Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Harris County should not set bail bond fees

by

So I open the inbox this morning and I see that Bill King is once again trying to remain relevant by supporting more regulations on the bail bond industry. Here is a snippet of his latest regulatory intrusion scheme.

Harris County is experiencing a spike in violent crimes. Numerous media reports have shown that a significant portion of the increase in violent crimes have been committed by individuals who have been released on bail. One of the reasons for the increase in the number of defendants accused of violent crimes being released is that some bail bondsmen have been discounting and/or financing the fee to obtain a bond.

Historically, bail bondsmen have required a 10% fee to post a bond for a defendant. For example, if a judge sets a bond of $100,000, a defendant would normally be required to pay the bondsman a fee of $10,000.   But there are numerous reports of some bondsmen either deeply discounting the fee or writing a bond for a small down payment and financing the balance. By engaging in these practices these bail bondsmen are effectively reducing the bond required by the court and financing a part of the fee creates an incentive for defendants to commit other crimes to make their payments.

That’s crap. Bovine processed hay. And another example of the self-professed unapologetically liberal Bill King.

Let’s be clear. The responsibility for any and all crime committed by people out on bail lies solely with the person committing the crime. Period.

Now, if you want to argue that SOME people that are charged with committing violent crimes should not be released on bail, great. Argue it. Judges have the discretion to not release people into the streets if they are deemed to be risks to society.

Blaming a bail bonding company for the crimes committed by criminals is crap. Bovine processed hay.

But typical Bill King. His SAM party has endorsed one candidate in the November elections. A lobbyist in the Austin area for HD-19. Go figure. BTW, his SAM party is being financed by the Arnolds. Yippee.

How about we focus on the policies of the Harris County Commissioners Court and the actions of the Democrat judges in the county if we want to stop the madness that we see reported on the news every single day. Crime is completely out of control in Harris County and you can lay the blame for the increase at the feet of those that have emboldened criminals.

Let’s face it. Criminals are no longer afraid of law enforcement in Harris County. Want to stop it? Change the politicians in power.

Don’t blame the bail bond industry. BTW, why is 10% a magical number? Why not outlaw bail bonds entirely if they are the issue?

They aren’t the issue but it’s easy to focus on an industry that few of us will ever interact with. Just say no to the unapologetically moderate.

DA Kim Ogg on defunding law enforcement in Harris County

by

kim ogg
Kim Ogg

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Harris County Commissioners Court, District Attorney Kim Ogg forcefully demanded that newly created management office stop defunding law enforcement in Harris County.

Sounds odd, right? I mean after all Judge Hidalgo and Commissioners Ellis and Garcia have stated in press releases that they have increased funding for law enforcement. DA Ogg shreds these press releases by pointing out that at the same time the Court was claiming to have increased funding the newly created management office was decreasing it and moving funds to other areas.

This is a must watch video for anyone interested in why crime is out of control in Harris County. Take the 12 minutes needed to listen to Ogg shred the new management office and the Commissioners Court. And then spread Ogg’s message far and wide.

The out of control crime in Harris County must stop.

Disney, Hypocrisy and Thought Policing

by

Walt Disney World currently has stirred controversy regarding a performance by the Port Neches-Groves ISD (PNG) drill team (the Indianettes) performing a routine involving the school fight song and the refrain I-N-D-I-A-N-S Scalp ‘em Indians Scalp ‘em.  I grew up in the area, and PNG has a long, proud tradition. They will not yield to cancel culture regarding the school mascot. This is a battle cancel culture will not win.  Looking at the history of PNG, and their history with the Cherokee Nation, shows how this is a contrived outrage and yet another example of cancel culture and thought policing.

PNG History

The district’s history can be found here. A brief summary of the history shows they have used the Indian mascot for almost a century.  Until recent times this was uncontroversial.  In 1979 the Cherokee Nation sent PNG a certificate naming the school district ambassadors of goodwill.  PNG is a district steeped in tradition.  The school fight song and routine has been the same since 1979.  Society and societal views have changed; not the district.

