In addition to county candidates, my 2012 Democratic primary election page has information about state and federal candidates who will be on the ballot in Harris County. There are numerous contested primaries, and while I’m not tracking information about Republican races on that page, I thought it would be useful to check on the finance reports for all races of interest. Here’s the relevant data for candidates that have submitted reports, with my comments at the end. Candidates without a party affiliation listed are Democrats, and incumbents are noted as such.
Candidate Office Raised Spent Cash on hand
=====================================================
Nilsson SBOE6 1,600 431 1,552
Jensen SBOE6 0 1,088 0
Scott SBOE6 1,010 362 647
Bahorich (R) SBOE6 325 669 50,320
Cargill (R, I) SBOE8 38,586 18,710 25,626
Ellis (R) SBOE8 2,195 7,019 1,163
McCool (R) SD11 10,047 8,515 31
Taylor (R) SD11 329,124 154,172 169,778
Norman (R) SD11 9,981 6,512 11,534
Huberty (R, I) HD127 58,075 37,575 36,811
Jordan (R) HD127 1,763 967 0
Davis (R,I) HD129 20,475 45,286 62,852
Huls (R) HD129 1,684 1,501 182
Allen (I) HD131 5,565 14,542 18,764
Adams HD131 0 4,697 59,572
Callegari (R,I) HD132 8,250 28,593 222,340
Brown (R) HD132 975 779 195
Murphy (R,I) HD133 72,015 38,365 182,682
Johnston (R) HD133 6,244 6,015 6,244
Johnson HD134 7,347 0 7,347
Davis (R, I) HD134 83,035 61,807 102,570
Witt (R) HD136 4,821 85,139 25,218
Schofield (R) HD136 67,203 34,899 29,245
Holm (R) HD136 142,997 98,594 44,402
DeAyala (R) HD136 144,860 39,105 106,253
Smith HD137 2,500 750 2,500
Madden HD137 11,002 750 10,252
Wu HD137 71,700 831 70,869
Winkler HD137 850 750 1,378
Khan (R) HD137
Risner HD144 0 0 0
Perez HD144 1,300 2,569 14,547
Ybarra HD144
Legner (R,I) HD144 27,475 57,949 34,040
Miles (I) HD146 15,900 2,750 6,800
Edwards HD146 0 0 1,199
Coleman (I) HD147 158,474 106,581 106,823
Hill HD147
Riddle (R,I) HD150 89,401 54,384 108,874
Wilson (R) HD150 4,160 4,366 893
My notes:
– Donna Bahorich loaned herself $50,000, which is where her cash on hand figure comes from.
– Despite having the opportunity to support a “Senator McCool”, it seems clear that Republicans prefer State Rep. Larry Taylor in SD11.
– As noted before, Wanda Adams’ money comes from her Council campaign coffers. I will be interested to see who gives to her between now and the primary. Rep. Allen unsurprisingly has the support of her legislative colleagues, at least if a recent notice about a fundraiser for her is any indication.
– Given that HD134 is likely to be the highest profile legislative race in November regardless of what the next map looks like, I was curious how Rep. Sarah Davis’ efforts stacked up against her predecessors as they headed into their first re-election campaign. In 2008, Ellen Cohen reported $188K raised, $45K spent, and $203K on hand. None of Martha Wong’s 2004 included cash on hand information, so I can’t get an exact comparison with her. Her January 2004 report showed only $7K raised and $18K spent, but I doubt that indicates that she was cash-poor, as she was a generally strong fundraiser. Her July 2005 report is the first to include cash on hand, and she had $250K at that time. For January 2006 her numbers were $127K raised, $24K spent, and $349K on hand. All this is to say that Davis is not starting out in any better shape than either Cohen or Wong, at least financially.
– I have to say, that’s an impressive amount of fundraising in HD136, which currently does not exist in Harris County. As Greg noted, the one guy with no electoral experience had quite a strong showing, and Ann Witt’s burn rate is almost as impressive. Witt also has $100K in loans to herself outstanding.
– Not much action in HD137 so far. It’s the opposite of HD136 in the sense that it was originally obliterated by the Lege but restored by the court. My guess is that if it gets folded back into HD149, none of the Dems will remain in the race. Gene Wu’s money came primarily from himself ($50K) and a relative ($20K). MJ Khan had not filed a report at the time of this publication.
– Also not much action in HD144, which is currently a Dem-favorable district, but was originally made a stronger Republican district. Legler may be feeling the effect of the uncertainty, though he surely had plenty of time before the court got involved to raise a few bucks. Ybarra had not filed a report at publication time, and Risner reported no money raised or spent.
– Don’t be fooled by Rep. Borris Miles’ numbers. He’s perfectly capable of self-funding; he has $655K in loans to himself outstanding. This is Al Edwards’ first run as a non-incumbent in the post-Craddick era. Will his old buddies still support him?
– Ray Hill had not filed a report as of publication time. I don’t really expect him to get much financial support, but you never know.
That’s about all I’ve got. As the Trib had reported earlier, uncertainty over the map for 2012 has made fundraising more of a challenge for many candidates. We can see some of that here, but I daresay things will be clearer in the next reports, which would now be due in early March but presumably will get pushed back along with the primary date, if need be. On a related note, for a look at cash on hand among Senators, see Robert Miller.