Tag Archives: Houston

Chron slaps Culberson again for Metro meddling

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

It’s an old story. Metro gets some good news relating to the University line. Rep. John Culberson tries again to halt the project. The Chronicle calls him out on it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that last part. It’s … Continue reading →

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Initial thoughts on the runoffs

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll go through them one race at a time, with the unofficial vote totals minus Montgomery County for each. Once I have precinct results, I’ll go through those and do a more detailed analysis. Mayor Annise Parker – 81,971, 52.78% … Continue reading →

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Runoff results open thread

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As tonight is Lights in the Heights, I will be paying attention to things other than election results this evening. Assuming you’re not at an election night party, you can follow results as they are posted here or on the … Continue reading →

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Vote today!

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Today is Runoff Day. If you did not vote during Early Voting, this is your lasr chance. The following is from the Harris County Clerk’s office: Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, the chief elections officer of the County, made available … Continue reading →

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Mayoral miscellania

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

A few links of interest about the Mayor’s race. Because I know you haven’t read enough about it already. Nancy is ready for all the third-party attacks in the race to stop. Here’s an interview with Annise Parker at Open … Continue reading →

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Chron on the Jones pileup

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the Chron story about the mailers being sent out opposing Jolanda Jones. The effort by five council members to oust Jones, arguably the most controversial and well-known figure on council, was virtually unprecedented in the past several decades, according … Continue reading →

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A few words with David Wolff

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron talks to David Wolff, the soon-to-be-former Chair of Metro, about the state of the agency. Q: Why has it taken six years to build new light rail lines when the Main Street line was built so quickly? A: … Continue reading →

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KHOU/KUHF poll gives Parker a big lead

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This was the top story on the 5 PM news. The final 11News/KUHF Houston Public Radio poll shows Controller Annise Parker has a 13-point lead over former City Attorney Gene Locke. In the poll, which was conducted this week by … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: Another takeback

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Got a press release yesterday from Lane Lewis announcing that he had won an endorsement that had previously gone to his opponent. HARRIS COUNTY COUNCIL OF ORGANIZATIONS RESCINDS STARDIG ENDORSEMENT Houston, Texas – City Council District A candidate Lane Lewis … Continue reading →

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One last look at the early voting numbers

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here is a copy of that Johnston report I’ve been referring to, updated through the end of early voting. A few things to note. – The total number of people who voted in the City of Houston election through the … Continue reading →

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Culberson sticks his nose in

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Last week, when we heard that the Federal Transit Authority had notified Metro that they would be cleared to begin preliminary engineering of the University Line project if no member of the local Congressional delegation objected by today, I figured … Continue reading →

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Holmes fibs about his donation history to Hotze

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, Ned Holmes, the finance chair for the Gene Locke campaign, made a $20,000 donation to Steven Hotze’s Conservative Republicans of Harris County PAC just before Hotze sent out his homophobic mailer to voters. Holmes claims that the … Continue reading →

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H-GAC Livable Centers Study of the Ensemble/HCC Station Area in Midtown

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Tomorrow night at 7 PM at the Trinity Episcopal Church located at 1015 Holman Street at Main (map) is a public meeting for the H-GAC Livable Centers Study of the Ensemble/HCC Station area in Midtown. You can click on the … Continue reading →

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Eight days out finance reports, District Council candidates

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

To wrap up our tour of the finance reports for the city runoffs, here’s a look at the two District Council races. First, District A, in which Lane Lewis is up against Brenda Stardig: Candidate Raised Spent Loans Cash PAC … Continue reading →

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Irving’s sign ordinance

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s an interesting story about the experience the city of Irving has had with its new ordinance that restricted signage by businesses. Strict new rules regarding business signs in Irving were enacted to literally remake the city’s image. The goal … Continue reading →

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Runoff EV wrapup

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The final tally is in, and after 13,534 in person votes were cast today, a total of 66,909 have been counted so far. This compares to 80,516 early votes for the November election. Except it doesn’t, since that total represents … Continue reading →

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Jolanda versus the world

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

If you’re on Carl Whitmarsh’s mailing list, you’ve probably seen this, which is one of several mailers being sent out by the Jack Christie campaign. That one is going to the Heights, Montrose, and District C. The others are this … Continue reading →

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Eight days out finance reports, At Large candidates

