Evan at Perry vs World posts some thoughts on Houston’s crime problem, and how it might hurt Mayor White if he eventually runs for statewide office:
Crime has certainly lost some of its potency as an issue. But it will be salient in White’s record, and the sort of suburban female swing voters who might swing towards White will be very turned off by his record as mayor. Everyone knew that the Houston Police Department was facing an impending shortage of officers, and yet Bill White did nothing. Houston’s sharp rise in crime is directly attributable to Bill White’s decisions. Whether he is soft-on-crime or not, the buck stops there.
He links to an earlier post at the Professors R Squared blog that also discusses White and crime.
White’s local PR operation is pretty good, but if he decides to run statewide, he’ll be stepping into the big leagues, where opposition researchers are going to look more closely at his record on crime (and other issues) than some locals. It’s an issue that could hurt him.
