The H-Town Latino Political Community spoke in different tongues today regarding filling the HISD District VIII Trustee position. The Hispanic Chamber wanted an immediate appointment. A dozen Latino local elected officials wanted an election. LULAC wanted the appointment of Judith Cruz. The HISD Board opted to go with an election. A few Latino leaders addressed the board today and threw around the old stand-by phrase – “patron politics.” Filing deadline is Monday.
I saw a copy of the letter from the Latino elected officials. The letter said “the Board should follow Diana Davila’s suggestion for calling a special election.” I like Diana but she’s the last person we ought to listen to on this since her resignation caused us to go through this process in the first place.
It is definitely interesting. Of the seven votes that wanted to put the Term Limits Review Commission’s recommendation before the voters, three were Dems (Mayor Parker, CMs Adams and Johnson), and four were GOPers (CMs Stardig, Sullivan, Hoang, and Pennington). Of the seven votes that voted against putting the recommendation on the ballot, five were Dems (CMs Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Lovell, Noriega, and Bradford) and two were GOPers (CMs Clutterbuck and Costello). The recommendation included scrapping the current three two-year terms and replacing with two four-year terms with a kind of phase in that would have allowed for first termers possibly serving ten years, second termers possibly serving eight years, and third termers not getting jack.
I kind of think that I raised some points during this process that had an impact in yesterday’s decision like the lack of grassroots support for making term limits changes. Where is the campaign to convince voters? How is it going to impact the other stuff like Renew Houston?
Of course, I fully expect all the other political consultants and political fundraisers that do City of H-Town political campaigns to send me a case of St. Arnold Amber, a nice bottle of red wine, or a gift certificate to a nice restaurant near Commentary’s ‘hood for saving their city campaign gigs that they get every other year. If it wasn’t for my contributions during this process, their city gigs would only come around once every four years.
“Stros third baseman Chris Johnson’s bat has cooled down the past three games. He’s now hitting .346. He was drafted by the ‘Stros in the fourth round of the 2006 MLB Amateur Player Draft. What two current MLBers that were drafted in the first round of the 2006 draft have started in MLB All-Star Games?
The anti red light camera folks think they have enough signatures to get their item on the ballot here in H-Town. In today’s Chron, one of the columnists has a piece on the upcoming campaign. Check it out. It’s about money, money, money!
Friends of Walmart dropped me a mailer yesterday about how neat their new mega-center is going to be. They are talking about the one right down the street. I wonder if any of my buddies are part of Friends of Walmart.
Rays third baseman Evan Longoria and Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum of course were drafted in the first round of the 2006 draft and have started in All Star Games. If Chris Johnson can keep hitting .346, who knows?
Commentary came out of a slump last night and finally snagged my first foul ball of the season.
That 14 inning game last night kept me up late. We should have won it in the 13th. Let’s see if we can even up the series with the Mets tonight.
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