veasey was among the first people I wanted to talk to. He was a State Rep in 2011 when the original maps were … Continue reading →

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Interview with Michael Li

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, among the many monumental tasks that the Legislature has before it in 2021 is redistricting. That will almost certainly be done in a summer or even autumn special session, since Census data will be delayed by the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Sarah Eckhardt

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I have one more interview to present for the July 14 special election in SD14. As noted, there are six candidates running to succeed Kirk Watson, but really just two that merit your attention. Today I have a conversation with … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rep. Eddie Rodriguez

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We’re about a month out from the start of early voting for the July 14 elections, which are the primary runoffs and at least one special election, to fill the vacancy in the State Senate left by Kirk Watson’s resignation. … Continue reading →

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The interviews I didn’t do

Posted on February 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

As was the case with the 2019 Houston elections, there were too many candidates and too many races (and in this case, too little time as well) to do a full slate of interviews. I did what I could, and … Continue reading →

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Interview with Audia Jones

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We come to the end of the DA interviews, and also interview season for the primaries. It’s possible I’ll revisit some other races in the runoffs, but there’s not that many to pick from at this point. You never know, … Continue reading →

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Interview with Carvana Cloud

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Incumbent District Attorney Kim Ogg has three opponents in the Democratic primary this year. Two of the three are running serious campaigns, and I have interviews to present to you with each of them. Today’s candidate is Carvana Cloud. Cloud … Continue reading →

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Interview with District Attorney Kim Ogg

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Hard to believe, but we are one week out from early voting for the 2020 primaries in Texas. It’s been a busy interview season for me, as I’m sure you can imagine. This week we will wrap things up with … Continue reading →

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Interview with Kristi Thibaut

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We come to the end of our candidate journey in Harris County Precinct 3. I’ve run out of facts to give about Steve Radack and the Republican history of the Court, so here’s a Houston Public Media story about the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Morris Overstreet

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We continue in Commissioner Court Precinct 3. Steve Radack has done a lot of things in his 32 years on the Court, many of which I don’t care for. One thing I will give him for was his plan to … Continue reading →

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Interview with Michael Moore

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We continue in Harris County Commissioners Court, Precinct 3. If Democrats win this race, they will have a 4-1 advantage on the Court, just two years after taking the majority for the first time since, I don’t know, the Seventies? … Continue reading →

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Interview with Diana Martinez Alexander

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It’s February, we’re two weeks out from the start of early voting for the 2020 primaries, and we’re going to spend this week in Harris County Commissioners Court, Precinct 3. Incumbent Steve Radack is stepping down after 32 years in … Continue reading →

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Interview with Ann Harris Bennett

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

As I said before, I wasn’t originally expecting to do interviews in the Democratic primary for Harris County Tax Assessor, but once that became a contested race then of course I had to fit it into the schedule. We all … Continue reading →

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Interview with Commissioner Rodney Ellis

Posted on January 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t think I need to spend too much time introducing County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. A longtime State Senator after serving on Houston City Council, Ellis became the 2016 Democratic nominee for County Commissioner in Precinct 1 via that weird … Continue reading →

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Interview with Suleman Lalani

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

One last time in HD26. Election results on the SOS webpage only go back as far as 1992. In that time, HD26 has always been held by a Republican – through the 90s, when Fort Bend had two State Rep … Continue reading →

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Interview with Rish Oberoi

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Continuing on with HD26. One of the ironies of incumbent Rep. Rick Miller’s racist comments about Asian voters in this district was, as State Rep. Gene Wu noted, HD26 was specifically drawn to make it easier for an Anglo candidate … Continue reading →

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Interview with Lawrence Allen

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We continue in HD26, where incumbent Rick Miller self-immolated and quickly wound up vacating this very competitive seat. Lawrence Allen, Jr. is a current member of the State Board of Education, in District 4, a seat he has held since … Continue reading →

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Interview with Sarah DeMerchant

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

One more time to legislative races, and one more time to a district carried by Beto. Like the others of that class, HD26 has drawn a full field of contenders to bring it across the finish line and into the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Jolanda Jones

Posted on January 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We knew a long time ago that this was going to be a busy primary season, with a lot of contested Democratic races. Because the campaign calendar is so short, I have to be very picky about what races I … Continue reading →

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Interview with Jenifer Pool

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We wrap up our visit with the candidates in HD138, the district that I was sure would flip before HD132 did. Politics is funny sometimes. Today’s candidate is Jenifer Pool, whose website is not up right now. If you’ve been … Continue reading →

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Interview with Josh Wallenstein

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We continue in HD138 and the quest to turn that district blue. Unlike the districts we flipped in 2018, which really only came on the radar that year, HD138 has been a low-key target going back to the previous decade, … Continue reading →

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