Friday, August 01, 2014

Dem nominee for Harris County judge quits race

First at Texpate, courtesy the Chronic:

Democrat Ahmad Hassan has ended his campaign for Harris County judge, saying incumbent Republican Ed Emmett should be given a great big fat pass another four-year term to finish projects vital to the community.

Just wanted to take his vacation this summer after all, I guess.  "Nobody pays attention until after Labor Day" (sic) anyway, you know.  Quitting can't be considered a big surprise, considering...

Hassan unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee as a Republican in 2006; unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for county judge in 2008 and 2010; and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Precinct 3 county commissioner in 2012.

Hassan is really no more a Democrat than Junior Samples doppelganger and ag commish nominee Jim Hogan, but he was the only guy on the spring Democratic primary ballot.  Noah assigns a little blame for that.

With (his high praise of the incumbent) out of the way, I think Hassan totally made the wrong move in dropping out of the race. And I still hold it against the Democrats that a legitimate candidate did not run against Emmett. I don’t know why someone else didn’t run against him, and I am not being rude; I’m legitimately curious. Did the County Party make a decision not to contest the seat, or did they try and fail to recruit someone? I will freely admit that I do not know.

Those are all fair questions, but at this point in the cycle I would rather look forward than backward.  It will be David Collins, the Green Party nominee, against "Hunker Down" Emmett in the fall.

The county judge has come under withering criticism of late (read the comments) for his solitary opposition to the proposal to renovate the Astrodome into a park, the plan advanced by the Rodeo folks and the NFL's Texans.  But he drew no challenger in his GOP primary, and the Harris County Libertarians appear to have skipped the race, so it's incumbent against underfunded, third party challenger.  Collins did collect more than 67,000 statewide votes in 2012 as the Green candidate to the US Senate, with just over 10,000 of those from Harris County.  (That still shakes out under 1% of the total, state- and countywide.)

Unlike Noah, I won't be voting for Emmett. 

8 comments:

Greg said...

Let's be honest here -- Hassan is typical of the Democrat Party candidates from the top of the ticket to the bottom. Not worth voting for and not worth paying attention to -- and may as well drop out of the race now.

PDiddie said...

The only reason I published this is so that we could all point and laugh at the Texas Republick who wants to live in an even more red state.

Dude. MOVE TO RUSSIA.

Gadfly said...

Hey, Greg, the Constitution still says We the People, not We the States. None of that wingnut indoctrination you're probably trying in your teaching.

Greg said...

What on earth are you talking about, Gadfly, since that has nothing to do with the comment I made here (or any other comment I've ever made on this site or mine)?

And Perry -- I'm just pointing out that you folks really don't have a single credible candidate on your ticket. Well, scratch that -- your Lt. Governor candidate might have slightly more credibility than ours.

PDiddie said...

Who is this "you folks", Kemosabe?

As you note, LVDP makes one more credible candidate than the GOP (nannynannybooboo).

Gadfly said...

I'm pointing out that, IIRC, you're a HS teacher in your day job. Just want to make sure you're teaching kids actual American history.

Gadfly said...

And, is there any way to sneak that PDiddie guy on the ballot? :)

PDiddie said...

Not a chance.