Fortunately, the Chron’s Chris Moran put up a short piece late last night that I can point you to. Mr. Moran does a nice job of contrasting the two men that are running, Leo Vasquez and Don Sumners. If you read the piece carefully, you can easily see that the two have very different visions for the position, with Mr. Vasquez choosing to treat the position from the viewpoint of the customer (taxpayer) and Mr. Sumners preferring to use it as a bullhorn for taxpayer advocacy, ala Bettencourt.
I’ll certainly focus more on this race in the next couple weeks leading up to the start of early voting. For now, a quick look at the campaign finance reports of the two men:
| Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | |
| Sumners | $ 202.36 | $ 1,935.91 | $ 0.00 |
| Vasquez | $ 56,667.31 | $ 10,289.93 | $ 101,973.99 |
Obviously, the advantage goes to Vasquez. Money doesn’t mean everything in life but it comes pretty darn close in politics. Boots on the ground can overcome a lack of funding but I attend a lot of HCRP and grassroots functions and I have yet to see anyone but Mr. Sumners and his wife campaigning for him.
I found one quote in Mr. Moran’s article particularly interesting.
“I just didn’t want to see all the work that Paul had done to raise the stature of the office to make it something more than just a bureaucratic collection agency, which is really what it was under (Carl) Smith,” who led the office from 1947 until his death in 1998, Sumners said.
Let’s look at that a bit. I realize that Bettencourt is well liked by Republicans in the county and I’m one that has praised his work in the past. But let’s not go overboard here. While Bettencourt did help modernize the office (at the same time the country as a whole was modernizing), his “raising the stature of the office” did nothing to help the actual customers of that office. It certainly profited Bettencourt: after years of screaming and yelling about high property taxes and appraisals, he quit shortly after being elected and is now making a buck or two off of…high property taxes and appraisals. Perhaps that is a good vision for personal gain but I prefer this one:
To Vasquez, that means customer service. Short lines and convenience mean the tax assessor-collector is doing his job, he said.
He said he is holding town hall meetings to remind people they can renew vehicle registrations at the supermarket. He is working on an agreement with selected inspection stations to allow them to issue registration stickers along with inspections.
He also hopes to take the chaotic tax sales on the county courthouse steps and refine them with Internet bidding and putting only one property on the block at a time.
Vasquez said he will focus on service before picking any battles to cut taxes or fight increases.
Um, just a guess here but I’d bet that anyone that has to deal with the Harris County Tax office would prefer Mr. Vasquez’s vision to one of personal gain. Could just be me though. Take a look at one of Mr. Vasquez’s initiatives shortly after taking office. That is an example of a good government initiative. At the same time it helps to erase the memory of one of Bettencourt’s major failings – the problems in 2008 with voter registration. I know, I know. Don’t criticize Uncle Paul. Well, facts are facts and there were problems in 2008.
Which brings me to the Democrats and their continued attempts to hang that problem of Bettencourt’s around Mr. Vasquez’s neck. For years, they wanted Bettencourt to stand down from the “raised stature” of the office and concentrate on the fundamentals. They got their wish when Bettencourt quit and Mr. Vasquez, a successful businessman educated at Yale and Columbia, is appointed and starts to immediately implement his management style, servant leadership. Gone is the shrill voice of the office, replaced with a calm, collected, listener committed to improving customer service. And what do they do?
They continue to tie him to Bettencourt’s problems. If you look around the lefty bloggers, it is done almost daily. Today’s version comes from the most popular of them, Charles Kuffner over at Off the Kuff.
Staying home also means four more years of the Republicans running every aspect of elections in Harris County, from voter registration, where Leo Vasquez is busy maintaining Paul Bettencourt’s legacy, to voting machines.
Now, Kuff knows that isn’t true. But his goal is to get Diane Trautman elected in November, so today was his day to carry that line. Tomorrow it will be someone else’s and the next day another blogger will fill in. The hope being that, over time, they can convince enough Democratic voters to not cross over and vote for a guy that they themselves asked for.
This little piece grew, it happens from time to time. Let’s finish up with another quote from Mr. Moran’s article in the Chronicle, this one referencing candidate Sumners:
He said he will relax Vasquez’s dress code, which includes ties for men except during the summer months. He also pledges to bring foam cups back to the tax office cafeteria for employees’ convenience.
Okay, I admit, I don’t like to wear ties either, especially in Houston’s heat. But I get the idea that professionals should look and act like…professionals. And the last time I looked, the county tax offices were air-conditioned.
And pray tell, just why are the inter-left bloggers not supporting Mr. Vasquez? I mean, come on! The guy is GREEN! He got rid of the styrofoam cups! Are you freaking kidding me?!