Houston City Council Special Election - Candidates Step Up

The Melissa Noriega campaign for Houston City Council At-Large Position 3 is proceeding apace. I missed seeing her speak at a recent meeting of the Fort Bend Democratic Party – I had a test to write.

Well anyway, campaigns are very expensive and I was wondering about how the competition is doing raising and spending money.

There is almost no information on this.

This is mainly because the 1st campaign report filing period, which ended on January 15th, is optional. Nevertheless, I noticed that two of Melissa’s opponents went ahead and made their campaign finances public anyway.

Here is Noel Freeman’s campaign report: It lists a total of $0 campaign contributions, and $17.90 in expenditures.

Not even in office and Mr. Freeman is into deficit spending.

The purchase? Two months of website hosting on Yahoo.

I’ve seen the site. It’s fairly barebones. The experience page is enlightening. He worked for the NSA as an Intelligence Analyst. You can’t read his emails, but he probably read yours.

The other candidate who performed a filing is Andy Neill. Or should we say Troy Andrew Neill. What is it about these people who go by their middle names? His campaign report is truly a study. Total campaign contributions: $0. Total expenditures: $0.

Are you starting to think that these two guys didn’t know that this was an optional thing? I am.

He obviously paid for his website hosting after January 15th. Neill’s website has a photo of himself clutching two African American women, and an image of the ace of diamonds. Ace of Diamonds? What's with that? Oh, that's right, in my earlier mention of Neill, I suggested that he had recently become entranced with Las Vegas. By way of explanation, the link I provided had this text:

"He sent out an email a few days ago talking about a trip to Vegas he recently took – it includes a photo of him with a Playboy Bunny at the Vegas Playboy Club – cringe! He says it’s a cool place and encourages folks to visit the club."

Playboy Club? Bunnies?

I read his website – his campaign issues. I was interested in his three big issues, homelessness, violent crime, and the 40% HISD dropout rate. Now I know what Melissa is going to do about the HISD dropout rate, promote city projects that gives kids alternatives to gangs and all the other bad stuff that contribute to dropout rates. I was kind of wondering what Neill thought he could do about those numbers as the City Council has no purview over HISD.

What happening with the others?

David Goldberg, the high school student, robbed the piggybank to pay for his website. A single page that has no links and none of the buttons work. He has to get 900 signatures in lieu of the $500 filing fee. That’s a good strategy. Considering the low projected voter turnout for this election, 900 votes is probably what the winner is going to garner.

Tom Nixon is the fired HPD police officer who bad-mouthed his superiors on a TV camera. Nixon has a website. It features a photograph of himself in his old uniform. He probably has the disgruntled former HPD officer vote.

Kendall Baker has no campaign website, but he has a website at the church at which he is a pastor. Apparently being a pastor at the church doesn’t pay all the bills because he also works in the city bureaucracy.

Ivan Meyers has a website – he seems like a nice guy for a Yankee.

Roy Morales has a website and the buttons work. You’ve got to like this guy. He has a virtual galaxy of supporters:

Robert “Mad Dog” Talton
Talmadge Heflin (beat twice now by Hubert Vo)
Martha Wong (sent home by Ellen Cohen)
A bunch of former Republican Party Chairmen
A bunch of Republican precinct chairs.

Who will emerge a Melissa’s major rival in this campaign? My DeLay Dollars are on Morales.