PREVIOUSLY: Congress, Harris County, Houston
Elizabeth Santos – Dist I
Kathy Bluefod-Daniels – Dist II
Dani Hernandez – Dist III
Patricia Allen – Dist IV
Sue Deigaard – Dist V
Holly Flynn Vilaseca – Dist VI
Anne Sung – Dist VII
Judith Cruz – Dist VIII
Myrna Guidry (CTA) – Dist IX
Bridget Wade – Dist VII
Gerry Monroe – Dist IX
Dist Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
==========================================================
I Santos 0 200 0 2,885
V Deigaard 31,635 717 0 34,785
VI Vilaseca 16,150 2,838 0 13,914
VII Sung 13,307 2,761 0 15,419
VII Wade 141,236 19,378 7,000 123,517
IX Guidry
IX Monroe 5,778 1,267 0
II B-Daniels 0 9 2,000 191
III Hernandez 0 0 0 2,192
IV Allen 0 0 0 0
VIII Cruz 0 0 0 1,175
I have sorted the table to put the trustees who are on the ballot this year on the top. Myrna Guidry was appointed to replace Wanda Adams after Adams was elected JP last November, though as noted she has filed her designation of treasurer report, so presumably she will have started raising money by now. Her opponent, Gerry Monroe, had run for this position in 2017 as well, though he raised little money. His report did not include a cash on hand total.
That cannot be said for Bridget Wade, whose total for District VII is what I would call eye-popping. She has a long list of donors, some big money – three members of the Butler family, two of whom list their occupation as “Builder” and their employer as “Butler Brothers”, combined to donate $12,500 – and some small. I don’t see any obvious red flags on her website, but I do see a couple of familiar Republican names among her donors – former CD07 candidate from the old days Peter Wareing is among them – so draw your own conclusions. Districts V, VI, and VII all used to be held by Republicans, so such a challenge is hardly a surprise. Incumbent Anne Sung has her work cut out for her.
There are two other declared opponents out there, though so far all they have done is file the designation of treasurer report:
Janette Lindner – Dist I
Kendall Baker – Dist VI
I don’t know Janette Lindner, who is running against my Trustee Elizabeth Santos, but if you’ve read this site before you’ll recognize the name Kendall Baker. He’s more of a troll than anything else, but these off-off-year elections can be weird, and this used to be a Republican district. Don’t take anything for granted.
As for Lindner, her name pops up in this story from 2019, likely taken straight from a press release:
Latinos for Education announced ten leaders were selected to join its Latino Board Fellowship in Houston, an innovative initiative that helps diversify the city’s educational leadership.
Created by Latinos for Education, the Latino Board Fellowship identifies, trains and places exceptional Latino leaders from across sectors onto governing boards of education nonprofit organizations across the region.
Lindner is one of those ten leaders. She is of course running against a Latina incumbent, so make of that what you will. Here’s her bio from her company website and her LinkedIn page; I did not see a campaign website at this time.
Of the remaining incumbents who have to run for re-election, three have been busy fundraising, with Sue Deigaard leading the way. She is the one among those in former Republican districts who does not as of yet have an opponent. Indeed, if you look at her finance report, you’ll see that the previous Trustee in District V, Mike Lunceford, is her campaign treasurer. Not a guarantee of anything, but a nice show of support.
So there you have it. Two potentially interesting races shaping up, and two others that are there. I would expect Trustees Santos and Guidry to start raising money soon, and we’ll see how they’re doing in early October when the 30 day reports are out. If you know anything else about these candidates or others that may be lurking out there, leave a comment. I was going to include the HCC trustees in this post as well, but their reports were not as readily available. I’ll check back on them later.
Former district judge Wallace Jefferson announced at Greater Houston Pachyderm Club an intention to also run for Trustee VII position, but apparently has not filed any designation of treasurer. I support and donated to Wade, whose Butler family have been civic leaders in Houston for decades and were prominent supporters of Bob Lanier when he ran for mayor and associates of the first President Bush.
FYI, Maria Benzon has filed for District V.