Thought Policing

Disney is exercising selective outrage over the Indianette routine last week.  One need look no farther then the Disney portrayal of Tiger Lily from Peter Pan or Pocahontas to see the nature of the selective outrage. (See the trivia section at the bottom.)  The selective outrage is cancel culture trying to engage in thought policing.  This is something we will experience on an increasing basis as the general election cycle heats up.  This tactic is frequently used by the left to try and silence opposition when the merits of their position are weak or unsupported.  The pitfall conservatives walk into time and time again is to engage with the liberals on their terms.  Rather than engaging on the grounds the liberals want we need to point out the thought policing that occurs.

Most people don’t want to be told what to think.  Rather than engaging on the arguments liberals are making we need to be pointing out the thought policing and refusing to engage on the liberals chosen battlefield.  This is going to be very important in the upcoming general election cycle.  On a national level the liberals already see the dire situation the progressives have created and are trying to back track their positions such as defunding the police.

Locally, this isn’t happening nearly as much.  We have clearly defined issues that will decide this election, and the opportunity to offer a message of hope.  That’s a bad confluence of events for the democrat candidates since it leaves the with few tools available to argue their position.  Judge Hidalgo and Commissioner’s Court aren’t trying to walk back their positions on crime.  Instead, they are trying to deflect blame on others.  When that doesn’t work they will engage in thought policing since that’s the only tool they will have readily available to try and oppose messaging that their policies are leading to worsening crime.

Consistently pointing out their attempts to thought police and casting their attempts as further arrogance serves to remove this tool from their toolbox.  A person’s mind is their own domain, and no one likes being told what to think.  Going on the offensive against thought policing when and only when the democrats start to engage in the activity both yields political gain this cycle as well as erodes the underpinnings for cancel culture.

Happiness and Hope in November

by

With the exception of a few runoffs the election now turns to November, and messaging changes out of necessity.  Sometimes election cycles are characterized by dueling issue sets.  That’s not the case this cycle.  We have very distinct issues that are going to establish the election.  Rather than look at the issues and how they are impacting people directly we are better served by seeing how the issues resonate within the context of happiness and hope.

Preexisting Conditions

The closest we have to preexisting conditions are the 2018 and 2020 Senate races compared to the HISD runoff election.  I’m limiting this to HISD Position Six since it was the only competitive race and likely the only race that reflects the current political conditions rather than a candidate set which was a fairly certain outcome that could have modified voter turnout in the runoff election.  Looking at the election results we see a bit of a change from 2018 and 2020.

In HISD Precinct Six precincts the 2018 and 2020 aggregate election results were strikingly similar for the two Senate elections.  Excluding third party candidates, Republicans saw a 1.2% increase in the vote in 2020 compared to 2018 levels.  In the HISD Runoff election Republicans saw another 9.0% increase in the vote total.  This nine percent is composed some degree of a change in underlying political sentiment and some degree of increased GOTV efforts by HCRP for the race.

We have one other data point of interest.  The 2018 and 2020 general election percentage of vote compared to the primary percentage of vote.   That, too, is remarkably consistent with a 0.1% change in the split between the two years.  With the splits remarkably similar we have no reason to doubt the change in the 2021 HISD runoff election is a genuine change in the overall political sentiment.

Who is Happy?

While the academics argue the why, polling shows conservatives are happier than liberals.  Rather than look at why political belief blocks have a difference in happiness we can see opportunity if we look at what the disparity in happiness means for party affiliation.  If a person is unhappy, all things being equal, they will gravitate to what brings them hope.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the poor playing the lottery in a disproportionate amount or the forlorn going to church for comfort.  They bring hope and comfort to the unhappy.

Fear and Hope

Fear is a strong motivating factor and pushes people off a position.  This is different than hope which is a draw.  Simply being afraid enough to be pushed into being open to a different voting path doesn’t help Republicans if we don’t have a corresponding message of hope to draw the disenchanted and scared voter to us.  Harris County has an opportunity where prudent messaging engages both fear and hope at the same time giving the possibility for a significant shift in voting this cycle.  Inflation and crime are out of control in the County, and that message is resonating in the overall political climate.  This is an opportunity to have a unified message all the way down the ballot.  The message needs to be one of hope though.

