Term limited Houston City Council member Brenda Stardig has filed to run in the 2020 Harris County Republican Party primary for Harris County Commissioner Precinct 3, currently occupied by 31 year incumbent Steve Radack.
This is excellent news! Stardig has a stellar reputation as a hard working member of Houston City Council. You can read more about her at Ballotpedia.
I ran into her at Monday’s Veteran’s Day parade and asked her if she was planning to run for this position as she had filed a campaign treasurer designation. She told me then that she had not made her mind up. I encouraged to run as strongly as I could. I’m happy that she decided to.
Commissioner Radack has done a good job for Precinct 3. But he has been there 31 years and there is a time and season for everything. Hopefully, he will make the determination that his season as Commissioner is over and that he will fully support Stardig. The HCRP could really use the boost in energy that Stardig will bring.
And frankly, being a female doesn’t hurt!
Interesting move by Stardig. Even if she wins, by knocking off Radack, then beating a Democrat in the general election (not a guarantee on the same ballot with Trump – Didnt Beto win that district in 18?), she will then face redistricting that will be controlled by the Democrats and who have every reason to try to pack one district with Republicans, thus potentially making reelection in 2024 very challenging if shes the odd Republican out when redistricting plays out.
In doing so, she takes a pass in Bohac’s now open House seat, where the primary is easier, but the general will probably be more challenging, but one where, if she wins, she would face redistricting controlled more by Republicans.
1) Is this the culmination of an existing dispute between the two?
2) Is this a sign that the GOP has really decided that Bohac’s open seat is more favorably Democratic leaning than theyre letting on? Or that she thinks theres a good chance that the GOP will be in the minority next term?
3) Does Stardig think that she will be the lone protected Republican in County Commission redistricting? Has she made any deals for that protection?
4) Or is it simply a case of Stardig wanting to stay local – and to run for an office that is full time in the process?
I have no idea what the answers to that are. I tend to discount what candidates say about the political environment, but highten what candidates DO in response to it. They usually have more information than the public about the politucal landscape. To me, Stardig passing on Bohac’s district seems to be potentially a big tell.
#4 is correct. She has no desire to run back and forth to Austin.
Both Stardig and Radack are what’s wrong with government. He’s been in office 31 years, and she’s climbing the ladder after being term limited (term limits are imposed for a reason). Career politicians should not exist.
Looks like payback for Radack supporting Helena Brown in 2011.
This is also one of the reasons term limits for city council are stupid; the people who need to have a title just start campaigning for the next office.
Big mistake, Bohac’s would be a natural win. Radack will pound her.
To make a long story short, I have been no friend of Commissioner Raddack. In 1994 I was elected Harris County Treasurer in the Republican sweep, yes with the help of the slates in the primary, on a “tax watchdog” platform. Almost immediately I came under attack by Commissioner Raddack, who along with the other Commissioners, wanted no part of limiting the ever increasing rate of Harris County property tax increases. After I publicly criticized the sneak 1996 county property tax rate increase, there were even bills filed in the legislature to abolish my Treasurer position.
The Raddack lead establishment continued its opposition of me orchestrating my reelection defeat in the 1998 primary by obtaining slate support for Jack Cato, a well known news reporter. After being elected Tax Assessor-Collector in 2010 as a Tea Party candidate, I was again defeated for reelection in the 2012 primary by the slates endorsement of the Raddack backed establishment candidate Mike Sullivan.
Ironically and disappointly, as a trustee of the less known Harris County Department of Education, I am now the senior countywide elected republican up for reelection in 2020 and recently lead a significant reduction in the 2019 property tax rate.
I strongly agree that Commissioner Raddack should be replaced, even though he finally stood up for the taxpayers in defeating the outrageous democrat lead county property tax increase for 2019. To me this action was not done on principle, but was a result of a sure defeat in 2020 if he didn’t.
I have long held the belief that beside voting to impose unnecessary property tax increases, Raddack and the other republican commissioners have failed to exercise the visible leadership necessary to represent a unique county where nearly half the residents live in unincorporated areas. They should have recognized, under this abnormal circumstance, the need to be much more publicly involved in supporting their constituents than just building roads, parks and libraries. To me their combined failure to do this has contributed to the republican loss of control of the county government.
Perhaps 2020 is the year to unseat Commissioner Raddack. As resident of District A until very recently, I think Brenda Stardig has done a good job of exercising her conservative views without receiving the open ire of the city’s liberal mayors. And, she would most likely be far more visible in the commissioner position than Raddack.
