Sunday Choose Funnies

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." -- Rush

Texas Republican Douchebags of the Week

First Place, going away: our gloriously good-haired governor and his massive, big-footed flip flops.

-- Had Anita deliver the shiv to Dave Carney, replacing him with Joe Allbaugh, who ran W's successful (sic) 2000 campaign.

-- "It's fun to poke at" President Obama about the long-past-its-expiration-date birth certificate non-issue, but "it's a distractive issue".

-- Needs to spend more time in Iowa romancing voters one-on-one, so he will be appearing in a lot fewer debates. Update: Whoops. No, he won't.

-- That flat tax plan? Not so much. Gotta get off that Confederate license plate thingie, too.

-- Poll numbers sagging into Bachmann territory, he drags the money bag around California. Is more money really going to help this guy now? Oh yeah; it can't hurt any worse.

And this is actually a better week for Rick Perry than he's been having.

Runner-up: Congressman Michael McCaul, who alas won't run for the US Senate. Because the Rich White Guy Caucus is already well enough represented by David Dewhurst and Tom Leppert. Speaking of Dewface...

Show: ...he comes in third by virtue of his carefully following the Rick Perry 2010 campaign lead and making his Senate '12 race all about Obama. 

Fourth (in the money for those holding superfecta tickets): Herman Cain, riding high atop the national polls and cashing in on the strength of his haunting television ad and the Internet meme it has spawned. Earns honorary Texan status by virtue of his rally with the Clear Lake Tea Party, 3000 strong showing up at the dog track in La Marque to see, hear, and buy his book. If he were a real Texan he might have come in first with this effort.

Place your bets for the next Battle of the Douchebags, ladies and gentlemen. Post time in one week.

Is this what they are talking about?

You know, those roughly 50% of Americans who do not vote who say things like 'Republicans and Democrats are all the same'?

The king of natural gas will be dining with the First Lady.

On November 1st, Michelle Obama will headline a fundraiser hosted by the the young billionaire (via a Houston Chronicle blog).

From the piece:

"The super-wealthy hedge fund manager and his wife will introduce Obama to individuals who paid $10,000 for the privilege or couples who paid $15,000."

Arnold manages Centaurus Advisors.

You remember John Arnold, don't you? He founded Centaurus with his Enron bonus from 2001, which was the year before Enron collapsed under the weight of its scams.

Now he and his wife are tackling pension 'reform' (sic) in California.

John D. Arnold, a former Enron Corp. trader in Texas who became a billionaire by buying and selling natural gas, is bankrolling a group supporting changes to limit California’s pension-fund obligations.

Arnold, who formed hedge fund Centaurus Advisors LLC in Houston after leaving Enron, started a foundation that Meredith Simonton, a spokeswoman, said has given $150,000 to the California group.

The organization set up by Arnold and his wife, Laura, a lawyer, plans to be involved in pension-overhaul efforts around the U.S., Simonton said by telephone from Houston. State and local governments confront “massive financial distress” from the gap between assets and promised benefits, she said.

Let's count the six degrees of separation: Michelle Obama, John and Laura Arnold, Enron (Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andy Fastow, et.al.), George W. Bush.

Whoops. That's only four.

Anybody still confused about what OWS is all about?

Update: CA Gov. Brown seek sweeping pension rollbacks. It's not just for Wisconsin any more.

Update II: POLITICO's Julie Mason (formerly of the Houston Chron) picks up the story.

An upcoming Houston fundraiser featuring first lady Michelle Obama at the home of a former Enron executive who is part of a movement to convert public pensions to 401(k)-style plans is angering some local Democrats.[...]

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, called the 401(k) proposal "very frightening for teachers." She noted the nose dive many retirement plans took in the stock market in 2008, saying, "What if I was retired and that happened?"

"My people supported Obama big-time in 2008," Fallon said. "This is not helping." [...]

Art Pronin, a Houston Democratic activist, said, "This just got my dander up."

"Does Obama support converting teacher pensions to 401(k)'s? I doubt it," said Pronin, president of his neighborhood Democratic club. "This is creating a lot of consternation in Democratic circles, and it's going to make it that much harder to get the vote out next year politically."

