In Teddy Schleifer’s piece about the H-Town Mayor considering running for a higher office he mentioned that the Mayor might endorse a candidate in the upcoming Mayoral contest. Don’t expect an endorsement anytime soon though. Here are a couple of lines from Teddy’s piece:
Mayor Annise Parker left open the idea on Sunday that she would endorse one of the dozen candidates positioning to possibly succeed her, though she said she hoped to avoid doing that early in the race.
“I don’t know that I will endorse. I will stay out of it as long as I can possibly do that,” Parker said in an interview on KPRC’s “Newsmakers” on Sunday morning. “I cannot get involved in the campaigns.
For City Hall observers, it is going to be interesting to see if the Mayor can exercise patience during the race to succeed her. Over the next few months a few of her accomplishments, policies, and positions will surely be discussed, praised, scrutinized, criticized, and even lambasted. Will she just ignore the campaign rhetoric and babble or regularly weigh in?
Council Members Stephen Costello and Oliver Pennington are expected to make the race so I don’t see the Mayor endorsing either of them before a runoff because an endorsement would p-__-off some in the Mayor’s base – hard core Dems.
I would not expect her to endorse any of the non-Council Members anytime soon. She couldn’t afford to stick a knife into the back of her Budget Committee Chair – Costello – as the budget process approaches. An endorsement of a non-Council Member would also create a bit of unneeded friction and opposition from CMs Costello and Pennington on remaining projects that the Mayor might want to get though Council in her last year in office.
A Mayoral endorsement doesn’t come without a price for the so-called lucky endorsee. All the folks that don’t like the Mayor could get fired up and come out and oppose the Mayor’s endorsed candidate. Remember, the best the Mayor has ever scored in her three Mayoral runs is 57.22% of the vote.
There is also a downside to the Mayor coming out and endorsing a candidate. If the Mayor’s candidate loses, the Mayor’s legacy is somewhat tarnished on her way out office and you never want to leave office with your last political act being rejected by the voters.
So all in all, I don’t expect a Mayoral endorsement being a part of the Mayoral campaign landscape until maybe after November 3.
When B-G-O gets a call from the Hall this afternoon, he will be the first to make the MLB Hall of Fame from the MLB Draft Class of what year?
This is going to be a great day in H-Town history. At 1 pm today I will be watching the MLB network. I have got nothing but great karma in place right now as I am wearing my Baseball Hall of Fame pullover.
B-G-O will be the first MLB Hall of Fame member from the 1987 MLB Draft Class of course.
I am sure all the local media will be parked in front of the B-G-O statue at The Yard today.
Camposcommunications' Blog 