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Oh, the sufferings of being a staffer to Council Member Peter Brown. We're told he.. ahem.. asked nicely that two of his staff members get decked out as Barack Obama and John McCain for the entertainment value of City Hall. Yes, everyone had a good laugh! Maybe Brown will give his staffers a treat for the pain and suffering.
Oh, it's the last day of early voting...
Earlier today, 
I had a chance to sit down with Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and the man who wants his job, David Mincberg. The men were at Channel 13's studios participating in the second part of a series of debates. My colleague Art Rascon moderated the debate between Sheriff Tommy Thomas and his challenger, Houston City Council Member Adrian Garcia.
The good thing about Emmett and Mincberg, they're not afraid to take the gloves off, and that always makes for an interesting debate. Mincberg alluded that Emmett wasn't hands-on enough during Hurricane Ike, while Emmett challenged anyone to make that charge after looking at his record.
The two men talked about crime, quality of life, and mass transit, among a number of issues. But the fists really started flying when the question turned to ethics and leadership. Mincberg, the challenger, has been really tough on Emmett in this department. Whether his complaints sound like bad negative campaigning remains to be seen. But, the guy likes props. You'll have to wait until the debate airs to see that little bit of interesting back and forth. Emmett, of course, stood his ground. He's not shy about fighting back, including a somewhat annoyed glance over at Mincberg at certain intervals.
Which one of these candidates came out on top? Tune in this Sunday at 11 a.m. on Channel 13 to find out.
For those of us who have covered Mayor Bill White ever since before he became Mayor, we know he's a very careful politician. Since the Mayor's post is officially non-partisan, he's careful not to endorse candidates, and doesn't like to show up at too many fundraisers.
That's why many at City Hall's eyebrows went up today after Mayor White went off defending Adrian Garcia. First, the references were fairly obtuse.
"We come from different backgrounds, and on occasion disagree," he said during Council session. "But, we don't indulge in personal attacks or bring extraneous attacks to the table most of the time."
By the time we got to the weekly Mayor's press conference, White spoke more directly. He was unhappy with the ad by Sheriff Tommy Thomas recently began airing. In the attack ad, Thomas' campaign says that Garcia admitted to using marijuana "more than 100 times". Apparently, the campaign got it from an HPD application form, and whatever Garcia wrote, he was referring to things he did when he was 16-17 years old.
The Mayor was not happy, and took the unusual step of defending Garcia at his weekly news conference. "I'm not doing endorsements I'm just telling people that I know he's a person of outstanding character, he's been hard working and a great public servant," said White.
"I think people need to stand up for people when people attack their character if they know him."
Garcia tried to stay above the fray, saying he only attacks his opponent's record, and not his personal issues. He also said he was simply being honest about his teenage years, but he doesn't know where the "100 times" reference is coming from.
As for the Sheriff, his campaign is apparently taking a different spin after some of the push back it's received since the ad's roll out. Mainly, the ad is being pulled. Mary Easterly of the Thomas campaign told me over the phone this afternoon: "Despite Garcia's continued attacks on Sheriff Thomas, Our Campaign has made the decision to go into the last days of the campaign with only a positive ad, the latest ad wills stop in the morning."
Once again, White says he's not endorsing anyone. Though, it's a pretty good non-endorsement.
About time! Houston City Council just passed a major contract today for police radios. The multimillion dollar project is long overdue. It's well known that Houston police officers and firefighters can't really communicate with their counterparts in the county. Now they can.. starting in 2010. Better late than never!
There's been a few problems with stolen and defaced signs in Fort Bend
county recently that includes both Democratic and Republican signs.
My colleague Kevin Quinn just did a story. I saw this sign at an early
voting location last night.
Eight Days.
That's it. The historic election is a week away. We here at ABC 13 will try to be everywhere on election night, my colleague Tom Abrahams will be in Chicago, and I will be in Arizona covering John McCain.
Locally,it will be interesting to see if Reps. John Culberson and Nick Lampson can hold on to their seats.
Of course, we're also paying attention to see if Harris County will "go blue." As of Sunday, 387,862 have either voted in person or by mail. It is a startling number.
Let me know if you plan to head to Arizona or Illinois!
