Here’s the District K special election webpage, and now that the filing deadline has passed and the list of candidates has been updated, here are your contenders for this seat:
CM Larry Green
Candidate Contact Information
in alphabetical order
- Larry Blackmon | 6167 Ludington, #896 / Houston, TX 77035 | phone: 281.415.0351 | email: [email protected]
- Martha Castex-Tatum | 315 W. Alabama, Suite 103 / Houston, TX 77006 | phone: 832.426.4776 | email: [email protected]
- Carl David Evans | P.O. Box 31074 / Houston, TX 77031 | phone: 832.261.4768 | email: [email protected]
- Patricia “Pat” Frazier | P.O. Box 451823 / Houston, TX 77245 | phone: 713.454.4778 | email: [email protected]
- Anthony Freddie | email: [email protected]
- Elisabeth E. Johnson | phone: 409.934.2988 | email: [email protected]
- Lawrence McGaffie | 4207 Woodmont / Houston, TX 77045 | phone: 832.454.0733 | email: [email protected]
- Aisha Savoy | 7700 Creekbend Drive, #7 / Houston, TX 77071 | phone: 832.883.0167 | email: [email protected]
- Gerry Vander-Lyn |17 Charleston Park Drive, #2910 / Houston, TX 77025 | phone: 832.643.9060 | email: [email protected]
Here’s what I know about the candidates:
Larry Blackmon was a candidate for At Large #4 in 2015. This Chron story from that race lists him as a retired educator and community activist.
Martha Castex Tatum has been the Director of Constituent Services under the late CM Larry Green since 2015. She lived in San Marcos early in her career and wound up being elected to serve on their City Council, the first African-American woman to do so.
Carl David Evans is a CPA and has served twice as President of the Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood Council 41.
Pat Frazier is an educator and community activist who ran for District K in 2011. She also served on Mayor Turner’s transition team.
Anthony Freddie doesn’t appear to have a campaign Facebook page yet, and there’s no biographical information on his personal page that I can see. There is a post on his Facebook page that shows him attending the SD13 meeting from this past weekend.
Elisabeth E. Johnson – announcement here – owns an event planning business and was a field organizer for the Bill White gubernatorial campaign in 2010.
Lawrence McGaffie, Aisha Savoy, and Gerry Vander-Lyn have limited information that I can find. However, this Chron story tells us a few things.
Aisha Savoy, meanwhile, is a first-time candidate who works in the city’s flood plain management office. She touted her disaster recovery work and said she would focus on economic development, environmental protection and public safety.
“Everybody has a right to feel safe,” said Savoy, 40.
[…]
Former city employee Anthony Freddie, 55, spoke to youth empowerment, public safety and road upgrades.
“What I’d like to do is definitely focus on the infrastructure,” Freddie said.
[…]
Lawrence McGaffie, a 30-year-old disabled veteran, said he is running in part to encourage young people to take on leadership roles.
“My whole goal is to get the young people involved, to inspire them to make a change where they are, in their classrooms, in their homes, in their communities, wherever they are, to be that leader,” McGaffie said.
There’s more on the other contenders as well. I’m going to try to interview everyone, but this is going to be another insane rush towards election day. Early voting will begin on April 23, so it will be a challenge for all to get themselves out there in front of the voters. For sure there will be a runoff. If you know anything about one or more of these folks, please leave a comment. Thanks.
That’s a lot of people that can’t figure out something as simple as raise-the-wage ordinances.
No doubt Charless will avoid these topics as well.
Maybe they’ll support more stupid mini murals
Joe,
You raise wages by boosting the economy so that there are more jobs. You can also raise wages by deporting illegal aliens, to shrink the labor pool. Trump managed to raise wages via the tax cuts. Millions of American workers got bonuses. Even companies like Walmart raised wages in response.
Raising wages by government diktat, however, isn’t smart. All it does is encourage businesses to move OUT of Houston, and into the exurbs and unincorporated areas. Haven’t you seen what happened in Seattle?
Maybe candidates aren’t harping on that failed strategy because it’s a loser.
Maybe Amanda Edward isn’t talking about paid sick leave for workers or paid family leave for city employees because she lacks the balls?
Greg Casar on Austin City Council doesn’t need a useless harvard law degree to figure these things out LOL
Bill (or is it Vasilli?),
You fail to mention that most of the “millions” of bonuses were already scheduled by employers.
You conveniently left out the colossal debt increase from the tax cuts. So effectively the taxpayers are paying for your imaginary wage increases. Not the economy. BTW, pragmatically you don’t utilize huge tax cuts in an already growing economy that Trump luckily walked into on Jan 2017.
@penwyth:
Don’t be disingenuous. Most of those companies specifically STATED the bonuses and raises were due to the tax cuts. Even Apple admitted it, and Light-in-the-loafers Cook isn’t a fan of Trump at all. Speaking of Apple, how about all that money they had stranded offshore that they have repatriated at the new, Trump lowered, tax rate? Think about how many new American jobs those billions will be creating. Heck, even the Indian owned steel mill in Baytown is going to add a new mill. Bam! 500 new jobs, paying $65k a year…..thanks to Trump.
I was in a Walmart the other day and overheard the shopping cart kid remarking that they were getting a raise from $ 10/hr to $ 11/hour, and he mentioned it was because of the tax cuts. I have a (legal) Mexican guy that works for me. He HATES Trump. He also is getting more in his pay envelope, because of the tax cuts. People know.
I don’t know ‘Vasilli.’ If you’ve read any of my thoughts in the past, I would be pretty easy to locate. I’m not hiding from anyone.
A little extra on Martha Castex-Tatum: She is widely acknowledged to be CM Larry Green’s personally-selected successor. He had been grooming her to run in 2019 when his term was complete. She is the candidate by far with the most knowledge and capability to continue is projects and move District K forward.
I work on the Council floor (not in the District K office) and I personally know her to be intelligent, compassionate, and extremely hard-working for her constituents.
Vote for Martha!
You work on the city council floor?
woopty doo
I checked out martha’s website. For someone with a masters degree her ideas are… nonexistent.
If she’s too lazy to google ideas she could just copy and paste from my website
@Joe… Based on your level of/lack of elected office success, I’m not sure why anyone would be cutting-n-pasting anything from your website.
10% of the total vote with no money while Angela Blanchard and Laura Moser ask me for ideas. LOL
Let us know when harris county black-democrats have real solutions for working families
Hopefully the person elected to the seat won’t be doing meth and huffing paint like the last guy. Seems like Larry was living ghetto fabulous.
As a native Houstonian for over 7 decade, activist, former elective official, instrumental in the creation of single member council district so communities can elect candidates who has resided in those communities and understand the needs and shown passion volunteering their time advocating on issues affecting their community. Pat Frazier is the ONLY candidate seeking the District K seat. She has lived for over 30years. She has not been a paid employee for any community service. She serve as precinct judge, SD13 secretary, community liaison for Senator Borris Miles, Rep. Alma Allen, voter register deputy, voter education and get out the vote program. She also organized neighborhood beautification, school parent advisory committee, Boy Scott troop, advocate for community quality grocery store, volunteer on many campaigns and served on Mayor Turner transition teams and many other titles. She cares about the quality of life for all people through all her involvement over25 years. A member of many non- profit organizations. I support Pat Frazier because of her proven passion and dedication!!