I learned two things of interest from this Houston Landing story about the CD18 situation. The bulk of the story is about the candidate forum today and the recent Zoom interviews that candidates did (see here for more on each), but there were two news items of interest. First:
Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, state Rep. Christina Morales, At-Large City Council Member Letitia Plummer, Harris County Department of Education board member Erica Davis and former City Council Member Amanda Edwards are among at least 10 people who have announced their interest in being selected for the nomination.
The same Erica Davis who made that weirdly unfocused primary challenge to Judge Lina Hidalgo in 2022? That this is the first I’ve heard of her interest in this race, four days out from when I will be one of a very small number of people voting in it, says a lot. I’ll just leave it at that.
Second:
In a late Thursday statement, Erica Lee Carter announced she was “strongly considering” running to fill the remaining weeks of her mother’s congressional term. She said she would announce her decision next week.
The filing deadline is Aug. 22, after the Democratic nominee will be chosen by the precinct chairs.
I got a text about that announcement early on Friday. When I talked about the possibility of a runoff in this special election, I said that a candidate with a sufficient level of name recognition could still win it outright. I didn’t have anyone specific in mind for that, but Erica Lee Carter would certainly fill the bill. Good for her if she decides to do this.
Finally, on a tangential note, I thought I’d address this letter to the editor about the nomination replacement process.
Regarding “Jackson Lee’s children endorse former Mayor Turner in crowded battle to succeed her in Congress” (Aug. 5): The person who will replace the late Sheila Jackson Lee on the ballot will be selected by the Harris County Democratic Party precinct chairs. That is not fair to the people of the 18th Congressional District.
The politicians and other political leaders here are trying to be kingmakers in Harris County and in this race. They carry a lot of weight and money. When are politicians are going to allow young people to take over the politics?
Sylvester Turner is 70 years old. He has been recovering from cancer and is not in the best of health. Congresswoman Lee just passed away from cancer. Why should we maybe have to go through this twice? Why can’t Turner use his expertise to mentor young people?
I worked as a poll worker back in the mid-1970s and early ’80s. I am 70 years old, and I know how politicians have worked on precinct chairs to persuade voters who to vote for. I know some precinct chairs who have been involved with the process for more than 50 years. Some have accepted tickets to events for years, as well as other benefits.
To be clear, the majority of precinct chairs are honest. But many have been doing it for so long that they are well known by both the community and politicians. I do not believe, in this situation, this is not the best way for this position to be resolved. The law needs to be changed. The people of the 18th Congressional District should have a voice and a vote.
Well, I’ve been a precinct chair since 2008 and I have no idea what this person is talking about. Be that as it may, while it would be nice to have a more inclusive process to replace Rep. Jackson Lee as the Democratic nominee on the ballot, let’s keep the timing in mind here. She died on July 19, which is about five weeks out from the deadline date for ballots to be finalized, thanks in part to a federal law that makes it easier for military and overseas voters get mail ballots in a timely fashion. That’s five weeks in which to run not only a general (primary) election campaign, but also almost certainly a runoff, with time for early and mail voting, canvassing results, curing provisional ballots, and possible recount requests. To put it bluntly, ain’t no way that could happen.
(Yes, yes, I hear you cry “But we could have instant runoff voting to shorten the process!” That would also require the law to be changed. Good luck with that. And five weeks would still be too little time for just the one election.)
It’s true that Rep. Jackson Lee’s case was an outlier as far as the timeline goes. El Franco Lee passed away on January 3, 2016, past the deadline for filing in that year’s primary but in plenty of time to hold the kind of election this letter writer would have liked. But that would either require disallowing candidates already on that year’s ballot, like the eventual winner of that year’s process, then-Senator and now-Commissioner Rodney Ellis, or having to have at least one (and in that case two) more such elections, with decreasing amounts of time for each. Maybe that would have been doable, I don’t know. I doubt we’d have gotten a different result. Limiting the candidates who could run in the name of minimizing the electoral chaos would also be undemocratic.
One could argue that if Sylvester Turner wins on Tuesday, whatever one thinks of his candidacy, the fact that he promises to serve only two terms means we’d get an open primary election in 2028, which certainly fulfills any reasonable democratic yearning. (He, or anyone else who wins on Tuesday, could also be challenged in the 2026 primary.) Not the letter writer’s unrealistic ideal, but it’s something. The current process has its flaws, but I prefer it to leaving the seat vacant until January and then having special election, which would mean no representation at all for the district for something like eight months. Between the precinct chairs and the special election, especially if Erica Lee Carter clears the decks as I suspect she will, we’ll only be without for about three and a half months. And that could have been less if Greg Abbott had done the honorable thing and set the special for September. You want to be mad about something, aim it at him.
Anyway. I will wrap up by quoting myself, from my report on the precinct chair convention that elected Rodney Ellis as the Democratic nominee for Commissioners Court in Precinct 1 back in 2016:
It was an honor to take part in this process, but in all sincerity I hope I never have that kind of power again. It’t not something I’m comfortable with. I’m glad there are people for whom it is a better fit who can and do take on that challenge with wisdom and humility.
Yeah, that. May we not have to do this again any time soon.
