Who cares where they live? You should...

I read with interest Matt Matt's piece about residency of City Council Candidates;  mainly because I've been wanting to do the story for months, but in the world of TV news, local council races don't generate as much interest as say:  A HURRICANE! Or something like that.   Anyway, the bottom line is this, the residency of these candidates have been open secrets for years, and nobody seems to care.

About three years ago, I did several stories on State Senator Mario Gallegos.  He has lived in Pearland for 20 years, but his "residency" has always been at his mother's house in Houston.  Sure, it's wrong, we even had video of Sen. Gallegos picking up the morning paper at his Pearland home.  But, it didn't matter, voters who wanted him, liked him, voted for him anyway.

Most recently, political activists in District F, Democratic and Republican, have known that M.J. Khan has never "lived" in the district, although he has substantial business interests in town.  The grumblings I've heard from insiders goes something like:  "Um, we couldn't find anyone else better/willing to run for District F, so um... M.J. will do."

As for Zaf Tahir, he is in M.J.'s camp, though one is a Democrat and the other Republican.  Most recently, Tahir served as a precinct chair in Fort Bend County during an election last year.  So, why not just run in Sugar Land, where he lives?  The wisdom there appears to be that Sugar Land voters are VERY REPUBLICAN, and Tahir has no chance in you-know-what to win.  Since Houston's more progressive and voters don't seem to care, why not?

All I got to say is this, candidate Jolanda Jones must be happy, very happy.

Comments

[Actual Houstonian]

You forgot to mention Jack "Bunker Hill" Christie.

[Hamilton]

Miya - While on the subject of residency, you should look into the case of State Sen. Kyle Janek. He's even worse than Gallegos. His website claims he lives in West U, but Ed Hendee said on KSEV yesterday that Janek is now living in a mansion in Austin. Unlike Gallegos, Janek doesn't even have a fake residence in Houston any more!

Send your news crews there and I bet you could get videos of him living there...but they'd have to wait a few blocks down the street for him to emerge. Janek lives in one of those gated neighborhoods where only rich white people are allowed to go.