While voter turn-out was extremely low at a little over four percent, the Houston Association of REALTORS®’ (HAR) had some great victories from the Saturday, May 6, Joint Elections.
In a crowded field of seven candidates running for Mayor of Pasadena, John “JR” Moon, an HAR member and commercial REALTOR®, secured a run-off election spot against retired police officer Jeff Wagner. The winner will be decided by voters who return to the polls for the Saturday, June 10, Pasadena runoff elections. Current Mayor Johnny Isbell is not seeking re-election due to term limits.
The HAR Bay Area Political Affairs Advisory Leadership, led by Misty Bacon, will be reconvening to discuss involvement in the runoff elections for Pasadena Mayor and City Council.
The HAR recommended candidates for Pasadena City Council Districts D, E, and G, Sammy Casados, Cody Ray Wheeler, and Cary Bass, all won re-election. HAR’s recommended candidates, Keith Nielsen, Larry W. Peacock, and Brad Hance, lost.
The Pasadena mayoral and city council elections were HAR’s and TREPAC’s first involvement in the Pasadena elections. Pasadena REALTORS® are encouraged to apply to serve on the 2018 Bay Area Political Affairs Advisor Leadership and to get involved in HAR’s political process in your hometown.
In Pearland, HAR recommended candidate for Councilmember Position No. 3, Gary Moore, for won re-election with 55% of the vote. Mayor Tom Reid will face a runoff against newcomer Quentin Wiltz. Council Positon 7, where six candidates were running in the open seat, Dalia Kasseb will face Woody Owens. Council Position 5 will be filled by J. David Little.
Sugar Land’s recommended candidate for City Council District 4, Sean Burnett, did not make the run-off by a 77 vote difference. Carol McCutcheon will face Qaisar Q. Imam in the June 10 runoff election. We thank Fort Bend Political Affairs Advisory Leadership Chair Dionne Randle for her involvement and leadership.
The passage of Houston Independent School District’s Proposition 1 is a huge victory for HAR and property owners, as the HAR Governmental Advisory Affairs Group has been on the front end of this initiative in both the November 2016 and May 2017 elections. Houston ISD Proposition 1 was approved with 83.85% voting for recapture. A recapture payment of approximately $77 million will be paid to the State of Texas. However, if this proposition had failed to pass, approximately $8 billion worth of commercial properties within Houston ISD would have been detached from Houston’s tax rolls and assigned to another school district. This is a huge win for REALTORS, property owners and the children who attend Houston ISD. We thank Governmental Affairs Advisory Group Local Issue Chair Ed Wolff for leading the charge in Realtor engagement in this important special election.
The Political Affairs Advisory Group, led by A. David Schwarz III, had the opportunity to visit with Houston City Council Members on Thursday, April 27 to get updates on the happenings at City Hall. In attendance were Jerry Davis, Michael Kubosh, Dr. Steve Le, Greg Travis, Karla Cisneros, Dave Martin, Larry Green, Amanda Edwards, and Mike Knox. HAR members appreciated the opportunity to visit with them and to ask questions and continuing to strengthen the relationship between elected officials and the Houston REALTOR® community.
