Bold Talk and Four Days

Here is from a Texas Tribune story today on the race for H-Town Mayor:

“For me, it doesn’t matter who’s in second or third,” (State Rep. Sylvester) Turner said after shaking hands at a retirement community on the city’s southwest side. “My deal is on November the third, I want to make sure that we’re No. 1 and that No. 2 is so far behind that it really doesn’t matter.”

That is pretty bold talk if you ask me. I am sure it does matter to his campaign folks who is in second. Yeah, yeah, the political observers are agreeing that he has pretty much wrapped up one of the runoff slots, but nobody is really talking about who will be in a Sylvester administration.

We still have a long way to go.

Here is more from the Trib on the mayoral contest:

At the same time, (Adrian) Garcia has faced more scrutiny of his time as Harris County’s top lawman. His rivals have taken aim at a drop in crime clearance rates under his leadership, as well as how he handled the 2013 mistreatment of a mentally ill inmate. Former congressman Chris Bell, a Democrat, has taken the lead in raising those questions.

(Garcia campaign spokeswoman Annalee) Gulley admitted September was “kind of a tough month” but maintained Garcia had a target on his back as a frontrunner. People outside the campaign offer blunter assessments of how he dealt with a series of unflattering stories about his record as sheriff.

“No question, he simply failed to respond to this, and voters penalized him accordingly,” said Bob Stein, a Rice University political scientist who predicted last week that Garcia would continue to be haunted by the slide through Election Day. “At this moment, I’m expecting to see a runoff between Bill King and Sylvester Turner.”

Analysts say the softening of Garcia’s support has made the home stretch even more critical for him, putting him in the position of having to re-galvanize a predominantly Hispanic base that has grown a bit weary after all the attacks. On a conference call Sunday, Garcia implored supporters to prove wrong the naysayers, warning that “there are people out there who are counting on the Latino community not showing up to the polls.”

I think more Latinos are showing up to vote. But so are a lot of other folks.

Here is the Texas Tribune story: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/27/houston-mayoral-race/.

Name the player who has drawn the most career World Serious walks? Hint: He is in the Hall of Fame and no longer with us.

This past June I had lunch with a highly respected player and he described a pathway on how Bill King gets into a runoff. I ran in to him last night and he was quick to remind me about our June conversation. Look, we are a long way from next Tuesday but Bill is certainly a topic of conversation.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the Steve Costello campaign went negative on Bill in a mailer yesterday.

Early Voting locations continue to surpass 2013 totals as we can now add Moody Park, Acres Homes and Octavia to the list.

Mickey Mantle of course leads in career World Serious walks with 43.

The World Serious gets underway this evening and yesterday the AL players voted Carlos Correa the Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year. Nice!