The Houston Mayor’s race dominated the political signage, with Annise Parker, Gene Locke and Peter Brown each having a large number of signs placed. Gene Locke easily won the day during my time at the picnic because he was actually there. He also had 15-20 young people passing out his literature. I didn’t see anyone from the other Houston mayoral campaigns passing out literature.
The best sign was Karen Derr’s 1941 panel truck with a note on the driver’s side door that said “Mr. Karen Derr”.
The “most attractive couple campaigning for someone” award goes to Marina Hernandez-Quiroz and husband as they walked around campaigning for Houston Community College Trustee Diane Olmos Guzman. They are having a re-election campaign kickoff party this coming Wednesday. After meeting Marina, I have no doubt it will be a good time. She told me to bring my dancing shoes. Obviously, she’s never seen me dance.
It has been a while since I attended one of these and I was curious to see if the “new” Republican push to reach out to non-traditional Republican voters would be on display. Sadly, it was not, forcing me to wonder if these efforts are real or simply more of the same talk we’ve heard for years about reaching out. Seriously, it would take chutzpah for a Republican to set up a tent and go for it but you aren’t going to reach these voters via a Facebook page or a Rapid Response Team comment in the Chronicle. Less talk and more walk is required. Depending upon President Obama to fail miserably and assuming that will translate into a Harris County Republican Party resurgence is wishful thinking and will result in furthering the Democratic Party takeover of Harris County.