Crime

Bail isn’t supposed to be an instrument of oppression, but the current lax bail policies are making us horribly less safe.  Once a week I hear gunshots either at the office or at home.  It wasn’t like that even a year ago.  This is a message of both fear and hope.  From a County Judge and Commissioner’s Court position the argument can be crime is out of control, and we are going to do what we can in order to make sure the situation becomes controlled.  This will happen both from the standpoint of making sure that our law enforcement entities are fully funded, recite how the democrat majority tried to reduce funding to law enforcement, and then point out that the Commissioner’s Court can use the power of the purse strings to make sure the District Attorney’s office is making full use of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure to act as a check and balance against the current permissive bond judges.

Texas Code of Criminal Procedure

Art. 16.16. IF INSUFFICIENT BAIL HAS BEEN TAKEN. Where it is made to appear by affidavit to a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, a justice of a court of appeals, or to a judge of the district or county court, that the bail taken in any case is insufficient in amount, or that the sureties are not good for the amount, or that the bond is for any reason defective or insufficient, such judge shall issue a warrant of arrest, and require of the defendant sufficient bond and security, according to the nature of the case.

This message carries through all the way down ballot.  While the Court of Appeals judges can’t indicate how they will rule on the issues they can indicate they would be open to considering such a request from the District Attorney’s office.  The County Judge and Commissioner’s Court candidates can discuss applying pressure to have the District Attorney’s office make such requests if they believe bond is insufficient to protect public safety. The criminal court judge candidates can talk about how they will give due consideration to the public safety prong of the bond assessment factors.  Repeating public safety over and over taps into the fear of out of control crime in the county and provides the hope of solving the problem by making sure the public safety factors are given due consideration.

Inflation and Social Services

Inflation is at a 40+ year high and we all suffer because of the extra cost it imposes.  A message of hope and solution for inflation helps bring candidates to our side in November.  Again, this has to be a message of hope not one of fear.  Just as with crime, this can be a unifying message all the way down ballot.  Change the focus from flooding and social issues to one of this isn’t the time for new taxes from taxing entities – like the upcoming HISD bond rumblings – and focus on how we can spend Covid and flood relief funds for measures that help every day needs.

Instead of using Covid funds to pay for abortion like Judge Hidalgo wants use Covid funds to increase WIC allowances.  That directly contrasts our vision of appropriate social spending to that of the democrats on Commissioner’s Court as well as belies the Democrat’s message that Republicans don’t care about babies after they are born.  We become the party of hope rather than special interest, and not only gain from the message of hope but also move the public sentiment against any new taxation measures that may be raised.  We benefit by bringing hope to answer the fear caused by inflation.

Resist Conservative Primary Messaging Issues

This isn’t the time to be talking in terms of conservative focused messaging that plays well in the primaries.  If we focus on Critical Race Theory we lose.  That’s a message of fear and is counterproductive to the opportunity we have before us.   Focusing on property tax reform – while a good idea – is a bad message this cycle.  The transition from a property tax to a consumption tax just heightens the fear of the struggling middle of the road voter who is more concerned about inflation and meeting their family’s immediate needs.

Solving crime, redirecting spending to core services and prudent social relief efforts, and no new taxes either in the form of sales tax or governmental bonds is where we move hearts and minds this cycle.  Social program spending should ebb and flow, and right now it needs to flow in the form of more targeted spending.  By contrasting socially constructive spending to the Democrat’s social engineering and pet priorities we draw a contrast between our value system and their value system.  We look like problem solvers while they look ever more extreme.

By intentionally choosing to be unifying and giving people hope we have a chance to win. Not only the criminal courts, but on any proposed bonds and the County Judge/Commissioner’s Court seats.  The time is ours, but are we wise enough to see the opportunity and seize it?

Lawsuits filed about gross incompetence in Harris County primary election

by

Because it is no longer possible to trust elections in Harris County, two lawsuits were filed today against Isabel Longoria in her official capacity as Harris County Elections Administrator. Where to start?

The Lawsuits

As noted, two lawsuits were filed this morning. The first was filed by the Harris County Republican Party as cause number 202213752 in District Court 133. Click to read. The second was a bipartisan filing by Democratic candidate for County Commissioner Pct 2 George Risner, Republican candidate for County Commissioner Richard Vega, and Republican candidate for Texas Senate District 11 Bianca Gracia as cause number 202213773. Click to read.

The lawsuits are very different in nature. The HCRP lawsuit lists six specific errors in addition to other complaints. Here is the introduction and the six specific cited errors.

