I had a great time tonight at the King Street Patriots candidate meet greet! There was a good turnout of both candidates and voters and I promise you this – the voters got to see candidates they never would have been exposed to and the candidates got to meet voters they never would have otherwise.
Why do this? Because, as Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of King Street Patriots said, it is always good to hear viewpoints that you normally wouldn’t. Speaking of Catherine, my respect for her and her work grows daily. True the Vote is having a national impact – because of that, Catherine and the rest of the “Streeters” are constantly attacked with half-truths and blatant lies such as those in this piece in the October edition of The Atlantic. How she and behind the scenes guru Mark Antill put up with that crap with such grace is way beyond my ability.
We had sixteen candidates address a crowd of roughly 150 people. Each candidate had two minutes to sell grab enough interest to get people talking to them after the official intros. From the looks of it afterwards, all of the candidates did their job.
Here is the list of candidates that spoke:
- David Collins – Green Party candidate for US Senate
- Kesha Rogers – Democratic Party candidate for US House CD 22
- Jim Murphy – Republican State Rep, 133
- Doug Weiskopf – Republican Candidate for State Rep, 143
- Mike Anderson – Republican Candidate for Harris County District Attorney
- Lloyd Oliver – Democratic Candidate for Harris County District Attorney
- Mike Sullivan – Republican candidate for Harris County Tax Assessor Collector
- Robert Talton – Republican candidate for Harris County County Attorney
- Chuck Maricle – Republican candidate for Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 1
- Joe Danna – Republican candidate for Constable, Precinct 1
- Carlos Villalobos – Green Party candidate for Constable, Precinct 1
- Michael Wolfe – Republican Harris County Board of Education Trustee, Position 3, At-Large
- Donna Bahorich – Republican candidate for SBOE District 6
- Lillian Wanjagi – candidate for Cy Fair ISD Trustee Position 3
- Angela Wesley – candidate for Cy Fair ISD Trustee Position 4
- Elizabeth Perez – candidate for Houston City Council District E
It was a lot of fun and very informative. I bet that some people were surprised when Kesha Rogers started out with “we have to get rid of Obama”. Or when the Green Party candidates seemed downright reasonable and authentic, clearly articulating that we all have common goals as citizens. And I know they liked SBOE candidate Donna Bahorich’s explanation of why the SBOE was important because two people came up and thanked me for it. Guess I was the closest one. And voters got to see the stark difference between the two candidates for District Attorney – Mike Anderson is clearly better qualified and all fantasies of Lykos voters switching over to vote for the Democrat need to evaporate. And Robert Talton standing up and telling the truth – Vince Ryan has to go. And then there was Elizabeth Perez’s continued growth as a candidate – it is only a matter of time before she wins an election.
All in all, a fun, informative evening. See you guys next week at the next meet greet for judicial candidates!
A few pictures (before and after, I didn’t have time to take them during):
