"It's Election Day"

Election Week, actually.



Houston ain't the Five Pernts, but we still need to stand up and be counted.

As for the particulars, Charles did the lift (so I didn't have to).

Early voting runs from today through next Tuesday, December 10, from 7 AM to 7 PM each day except for Sunday the 8th, when it is from 1 to 6 PM. Odds are pretty good you won’t encounter any lines whenever you go to vote. Remember that precinct locations are likely to be heavily consolidated on Runoff Day itself, December 14, so voting early will avoid confusion for you.

Here's the list of choices.

At Large #2
Andrew Burks (incumbent)
David Robinson

At Large #3
Michael Kubosh
Roy Morales

District A
Helena Brown (incumbent)
Brenda Stardig (incumbent prior to Brown)

District D
Dwight Boykins
Georgia Provost

District I
Robert Gallegos
Graci Garces

HCC 1
Zeph Capo

I'll be casting my ballot for Robinson, Morales (with a clothespinned nose), and Capo. The other two races are geography-specific and I will leave recommendations for them to your judgment.

If 50,000 people turn out for this runoff, then that means that roughly 2% of Houston's population will have selected two members of city council that each represent the entirety of Houston, or about 2.5 million people. As comparison, just under 700K Texans live in any one Congressional district, and in recent years a number between 200-250,000 ballots were typically cast in those contests.

So saying 'your vote matters in this election' would be quite a bit more than the usual understatement. Now don't make me send Bill Cutting around to turn out your precinct.

The contenders for Cornyn

While our esteemed Senatah Box Turtle continues to make an ass of himself on Twitter -- yeah John, how about on your life? -- and with less than a week to go before the filing deadline, the US Senate challengers are lining up on both sides of the aisle.

Democrats could have a champion able to force Sen. John Cornyn to spend heavily to defend his job next year: David Alameel, a wealthy Dallas dentist who’s spent lavishly for candidates in both parties.

“I’ll just do whatever it takes. Money is not an issue for me. It’s more whether or not I feel I can make a difference,” Dr. Alameel said (yesterday) by phone. “We need new ideas. Not just the same politicians with the same redundant parroting of talking points.”

Alameel, 61, joins three other Democrats and a handful of Republicans gunning for Cornyn. The filing deadline for the March primaries is Dec. 9.

A very good backgrounder on the doctor at the link.  Alameel joins Maxey Scherr, Michael Fjetland and possibly Roman McAllen among the Democrats.  (McAllen announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination at George Barnstone's Final Friday event here in Houston in October, but has not filed and not returned a phone call to Brains as of yet).

The Republicans are many.  The latest development there is that Erick Wyatt, listed on the Wiki page, has withdrawn and endorsed Linda Vega.  Glenn Beck -- having struck out on David Barton and Louie Gohmert -- still wants someone more Teabaggerish and high profile, but has so far been rebuffed.  Libertarian Jon Roland has filed.

PPP revealed a month ago that Cornyn could be in real danger from an effective primary challenge.  That's what's driving his moronic Tweets; he's desperate to win street cred with the freak right wing.  And the Dallas News article says that Dr. Alameel makes four Democrats, but I can't seem to find the 4th (excluding the rumored Mr. McAllen).  Even the Godfather counts three.  Who are we missing?

Update: Noah and Charles both have the answer in the comments.