This action arises out of the worst election fiasco in Texas history. On March 1, 2022, the Republican and Democratic parties of Harris County held a Primary Election. Both parties contracted with, and relied on, Defendant to perform administrative and planning functions for that Primary Election. Among other things, Defendant was responsible for obtaining voting machines, delivering voting machines to polling locations, printing correct ballots, ensuring that each polling location received correct ballots, assigning election judges to polling locations, and a variety of other functions required to hold county-wide elections.

Harris County is one of the largest counties in the United States with millions of registered voters, and primary elections require extensive advance planning and preparation. To prepare properly, Defendant had to start the process months in advance. However, Defendant was appointed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo – over the strenuous objections of Plaintiff – despite having no experience in election administration. Defendant completely dropped the ball, causing a litany of election disasters that disenfranchised voters, created significant risk of fraud and miscounting, and will likely delay final canvassing.

  • Defendant issued incorrect ballots to certain polling locations, preventing voters from being able to vote for federal and state elected officials. Defendant not only failed to correct these errors after voters complained, but denied that the problem existed and blamed the issue on voter confusion.
  • Defendant provided some ballots on the wrong size paper (8 ½ inch by 11 inch paper instead of 8 ½ inch by 14 inch paper). This mistake resulted in as many as 15-20 races being omitted fromthe ballots.
  • Defendant failed to complete the counting of ballots within twenty-four hours of the polls closing and, despite representing that counting was complete, still has not counted all ElectionDay ballots.
  • Defendant failed to deliver the required number of working voting machines and adequatesupplies such as paper to polling locations. Further, some delivered voting machines did notfunction correctly.
  • Defendant overrode republican appointments, of election judges and provided no notice of these unlawful changes causing confusion and leaving some locations without coverage on electionday.
  • Defendant removed the cameras recording vote counting before the process was complete in violation of Texas law.

The bipartisan lawsuit starts with this (bold added for emphasis):

This case is a bi-partisan petition aimed at addressing the constitutional and statutory violations of the Harris County Elections Administrator (“Administrator”). The Administrator’s unlawful acts include intentionally, willfully, and knowingly failing to adequately allocate equipment, paper ballots that are capable of preserving the voters’ intent, and failing to operate voting centers during the posted hours. These actions have violated and will continue to violate Petitioners statutory right to a safe, accurate, and efficient election, to produce records that allow an accurate audit. Additionally, the Administrator violated Petitioners Texas Constitutional guarantees of equal protection,  purity  of the ballot box, and the right of suffrage.

This suit seeks a permanent injunction to protect Petitioners’ rights and to restore the sanctity of the votes in every political party in Harris County, Texas.

And this section of the bipartisan lawsuit is wild:

28. On or near March 2, 2022, Isabel Longoria hosted a press conference to update the general public on the progress of the election count.3 During this interview the following occurred:

Unknown Reporter= UR
Isabel Longoria= IL
Mario Diaz= MD

Beginning of Excerpt:

“UR: Any idea of how many damage ballots there are
IL: Damage ballots is your words not mine.
UR: But still, that is a word damage ballots…
IL: if you’re asking me damage ballots there’s no damage ballots…
IL: If you are asking me how many ballots are coming in tonight, we’ve got about a hundred and something thousand voters who voted today so we’ll know at the end of election night how many ballots we have.
MD: Are there any issues with Ballots?
IL: Sure. Got paper jams… you got smudges on your ballots… very typical stuff…”

29. Moments later the Administrator went to say the following:

“I’ll be honest election night gets stressful. You’ve got Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other. Again, they are stealing each other’s ballot boxes. They’re playing pranks on each other.”

30. When confronted by reporters about stealing ballot boxes Isabela Longoria shifts and says that the parties were hiding each other’s highlighters and papers.

How bizarre.

I asked HCRP Precinct Chair and Cameron County GOP Legal Counsel Mark McCaig for comment on these lawsuits.

These lawsuits are an important step in holding Isabel Longoria and her office accountable for the shambles of an election she conducted. The multitude and severity of problems described in these lawsuits sounds like something you would expect to see in a developing nation, not Harris County. The bi-partisan condemnation of Longoria’s handling of this election demonstrates the magnitude of incompetence, if not malfeasance, that occurred. I applaud Chairwoman Siegel and her team for taking swift and aggressive legal action to try to remedy these issues and prevent them from occurring again in the future. – Mark McCaig

You should read the lawsuits in full.

