Fundraising numbers are in, so now let's debate!

Gene Locke, Annise Parker, and Peter Brown all have TV commercials up, and have turned in their latest campaign finance figures.

 

So, what does that mean? Must be debate time!  Wednesday at 7pm, all four major Mayoral candidates will be at the ABC 13 studios for a live debate.  We hear they've been very busy.  I'll be there covering the event, so make sure you check up on my blog for all the latest behind the scenes photos and updates.

 

Let's take a quick look at how things stand. On Monday, the latest financial numbers were released, and they didn’t look that promising. 

 

City Controller Annise Parker announced that she had $223,000 cash on hand, which trails her competitors by a wide margin.  Although Parker’s campaign people said that she exceeded expectations.

 

Former City Attorney Gene Locke’s staffers were quick to tout his $1.1 million dollar war chest in a news release yesterday.  They pointed out that he raised far more money than either one of his two main competitors.

 

The most interesting tally came from City Councilman Peter Brown, who reported a campaign fund balance of $1.9 million.  However, it’s important to note that most of his funds, $1.7 million, came from his own pocket.

 

So, how do we read the campaign tea leaves? Very carefully.  Even though Parker has less money than her two main opponents, she’s been in elected office longer than anyone else in the campaign.  She has some city wide name ID, and she was the second person to buy television advertising.  Those are all aspects of the campaign that works to her advantage.  However, if she’s not able to sustain the TV ads during this final month, there are going to be problems.

 

Locke has raised more money than anyone.  That’s the good news.  However, political insiders have all said they expected him to raise even more money.  After all, he has the blessing of former Mayor Bob Lanier, got endorsements from the Houston Professional Firefighters and Police Officers Unions.  Locke’s also got a lot of the business community support.  Therefore, while he hasn’t done badly on the money front, people had higher expectations.

 

That brings us to Peter Brown, the man with the plan, and his own money.  It is a luxury to be able to self finance a campaign. Brown’s committing more than $2 million dollars of his own money toward his mayoral aspirations.  He’s been spending a lot of money on TV.  He was the first to go on the air with his commercials, and currently is running his third version.  The challenge, however, is whether or not Brown can actually take his high dollar campaign and make an impact.

 

The wild card in all of this is Roy Morales.  As the only Republican in this non-partisan race, Morales certainly stands out.  He’s unsuccessfully run for city office before.  In addition, his distant fourth place fundraising effort makes it difficult to see how he will get in the runoff.  However, what will be interesting is to see if Morales will play the spoiler.  With a Republican base and a Hispanic name, Morales may get more votes than his anemic fundraising will suggest.  The question is which one of the other three candidates will benefit or hurt from his campaign.