Every level of government requires finance reports in January and June, whether or not there is an active election cycle in that year. That includes the city of Houston, whose january report data we inspected here. Our next election is in 2019, and while this is still traditionally a little early for there to be much activity, there are the finance reports. Here’s what we’ve got:
Candidate Office Raised Spent Loan On Hand
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S Turner Mayor 585,267 137,758 0 2,260,407
C Brown Controller 13,070 17,650 0 59,164
M Knox At Large 1 28,225 12,691 0 62,856
D Robinson At Large 2 61,650 21,468 0 162,079
M Kubosh At Large 3 72,475 23,841 276,000 82,360
A Edwards At Large 4 40,345 26,349 0 147,883
J Christie At Large 5 3,263 6,055 0 25,918
B Stardig Dist A 56,439 24,738 0 116,794
J Davis Dist B 22,750 12,487 0 147,300
E Cohen Dist C 33,990 18,591 0 57,264
D Boykins Dist D 126,000 55,556 0 96,400
D Martin Dist E 43,900 17,226 0 123,730
S Le Dist F 4,000 6,445 30,823 10,570
G Travis Dist G 69,468 81,775 21,000 56,571
K Cisneros Dist H 34,399 5,660 0 49,176
R Gallegos Dist I 32,875 21,319 0 80,288
M Laster Dist J 20,330 7,524 0 173,358
M Castex-Tatum Dist K 15,375 339 3,788 43,822
A Parker 0 10,383 0 82,854
L Green 5,500 42,118 0 40,492
Lift the Cap PAC 0 0 0 3,987
Citizens to Keep 0 1,803 0 47,564
Houston Strong
As you may recall, there wasn’t much in the way of fundraising for anyone except Mayor Turner last time. I don’t know if it’s due to the time of year, the approach of the next election, or the overall political climate, but as you can see nearly all of our elected officials have been busy. The report for Martha Castex-Tatum, who was elected in May to succeed the late Larry Green, is in a shorter period than everyone else since she had to post 30-day and 8-day reports for her cycle; the others are all for the full January through June time frame.
Looking at these numbers, only Jack Christie has acted like the term-limited Member that he is. Brenda Stardig, Jerry Davis, Ellen Cohen, and Mike Laster have been more or less business as usual. I’ve speculated before about the possible future ambitions they may have, and I don’t have anything to add to that. I’m sure there’s a reason why the three non-Cohen members have been stockpiling the loot like this, but until they do something tangible it’s hard to say what that might be.
Which doesn’t mean we can’t speculate at all. I look at what Dwight Boykins and David Robinson are doing and I wonder a little. Both are on the ballot next year for their final terms (as always, modulo future rulings in the interminable term limits litigation), and while Robinson had to fend off four challengers and win in a runoff in 2015, Boykins cruised home unopposed. It could be that Robinson is merely gearing up for the next battle while Boykins is doing his best to keep potential opponents at bay. It could also be that they’re looking beyond their next term to a time when both the Mayor’s office and the Controller’s office will be open seats. I have no idea and no evidence – like I said, I’m just speculating. Dave Martin is also in that “one more term and has a lot of cash” group, but we don’t tend to elect Mayors who fit Martin’s political profile, though perhaps Controller might appeal to him.
Be all that as it may, this is the first time since we switched to four-year terms and no blackout period for fundraising that we’ve seen incumbents establish a clear financial advantage for themselves. No one on the outside has yet taken a concrete step (like designating a campaign treasurer and raising their own money) towards running for a Council seat, but do keep in mind there are several now-former candidates for Congress in town who likely have some cash remaining in their coffers (sorry, I’m only checking on still-active candidates). Surely it would not be a surprise if one or more of them decided to act more locally next year. Given that possibility, it’s hard to blame any of the members who are up for re-election next year to take precautions.
The remaining reports I included because they’re there. As we learned after the death of El Franco Lee, the remaining funds in Larry Green’s campaign account are to be distributed by his campaign treasurer, whose name is Kevin Riles. As we see from Lee’s July report, there’s no particular rush to do whatever that turns out to be. I don’t remember what Citizens to Keep Houston Strong was about, but Bill White is their treasurer. I’m sure we’ll see plenty more PACs and PAC activity as we move towards referenda for firefighters’ pay parity and the revenue cap.