My only reservation is, can Stardig garner the financial resources and support, not only in the primary, but in the general election to win? If she can’t, then causing Raddack to expend his superior resources in a primary fight would greatly reduce his ability to defeat a well financed democrat opponent in the 2020 general election.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
ahhhh
It’s nice out here in the hinterlands.
Re, Don Sumners’s comment “I was again defeated for reelection in the 2012 primary by the slates endorsement of the Raddack backed establishment candidate Mike Sullivan.”, I have 3 comments:
1. My winning the 2012 Primary with over 75% had much more to do with my record of public service than any slate endorsements.
2. Slate endorsements were only a part of my extraordinarily broad support in winning the 2012 Primary.
3. Beating back your Primary challenge of me in 2016 by another 75+% speaks for itself.
4. It’s spelled R-A-D-A-C-K.
Okay, that’s 4 points, instead of 3
OMG! CM Stardig says she can fix Cypress flooding, but can’t even get fixed right the massive flooding she helped cause when she sat on TIRZ 17 Board in 2009, when they caused the 1st Flood, out of 3 or 4 later ones, caused by TIRZ 17’s flawed engineering study: “Briar Branch Detention Study of 2007” (proven later to be grossly flawed by TIRZ 17’s “Regional Drainage Study of 2012”)~ both Studies are on TIRZ 17’s website. TIRZ 17 caused flooding in over 1000 homes N & S of IH10 in 2009 when Stardig sat on TIRZ 17 Board, bc TIRZ 17 would not, & STILL won’t, comply with their Contract of 2003, with all City Officials’ Signatures, to put in 4 detention ponds in specific places, as advised by TIRZ 17’s 1st engineer, Walter P. Moore Sr, whose Study of 2002 warned them that if they didn’t put in these Ponds in specific places, they’d flood out surrounding homes. They signed the Contract to get the Public (who didn’t trust TIRZ 17) off their backs. THEN fired Moore Eng., then threw away the Contract~ never put in even 1 Pond in these specific places~ and hired questionable LAN Eng. which made this grossly flawed Study of 2007. Even to this date, reconfigured Briar Branch Creek is STILL 90 % deficit in NOT providing nearly enough Level of Service Drainage Capacity in this Creek, otherwise known as HCFCD W140, which City took over from County Flood Control in Aug 2018, bc Flood Control wouldn’t approve (for a whiole yr & half) the TIRZ 17 Plans (those N of IH10) for Briar Branch Creek & Conrad Sauer Detention Pond, from Jan 2016 to Aug 2018, bc HCFCD said TIRZ 17 was “putting too much water into their System at too fast a flow rate and would have to go back to their drawing boards to figure out where they were going to put all their displaced Rain Run-Off before they could approve TIRZ 17 Plans”. THEN the powers-that-be (powerful Developer Machine that controls Houston) yanked Briar Branch Creek out of HCFCD’s hands & gave it to City who is doing a current Channel Improvement Project to fix TIRZ 17’s massive mistake of its flawed Briar Branch Detention Study of 2007. The current “Improvement Project” is NOT working (as proven by Rainstorm Imelda– some homes still flooded in this storm with less rain than before!), bc TIRZ 17 is shorting the required drainage by 90% in the Creek (submerged in big box culverts, which are deceiving bc they still do not provide nearly enough drainage capacity). VERY flaky job. We do NOT need Brenda (OR Amy Peck) tampering with our Flooding problems~ I am here to testify as a 3X flood-victim in past 10 Yrs, as “Residents Against Flooding” ‘s engineers & I have studied why TIRZ 17 is causing repetitive man-made flooding in over 1000 homes N & S of IH-10, that never flooded before TIRZ 17 1st dug around here in 2009, & which are NOT in any floodplain. Clearly, Brenda Stardig protects/defends/ represents Developers that don’t put in required Detention.
Lois, please use an occasional period. It’s difficult to read your long, run-on sentences and make sense out of them.
To get the TRUTH out there to the public in so short a time & space necessitated the way I wrote my Comment. It requires astute concentration when reading, and it is grammatically correct. it’s not written on the 8th grade reading level which most Americans are on. Sorry, you’ll have to tax your brain a bit to read it, as the info is very academic & detailed. It’s not what one would consider “light reading” for entertainment.
Lois:
“It’s not written on an 8th grade level” but it starts out with a profound “OMG”. Grammatically correct would assume proper sectioning into paragraphs.Your paragraph also has: run on sentences; incomplete sentences; inappropriate abbreviations (N&S?) and improper punctuation.
