Congrats to Mayor-Elect Sylvester Turner and his team.
Unofficially it was 108,389 to 104,307. They said it would be close and it sure was.
Team Turner did a 4,082 vote job better than us of getting their side out. I know Grant Martin, Sue Davis, and David Mincberg – they are all folks I highly respect. They did their job.
Sylvester is a good guy. I have known him since 1987, right before his first legislative race. I wish him nothing but the best. He is going to have a tough job.
Bill King is a good guy. I have known him since 1994.
He was an asterisk when this thing got started. In fact, when the Chron wrote an article of potential candidates in August of 2014 – Bill was not mentioned.
Bill stuck to his message and drove a large part of the mayoral campaign debate.
Here is from the Chron E-Board today:
The former Kemah mayor and Chronicle columnist also set the tone of the campaign conversation with his emphasis on city basics and his warnings about the city’s unsustainable pension obligations.
We just came up short in vote department.
We had a great diverse team led by my longtime friend Robert Jara. I enjoyed working with my old friend Sue Walden and her son Danny. It was also pleasure working with GOP consultants Jessica Colon, Sarah Tropoli, Jim McGrath, and Chris Begala – these folks are pros.
Basya Benshushan. Kelly Randall, Julia McGowen, Chris Watson, Robin Glover, Phil Kuneta, and Nick Reed all did a heck of a job.
Our Finance Chair James Calaway and Campaign Treasurer and my dear friend Paula Arnold were outstanding.
I am going to leave the analysis to others. I will say that my precinct – Reagan High – went 481 for Bill and 514 for Sylvester. The Hipstrict, City Council District C, went for Bill. So I guess that makes Bill the Hipstricter. I wonder what Council Member Ellen Cohen thinks of that?
I don’t have a problem with pundits and observers saying Sylvester ran a great or good or better campaign, after all, they got scoreboard. But they can’t say we ran a bad or lousy campaign. Not if you look at where we came from and where we ended up.
Here is from today’s E-Board:
In what turned out to be the closest mayoral race in modern times, businessman Bill King came within a few thousand votes of an upset by relying on what one analyst called “a skillful and almost flawless” campaign, …
On a final note, once the final boxes were in and we didn’t make it, Bill immediately placed a call to Sylvester to concede and congratulate him because that is what you have to do. That is part of the business.
It was close.
Who was the first overall pick of the 2013 MLB Draft?
What about Karla Cisneros! (My client and very good friend.)
I personally saw her grow into a great candidate. She worked very, very hard and stayed focused.
She went door-to-door-to-door-to-door-to-door.
When we started the race back on May 31, we knew we had to be strategic and smart. In Round 1, we knew it was going to be tough to get any of the interest group endorsements but we still filled out the countless questionnaires, went to screenings, and attended the endorsement meetings, and got shut out.
We looked at the map and did the math. We embarked on a strategy of her personally walking and going door-to-door in precincts where she could be most effective. She did that all summer and right up through the day before early voting began in October.
We made a point of not tweeting when and where we were walking. There were no tweets of Karla engaging voters on Bayland or 33rd Streets. Why let the opposition know what you are doing?
The endorsement of HISD Trustee Anna Eastman was major. The Chron E-Board endorsement was huge and landed at just about the right time.
In Round 2, getting the GLBT and Fire Fighters was very important.
I looked at the precinct results yesterday and Karla won the areas she walked by roughly a two to one margin.
Karla is the real deal and District H voters responded to her message.
In her home precinct in Woodland Heights, she bested her opponent 408 to 97. In his home precinct in Lindale/Northside, he won 265 to 189.
Not bad considering she was outraised in the money department and outspent.
She won by 972 votes out of 9,998 cast.
Nice job Karla! Now Karla gets to represent District H for the next four years.
Let me also say that the Chron gets a shout out from me for upping their local campaign coverage this go around. Nice job Rebecca Elliott, Mike Morris, Katherine Driessen and the rest of the crew.
Now today’s focus is who files in the party primaries. ‘tis the season!
Mark Appel of course was the Number 1 draft pick in 2013 and by the way we selected him and just traded him this past weekend in the Ken Giles deal.
Camposcommunications' Blog 