Local activists, including the Houston chapter of Occupy Wall Street, are considering some kind of protest of the first lady's event. Meanwhile, the local teachers' union is working to educate members about the pension campaign.

"We need street action that will make Wisconsin look like a picnic," Fallon said.

Update III (Monday 10/31): Thanks to Matt B. in the comments for the news on Halloween -- the day before the event -- that the First Lady will not be attending and the fundraiser will be "rescheduled at a later date".

Anita Perry brutalizes Dave Carney

Maybe you missed it. It's being called a 'campaign shake-up'. WaPo's Right Turn:

Time’s Mark Halperin reported yesterday that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is bringing in two nationally known GOP insiders, Nelson Warfield and Curt Anderson, to help turn around his ailing campaign. Halperin writes, “In some ways, the Texan’s original, relatively small team had been overwhelmed by the demands of getting a campaign up and running.” 

Burka has the skinny.

An advisor to Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) tells [Politico's] Ben Smith that the Texas governor has reassembled the team that helped run Scott’s “unlikely, big-spending, and successful 2010 campaign.”

It’s about time. It is my understanding that Anita Perry was the driving force who insisted upon a reorganization.

She's on a mission from God, you see. After the brutalizing her man took at the hands of ... well ... everybody, something had to be done. Which gives me the opportunity to insert this barely-a-sequitur, starring Mandy Patinkin as Governor Goodhair, fresh off the farm in Paint Creek or maybe the campus of Texas A&M University.



Back to the story.

It is hardly surprising that Perry has decided to shake up his campaign staff. (For some time Right Turn has suggested a major overhaul of Perry’s campaign would be in order.) A GOP operative told me last night, “I had heard about a week ago that there was a move to get rid of Dave Carney. This was almost 100% predictable given the collapse of the Perry campaign. Plus, when Perry was deciding if he should run, Carney had made assurances to him that he could do very well in New Hampshire.” Perry is now in the low single digits there. Carney is expected to remain on the campaign but plainly has lost his perch as the top campaign guru.

Sure enough ...

Joe Allbaugh, who headed George W. Bush’s presidential campaign and served as director of FEMA in the Bush administration (pre-Katrina), will hold the title of Senior Adviser in the Perry campaign. He specifically did not want a title that suggested he was in charge of the campaign (although he is).

Allbaugh seems to have a good sense of timing: bailing out of FEMA right before Hurricane Katrina -- leaving the debacle to Heckuva Job Brownie -- and now parachuting in to a Perry campaign that may or may not be swirling the drain. If things go well he gets the credit, if they don't Rick Perry still gets the blame.

The house-cleaning comes just before Perry’s major policy rollout Tuesday, and to a large extent, will dominate political coverage. Why release the news now? Well, given a choice between being overshadowed by a staff shakeup and having the press focus on Perry’s bizarre interview on birtherism and secession, I suppose the former seems preferable. Interestingly, the shakeup follows Perry’s meetings with K Street lobbyists, an effort to staunch concern about his campaign. It may have been essential for Perry to demonstrate swiftly that he understands the campaign’s dire straits and is willing to shove aside even longtime aides to get his campaign on track.

Warfield was Bob Dole’s press secretary in his 1996 presidential campaign, and he acquired a reputation for a sharp tongue and pointed humor. Interestingly, in that capacity Warfield led the attack on Steve Forbes’s flat tax. Forbes is now a Perry adviser, and a flat tax will be part of Perry’s policy initiative unveiled Tuesday. Back in 1996, the Dole campaign criticized a flat tax as a “soak the middle class” plan that would increase the deficit. Presumably, that experience will help Warfield fend off attacks on the flat tax plan Forbes developed for Perry.

Warfield also spent time on the ill-fated Fred Thompson 2008 presidential campaign. He joined in June 2007 and jumped off the sinking ship in October. More recently, Warfield worked on Rick Scott’s successful Florida gubernatorial campaign, during which the candidate used the illegal immigration issue to savage primary opponent Bill McCullough. ...

Let's finish with Burka again.

The first thing Allbaugh ought to do is send Perry to Dallas to apologize for badmouthing W. all over the country.

Yeah, that oughta fix things right up.