Harris County Republican Party Press Conference

The HCRP held a press conference today at 2:00 pm to discuss their lawsuit. 

Harris County Republican Party

HCRP Cindy Siegel is demanding that the courts appoint an independent overseer for the next three elections in Harris County, May 1st, May 26th, and the November General Election. Attorney Steve Mitby focused on the late night news dump that 10,000 ballots were not included in the official count, charged that Isabel Longoria misrepresented her office’s ability to the original court on March 2nd, and that Republicans do not believe that the Democrats that run the county are going to be transparent and open the books to all parties in an effort to find out what happened. He also stated that County Judge Lina Hidalgo would have to answer questions under oath about hiring Ms. Longoria.

I don’t remember ever seeing Sen. Paul Bettencourt as livid as he was during the press conference. He was really ticked about the 10:30 pm Saturday night news release that 10,000 ballots had been “found” and said that neither party had been notified of this before the press release. He stated that no one can argue that Isabel Longoria is competent to run an election and that the commissioners court needs to hire someone competent. Someone that doesn’t come out late on a Saturday evening and say, “oops!”. He also said that the only reason they found out about the missing ballots was because of a provision in the new voting integrity bill, SB1, that requires ballots issued to votes tabulated to match. You know the one, the ‘racist’ GOP voter suppression law.

Probably the best line came from HCRP’s Ballot Security Chair Alan Vera. Mr. Vera asked “At what point does election incompetence become the perfect camoflage for election malfeasance?”

You can watch the press conference on Facebook.

Thoughts

I’m already at the point that Mr. Vera mentioned. I can’t ever remember feeling like this about an election. Not even after the November 2020 fiasco in a few of the states around the country. Perhaps that is because I saw it first hand. It took me 1 1/2 hours to vote on Tuesday, standing in line with a hundred others in the cold. There were very few Democrats voting at the La Porte poll location and yet they had the same amount of equipment as the Republicans. There weren’t enough workers inside. My ballot jammed and wouldn’t print. Once I got someone to come over and fix it the ballot I had jammed in the ballot counter. Who knows if my votes were tabulated. And this happened all over the city. Everyone should read the boots on the ground account of the election written by Felicia Cravens.

I happen to be one of the few Republicans that respect County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia. I truly don’t believe that they are intentionally trying to steal elections. As the evidence mounts it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold this position. I feel so strongly about this that I personally asked them to fire Isabel Longoria, a very unusual step for me. I cannot shake this feeling that the partisan leadership of the county is betraying the voters. And that makes me very sad indeed. 

Fire Isabel Longoria and her entire executive staff now.

Alexandra del Moral Mealer for Harris County Judge

by

One of the benefits of skipping early voting and waiting until Election Day to vote is that you have more time to learn about the candidates and, hopefully, make the best choices for your philosophy. As I noted last Wednesday I was undecided for whom to vote for in the race for Harris County Judge.

Also as noted I was leaning towards Vidal Martinez with Alexandra del Moral Mealer on deck. After hearing from many conservatives and speaking with Mrs. Mealer, or Alex as she prefers, she has my enthusiastic vote. Why? Glad you asked.

First off, I like to vote FOR someone if I can and not vote for a candidate simply because they aren’t the ‘other guy’. And I can easily do that with Alex for numerous reasons but these are the three that moved me out of the Vidal camp.

  • Strong endorsements from grassroots activists
  • Detailed knowledge and understanding of the Harris County Budget and the ability to articulate the problems with the current path we are on
  • The self-awareness to know that she is not an expert on all things in public policy and the willingness to reach out and collaborate with people knowledgeable in areas that are not her expertise

Strong grassroots endorsements

If you look at the Alexandra del Moral Mealer website endorsement page, I think she has it ass backwards. I’m happy that Mattress Mac endorsed her but don’t care about it. That page is laid out in a typical political style, with celebrities, former and current elected officials, law enforcement and political organizations before you get to the grassroots activists that make or break campaigns. If it were my endorsement page, I’d put the SREC reps and precinct chairs first up. I mean, seriously, look at the number of precinct chairs she has supporting her.