It has noting to do with details or whether it’s “Academic”. (Just as a note, I’ve read numerous Doctoral Dissertations. This in no way resembles an ‘academic” discussion.
If you actually want to reach the public with “the TRUTH” then it is your responsibility to write in such a fashion that they can understand what you’re saying.
Teri, I have so much knowledge & information about flooding, particularly as has been caused in the past 10 years by developers along IH-10 from Bunker Hill to Beltway 8W (namely, TIRZ 17), that it is almost impossible to put it all into so little space here. Please try to read slowly & carefully what I’m saying. I think anyone who does so can really understand what I’m saying. That is, anyone who really WANTS to understand (but the negative comments on my Post are written by people with political ties to the developers, et al). I’m not writing on the 8th grade level, with short, choppy sentences, which is the common vogue, which (sadly) is the average American Reading level nowadays. The Truth is, the people criticizing my writing on my Post have NO knowledge of the real engineering flood information as to what has been causing unprecedented, massive flooding in the area mentioned above, and therefore can only fight back with their feeble attempts at grammar-correction.
Please note the dates. There has been extensive work done is this area, and comparatively we have little flooding. The few area that did get water have projects in the works. She never mentions the new detention pond built at the back of her neighborhood. This area had little flooding from Harvey or Imelda.
Deleyne~ Everyone knows you are a good friend of Brenda Stardigs’s so are writing to defend her, rather than looking at this objectively as a 3rd disinterested party seeking engineering truth & reality. But it’s been proven TIRZ 17 caused the 1st Flood of over 1000 homes North & South of IH-10, in 2009, when Brenda sat on its Board of Directors, so is clearly on the side of the Developers & has maintained that close alliance ever since being elected to City Council District A~ and her COS Peck has announced publicly that she will maintain this “legacy” if elected, to carry it forth. The Truth is, TIRZ 17 signed a Contract in 2003 to put in 4 Detention Ponds in specific places, with all City Officials’ signatures as witnesses. BUT these Ponds have never been built, to-date!: 2 Ponds adjacent W-151, which is a major City drainpipe under Witte Rd, just North of IH10, in TIRZ 17 Territory; 1 Pond underneath Memorial City Mall, and 1 Pond in Attingham Basin, where Town & Country resides. The Developers signed to put in these Ponds to get the Public off their backs~ the Public did not trust these Developers, & still don’t. For good reason. The Developers threw away or hid this Contract & have renegged on putting in these Ponds because they are costly & the Developers are greedy so do not want to build these Ponds. Instead, they put in a “Faux” Pond next to Costco/Lowe’s, which is 2X’s too small & is not in the correct location! ~ Witte Rd is 2 Blocks WEST of where they put in this Pond. AND it was put in for the benefit of IH-10 Feeder Rd on North Side, between Blalock & Bunker Hill, and for commercial development in this region along IH-10 (Sky-Dive, Frost Family Mid-Rise Condos, PDQ Chicken, etc) ~ it was NOT put in for benefit of homeowners who are being flooded by TIRZ 17 new redevelopment!
Mike: This is an unusual place to talk about our primary race in 2012. I will be the first to admit you outmaneuvered me in obtaining the primary victory. However, four things come to my mind. First, you won the primary by 63.4% not 75% as you mentioned. Second, in 2012 the slates endorsement of you easily made up for more than 13%. Third, I knew I was in trouble when I found out you gave Terry Lowery $10,000 for his 2012 primary endorsement out of your City of Houston election fund in October 2011, the month before you won reelection to city counsel. You never even filed a Treasurer designation for the primary. And, then you tried to delay your appointment as Tax Assessor past January 1, to earn your city pension. Forth, it was R-A-D-D-A-C-K with two d’s. I can count and I have a good memory.
Lois, thanks for your comprehensive information about the misdeeds of TIRZ 17. As a Spring Branch resident, I was aware of the of the flooding problem in the areas you mention, but I did not know the extent TIRZ17 caused the problem.
Re, Don Sumners.
I did not qualify for a pension from the city, or anywhere else. When I took 5 voluntary furlough days with city employees that Annise made take 5 involuntary furlough days, it put me 5 days short of qualifying for a pension. I’m fine with that. I’ve been successful in business and have provided for my family’s future. I don’t need to rely on a government pension. Oh, I’m not vested at the county either, so let’s be clear, none of my public service has yielded any government, taxpayer funded pension for me.
