According to KTRK news tonight, Joe Roach has announced his candidacy to be the next mayor of Houston. I think that he has what Lee Brown lacks...leadership and vision. I will see if I can work on his campaign when it gets rolling. Many of you may not like Mr. Roach. I do NOT want this to be a thread debating Mr. Roach's qualifications. I just want your initial reactions to his candidacy (good or bad).
Yes he is Rocketman. He is the only person with dwarfism to serve on Houston City Council. He did an admirable job. As you can probably tell I am very excited that he is running.
No controversy I know of. Recently he has been a legal analyst for KTRK. He hasn't been in the public eye much since being term limited out of City Council.
I was just talking about him with my sister. I went to high school with the Joey. Always bright, mature, reliable and honest...even in high school. He would be great for Houston.
Mr. Roach is all of the things that you said. He is also a very likeable guy. when he was in City Council, a friend of mine had lunch with him regularly. My friend...a staunch Democrat. Maybe with Mr. Roach as mayor, we can get the infrastructure built that we so sorely need. Too bad it wouldn't be in enough time to bid for the Olympics.
Why not? You brought it up! Personally, I don't think Roach is a bad guy. Seems like a farily decent person and he's been a good politician overall but I don't care for a lot of his policies. I remember him fighting for the Westside Airport in Austin in front of the state congress, which was a disaster both financially and environmentally. Glad he lost that battle. But, for his candidacy, I don't know that he is going to have a successful run. He will automatically be the strongest of the Republican candidates, but there really isn't a clear frontrunner at this point. Michael Berry and Orlando Sanchez are the GOP candidates. Berry has almost no chance. He is an EXTREME newcomer. He's barely into his first term as councilman and knows very little about politics locally. Sanchez came close to beating Brown because he had national GOP money behind him and a really wierd Brown campaign on the other side (I know this one FIRST hand! ). But Sanchez is way too odd and right wing to get enough votes. Roach has a VERY good chance to emerge in a runoff. Sylvester Turner and Bill White (the Texas Democratic Chair) are the Dems on the ballot. Turner has almost unanimous support in the African American community and is trying to avenge his failed bid back in the mid 90's after that notroious channel 13 story that came out the day before the election. Most analysts believe that story won Lanier the election. He lost his lawsuit against KTRK on appeal, but that one smelled rotten. White may have the best chance of the bunch. He has solid political experience, really good financial backing and the ability to win over Dems across the board from the Montrose to Acres Homes. The biggest news in this campaign was the fact that Ned Holmes decided not to run. That's why we're seeing so many candidates run. Holmes probably could have walked off with the election, but he stayed out. Houston still is a Democratic city. Gore carried Houston and so did Clinton. If you add Harris County, we become predominantly Republican. The key for Dems is their ability to mobilize the minority communities. The GOP here has money but they focus most of their attention on the suburbs and big advertising than they do inside the loop and on the streets and that has caused them some problems in recent years. Brown literally walked off with the election last year when he mobilized a HUGE street operation the last days before the election. I still have pictures of all the damn vans they rented (a couple hundred) for their street campaign. It will be a very interesting race. Local politics can be crazy and I've been fortunate to get to know many of the local consultants and people involved in campaigns during the past few years. No matter who runs, I plan on getting some web work out of at least one of the candidates.
As an aside, I'm not sold on anyone. I know right now I wouldn't vote for Berry or Sanchez and I probably won't be a Turner supporter (unless he's paying me just kidding ). But, I'm open to seeing who out of White and Roach proposes the best city solutions. It's still a long ways off.
Berry is listed as a Republican on the Harris County GOP site. He is big buddies with the two Mark's (Ellis and Goldberg), both no-doubt Republicans. Sanchez is extremely conservative and definitely a Repblican. GOP does equal Republican. Did you think one of them was a Dem?
Jeff-- I agree that Houston proper has been carried by Dems recently. What is going to be interesting is whether that will change given all the recent redevelopment and young conservative businesspeople leaving the suburbs to move into town, where they will not have an ungodly commute everyday (apologies to MadMax ) It is no surprise to know that most of the GOP rank and file faithful are in the higher socioeconomic categories. Up until recently, the majority of that demographic lived in suburban HArris County. Times they are a changin'. As always I appreciate your comments. You sure do know your stuff fella. Either that or you're making it all up.
i just don't see this, refman....the city is liberal...the city will always be liberal. harris county will remain conservative. as long as the public school options in the city are limited, conservatives ain't moving in there in the droves I think that you think they will. it's young adults who are moving into the city....when they get married...and, more importantly for this discussion, when they have kids...they're moving out to the suburbs. i don't see that changing...it's like that in virtually every city in this country. i don't see it as conservative businesspeople filling up the inner city...sorry, i just don't see it. i know we've debated that point before. i don't get to vote for mayor next year because i'll be a katy resident...but if i could, i could see me voting for Roach. I always admired the guy. He's a heck of a lawyer, from my understanding. My mom served on a jury in a case he prosecuted and she said he was an outstanding orator.
Refman: I just happen to know quite a few people in the local political arena. It started with my previous next door neighbor who was the treasurer for the Harris County Dems and then all the arena stuff and the Brown campaign, etc. I think Max is right. Houston is predominantly liberal and that isn't really going to change anytime soon. It isn't that the city has been Democratic "recently." Actually, it has only recently shown any signs of conservativism at all. The county is dominated by Republican candidates, particularly conservative one's since the Hotze clan began to take over the local GOP back in the late 80's with the Straight Slate. Houston voted overwhelmingly for Clinton both against Bush Sr and Dole. Gore carried Houston by 1 percent, but against a popular Texas governor, that's a lot. Houston, as a city, is mostly lower income residents and younger couples and individuals. There are very some very significant democratic strongholds that drive many city elections - African Americans, Tejano Democrats, Montrose Area Democrats, Heights Democrats and others. Remember too that Houston is rapidly becoming a Hispanic majority and most of them are Mexican in decent. Traditionally, Mexican-Americans vote Democratic almost exclusively. Even in the Bush/Gore election where Bush REALLY went hard after Hispanic voters, Gore got nearly 70 percent of their votes. It is going to be one of the most significant voter blocks in America in the coming years, but especially in Houston. The only reason Sanchez got these votes last year is because Hispanic people in Houston wanted a Hispanic mayor desperately, but it was only by a TON of Tejano Democrats crossing the line, holding their nose and voting Republican (that's how it was described to me by one of the foremost Hispanic consultants in Houston) that Sanchez got close. Many Dems are still of the Dixie-crat variety meaning they are older people who lean to the right of traditional east coast liberal democratic elite. The main difference in Houston is that the GOP locally generally ignores the city elections unless they feel like they have a good chance of winning. Their campaigns are focused more on budget (advertising, debates, mail-outs) and less on field operations (block walkers, door-to-door stuff, etc). To win in the city of Houston, you have to be STRONG in your field operations. You have to pound the pavement and get to the people. You can't really do that in the county because it is just too big of an area and solicitation is against many of the deed restricted community standards. I don't think the city politics will change anytime soon. Only the most moderate of Republicans could have a chance of winning in the city unless they are a councilman from Kingwood/Clear Lake (Rob Todd) or one of the other conservative dominated districts like Greenway or West U.
We will see what happens gentlemen. One thing to remember though is that only citizens can vote. Illegal aliens or legal permanent residents are not afforded the right to vote. (Let me know if I am mistaken on this point.) Therefore even though Hispanics are a growing % of the populace, and they are a strong voting block, I am not certainthat they are the fortress you may thin they are.
