Tell me you’re running for County Judge without triggering the “resign to run” provision, somehow.
CM Letitia Plummer
For the second time in two weeks, information has inadvertently emerged hinting that Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer intends to run for Harris County Judge in a bid to replace Lina Hidalgo.
Houston Style Magazine posted then deleted a story with a headline “Letitia Plummer: A Bold New Chapter in Harris County’s Leadership Legacy” saying Plummer was “preparing to launch her candidacy for Harris County judge.”
In the story, Plummer allegedly said: “I’ve raised my three sons in this city. I’ve built businesses here. And now, I want to lead Harris County — because I know what it means to fight for every neighborhood, every voice, and every future.”
She allegedly continued: “The County Judge is the only official elected by all of Harris County. I’m already serving the entire city. Now, I’m ready to serve the entire county. I’ve been there for our seniors, our veterans, our women- and minority-owned businesses. I’ve stood up for police and I’ve stood up for our children. It’s time we build a county government that does the same.”
While the story cannot be found on Houston Style’s website when its link is clicked, it was picked up by news aggregate CNN Newsource and posted publicly on another website on June 17.
Reached Friday, Plummer said the Houston Style story was supposed to be about her background and that she was misquoted.
The council member, who is serving her second term as an at-large member, asserted in a text that she did not say, “I’m already serving the entire city. Now, I’m ready to serve the entire county.”
The story from Houston Style follows a since-deleted post from the Spring Branch Democrats club earlier this month that included a document with a logo that read “Dr. Letitia Plummer Democrat for Harris County Judge.” The post also included a caption that read, “Another candidate for County Judge.” Plummer said the document was leaked by someone who used to work for her.
Plummer has not filed for the seat, according to Harris County campaign finance records. She told the Houston Chronicle Friday she was still strongly considering running for the position.
See here for the background. I mean, she’s running for County Judge. I don’t know how one could reasonably conclude otherwise. The slipup with the Spring Branch Dems could plausibly be blamed on a miscommunication. It would be unlikely, but with enough benefit of the doubt to say no, we can’t be sure, or at least we can’t be sure enough to say she has effectively resigned her seat on Council. The fact that it happened twice, the second time with a journalist, removes the doubt. She’s running. She’ll tell us “officially” when she’s ready, but she’s running.
Is this enough to trigger resign-to-run? City Attorney Arturo Michel says no in the story. I doubt there’s any precedent to match this, so it would take someone filing a lawsuit to force the matter, assuming she doesn’t make her formal declaration and resignation first. This is one of the many places where certain aspects of these laws are woefully vague (*cough* *cough* residency requirements *cough* *cough*) and unsettled, and that leaves us in the lurch in these outlier situations. We can’t cover everything, but we could do a better job of clearing up some of the murkier areas. If we wanted to, anyway.
One more thing, which was recently pointed out to me, about the timing of all this. Article 11, Section 11 of the state constitution covers terms of office for municipal elected officials. It has this provision for the event of a vacancy due to death or resignation:
(c) Any vacancy or vacancies occurring on such governing body shall not be filled by appointment but must be filled by majority vote of the qualified voters at a special election called for such purpose within one hundred and twenty (120) days after such vacancy or vacancies occur except that the municipality may provide by charter or charter amendment the procedure for filling a vacancy occurring on its governing body for an unexpired term of 12 months or less.
This is why the July 8 “campaign announcement” date cited in the Spring Branch Dems item matters, because July 8 is 119 days before Election Day in November. Timing this announcement to on or after July 8 does us all the favor of having the special election to fill her then-vacant At Large #4 seat on Election Day in November, rather than on some random day in the calendar when we’ll struggle to get one percent turnout and have to spend the money on a solo election besides. This golden period only lasts up through late August or so, which is when the deadline date for finalizing the ballot occurs. So if there are to be any announcements involving Houston City Council members that would have resign-to-run implications, expect them to occur from July 8 up to about August 18. Timing is everything.