Compliance

After former H-Town City Council Member Letitia Plummer became the nominee of the Harris County Democratic Party for Harris County Judge, someone asked me about her potential vulnerabilities. I replied that she doesn’t file her campaign expenditures and contributions reports on time. It is called compliance issues.

Campaign compliance is the dos and don’ts of campaigns contributions and spending. See this from the Chron:

A complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission accuses Letitia Plummer, the Democratic nominee for Harris County judge, of seven campaign finance violations, including improperly paying a family member, according to a document obtained by the Houston Chronicle. 

It’s unclear who submitted the complaint, but it comes as Plummer and her opponent, Republican Orlando Sanchez, have begun campaigning in earnest ahead of the hotly contested November election. 

The document also accused Plummer of accepting illegal contributions from corporations, failing to properly disclose payments made to her dentistry practice and several other procedural and accounting discrepancies. Plummer often filed her campaign finance reports late leading into the primary elections this spring.

Plummer said in a statement that her team was aware of the complaint and has been in contact with the Texas Ethics Commission.

“We are doing a full review,” Plummer said. “We will be ensuring compliance with campaign finance regulations and amend any public reporting if necessary.”

The allegations, which have not been sustained, are based on figures Plummer reported July 15, which spanned May 17 through June 30. 

Here is the entire Chron read: Letitia Plummer accused of seven campaign finance violations.

If a candidate is not filing their campaign contributions and expenditures reports on time, chances are you are having other compliance issues. This is sloppy pure and simple.

If you are going to run for a high-profile position like Harris County Judge, you need to have your campaign compliance ducks in a row. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to go through campaign contributions and expenditures reports to find errors, mistakes, and screw-ups.

Hopefully, the Plummer campaign can bring on compliance experts to help her get through this issue.

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Chron music critic Joey Guerra has a review of the World Cup halftime show. Here is how the review starts:

In just 11 minutes, the World Cup halftime show paraded out a quartet of pop stars, a few Muppets and a kid chorus — and none of it made much impact.

Instead of a Super Bowl-size spectacle, it felt like switching radio stations during rush hour on 610 by the Galleria. Just as you start to catch a groove, someone hits the seek button, and there’s never any real payoff.

Madonna’s “Music” was just getting going when it switched to a few seconds of Animal, Janice and Dr. Teeth of The Muppets playing “7 Nation Army.” That we got just a tease of Madonna’s “Danceteria” made it more frustrating.

Then BTS. Then an acoustic Justin Bieber, for some reason. Then Shakira’s newest World Cup anthem. None of it felt connected or cohesive.

In trying to be everything to everyone, it ended up a whole lot of nothing. Sure, they all sounded fine. But the lineup was suffocated by its own overstuffed marquee. And that Coldplay kid chorus finale was just corny. Sorry, not sorry.

Here is the entire review: The World Cup final halftime show could have used more Madonna.

I can’t add anything else. See the featured photo.

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The Astros have 60 games remaining on the schedule. We are three and a half games back in the AL West. We still have a shot. Don’t lose interest, please.

You can also root for Yordan Alvarez. If the season were to end today, Yordan would win the AL Triple Crown – a rarity.  To be a Triple Crown winner in batting, you need to lead the league in dingers, RBIs, and batting average. It has only been accomplished four times in my lifetime. Mickey Mantle in 1956, Frank Robinson in 1966, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, and Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

Jeremy Peña had a grand slam last night and Yordan had a couple of dingers as the team got back to winning a game. It is Dollar Dog Night this evening.