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Continuing on with our look at the eight days out reports, here’s how things stack up for the At Large Council candidates in the runoffs. Candidate Raised Spent Loans Cash PAC $$ PAC % =============================================================== Derr 26,692 13,034 5,000 5,487 … Continue reading →

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Locke backers funded Hotze

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Nice. The finance chairman and a finance committee member of Gene Locke’s mayoral campaign helped bankroll the conservative political action committee that sent out an anti-gay mailer targeting City Controller Annise Parker and other municipal candidates earlier this month, according … Continue reading →

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Council to hear Ashby appeal

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Via Nancy Sarnoff, the developers of the Ashby Highrise will appeal the dismissal of their appeal of not getting everything they wanted when their project was finally approved back in August. There’s a public hearing Tuesday and a Council vote … Continue reading →

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Runoff EV report, Day 8

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Before I get into today’s numbers, there was an incident at one of the early voting locations this morning. Police say someone broke into the Hester House Community Center, an early-voting location in the Fifth Ward, overnight, but officials with … Continue reading →

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Eight days out finance reports, Green and Khan

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve seen the eight days out finance reports for the Mayor’s race, now here’s the same thing for the Controller’s race. As before, the campaign finance spreadsheet has been updated with all of the raw data. Here’s how it breaks … Continue reading →

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The last debate

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’m not much of a debate-watching person, and we had company yesterday afternoon, so I did not catch the last Mayoral debate. (Judging by David Ortez’s liveblogging, it would seem a lot of people weren’t watching.) I don’t think events … Continue reading →

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At Large #1 runoff overview

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I believe this will be the last of the runoff overview stories. The runoff for an at-large City Council seat has devolved into a battle over the subtle connotations of the phrase “city contractor.” One of the candidates for Position … Continue reading →

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Not-quite-an-endorsement-but-close-enough watch: Roy for Annise

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, Peter Brown endorsed Annise Parker for Mayor fairly soon after the November election. That left the question about what, if anything, Roy Morales would do. Via Big Jolly, we now know the answer. Apparently, Roy sent out … Continue reading →

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Runoff EV report, Day 7

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve had one full week of early voting, with two twelve-hour days to go. As you can see on the spreadsheet, today was the slowest day, with 2,600 voters showing up, giving a total of 43,989 votes. I’ve been remiss … Continue reading →

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Parker leads in another poll

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a Zogby poll, so don’t get too excited, but that’s still four out of four since Election Day. While the race for Houston mayor remains too close to call, Parker’s 5.5 percentage point lead stems from advantages among several … Continue reading →

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Eight days out finance reports, Parker and Locke

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Among other things, Friday was the eight days out campaign finance reporting deadline for the city runoffs. The Chron reports on the Mayoral candidates. Both sides aggressively asked for volunteers and donors before the Wednesday deadline. Election rules allowed Parker … Continue reading →

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Runoff EV report, Day 6

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Today was a beautiful day following yesterday’s snow and ice, there were twelve full hours of early voting, and there were a total of 6,072 in-person ballots cast (no mail ballots today), which is almost indistinguishable from the first four … Continue reading →

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More on the early voting turnout so far

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron writes about the early voting turnout so far. After four days, nearly 10,000 more Houstonians voted early than in the general election, a trend Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman said she predicted. “Voters just weren’t engaged back in … Continue reading →

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Ministers speak out against homophobia

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

More like this, please. A group of Houston clergy members has signed a letter objecting to recent anti-gay sentiment “espoused by those who co-opt religion as a cover for hatred.” The letter reads as follows: We the undersigned religious leaders … Continue reading →

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Runoff EV report, Day 5

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Today’s inclement weather may not have closed the polls down, but they did reduce the number of voters by a considerable amount. Only 3287 hardy souls made it out to an EV location, some of which saw fewer than 20 … Continue reading →

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You can still vote today

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

From the County Clerk’s office: Early voting locations for the Joint Runoff Election will remain open as scheduled Houston, TX- Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, the chief elections officer of the County, announced this afternoon that all early voting locations … Continue reading →

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University Line takes a step forward on funding

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Finally! The light rail route known as the “University Line” is close to clearing the first major hurdle for obtaining federal funding. The Federal Transit Authority notified Metro this week that the project has entered a 10-day congressional notification period. … Continue reading →

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