Maybe I need to start another thread for this, but it wouldn't get much traffic anyway. Aside from voting on the mayor, there's going to be 14 constitutional amendments to vote for. I hate this practice of having ballot measures because what passes largely depends on what wording is presented to the electorate. We won't be shown the actual amendment in the ballot box, just a summary of the proposal. So, if you don't read ahead of time, you won't really know what you're voting on. Anyway, here's a quick summary of the 14 ballot measures that are up for a vote: What you need to know about Texas’ Nov. 7 constitutional amendment election | The Texas Tribune. What I find most interesting among them are #4, which raises the non-taxable threshold for real estate from the first $40k to the first $100k (and shifts school funding's reliance from property taxes more toward the general fund); and #6, which creates a fund to make capital improvements in our water distribution infrastructure.
I love how that recording is shocking people. That recording was a normal day in the office. I remember the first time I ever had to answer the phone in the office in downtown. I was warned that I had to be able to recognize her voice and greet her in a very specific way and if I failed to recognize her and greet her, I'd get a response very similar to the one in the recording. She yelled at me a few times (although I think my experiences were milder but I remember getting a few F bombs thrown my way). I remember another time where a staffer organized some files or paperwork for her and she decided that it wasn't organized properly and just threw the whole thing on the ground and walked out. And the worst part is that she does all of this and no one blinks. This was all just expected and considered to be part of the job. There are hundreds of former staffers out there and they all have stories. I literally worked three months there and saw this stuff constantly. I can't imagine what the people who worked multiple years at her Houston or DC offices saw.
After hearing this - i regret to tell you that this development is ... Absolutely ****in hilarious Like something from the show VEEP. Sheila Lee 23
No opinion on the veracity of the criticism of Lee as a boss. But I recall similar allegations about Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. Is it something about being a woman that makes them vulnerable to this sort of criticism?
Wait, the Houston mayoral race is on November 7th? I knew about the 14 amendments and my local ISD election, but I wasn't even aware of this race. I thought it was in 2014 for some reason. Also, my sample ballot did not include it! Maybe they consider me outside of Houston. Damn. absolutely should read ahead- you can get your sampel ballot here: What's on my Ballot? (harrisvotes.com) p.s. I never cared much about local ISD elections until now. I received a mailer from the Republican Party telling me how divisive and extremist the liberal candidates running for the local school district are, claiming that they are 'indoctrinating children as young as kindergarten.' The mailer encouraged me to vote for conservative candidates who are focused on education standards rather than political ideologies. Political nastiness has reached the local ISD election level. Of course, I happen to personally know some of these people, and that mailer has convinced me to vote against all the candidates endorsed by the GOP in that mailer.
If that recording is verified than it's really extreme. Edit: Lee is known as the worst Congressmen and Klobuchar as the worst Senator https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/worst-bosses-congress-476729 I agree that women are judged by a different standard but Lee seems pretty bad. What could a gut do worse than that tape?
Maybe, but what male politician comes to mind for being abusive to his employees? I've 3 women's names but can't think of any men. It probably sucks to work for Trump, but I don't even hear that one.
@JuanValdez Honestly Lee is the only person I've ever heard about. I honestly don't remember anything about Harris in terms of media coverage. That being said googling it seems that Harris staff turnover was an issue. I'll definitely say that being a bad boss does play into some negative stereotypes of black women. I will agree that it doesn't seem to be any men nationally known as bad bosses but Lee seems on another level and the Harris issues have come to light as vice president so you have to take that into consideration
@pgabriel, not really about the mayoral race for me. More curious of the dynamic of misogyny in politics. But then, of course, if it is a charge that is only cast or gains traction because of misogyny, should I even care that she abused her staff? Maybe Whitmire is doing it too and no one will say so.
Oh 100% its sexism. I can attest to this personally. There are lots of male members in the House and Senate that are equally terrible personalities. And it was always easy to figure out. There are certain members that seem to constantly rotate through staff members (including chiefs of staff) and there were others that seemingly never had job openings. You can very clearly tell who the problems were. But we never hear about the male members that behave poorly. But there are plenty of them. And when the stories come out, people don't seem to care about it.
Like I said there is definitely some negative bias involved especially for black female politicians. In the case of Lee in particular I think this would be bad for any politician that a recording of this nature would surface and any politician would suffer from a bad reputation. Again I don't remember the Kamala Harris stories as far as how much of a news item it was. I don't disagree that it is somewhat misogynistic, I'm sure there are plenty of male politicians with bad reputations but in the cases of Lee and Klobuchar they are known as the worst. It's human nature. Black politicians have to avoid playing into negative stereotypes and certainly female politicians also. Democrats in general have to avoid looking weak but that's a little different Side note: I'm really surprised in particular about Klobuchar because she really doesn't appear to be like that and I'm sure her being a woman plays into my impression of her
Been reading more about the coming ballot. More stuff for Houstonians aside from mayor and the state props. Houston has 2 ballot measures. The first would somewhat empower the City Council by allowing them to put an item on the agenda if 3 council members want it. Right now, the mayor sets the agenda. Not sure how I feel about that one. The second would require that Houston insist on population-weighted representation in regional organizations (this is aimed at the Houston-Galveston Area Council) or we'd quit. Five years ago, that sentence would make my eyes glaze over, but I've had more acquaintance with HGAC recently. I can understand how Houston can feel like it should dominate HGAC, but I think that's a mistake. It'd go from a useful tool for regional planning into a political football that won't accomplish anything. Harris County has one measure, a bond issue to improve public hospitals. There are the 5 at-large city council seats, and the local city council seat to vote for as well. And, aside from mayor, there's an open race for controller as well. And the more I hear from John Whitmire, the less I like him. Sheila Jackson Lee also isn't right -- I'm dubious that she can shift her focus down to the minutia of running a city, and besides, it'd paint a huge target on our backs. If I vote for her, it'd just be a middle finger at Greg Abbott (whereas, I suspect Abbott will be downright pleased by the election of Whitmire).
Well we should be voting for major based on what accomplishments they will bring to the city not their race or gender. We don’t want Houston to be Chicago I’m not going to say Turner is horrible , he’s ok, but he’s a billion times better than the last two Chicago mayors. plus I know Turner is a pure Rockets fan whitmire should win if he promises better services, roads and decreasing crime cause crime is way up @ROXRAN @Salvy
A couple of helpful resources, I thought, to inform the mayoral vote. This is a report from a fellow at Rice's policy think tank, the Baker Institute. It gives a good picture of the financial struggles the city is facing. Here is the exec summary (and a link to the report): State of the City’s Finances – A Deep Dive into the Fiscal Issues Facing the City | Baker Institute To be fair to the media, they have been asking candidates the right questions to address the concerns outlined in the above link. I liked this article on the last debate because instead of providing a transcript, it just does a blow-by-blow narrative of what they talked about:
Mayor race will probably go to runoff like usual in this city. Every proposition usually passes. Nobody votes today either, but happy voting.