District 22 challenger Pete Olson has been running a tough campaign against incumbent Democratic Congressman Nick Lampson. The two have been slugging it out in campaign events, a debate, and trading barbs in television ads. But now, Olson is having to respond to a tough ad from the DCCC. If you haven't seen the negative ad, it basically accuses Olson of voter fraud.
The allegation stems from Olson's voter history unearthed by the Lone Star Project, a Democratic PAC based in DC. In the documents, it apparently shows that Olson voted in Virginia, and then in Connecticut, and then in Virginia. 
Virginia law says a person can not knowingly vote in more than one state. Olson lived in Virginia before moving back to Texas to run for Congress.
Lampson's folks have been chomping at the bit about this voter story, alleging that Olson has committed a felony. Olson's people have steadfastly denied that he voted in Connecticut, saying he was in Washington, D.C. and then Texas on official Senate business during that day of voting. Instead, Olson's people say someone either used his name or it was a mistake.
Now, with the tough ad by the Democrats, Olson is feeling the pressure. He will be talking to the press and refuting the allegations point by point this afternoon. It will be interesting to see what happens!
I spotted this billboard in downtown Houston today. It encourages
people to vote Republican and features a smiling Sarah Palin. So,
um... John McCain doesn't get a photo?
There are now just 13 days left before the historic election day, but the real election has already begun. Early voting continues to be off the charts, including in Harris County. The second day of early voting brought out 43,411 processed votes, a bit higher than day one's 39,201. Together, turnout has been basically double of voters during the same period four years ago.
By 1pm today, the Harris County early voting had almost reached 21,000
surpassing the entire day's totals from 2004.
Dem. Nominee for Senate, Rick Noriega, early votes in Southeast
Houston. He is facing tough odds against incumbant John Cornyn.
It's the beginning of early voting!
And, just 15 days to election day. More blogging as the day goes on.
Sent from my iPhone
For the past year or so, there's been sporadic speculation of whether or not former City Council Member Gordon Quan will be running for Mayor. Quan himself has admitted that he's "thinking" about it more than once. The Democrat and immigration attorney is the quintessential Limousine Liberal, always advocating for the little guy, and trying to solve Houston's homeless problems.
Guess he's not running for Mayor now. Why? Quan's firm has just announced its merger with the law firm of Charles Foster. Together, Tindall & Foster PC and Quan, Burdette & Perez PC, will become Foster and Quan LLP. It will be one of the largest immigration law firms in the country. Now, Charles Foster is a smart guy. Besides the fact that he'll be portrayed by actor Kyle Mclachlan in an upcoming movie, Foster wouldn't get himself involved with a guy who will sign some papers and then go and run for Mayor (A fact he confirmed to me last night.)
Quan, whose dad ran a grocery store on the East End when he was growing up, has built one of the most successful immigration firms around. Foster says new merger will take a lot of time and energy. He says Gordon Quan won't be running for Mayor. In his heart, friends know Quan wants to serve the City in some capacity. If there weren't term limits, he'll probably still be in City Council. Oh well. Now he'll just continue to be a rich lawyer, and stick with fundraising.
A devastating day for the ABC-13, KTRK family. We lost two people as SkyEye HD crashed in 
Montgomery County. You can get full updates here.
Below, our official story.
Emergency crews are on the scene of the crash in a remote wooded area of Montgomery County. Preliminary information indicates the helicopter is SkyEyeHD 13. The identification numbers have not been confirmed at this time. A pilot and a photographer were on board. The crew was en route to another story in the area at the time of the crash, just before 11am. There were no survivors.
The National Transportation and Safety Board will conduct an investigation into the cause of the crash.
There's no immediate word on what went wrong. Communications between the chopper and the TV station stopped right at the time of the crash. Witnesses in the area reported hearing the crash and explosion.
The names of the pilot and photographer have not been released at this time. Stay with ABC13 Eyewitness News for the latest on this developing story.
As a politician, you dread those made-for- YouTube moments. Mayor Bill White had one of those earlier
this week. There he was, launching the Houston's million tree program. He was standing at the podium, near Memorial Park, looking all Mayoral.. when.. a guy who lives across the street walked over. He went right up to the mayor, sans shirt, and said something like "There are cars parked on my property, you need to move them." The Mayor was pretty calm, and the man was quickly hustled off by HPD officers.
Following that, the Mayor quipped, "I thought about showing up without a shirt... but my son says he wouldn't be able to go to school and I couldn't be his father anymore." You can see the video via abc13.com here.
