Commentary tweeted this last night:
Marc Campos @MarcCommentary • 11h 11 hours ago
Just heard a H-Town mayoral candidate is conducting a survey tonight. #HouNews #Election2015
Commentary learned last night that in the week before Christmas a Mayoral candidate was conducting a survey of H-Town voters.
In the horse race they included the Harris County Sheriff, Ben Hall, Bill King, Council Members Oliver Pennington and Stephen Costello, State Rep. Sylvester Turner, and Chris Bell.
Some of the stuff they asked about are what qualities do you want in your next Mayor: Lifelong Houstonian, knows about pensions, worked on a gang task force, and experience in growing the economy.
Apparently, the interviewer revealed that pensions and roads/transportation were getting the most love from the voters that were participating in the survey.
I sure hope the following from H-Town City Hall is just a failure in communications. It is about the Valero deal and Council Member Robert Gallegos claiming the Mayor threw him under the bus. This isn’t characteristic of the Mayor. Here is a bit from the Chron:
(THIS IS FROM CHRON.COM) Asked about community concerns, Mayor Annise Parker quickly noted that Valero informed Gallegos of the deal months ago.
(THIS IS FROM TODAY’S HARD COPY) Asked about community concerns, Mayor Annise Parker promptly – as Gallegos put it – threw the councilman under the bus.
“Valero contacted the district council member in August, they met with the district council member in September, they met with the district council member in October. I do not know why the district council member chose not to hold public meetings,” she said. “The idea that it was completely under the radar is not accurate.”
Gallegos said after the meeting that he was “disappointed” in the mayor’s comments, noting Icken’s staff had been negotiating the deal for a year and a half, long before he joined the council last January. Gallegos said he did not organize community meetings because Valero officials assured him they had cleared their plans with neighbors.
“I asked had they gone out to the community and notified the community, and they said yes,” Gallegos said. “That’s what brought my concern, is that according to the individuals that came to public session yesterday, they said they were not aware of this.”
I would actually say she threw him under the bus and then ran over him – OUCH!
Name the first Black Cuban to play in MLB?
Just when I mentioned things were slowing down the week before Christmas Eve the President went out and announced he was moving to normalize relations with Cuba. It is about time!
Here is how the Chron E-Board led off today’s take:
President Barack Obama’s dramatic, potentially historic move to end America’s half-century-old stalemate with Cuba is both wise and welcome, and we hope it ends with a lifting of the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against the island and full normalization of relations between the old Cold War foes.
Here is the entire Chron take: http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/A-historic-shift-5964187.php.
You have to figure the issue will get some major run in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries. Here is from Reuters:
Former Florida Governor – and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate – Jeb Bush was cited by USA Today as saying, “I don’t think we should be negotiating with a repressive regime to make changes in our relationship.”
Although a growing number of U.S. lawmakers favor more normal ties, those lawmakers are still mostly Democrats, and after big midterm election gains in November, Republicans will control both houses of Congress in the new year.
Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American Republican, said he would use his role as incoming chairman of a key Senate Foreign Relations Committee to try to block the plan and was committed to doing all he could to “unravel” it.
And:
Americans are largely open to establishing diplomatic relations with the Cuban government, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll of more than 31,000 adults conducted between July and October.
Around one-fifth said they opposed such a move, while 43 percent said the United States should restore relations with Cuba and around 37 percent said they were unsure.
This will certainly be part of the President’s legacy. What a gutsy move! Nice job!
On a related note, Commentary is interested in how this might impact MLB.
I don’t know what to say about North Korea getting into the movie critic business. I am just absolutely stunned that a Seth Rogen flick nearly shut down our nation’s movie theaters.
I tweeted this last night:
Marc Campos @MarcCommentary • 13h 13 hours ago
How about a #WhiteHouse screeing of #TheInterview?
Of course, that is not going to happen.
In 1949, Minnie Minoso of course became the first Black Cuban in MLB when he took the field with Cleveland.
The ‘Stros said they will continue to be on 790 AM.
Camposcommunications' Blog 