A behind the Scenes Look at a Political Campaign [View All]

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

O.K., guys there was a lot of smack talk over this race as well as others during the primary. It's time to kiss and make up and get this guy elected. Jim reminds me of one of the first candidates that I ever helped. I stuffed lots of envelopes and even tried my hand at making telephone calls. I was supposed to dial a number and play a recording but the instructions weren't clear to me and when I called the first person I panicked and said, "Vote for Bob Hervey!" then hung up the telephone. I was seven years old.

Louis Welch was the mayor of Houston from 1964 - 1973. I'm too young to remember if he ran in 1973 and I can't find anything that says he did but it was definitely time for a change. Louis Welch lived one street over and down the block from us when he was mayor and when my father planted his perforated steel kiosk in the ground with two signs for a mayoral candidate facing each direction and block-walked the neighborhood every night to tell the neighbors it was time for a change our house became a target for silly vandalism. I remember that Dick Gottlieb was the favorite in our neck of the woods. The kiosk wasn't going to go anywhere because my father poured concrete in the front yard to bolt it into the ground from Labor Day to November. The kiosk was made for the George McGovern posters in the 1972 primary that my father had to replace just about every morning. So Fred Hoffheinz won the race that year. He wasn't the candidate my father campaigned for but he was overjoyed when police chief Herman Short resigned, and the halting reform of the notoriously racist Houston Police Department began.

It broke my heart to see the mudslinging during the primary here and on other blogs. If you've never met Jim, he's the same type of candidate as my high school friend, Bob Hervey or Fred Hoffheinz. They were running for equality. When I come home at the end of the day - I'm working for Jim so this will probably be my only post about his activities - I have the same feeling as I did when I was 7. Yes, there was reform after the Civil Rights Act was passed but we're backsliding with the once subtle laws that are being passed by the GOP. They're not subtle at all anymore. John Culberson, Jim's opponent has sponsored a bill that would cut federal funding to police departments that refuse to enforce immigration laws. He also voted yes to all four of the harmful amendments of the Voting Rights Act. Believe me, the people who are coming together to work on this campaign may not share the same ideology but one thing is clear, we understand how important it is that this Tom DeLay protege be defeated. WestHoustonDemocrat and I licked our wounds after the primary and started campaigning for the Democratic Party nominee the day after the primary. The Gammage sticker came off of my car and the Chris Bell sticker went up within less than a week. Had to wait to see WHD to get the sticker though. Had Al Bennett been the candidate in the runoff against the incumbent, I would have been on his porch the next day. And (big sigh) if the incumbent of HD 146 had won the race, I would have done my best to try to persuade him to take care of his district. There's no persuading John Culberson.

There's a guy that knows what the heck he is talking about at U of H that says Jim Henley can win. The numbers are there. We only need to get out the vote.

Jim Henley does not accept PAC money. This campaign is a true grass roots campaign. Come see Jim on Sunday at the Bellaire Civic Center. I'll be sliding in sideways as I come from Camp Wellstone. Look for the big yellow school bus, the campaign's only billboard!

The Perplexing World of Politics

A behind the Scenes Look at a Political Campaign

Featuring Jim Henley: Congressional Candidate for District 7

The main issues and Henley's positions in the upcoming November election

What goes into running a political campaign

How teens not old enough to vote can still make a difference


Date: Sunday August 20

Time: 4 to 6 PM

Location: Bellaire Civic Center
7008 S. Rice * Bellaire, TX 77401
(See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps)