Texas: Roy Morales

Time to pass the jelly because someone in the Houston Mayoral race is toast and that first person is Roy Morales. With the polls ending in about 2 hours, it is pretty safe to say Roy will end the night in a solid 4th or 3rd place depending on the last minute turnout. Maybe that airplane banner flying over Houston this afternoon that said "Vote for Roy Morales" will drive out voters.

Regardless, this is the end of yet another run for a City office for Roy adding to his loss to Peter Brown, and twice to Melissa Noriega. The perpetual candidate should be buttered and jellied because he is now toast.

More toast predictions coming around 7:10PM. Oh...and speaking of passin da jelly:

Harris County republicans have secretly endorsed Roy Morales for Mayor, which now amounts to two endorsements, with one being a right wing obscure blog. Morales at the KHOU debate claims he had 101 precinct chairs vote for him for this endorsement, but the city has over 800 precincts. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

But more secretly, I believe the Harris County republicans are supporting Gene Locke. Locke has the Harris County Clerk, republican Beverly Kaufman endorsement, and according to Muse has recently been working with Stephen Hotze and Alan Blakemore, both very right wing supporters involved in republican campaigns. He has the support of corporate attorneys representing Metro, the Sports Authority, and the Port of Houston. And he has waffled, depending upon who he is speaking to, on the 287g program.

It is a secret that Locke is the elephant in the room.

The financial reports for Houston City races have been posted and the results are in for candidates for Mayor.

Roy Morales has no money. As of today at 5:00 PM he has not filed a report, although the city has 2 business days to post. Don't expect anything any different than last period. Last reporting period he raised about $18,000 and had about $9,000 cash on hand.

Peter Brown has his money. Peter raised only $121,000, spent over $1.6 Million, and loaned himself $1.7 Million. He has $1.9 Million cash on hand.

Gene Locke has big money. Locke raised over $949,000 (lots of attorney money), spent over $500,000 with $1.

Outgoing Mayor, Bill White, laid the law on the candidates for Mayor about new spending in 2010. From the Houston Chronicle:
“Texas has not come out of the recession, and sales tax receipts are dropping,” White wrote in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday. “Be sure not to vote for our next mayor based on commitments of more spending in the next two years.”
Candidates Locke, Parker, and Brown make good arguments on how they would not spend any new money since no new money will be coming it. Locke will leave his promise of a Hispanic Museum to private donors to build.