Houston’s worst-kept secret is a secret no more.
CM Letitia Plummer
Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer plans to resign her position to run in the Democratic primary for Harris County judge, she told the Houston Chronicle in an exclusive interview.
The seat was one Plummer said she never thought would open. While there hasn’t been an official announcement, Plummer said she based her decision on extensive conversations with County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Plummer said her understanding is that Hidalgo won’t seek re-election.
“I’m going to run for the county judge seat. I believe I’ve made the commitment to people, people have asked,” Plummer said. “But, let me be very clear, I’m doing and making that decision on the auspice of having multiple conversations with her. It would never be a situation to where I jumped out saying that I was running against Judge Hidalgo. I made my decision based on hundreds of community conversations, sit downs with her.”
Plummer’s move follows a similar maneuver by former U.S. Rep. Erica Lee Carter, who announced on Monday she would run for county judge should Hidalgo not seek re-election.
Hidalgo has yet to announce a decision on whether or not she will run again, but said she will soon.
[…]
“All of the good work that I’ve done at City Hall, I can now do on a larger stage, really focusing on my priorities,” Plummer said.
Plummer said she’s helped residents through seven natural disasters and focused on quality of life issues across the city.
She said that she believes sometimes people lose track of what exactly the county judge does. Another reason why she thinks she is apt for the job is because she’s been the CEO of her own company. The county judge, Plummer said, is the CEO of the county.
“We can bring Harris County back, because we’ve got some financial challenges we’ve got to deal with,” Plummer said. “We can bring it back, and we can put enough pressure on the federal government and the state to give them what’s duly ours; disaster recovery support No. 1, infrastructure dollars and ensuring that the city of Houston and the county and all of the municipalities that are part of the county can continue to thrive.”
Should Plummer cinch the position, she said her top priorities would be infrastructure, namely increasing the number of resiliency projects the same way she helped Kashmere Gardens Multi-Service Center get a generator so it could be operational in storms; spurring economic development; and healthcare.
See here and here for the background. As the story notes, former Mayor Annise Parker is in the race, as will be former HCDE Trustee and CD18 Congress member Erica Lee Carter, if indeed Judge Hidalgo does not run again. I expect we’ll get an answer to that soon. I also expect this will not be the last candidate announcement for this office.
And yes, this means there will now be a special election in November for City Council At Large #4.
Weeks ahead of Plummer’s formal announcement, information about her candidacy had been inadvertently released twice. Both times called into question whether she would have to resign her council seat early.
Last month, the Spring Branch Democrats Club posted then deleted an image of a document on their Facebook page that read “Dr. Letitia Plummer Democrat for Harris County Judge” with a caption that read “Another candidate for County Judge.”
Then, Houston Style Magazine posted then deleted a news story with the headline “Letitia Plummer: A Bold New Chapter in Harris County’s Leadership Legacy” that said Plummer was “preparing to launch her candidacy for Harris County judge.”
In the story, Plummer was quoted as saying, “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.”
Plummer said the first information leak by the Spring Branch Democrats Club happened as a result of someone who used to work for her. She says she was misquoted in the Houston Style story and said she did not say, “I’m already serving the entire city. Now, I’m ready to serve the entire county.”
Had Plummer been forced to resign early before her Tuesday announcement, the city would have had to spend its own limited funds to hold a special election for her seat on council.
And just like that, this announcement hit my inbox yesterday morning:
Alejandra Salinas
Nationally recognized attorney Alejandra Salinas announced her candidacy today for Houston City Council, At-Large Position 4.
The incumbent, Council Member Letitia Plummer, has resigned to run for a different office. A special election will be held to fill Plummer’s unexpired term. The special election is anticipated to be held on Tuesday, November 4.
Salinas said: “Houston is a strong and resilient city with hard-working families and individuals. I am fighting for what my neighbors want and every Houstonian deserves: safer neighborhoods, affordable and reliable city services, and a strong infrastructure that keeps the lights on and keeps flood waters out of our homes and cars.”
Salinas enters the race with a powerful list of early endorsers, including Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, District Attorney Sean Teare, At-Large City Council Member Sallie Alcorn, and more. (A full list is available at www.AlejandraSalinas.com.) She also starts off with nearly $300,000 in her campaign account.
Salinas is a partner at Houston-based Susman Godfrey, the leading law firm that stood up to Donald Trump and won a sweeping injunction nullifying Trump’s illegal executive order and protecting the rule of law.
She has protected Harris County elections from partisan interference and reversed discriminatory school policies, and served as a surrogate for President Barack Obama.
Outside of the courtroom, Salinas devotes time to mentorship and community organizations. She serves on the board of Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, Second Mile Haiti, a non-profit that works to provide prenatal and family care to mothers and families in Haiti and C. 60, a non-profit dedicated to the restoration of LULAC’s first clubhouse in Houston. Salinas and her wife Elizabeth live in Montrose and are members of St. Philip Presbyterian Church.
Sounds like a pretty good candidate to me, but we’ll see who else gets in. I would expect this to be a pretty big field as well, maybe not CD18-sized but still substantial. I can’t wait to see what this finance report looks like, as having $300K already on hand is impressive no matter when she started raising it. And yes, I will do interviews with the AL4 candidates. I’m old enough to remember when this was supposed to be a quiet election year for us. The Press has more.
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Another candidate who is part of the big money crowd. Fairly sure we could guess how she would vote on some crucial issues.
It seems that we want people like us to have it all figured out for some time, based on what was written about endorsements and money.
Wonder if a straight Latina or Latino would get gay support?
lejandra courageously came out as an LGBTQ Latina — https://www.alejandrasalinas.com/meet-alejandra
Wonder if young straight Latinos/Latinas need to find their voice?