My Mail Ballot
Yesterday, the Chron E-Board endorsed Joaquin Martinez for H-Town City Council, District I.
I received my mail ballot yesterday. It is five pages long. I filled it out and took it to the post office yesterday afternoon. When you vote by mail, you can go online and find info on the 14 state constitutional amendments to help make my decision on how I will vote.
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The Hobby School of Public Affairs poll was released yesterday. Here is from the poll:
With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the November 7, 2023 Houston mayoral election is effectively a two-candidate race between Texas State Senator John Whitmire and U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. In November, 34% of likely voters intend to cast a ballot for Whitmire and 31% for Jackson Lee. One in five (22%) likely voters is undecided and 13% intend to vote for one of 15 other candidates: The remaining 15 candidates have a November vote intention ranging from 4% to 0%: Gilbert Garcia (4%), Jack Christie (4%), Lee Kaplan (2%), Robert Gallegos (1%) and MJ Khan (1%), with each of the remaining candidates having support of less than 0.4%.
Among the undecided voters (22% of likely voters):
62% indicated they definitely or might consider voting for Whitmire, while 16% said they would never vote for Whitmire.
36% indicated they definitely or might consider voting for Jackson Lee, while 53% said they would never vote for Jackson Lee.
30% indicated they definitely or might consider voting for Garcia, while 8% said they would never vote for Garcia.
And this:
In a December mayoral runoff election between Whitmire and Jackson Lee, Whitmire’s vote intention is 50%, well ahead of Jackson Lee’s at 36%.
One in ten (9%) likely voters remains undecided in a Whitmire-Jackson Lee runoff, while 5% report they would not vote in the runoff if these were the two candidates.
43% of likely voters indicate they would never vote for Jackson Lee, compared to 15% who say they would never vote for Whitmire.
51% of likely voters hold an unfavorable opinion of Jackson Lee (41% very unfavorable), compared to 24% who hold an unfavorable opinion of Whitmire (13% very unfavorable).
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KPRC-TV Channel 2, Telemundo, ¡Que Onda! Magazine and The League of Women Voters had a televised debate last night and here is part of the coverage from today’s Chron:
Everybody on stage at one point took aim at (State Sen. John) Whitmire, whose war chest and polling advantage have made him the campaign’s front-runner.
(Cong Sheila) Jackson Lee hit him on campaign financing, pointing out that he sold $2.8 million of stocks in his campaign account to get more cash for the final stretch.
(MJ) Khan criticized his plan to bring 200 Department of Public Safety troopers to buttress Houston police, and he cited a 2013 article about Whitmire’s conflicts of interest during his legislative career.
And (Lee) Kaplan accused him of “carrying water for” the firefighters’ union, which has been locked in a contract stalemate with City Hall for more than six years.
Though Whitmire did not engage with most of these attacks directly, he alluded to the atmosphere in his closing remarks.
“What you’re witnessing tonight is candidates that have been advised by their political consultants that tonight you have to attack Whitmire,” he said. “I would much rather, and I know I’m speaking for Houstonians, talk about the great city we live in, the great people, but the expectations at City Hall are not being met.”
Yep. I watched it. They all ganged up on The Dean. He handled it the best he could.
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Congrats to the Rangers for making it to the ALCS.
We had a 9-1 win last night thanks to Christian Javier’s pitching and dingers from Jose Abreau, Yordan Alvarez, and Alex Bregman. We play at 6 pm this evening.