The back story is that my friend lives next door to the shirtless man! He's apparently well known for giving his opinion, having shown up at my friend's house to offer his own opinions during a Super Bowl party one year. The city folks wanted to point out that all the cars were parked on the city's right of way and none were in the man's yard. Still, it's good to know that citizens are entitled to their opinions and others are entitled to YouTube.
Update: I had a chance to talk to Gene Locke this afternoon. He's still using the big term "IF I RUN", spoken like a seasoned politician. Locke says a number of factors got him interested, including the recent national enthusiam in the political process. He also said that he's thought about running for mayor in years past, but wanted to wait until his kids were all grown up. He didn't say yet what would be his number one issue, just that he will be doing "a lot of listening, if I run." As for the talk that if he runs, former Gov. White will graciously make way for him, he laughed, wouldn't comment, but said "I've heard that."
---
Okay, it's basically been an open secret for a few weeks now. But Gene Locke is now ready to talk about it, on the record. The former city attorney could soon shake things up by throwing his hat into the ring for mayor. Locke served as City Attorney under Mayor Bob Lanier. A partner with Andrews and Kurth for the past decade, Locke says he's pretty close to deciding to run for mayor. Locke says he's been thinking about it for a while, and has talked to "a lot" of people (which, of course, includes Mayor Lanier.) Currently, Council Member Peter Brown, Controller Annise Parker, former Kemah Mayor Bill King have all said they intend to run. Former Governor Mark White is also seriously thinking about it. Though if Locke runs... well... let's just say that Gov. White and Locke have talked. Political experts say Locke would immediately have an impact because he would be the first minority candidate in a growing field, and has the backing of Mayor Lanier. Can he shake things up? We know he can get people buzzing...
If you are looking for the video version of this story, click here.
When former State Senator Kyle Janek resigned from his seat, and moved to Austin, it left a gaping hole in the local election landscape. Now, half a dozen candidates have jumped in. Some names are 
new, others are oh-so-familiar.
Former Congressman, City Council member, and most recently the Democratic Party's nominee for Governor is at it again. We even found an old Bell for Governor T-shirt in his campaign office. This time, Chris Bell wants to turn Janek's seat from red to blue. His campaign got some attention during the early stages, after he unsuccessful attempted to take the one other Democrat off the special election ballot.
"I did not believe she was a legal candidate and we took that to court and they said she could remain on the ballot and that's that and we've moved forward," said Bell. That other Democrat is attorney Stephanie Simmons, who told me over the phone that she is a legitimate candidate. She really is running, really.
Of the four Republicans on the ballot, attorney Grant Harpold says he wants to lower property taxes.
Lake Jackson business owner Ken Sherman is also on the ballot, as well as former prosecutor and judge Joan Huffman. I met Joan in her West U. area campaign office. Her colors? A teal and pink campaign theme.
"It's a good cast of Republicans. I don't see one of them as more formidable than the other," said Huffman. "I think I am the candidate that is going to end up going head to head with Chris Bell and I think I'm the Republican who can beat Chris Bell."
The final of the four Republicans is Austen Furse, who believes his endorsement by former President George Bush and his experience as a White House staffer will set him apart.
"I led a series of conservative grass roots reforms here in the Houston area," he said. "That gives me some knowledge that you just can't pick up at the grocery store." Furse is working out of the office of his consultant, Allen Blakemore. Blakemore just happens to be buddies with Janek. Janek has endorsed Furse. Coincidence? Come on! This is politics!
If no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will go into a runoff. For Bell, he likes his chances.
"After you've done this a couple of times, youi do get sort of a gut feel and start picking up signs," he said. "And I like those signs we're starting to pick up out on the street." With four Republicans splitting the vote, Bell is hoping to garner enough Democratic votes to avoid a run off. If that can't be done, getting voters to come back to the poles on a Saturday in December won't be easy.
Today's the last day to register and Vote! The folks at the tax offices would prefer to download the application, fill it out, and deliver it in person.
UPDATE: Apparently Sheriff Thomas showed up..... now off to the OTHER debate (You know, Biden-Palin)
According to the League of Women Voters, Sheriff Tommy Thomas says
he's 90 percent sure he is showing up to the league sponsored debate
this afternoon. The taping will be at 3pm. Will there be an empty
chair or will he be there?
Sent from my iPhone
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