And the fact that many of them took the time to reach out to me after I said that I was undecided is a show of enthusiasm that is rarely seen in the HCRP. And it is very much welcome. If anything swayed my vote it was that. One of them urged me to call her and get to understand why her leadership skills would translate into the public policy arena. I did and here we are.

Knowledge of the Harris County budget

The Harris County budget is a monster that is presented in a way that taxpayers cannot understand it. It is that way for a reason, and that reason is that both political parties don’t want you to know the specifics. I’ve spent years trying to get a grasp on it and still haven’t fully mastered it.

When speaking with Alex, it was clear that she has put her West Point and Harvard degrees to good use and has studied the budget in-depth and understands it very well. I had read her opinion piece on it a while back and was impressed but in speaking with her I knew that the op-ed wasn’t written in collaboration with someone or ghost written, which is what usually happens. No, she is the one with the knowledge and I was really impressed with her understanding and her path to fix the looming problems.

Self-awareness

Those of us with large egos tend to think that we are the be-all and end-all of everything. To temper that, we have to become aware that we aren’t the be-all and end-all and learn to collaborate with others in areas of weakness. Now don’t misunderstand me: I am not saying that Alex has my problem. But since it is my problem, I look at others through that lens. Because of that I was concerned that her military experience would not translate into the type of collaborative leadership that is required in the political realm.

After speaking with her, I am no longer concerned about that. She has been out of the military for 10 years and has risen in the ranks of the oil & gas industry in her field of finance. Which, other than being on a rig risking your life, is one of the hardest jobs in that industry. There are a lot of geologists that can help point where to drill and hopefully be rewarded but there are very few people who understand the complexities of today’s financial instruments and can convince a skeptical board to invest the company’s finances her way. By all accounts she has been able to do that.

The other candidates

Like I said earlier, I like to find candidates to vote FOR not against. And if Vidal wins the primary, I could vote FOR him in November. One of the things that I overlooked in my initial lean towards him was his history of financial contributions. I knew that he had contributed to several Democratic candidates in 2019, including current County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Note that his contribution to Judge Hidalgo came after she defeated Ed Emmett, meaning that Vidal’s contribution didn’t help her in that race.

What I missed was two contributions that he made to ActBlue Texas, also in 2019. That is a non-starter for any Republican. I’d love to hear why he contributed to an organization that has been trying to turn Texas blue for years. That is their stated goal, to defeat every Republican. That was a huge mistake on his part and he deserves any flak he gets for it.

As for the other ‘front-runner’, Martina Lemond Dixon, that’s a hard no for me. Very few school board members can make the transition from spending money at will to being a watchdog for wasteful tax spending. I noticed that Dan Huberty endorsed her, that should tell you something right there.

But worse, she is the type of politician that people sucking at the teet of government love. She was recruited to run for the job by the downtown financiers, pledging and delivering hundreds of thousands to her campaign. I remember getting an invite early in her campaign for a fundraiser and I could buy a table for $50,000. Yeah, sure. And I noticed that Dan ‘Red Flag Law’ Crenshaw gave her $5,000 from his campaign.

She is now saying that while she was on the Humble ISD board, she reduced taxes by 15% since 2016. Now, any sane person knows that is not accurate. Let’s take a look at Humble ISD’s audited finances from 2016-2020.

Fiscal YearEnrollmentRevenueExpenditures
2016           40,549  $ 458,471,201  $  447,320,670 
2017           41,224  $ 462,214,586  $  524,231,500 
2018           42,391  $ 490,275,697  $  587,618,063 
2019           43,553  $ 546,731,529  $  539,908,951 
2020           45,078  $ 556,746,306  $  620,160,739 
% Increase11.2%21.4%38.6%

A 21.4% increase in revenue, a 38.6% increase in expenditures with a student enrollment increase of only 11.2%. Does that look like a 15% decrease to you? What about per student spending?

Fiscal YearCost per Student
2016 $        11,704 
2017 $        13,614 
2018 $        14,902 
2019 $        13,294 
2020 $        14,729 
% Increase25.8%

A 25.8% increase in the cost to educate a student in five years? Did your wages go up 25.8% for those five years? Now that is a candidate that I would vote against.

But fortunately I don’t have to worry about that because I found a candidate that I can vote FOR, Alexandra del Moral Mealer. I hope you consider doing the same.