Weekly Early Voting Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance provides you with all the information you need to cast your ballot early -- beginning today -- in the Houston municipal and educational elections. There are also ten Texas constitutional amendments on your ballot. Rep. Scott Hochberg provides in-depth background on each.

Here are early voting locations and hours for those voting in Houston (.pdf, 1 page).

Here's the League of Women Voters guide to all candidates on the ballot in Houston (.pdf, 51 pages).

As previously posted here, your progressive voter's guide for Houston municipal candidates is here (Jolanda Jones ... or Bob Ryan, but only if you just have to vote for a Republican), here (Annise Parker, Don Cook, and Karen Derr), here (Kristi Thibaut or Jenifer Rene Pool, and Amy Price and Larry Green), here (Melissa Noriega, Bob Schoellkopf, Wanda Adams, Peter Rene'), and here (Ronald Green, Ed Gonzalez, James Rodriguez, and Mike Laster).

Here is more on the status of the mayor's race, and more on the developments in District C.

And here is the roundup of TPA blog posts, the best from last week.

Off the Kuff has information about the interim redistricting maps that the federal court in San Antonio will be considering.

Letters From Texas discusses Republicans not understanding basic biology, which is why some candidates might not even realize that they're advocating banning birth control. Much worse, others do understand it.

Several Houston city council candidates earned the coveted PDiddie endorsement. Pick up your progressive voting guide at Brains and Eggs.

As early voting for the November constitutional amendment election gets started, WCNews at Eye On Williamson says Vote No on Prop 4 - the latest transportation scheme.

Libby Shaw says it best in Rick Perry: A Right Wing Wrecking Machine . She compares the degrees of diaster that separate Perry from Romney. The result is a "how low can you go" contest that America can't afford, not when one of these mean-spirited clowns could be the next American President. See her post at TexasKaos.

Neil at Texas Liberal continues to blog about and to support Occupy Houston and Occupy Wall Street.

Early Voting Sunday Funnies

The spotlight on Mayor Parker's prospects

Again, as many have already pointed out, not so much for 2011 as for 2013.

Political analysts predict Mayor Annise Parker has a virtual lock on a second term, but she still has a lot at stake in next month's election.

Winning isn't enough, the experts say. She needs to win big to head off a challenge in 2013 and to give her a stronger hand with the City Council. [...]

(P)oll numbers released last week suggest the mayor faces a dissatisfied electorate. Less than a month before the election, more than half of respondents said they were undecided. Thirty-seven percent said they would vote for Parker.

"Had she had a serious opponent she would have been at least in a runoff, and possibly defeated," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein, who ran the poll for radio station KUHF and KHOU-TV.

Parker's approval rating was just 47 percent.

"It's the lowest job approval I've seen of a (Houston) mayor, ever," said Stein, who has been polling for decades.

Too slim a majority in November, some observers say, could encourage a stronger challenge two years from now.

Clue: The mayor's low approval numbers do NOT have anything to do with the national economy.

Parker and political analysts say most of the damage to her approval ratings is due to the sputtering national economy.

"If you look at what's on the minds of Americans all over the country, it's jobs and the economy," Parker said.

The "jobs" part, yes. But the mayor's jobs plan, as you can find in the article yourself and at her website,  appears to consist of 'instructing city departments to hire local firms and hoping that spurs job creation'. In the wake of the city's budget cuts that saw thousands of municipal employees lose their jobs, I have to say that is a pretty sad plan.

Aside from that, the mayor has been slammed by events mostly outside of her control that are well beyond the national economy: the red-light camera issue -- yes, mostly outside her control, and that includes poorly-worded vendor contracts and a ballot referendum voided by a judge and all the rest of the mess -- the Rebuild Houston emerging scandal, the George Greanias affair.

And while she has consistently earned low marks for style, it's also fair to suggest that she merited a bit of arrogance in besting her political opponents in the last cycle, and in grappling with the city's many challenges.

Annise Parker gets my (albeit tepid) support for re-election. Just like President Obama, in fact. In many ways she has done a good job, and in many others she has done the best she could with what she has had to work with. And yes, in some ways she's done a lousy job. She's still far and away the best -- indeed, the only -- choice for mayor in this cycle.

