Tag Archives: Ben Hall

My initial thoughts on the 2023 election

Suffice it to say I was off base on turnout. I thought we would be on track to top the turnout of the 2003 Mayor’s race, but in the end we fell short of 2015’s level. I’d have lost quite … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Settlement of the sexual harassment lawsuit against HCC Trustee Glaser on the agenda

On the agenda for this Wednesday’s HCC Trustee meeting is this item of interest. Proposed Settlement Authority regarding Southern District of Texas Houston Division, Civil Action 4:21-cv-02216; Patricia Dodd vs. Houston Community College, et al. RECOMMENDATION Authorize the administration to … Continue reading

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Former HCC instructor sues over sexual harassment allegations

Hoo boy. A former Houston Community College instructor is suing the community college system, its chancellor and a board member for $15 million, alleging that the college system retaliated against her for reporting that she was being sexually harassed by … Continue reading

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HCC Trustee accused of sexual harassment

Ugh. A Houston Community College instructor who accused a college board of trustees member of sexual harassment said HCC executives, including the college’s chancellor, were aware of the misconduct but did nothing to stop it. Documents obtained by the Houston … Continue reading

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

KHOU/HPM poll: Turner 37, Buzbee 20, King 10

We must be getting into the serious part of Houston Election Season, because we have our first public poll of the Mayor’s race. Mayor Sylvester Turner leads trial lawyer and businessman Tony Buzbee by 17 points, according to a KHOU/Houston … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2019 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Chron analysis of how Turner won

I suppose it’s a bit simplistic to say “he got more votes than the other guy”, but one way or the other that’s what happened. Sylvester Turner’s 24-year quest for the mayor’s office was realized by a narrow margin Saturday … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Precinct analysis: Mayor’s race

I now have draft canvasses. You know what that means. All data is for Harris County only. First up, the Mayor’s race: Dist Hall Turner Garcia King Costello Bell =================================================== A 1,906 4,587 3,509 6,265 1,522 1,129 B 2,494 15,947 … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Hall sues his former consultant

It’s not really an election season if there isn’t at least one WTF story to make us all shake our heads. Houston mayoral candidate Ben Hall sued his former consultant for defamation Tuesday in connection to a radio advertisement that … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

8 day finance reports: Mayoral candidates

Here’s the story: Adrian Garcia outspent his chief rivals in the Houston mayor’s race over the last month, hoping to hold what polls suggest is his slipping grip on a spot in the likely December runoff. The final round of … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time to get out the vote

A look at the strategies for turning out the vote for various Mayoral campaigns. In the days before Monday’s start to early voting, Houston’s top mayoral campaigns moved to mobilize their volunteer forces, aiming to ensure their supporters make it … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My sense of where things stand right now

Here’s an aggregation of the polls we’ve seen so far: Candidate HAR HRBC KHOU KPRC Avg ======================================== Turner 19 24 19 20 20.50 Garcia 19 14 9 13 13.75 King 10 18 9 14 12.75 Bell 10 11 6 12 … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

KPRC poll: Turner 20, others close together

Yet another poll with Sylvester Turner in the lead. As of Oct. 15, State Representative Sylvester Turner finishes just ahead of the rest of the pack of 13 candidates with 20 percent of the vote; attorney Bill King gets 14 … Continue reading

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Turner’s public agency work

A lot of the attacks in the Mayoral campaign so far have been aimed at Adrian Garcia, in part to knock him out of second place where he is perceived to be, and in part because there’s some real material … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Race and runoffs and Turner

Everyone agrees that Sylvester Turner will be one of the candidates to make it to the runoff for Mayor this year. But what happens then? Yet, to succeed term-limited Mayor Annise Parker, Turner, an African-American, will need to broaden his … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

HRBC poll: Turner 24, King 18

Looks like we’re going to see more polling than usual this cycle. This was sent as a press release from the Bill King campaign, which was kind enough to forward the full poll data to me when I requested it: … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Finally, some coverage on the pension issue

I kid, I kid. Like it or not, HERO or not, it’s what this race has been about. The top candidates for Houston mayor are talking far more about the city’s growing cost of retiree benefits than voters are, which … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