Speaking of pensions Don Sumners, please tell us about your double-dipping from the state’s retirement account. You retired from the county and collected a pension, then ran for office and began double-dipping, both contributing and collecting (at the much higher salary of tax assessor, which increased your pension). Fact.
And, it is spelled R-A-D-A-C-K, not “Raddack”.
To the residents of Braeburn Valley and many in Bonham Acres – your houses may have flooded because the City of Houston compromised your drainage system by taking the first primary drainage easement from Bonham Acres and connecting it to a woefully undersized outfall put in during the development of Braeburn Valley.
The original 30′ easement that served Bonham Acres Section 1 with it’s open channel to Brays Bayou is now a paved driveway and a City of Houston sanitary sewer easement.
The city also approved tying the 17 acre 7575 Bissonnet Apartments into that same system. All of this has been well documented and presented to both Precinct 3 and the City of Houston. Neither will offer any relief from this clear violation of the Texas Water Code Statute 11.086.
Sylvester Turner’s Public Works Director Carol Haddock and Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, who in the past has been very responsive, have abdicated their responsibilities to the citizens of these neighborhoods and should be held accountable.
All of the owners of the flooded houses have a pretty good case to make against the City of Houston and its dereliction of its duty as flood plain administrator.
Deleyne~ (this Comment has further explanation)~ Everyone knows you are a good friend of Brenda Stardig’s so are writing to defend her, rather than looking at this objectively as a 3rd disinterested party seeking engineering truth & reality. When Brenda sat on TIRZ 17’s Board of Directors, their Developers caused the 1st Flood of over 1000 homes North & South of IH-10, in 2009. She is clearly on the side of the Developers & has maintained her close alliance with them ever since being elected to City Council District A~ she has defended their not putting in promised Detention Ponds, in specific places advised by their excellent 1st engineer, Walter P. Moore Sr in 2002~ she uses alibis such as “there is NO LAND”, whereas in truth the Developers already OWN the Land for these Detention Ponds! And Stardig’s COS Peck has announced publicly that she will maintain this “legacy” if elected, to carry it forth. The Truth is, TIRZ 17 signed a Contract in 2003 to put in 4 Detention Ponds in specific places, with all City Officials’ signatures as witnesses. BUT these Ponds have never been built, to-date!: 2 Ponds were to be built adjacent W-151, which is a major City drainpipe under Witte Rd, just North of IH10, in TIRZ 17 Territory; and 1 Pond was to go underneath Memorial City Mall, and 1 Pond in Attingham Basin, where Town & Country resides. Repeat: not 1 of these Ponds has ever been built to-date! The Developers signed to put in these Ponds to get the Public off their backs~ the Public did not trust (& still do not trust) these Developers, so demanded such a Contract be used, to validate the recommendation of TIRZ 17’s 1st engineering Study done in 2002 by Walter P. Moore, Sr, who was excellent & advised these Ponds because he said otherwise, if they did NOT put in these Ponds in these places, they’d flood surrounding homes & properties. But the TIRZ 17 Developers then threw away or hid this Contract & have renegged on it, because building these 4 Ponds are costly & the Developers are greedy, so do not want to put in these Ponds. Instead, they put in 1 “Faux” Pond next to Costco/Lowe’s, which is 2X’s too small & is not in the correct location! ~ Witte Rd is 2 Blocks WEST of where they SHOULD have put this Pond. AND it was put in for the benefit of IH-10 Feeder Rd on North Side, between Blalock & Bunker Hill, and for commercial development in this region along IH-10 (Sky-Dive, Frost Family Mid-Rise Condos, PDQ Chicken, etc) ~ it was NOT put in for benefit of homeowners who are being flooded by TIRZ 17 new redevelopment! WHERE are Politicians who SHOULD be defending We the People, poor homeowners suffering this flooding?!
Is Stardig the only Republican who filed? I think this is still likely a decently “Burgundy/Maroon” (not “Deep Red”, but closer to “Red” than “Purple”) spot, but its “redness”, at least in my eyes, seems dependent on the candidate who the Rs put up.
We saw what happened to Culberson… we saw that Crenshaw (53%) didn’t do as well as Poe (lowest re-election spread was about 24 points and unseated Lampson by 10 points)… we’re seeing the Olson is preferring to hang it up and focus on a life in Sugar Land than to have to deal with another tough campaign to get 2 more years in DC… the North/NW/SW suburbs are getting to be increasingly about the candidate than a party.