The campaign season for offices in the city of Houston seemed finally to get underway in earnest today, as KHOU-11’s Doug Miller reported on campaign finance allegations raised by candidate Sue Lovell against candidate Jay Aiyer.
It’s a good thing Miller was covering local political news, because the Chronicle‘s local political columnists were rehashing “olds” in today’s edition.
Rick Casey focused on the week-old Jack Rains/Billy Burge/Houston Sports Authority controversy, and still managed only to tell about half the story. Blogs and talk radio have been all over that story for a week, and Casey’s column was basically a transcription of the mp3 available here, with his usual bilious perspective mixed in.
Kristen Mack focused on Democrats who were missing from a key vote in the state legislature. Apparently, the connection that makes it “local” and thus relevant to Mack’s column (as opposed to the newspaper’s separate coverage of the legislative session) is that three of the Democrats were from Houston. Lefty bloggers had already been all over this story.
We continue to hope that Philip Anschutz will soon bring in six reporters to stir up the local scene here, as he’s already done in another Hearst market. This market certainly seems ripe for it.
ADDITIONAL: Sue Lovell campaign site, Jay Aiyer campaign site
