So, the Weekend Brunch summer break lasted a little beyond summer. Did we miss anything besides the gawdawful heat?
Just kidding.
BH readers know the story of Houston/Harris County in recent months (and longer): Crime, crime, and more crime thanks in considerable part to criminal justice reform that proponents such as Rodney Ellis and Arnold Ventures don’t want to claim full credit for during this particular election season (wonder why?), the inability of area Democrats who largely control the machinery of local government consistently to deliver basic services (let alone flood control), scads of corruption (some known, much more arguably unknown) courtesy of those same leaders, etc.
At some point, I just got tired of documenting it. Either we will be able to effect a course correction in Harris County, or some other plans will need to start being seriously considered (thankfully, some of the surrounding counties do offer a high quality of life that’s affordable, in case anyone is wondering what that reference means).
So, onwards to just a few links and things that are on my mind on this eve of early voting for the most important election in my nearly three decades living in this area.
Alex Mealer: Your choice for Harris County Judge is an easy one
We were an early fan of Alex Mealer, even when it looked like a Republican insider who also likes to donate to Democrats had the cash advantage and might coast to victory.
She demolished him and his money with a laser focus on issues that matter. She has the right combination of life experience, knowledge of the issues, and political savvy to make a GREAT Harris County Judge. This is the promising candidate conservatives have been waiting for. Now’s the time, as a few other sources have suggested:
[WB1] Bob Rehak, our area’s foremost expert on flooding and a technocratic type who seemingly tries to avoid politics, says the choice of Alex Mealer is an easy one if you care about flood control (and effective, transparent governance generally in Harris County).
[WB2] Bill King says Alex Mealer is the right choice.
[WB3] Even the Houston Chronicle editorial board, itself an advocate of so many of the progressive policies running Harris County and the City of Houston into the ground, says Alex Mealer is the right choice (maybe they have insider information that a corruption indictment is coming for Lina Hidalgo and they didn’t want to endorse her for that reason, or maybe we’ll never know why this happened – but they really should have posted their full interview of the candidates, rather than that selectively edited version).
Some other choices are fairly easy as well
- Jack Cagle is a fairly easy choice over Lesley Briones (an Arnold Foundation alum and Rodney Ellis fav), as is Jack Morman over Adrian Garcia in the commissioner races.
- Chris Daniel is the right choice for Harris County district clerk.
- Kyle Scott is the right choice for county treasurer.
- A NO vote on the Harris County bond and the City of Houston bond questions is the right choice (these are basically efforts to throw a lot of public money into unaccountable patronage operations as well as drive voter turnout, and should be rejected).
- BH readers know the story of Harris County judges very well and you know what to do.
Other stuff of (recent) interest
[WB4] Progressives in our area – from Lina Hidalgo to Rodney Ellis to Arnold Ventures activists to supposed journalists for the Houston Chronicle to anonymous attack dogs – REALLY seem to despise Crime Stoppers of Houston. Thankfully, most of the community does not, and the carping from these seemingly deranged progressives has gotten very little traction outside their small deep blue bubble.
[WB5] Ted Oberg is leaving Houston, which is a big loss for the city and KTRK-13 (whose news operation has become…not very good under its current leadership).
[WB6] Houston’s immigrant importation industry is having difficulties taking care of some 5,000 Afghan refugees.
[WB7] Oscar Slotboom analyzes the shocking cost for all-electronic tolling on Harris County toll roads.
[WB8] Bob Rehak comments on the real “inequities” in flood-mitigation funding.
[WB9] Despite all the wasteful spending and creation of new bureaucracies, the Democrats who run Harris County still cannot promise a timely election. Amazing.
Early voting starts Monday, October 24. Be sure to go vote (and convince a neighbor or friend or several).