HAR poll

And some more good news here. With less than four weeks to go before the election, the Houston mayoral race remains “fluid,” according to a new poll commissioned by the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR). The poll finds Adrian Garcia … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Get ready for the TV ads to begin

Keep that DVR remote handy, because you’re going to have to start fast-forwarding through Mayoral campaign ads on TV soon. After nearly topping the July fundraising that put this year’s mayor’s race on track to be the most expensive in … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

GOP versus Hall

Pass the popcorn. The Harris County Republican Party released a flyer Monday attacking Houston mayoral candidate Ben Hall for his Democratic ties and previous support for a nondiscrimination ordinance. Among top-tier mayoral candidates, Hall, a Democrat, is the most ardent … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

A broader overview of the Mayor’s race

The TL;dr version of this is basically “meh, not much happening”. With a bevy of candidates and midyear fundraising that collectively topped $7 million, Houston’s 2015 mayoral race has been poised to be a blockbuster. Yet, just five weeks before … Continue reading

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Chron Mayoral profile: Ben Hall

This is the fourth in a series of profiles on the top candidates running for mayor in Houston. His dedication to accomplish whatever he sets out to do – regardless of public reaction – has jumped out for friend and … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Time to guess the Chronicle’s endorsements

We are a bit more than a month out from the start of early voting, and as such we are getting close to the start of Chronicle endorsement season. I know from doing candidate interviews that the Chron has been … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Mayoral debate #1

Who watched? In the first televised debate in the Houston mayor’s race, three of the candidates jockeying to replace Mayor Annise Parker took aim at former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia and the agency’s allegedly low crime clearance rates. The … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Endorsement watch: The score so far

We’ve had a slew of endorsements for municipal races this past week. I’ve been keeping track of them as best I can on my 2015 Election page. This isn’t always easy to do, because some groups are not very good … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Chron looks at Mayoral fundraising

They focus on small-dollar donors. A Houston Chronicle analysis of the top seven candidates’ campaign finance filings covering the first six months of the year shows most businesses and special interest groups are waiting for the race to shape up … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hall for all the haters again

Enjoy the attention while it lasts, dude. Already a staunch opponent of the nondiscrimination law, Hall has become more vocal in the wake of last week’s Texas Supreme Court ruling that City Council must repeal the ordinance, known as HERO, … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hall for all the haters

He is who we thought he was. Houston mayoral candidate Ben Hall said Thursday he signed a petition seeking to define gender identity and prevent men “who perceive or express themselves as women” from entering women’s restrooms because he wants … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Mayoral finance reports: Out of town cash and max donors

You may have noticed that there’s a lot of money in the Mayoral race this year, even after subtracting what the candidates have given or loaned to themselves. You may be wondering where all that money came from. This post … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Mayoral finance reports: PACs and consultants

Let’s take a deeper dive into Mayoral candidate fundraising by examining one of the main categories of raised funds, and one of the main categories of spent funds. I speak of PAC money for the former, and consultant fees/staff salaries … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Finance reports come trickling in

As always, the Mayoral reports lead the story. Former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia closed out the first half of the year with more than $1.3 million in the bank, eclipsing City Councilman Stephen Costello by a mere $7,423. According … Continue reading

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Initial Mayoral fundraising totals

Lotta money being raised out there, though not quite as much as the topline totals say. Former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia was first out of the gate with his figures, announcing Tuesday that he raised $1.5 million since announcing … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Turner and Garcia lead early Mayoral poll

We have our first polling numbers for the 2015 Mayoral election. Sylvester Turner and Adrian Garcia have emerged as the clear front-runners in the first independent poll before the election that will determine Houston’s next mayor. The KHOU – Houston … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

ReBuild Houston and the Mayor’s race

It’s all about the conservative voters, because no one cares what anyone else thinks. When the most conservative candidate in the Houston mayor’s race dropped out two months ago, the battle to win over right-leaning voters became a two-man show: … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Supreme Court deals a blow to ReBuild Houston

Ugh. Houston’s divisive, multibillion-dollar effort to fund two decades of street and drainage improvements faces an uncertain future after the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the ballot measure voters narrowly approved in 2010 obscured the nature and cost of … Continue reading

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