Lina Hidalgo clinging to 1-pt lead against GOP's Alexandra del Moral Mealer (Houston: moving to, racism)

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Lol. Scientific, that Twitter and Reddit. I'm sure the internet is a great representation of actual Houstonians who's opinion actually matters. /sarc

I'm not sure what standards or PR stunts you're talking about. Mattress Mack has been around since, what the late 80s or early 90s? Well before any of this Astros betting was ever legal, and he was doing great things for the community then as well.

Also, the reason I thought it was about political orientation is because of your words. I'm not sure what else you meant by "certain group of people" - seemed like a thinly vieled reference to Republicans or right-leaning people but if I'm wrong about that feel free to correct me. Perhaps there is some other constituency that would be aligned with Mattress Mack that I'm not thinking of.

Either way though, regardless of your opinion, I think you'd have a hard time convincing anyone who actually lives here that Mack is anything other than widely supported in this town.

Gallery Furniture opened in 1981. Wow, that's 40+ years.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by H'ton

Once we get in TOO far Right or TOO far Left territory, things become toxic.

You think Jerry Springer would have became successful without extremes
Sadly, people (and news media) love it when the extremes meet and clash

[Texas Ag 93]

Originally Posted by H'ton

I'm an independent/centrist/moderate..always have been. I'll vote for mixed ballots next week.

My voting strategy is 3 -tiered City- State- National.

I analyze those three areas on where we are TODAY, whether we've swing too far right and too far left and which direction I need to push/pull to get us back to the center.

My strategy is always to return things back into equilibrium.

Well said. I feel similarly. I can, and do, view local/state/national issues and candidates as completely separate entities with separate legislative and regulatory responsibilities (I think as the Framers intended) and I vote accordingly. This time around that meant I felt comfortable voting for candidates of both parties, as you say, to get things more to what I consider "equilibrium".

I think many people can simultaneously hold both conservative and liberal views. They vote according to which of those issues are more important to them at any given time. For some, that may be a moving target of multiple issues, and for others, it may be driven by one singular thing.

To me, this makes perfect sense and I'm not sure why others are confused by this.

[utche96]

Originally Posted by WRM20

And just what does anyone think Hidalgo can do about suspects being out of bail? She has nothing to do with that process, other than being part of the approval process when the County loses a bail suit, as happened with misdemeanor bail.

As for defunding the Sheriff and Constables, that's on Cagle and Ramsey.

The excessively long court backlog is the main risk to public safety right now. There are some murder suspects walking free for for 7+ years waiting for their trial. This is the main reason the left leaning Houston Chronicle has endorsed Mealer (actually more correct to say they refused to endorse Hidalgo). I thought the HC gave a very balanced discussion of their position in their endorsement - see quote below.



Excerpt from HC's endorsement of Mealer: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opi...t-17504659.php

We concur with Castro’s biggest criticism of Hidalgo’s record on crime: she hasn’t prioritized clearing the courthouse backlog dating back to Harvey, which is the single biggest threat to public safety because it delays trials — and justice — sometimes for years in thousands of cases, including those involving repeat violent offenders, who often remain free while their cases slog through the system. Even strong cases become harder to prosecute as evidence ages and memories fade.


Hidalgo didn’t cause the backlog, which was exacerbated by the pandemic. Her title is “judge” but she has no control over courtroom decisions on bail that have made headlines. She certainly isn’t to blame for the provision in the Texas Constitution that guarantees virtually every defendant, even those with violent criminal records, an initial right to bail. This board believes pre-trial detention decisions should be based on a defendant’s risk to the community, not on ability to pay cash bail, but only state lawmakers could initiate that kind of reform — not Hidalgo. As the county’s executive, her power rests in her control of county purse strings.


While Hidalgo and her fellow Democrats point toward investments in visiting judges and funds for the district attorney’s office, it clearly hasn’t been enough to get things moving. Why not use some of the one-time federal COVID funds to pay overtime, clear clogs in processing forensics, analyzing body-cam footage or bringing in even more visiting judges to handle emergency dockets, perhaps on nights or weekends?

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by utche96

The excessively long court backlog is the main risk to public safety right now. There are some murder suspects walking free for for 7+ years waiting for their trial. This is the main reason the left leaning Houston Chronicle has endorsed Mealer (actually more correct to say they refused to endorse Hidalgo). I thought the HC gave a very balanced discussion of their position in their endorsement - see quote below.



Excerpt from HC's endorsement of Mealer: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opi...t-17504659.php

There are currently 26 visiting judges in Harris County according to the Harris County Courts site.

Criminal defense attorneys are challenging the legitimacy of the Harris County emergency docket, saying the County has created a new court, which only the Legislature can do https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...e-17555967.php

[usc619]

As I said a few weeks ago, there’s nothing in Harris county that Democrats are excited about, I’m not surprised to see blacks and young liberals holding out on this election.

https://abc13.com/politics/black-and...olls/12418142/

Originally Posted by usc619

There’s absolutely nothing Lina’s base are excited about during this election, more folks are waiting a change in the way we’re dealing with public safety. That’s going to swing the independent voters like myself.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by usc619

As I said a few weeks ago, there’s nothing in Harris county that Democrats are excited about, I’m not surprised to see blacks and young liberals holding out on this election.

https://abc13.com/politics/black-and...olls/12418142/

We are excited to not have Republican Rosie O’Donell in charge

[usc619]

Originally Posted by Dopo

We are excited to not have Republican Rosie O’Donell in charge

The voters of Harris county will voice their opinion come Tuesday. If “Dora the Explorer” wins, then so be it.

[utche96]

Originally Posted by Dopo

We are excited to not have Republican Rosie O’Donell in charge

It's quite ironic that you are denigrating a conservative candidate by comparing her looks to an extreme liberal woman. Recall that the left criticized Trump (rightly so) for making fun of the appearance of women that he didn't like but here you are doing exactly the same thing.

Just goes to show you that neither side has a lock on good behavior. There is bad behavior on both sides.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by utche96

It's quite ironic that you are denigrating a conservative candidate by comparing her looks to an extreme liberal woman. Recall that the left criticized Trump (rightly so) for making fun of the appearance of women that he didn't like but here you are doing exactly the same thing.

Just goes to show you that neither side has a lock on good behavior. There is bad behavior on both sides.

There definitely is, nobody can claim good behavior on behalf of millions of people. I don't like criticizing people about physical characteristics, especially ones they can't control.

But please, don't try to draw a false equivalence. On a national, public level, Democrats do not put up with ugly, discriminatory behavior. When it happens they call it out and call for accountability. That does NOT happen in the GOP.