I hope, based on her forthcoming performance in office and a little better luck outside of it, that I can say the same two years from now.

The Cohen kerfuffle

The quarrel surrounding Ellen Cohen's $10,000 contribution from Bob Perry moves into a higher gear:

If the abOUT editorial had simply been a question of how to interpret facts (namely that Cohen accepted a contribution from Perry and did not author LGBT-specific legislation while in the Texas House) it would have been unlikely to generate controversy, but two statements in the original editorial unrelated to Cohen’s record have created a backlash against abOUT and its editor, Cade Michals. The editorial originally stated that Cohen’s office had not responded to a request for comment (abOUT has since added a comment from Cohen), and that the Houston GLBT Political Caucus (which has endorsed Cohen) had been “silent” on the matter. Caucus president Noel Freeman says that, in fact, Cohen had made a statement to abOUT before they published the editorial and that, as president of the Caucus, Freeman had already granted an interview to the Houston Chronicle on the matter and would have happily done the same for abOUT had they bothered to contact the Caucus before publishing their article. Freeman contacted Michals requesting a retraction of the editorial in light of these inaccuracies. Freeman says he told Michals that if abOUT did not retract or issue a correction that the Caucus would contact the magazine’s advertisers and request that they pull their ads. “That’s a standard tool in the political activist’s tool belt: boycotts,” said Freeman.

In response, Michals contacted the Houston Police Department and filed a complaint against Freeman. According to Freeman, Michals also threatened to contact a “multi-millionaire investor with a lawyer from Baker Botts who was going to file a lawsuit against me for slander and harassment. He then told me to ‘bring it on’ several times and I ended the call.” Freeman is emphatic that he made no threats against Michals.

And then there is District C candidate Josh Verde's involvement.

According to phone records provided by Freeman, Josh Verde, another City Council District C candidate and the only out LGBT candidate in the race, contacted him less than five minutes after he ended the phone call with Michals. Freeman says Verde called, at the bequest of Michals, to dissuade Freeman of pursuing his request for a retraction. Verde claims he called Freeman to accuse him of stealing a rack of abOUT issues and that his attempts to persuade Freeman to drop his request for a retraction were based on a fear that the situation would damage the Caucus’ reputation. Verde refused to answer whether he made the call at the request of Michals.

Commenters on the Press article have been quick to connect Verde with Michals and abOUT. Verde and Michals are former co-workers. Michals previously worked as general manager of Vue Nightclub. His tenure overlaps that of Verde’s work as a bartender at Guava Lamp, a trendy gay bar. Both bars are owned by Elwood Gould Jr. and housed in the same building. Verde held his campaign launch party at Vue with Michals in attendance.

The reporter for the Voice, Daniel Williams, discloses that he both worked on Cohen's campaign in 2010 (as did I) and was a member of the HGLBT caucus (I am not, have never been).

For Cohen, the abOUT editorial is a distraction from her long record of LGBT advocacy. “I have dedicated my life to equality for all people. I have always been supportive of the GLBT community and will continue to be so on City Council. As executive director of the Houston chapter of the American Jewish Committee, and CEO of the Houston Area Women’s Center, I took a leadership role in advocating for same-sex partner benefits at the city, and encouraged other non-profits to do the same. In the Legislature, I worked on legislation that addressed health care rights of domestic partners, bullying in Texas schools, and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

For Verde, his connections to abOUT, Michals and the pseudonymously authored editorial by “Jack H,” are quickly becoming an albatross of negative campaigning weighing down his candidacy, from which he is working hard to distance himself.

However you may happen to feel about this matter ... this is why I am supporting Karen Derr in this race. Not because I don't like Ellen and don't think she wouldn't make a fine council member (I do, and she would). And not because I think the same of Verde. Because we have to get the money out of our politics.

We must stop evaluating the viability of our political candidates on the basis of how much money they can raise. We must stop feeding a political consultant class that gets paid for advice, direct mail lists, and their network of associated vendors who provide absolutely nothing to our republican democracy except for a compromised product (the politico himself or herself). Particularly for Democratic consultants from Bob Schrum all the way down to Marc Campos, here's a question: how comfortable would your lifestyle be if you got paid on the basis of whether you won or lost?

