Just when you think it's safe to pay attention, the campaigns for next year's Houston municipal elections are already starting to heat up. This is despite the fact that (officially) candidates cannot raise money (yet).
The early front-runner for most ridiculous campaign ads goes to Mayoral candidate Ben Hall's "The Harrison's" ads. More bitter than insightful they seem to suggest that, instead of just losing to a popular incumbent, Hall really is that inept of a campaigner.
Perhaps the most critical race in 2015 for Houston is going to be the race for City Controller. I've got pretty strong feelings about who the best candidate is in this race and I think, if Houston votes the wrong way, there are going to be fairly large repercussions in the near future.
Looking outside of Houston for a minute. Leticia Van de Putte proves that success in politics is largely dependent on your ability to lie and then pivot without a hint of remorse or irony. It also helps to have a doting group of unquestioning supporters who don't care that you said "under no circumstances" would you run for San Antonio Mayor as recently as July.
Speaking of politics, Paul Bettencourt has been elected as the State Senator for my home district. When we last saw Mr. Bettencourt in the public sector he was resigning less than halfway through his term as Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector to start a private business which took advantage of the tax appraisal creep issue that he, and current Lt. Gov elect Dan Patrick railed against for years. Once Mr. Bettencourt started his business most of that angry rhetoric against appraisal tax creep went away.
I can't help but wonder if Mr. Bettencourt has promised to not resign again should there be an opportunity to make some money on whatever his pet issues are this time?
Unfortunately he had no opposition to speak of, and his campaign was barely covered by the local media, so these questions were never asked.