I'm not talking about unilateral disarmament by the left. The fact is that the Money Race is over and the Republicans have already won. (See Rove, Karl and Brothers, Koch. I picked those links so that you can cry first and then laugh. A little.)

My humble O, as you already know, is to handle this by constitutional amendment. But that is a 15 to 20-year process by this movement's own standards. I'll probably be dead by then. So I have to do what I can while I can, and that means not supporting candidates based on their fundraising -- indeed, to leave money totals out of the consideration -- especially from questionable sources.

Oh yeah, and we absolutely have to stop voting for politicians as if they were American Idol contestants.

Update: Juanita Jean has a similar perspective.

Sunday Funnies

Your voter's guide for November 8, 2011 Part 4: the rest

Controller: Ronald Green

Green is unopposed. He succeeded Annise Parker two years ago -- moving up from city council's at large #4 slot to assume management of the city's books -- and like Parker before him, keeps a low profile in the position. He probably has designs on higher office when he's term-limited out in 2015; until then he shouldn't make much news to speak of. Anticipate a run for Congress or the statehouse in 2016.

District B: No endorsement

No agenda here; I simply don't know any of the candidates well enough to endorse one. Of the eight contestants in line to replace Jarvis Johnson, only Charles Ingram is listed as a sustaining member of the HCDP and his website's homepage still says "under construction" (the link to his bio there is functional but nearly nothing else; the links to his Facebook page and Twitter feed likewise inoperable). I've received e-mail invitations to events from Kathy Blueford Daniels and Phillip Paul Bryant (from the D-MARS listserv) but haven't gotten to any of them. Bryan Smart has an introduction video but nothing else. Alvin Byrd worked in constituent services for former councilman Johnson.

Jerry Davis co-owns the popular Breakfast Klub restaurant (have the wings and waffles) and thus may share the highest community profile with Byrd. Two candidates, James Joseph and Kenneth Perkins, list no website; just a Hotmail e-address.

All except Perkins, Smart, and Davis have recent Democratic primary voting histories (none are Republicans). Bryant, Byrd, and Davis seem to have the most professional campaign organizations, online and off.

Here's three videos, one from "Red, White, and Blue" discussing the race with Garnet Coleman and Houston Defender publisher Sonceria Messiah-Jiles, one of the debate between candidates sponsored by the LWV, and the third is Jones and Polland's take on that.

With a slate of eight and three appearing to hold the higher profiles, expect a runoff. I'll examine the two remaining candidates closer in that event.

District E, District G: No endorsement

Mike Sullivan is unopposed and Oliver Pennington has token opposition in Clyde Bryan (no website). All are Republicans. I'll pass.

District H: Ed Gonzalez District I: James Rodriguez

Councilmen Gonzalez and Rodriguez likewise have token opposition to their re-election and should be returned to council.

District J: Mike Laster

Like Karen Derr in C, Laster should have already been elected to council in 2009. He lost a runoff two years ago in District F to Al Hoang, a tragic error on the part of Houston's voters. But we get a make-good, as we do with Derr.

J is one of the two new districts added this year as a result of the 2010 Census pushing Houston's population over two million and change. The Sharpstown area, carved away from F, should be competitive for a Latino candidate ... but there are two -- Rodrigo Cañedo and Criselda Romero -- and they are going to split that voting bloc. It certainly isn't the case that Cañedo and Romero are not well-qualified to serve on council; Rodrigo helps run the family's small business while Criselda served in Councilman Ed Gonzalez' office. All three have Democratic primary voting histories, with Laster the sole sustaining member of the HCDP.

If I'm wrong and the district goes to a runoff -- without or without Laster -- then it's anybody's game.

That's it for the municipal politicos; I'll have some thoughts on the down-ballot educational races in a later posting. *I did not find time to get to these. Here are Stand for Children's endorsements for HISD board and the Chron's endorsement for Houston Community College trustee.

Your voter's guide for November 8, 2011 Part 3: AL3, A, D, F

At Large #3: Melissa Noriega

Councilwoman Noriega has two opponents, neither of whom have achieved any particular positive distinction. Chris Carmona is the conservative's choice -- at least according to Amy Peck -- and Brad Batteau is running apparently to try and draw off some of Noreiga's Democratic support (HCGOP lists him as a D but does NOT list Carmona as an R).

Noriega's talent and skills as a problem-solver and council moderate and mediator easily merit her re-election.

District A: Bob Schoellkopf

Republican incumbent Brenda Stardig's most significant claim to fame remains the Long Point road rage incident with her 2009 runoff opponent, Lane Lewis -- who's now poised to become the chair of the Harris County Democratic Party. I just have to excerpt this again ...

The two have not debated face to face — unless you count Lewis' version of them shouting at each other from separate cars while driving down Long Point.

According to Lewis, he attended a Spring Branch West super-neighborhood meeting on Nov. 12 (2009). Attendees asked aloud why Stardig was not present and speculated that she was at a nearby bar.

After the meeting, Lewis went to the bar and photographed the license plate on what he believed to be Stardig's car, he said.

While driving home, he said, Stardig pursued him, honking her horn, swerving to both sides of his vehicle and shouting questions at him. Lewis said he shouted answers back.

“It was an irresponsible choice that a candidate for a district race for City Council would choose a bar instead of a neighborhood meeting,” Lewis said.

“I've been everywhere I need to be,” Stardig said. She would not comment on specifics of the encounter.

Helena Brown is challenging Stardig from the right, as in the far, farther, farthest TeaBagging right.  Check this out:

Helena Brown of Houston is not pleased.

A lifelong Republican — and a precinct chair at that — she also identifies with the Tea Party movement and was a Debra Medina supporter. Now she and her fellow Tea Party Republicans must decide whether GOP candidate Gov. Rick Perry is worthy of their support or perhaps look for an independent write-in candidate. (Brown says she thinks actor Chuck Norris might be interested.)

Schoellkopf is a loyal Democratic activist. How hard is this?

District D: Wanda Adams

Incumbent, good Democrat, hard-working. The HGLBT Caucus has criticized her, but that has seemed a little harsh to me. Challenger Larry McKinzie seems like a nice enough fellow, though ...

District F: Peter Rene'

Incumbent Al Hoang has been savaged by his Vietnamese constituency in this way-out-west district. The local newspaper even describes the tussle between Hoang and challenger Hoc Nguyen as the "Vietnam War Revisited" (the Google cache still has that headline; the article has been changed). But I'll excerpt instead from the Chron a few days ago:

Councilman Al Hoang pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in donations meant for the local Vietnamese community organization he headed prior to his election as District F councilman, a lawsuit by a group of Vietnamese civic activists claims.

Hoang denies the charges and has countersued the plaintiffs for what he considers libel.

The lawsuit is another step in what Hoang sees as a persistent campaign of harassment against him. Detractors have been so aggressive, he said, they once mailed him a photograph of themselves urinating on the graves of his parents.

He is a target not for any legal improprieties, he said, but for his maturing attitude toward Vietnam, one that has evolved from focusing on the regime's violent overthrow to one of promoting change from within the country through trade and dialogue.

"They want me to use this seat as a base to overthrow the Communist government" of Vietnam, Hoang said.

Outside of court, Hoang is being challenged for re-election by Hoc Thai Nguyen, a businessman who claims Hoang's sister-in-law threatened to poison his children, calls Hoang "the Gadhafi of Houston," and says he fears for his life because he believes Hoang is capable of killing him. Nguyen is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

That's pretty spicy stuff. There's more at the link regarding the investigations of Hoang's alleged impropriety since he was elected two years ago. A proud Republican, Hoang defeated Democrat Mike Laster in the runoff for F in 2009; Laster is running in Sharpstown's new J district (I'll cover that contest tomorrow). Back to the Chron for the reasons why you should stand well back from this Vietnamese food fight and vote for Peter Rene':

After a series of controversies involving incumbent Al Hoang divided his Vietnamese-American base, Hoang indicated he would not stand for re-election. Though he later changed his mind, we think his initial decision was the right one. The district, which has demanding infrastructure and economic development needs, requires new, focused leadership at City Hall.

Fortunately, voters have the opportunity to elect such a person, businessman and community activist Peter "Lyn" René. Born on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, René came to Houston in 1979 and graduated from Westbury High School and UH-Downtown.

The Westchase resident is the CEO of the Caribbean American Foundation of Texas, which organizes events that bring together Houston's sizable and vibrant Caribbean-heritage community.

René is an integrated technology project manager who owns and operates Consumer Information Services, LLC. He is a certified mediator who does volunteer work at the Harris County Dispute Resolution Center and is the founder of Singing from the Soul Foundation. It provides talented but economically disadvantaged high school students classical voice training and preparation to seek college musical degrees and future professional careers.

René promises to be a strong voice at City Hall for street repair and district beautification. To counter budget cuts that have closed community centers and after-school programs, he says he would use his skills as a grant writer to solicit funds from corporations and foundations to continue vital municipal youth services.

Greg and Charles, who follow these things day-to-day closer than I do, were both a little surprised by the endorsement and went out on limbs to guess that the Chron would also not back Jolanda Jones (bad prediction there, guys).

I really don't get why they were so shocked; the district has been redrawn significantly and seems wide open to this casual observer. Throw in the controversy swirling around Hoang and you have yourself a contest.

With two Asian names and one French-sounding, it's hard to know which way the Anglo Republicans will go -- maybe for their fellow traveler the stained incumbent. This district's vote will be split, and all bets are off.

In any case, Rene' is the best (really the only) choice.

Continuing this series tomorrow.

Your voter's guide for November 8, 2011 Part 2: AL2, AL4, K

At Large #2: Kristi Thibaut, Jenifer Rene Pool

These are the two women I wish to get in the runoff for the seat from which Councilwoman Sue Lovell is retiring. Pool is the HGLBT Caucus endorsee and has been pretty tireless in campaigning; I've known Thibaut since we worked together on Borris Miles' first statehouse campaign in 2006. She also served a term in the Texas Lege (I walked blocks in that far west district for her then). Either would make a fine addition to Council. I hope we get to choose between the two in December.

There are mostly folks in this contest whom you should NOT vote for, and I have blogged extensively about him. Also avoid Bolivar Fraga, a candidate who has block-walked Republican houses telling them he's a Republican, and Democratic precincts claiming to be a D. An aspiring politico this disingenuous doesn't deserve anyone's vote. Elizabeth Perez has a huge rack and is a Republican; Griff is Houston's most lovable perennial loser. David Robinson has the resume' and lots of signs out, especially in the Montrose; Rozzy Shorter's been active in Democratic political circles, particularly in SD-13. Andrew Burks has been on the ballot previously but has no website and Gordon Goss is unknown to me. If you consult HCDP for a clue, you will see that only Pool is listed as a sustaining member. HCGOP lists Fraga, Perez, and Griff as R's based on their most recent primary voting activity. Dick, naturally, is an RLC contributor. The rest they show as D's except for Goss, who apparently is a ghost politically despite what he says about himself.

So that whittles ten options easily down to four: Thibaut, Pool, Robinson, or Shorter. Kristi and Jenifer are my top two -- I'll have to pick one when I vote and won't until then -- and David and Rozzy are acceptable alternatives.

Since AL2 will be settled in a December runoff, that's where the closer scrutiny will lie.

At Large #4: Amy Price

This one of course is easy for me. I've written a lot about this race, so if you need to be refreshed or need an introduction, by all means do so. Here I disclosed my limited participation in Amy's campaign and explained why her challengers fail the test to qualify for your vote. (Nothing personal against the two men; they just don't hold a candle to her.) Here is an embedded video and a link to her audio interview with Charles Kuffner. Amy's already earned the endorsements of people who say they would not normally consider a candidate like her. That speaks volumes about her and why I support her.

As I have mentioned previously, electing Amy Price sends the message that Houston City Council will not conduct "business as usual". Which is precisely what we need right now.

District K: Larry Green

Just as easy as the last one. Green has piled up endorsements in this new district -- my district -- while his two challengers are virtually invisible. Like Greg, I expect Larry Green to walk onto council. With expectations this grand, he needs to be able to deliver big things. I'll be watching closer than usual.

More as we draw closer to the early voting period beginning next Monday.