Houston’s septuagenarian showdown

Dec 08, 2023

In this photo combination, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) speaks during a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 13, 2019, and Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire answers a question during a televised candidates debate on Oct. 19, 2023, in Houston.

CAPITOL HILL CURSE — There’s still one more notable election left in 2023: the nonpartisan mayoral runoff tomorrow in Houston, Texas, the nation’s fourth most populous city.

If you’re of the mind that the American governing class is a gerontocracy, this race might be a triggering event: Both candidates are septuagenarians, with over 80 years of state, local and congressional legislative experience between them. State Sen. John Whitmire, 74, has been in the Texas legislature since the Nixon administration; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, 73, was elected to Congress during Bill Clinton’s first term.

In an ordinary election year, it might not attract much notice. But with 81-year-old President Joe Biden running for a second term and 77-year-old Donald Trump appearing as his likely challenger, age is getting heightened scrutiny in the Houston contest.

Unlike the Chicago and L.A. mayoral races earlier this year, this one is relatively low on drama and not especially contentious: crime and affordable housing are among the most prominent issues. Whitmire occupies the more moderate lane, while Jackson Lee, who is vying to become the city’s first Black female mayor, is positioned to his left.

In the crowded, 18-person Nov. 7 election, Whitmire came out on top with 43 percent of the vote, followed by Jackson Lee with 36 percent. Armed with more money and leading in polls, he is thought to have an edge in Saturday’s runoff.

Jackson Lee may also have to overcome another hurdle — her service in Congress. Over the past quarter-century, sitting House members who have run for big-city mayoralties have posted a relatively poor record of success.

While Karen Bass made the leap from Congress to Los Angeles mayor earlier this year, the last three House members to run for City Hall in Chicago — Bobby Rush, Danny Davis and Chuy Garcia, who ran earlier this year — have fallen short. In 2007, both Philadelphia congressmen who ran — Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah — lost in the Democratic primary.

Prior to that, in 2001, then-Rep. Xavier Becerra won just 6 percent in an unsuccessful Democratic primary bid in Los Angeles. Four years later, then-Rep. Anthony Weiner lost his bid in New York City. They were preceded by John Conyers, who made two unsuccessful bids for mayor while serving in Congress.

The last House member to win a big-city mayor’s office before Bass? That was Bob Filner, who won in San Diego in 2012. But things didn’t go well for Filner: Within a year, he resigned following multiple allegations of sexual harassment.

Jackson Lee can at least take solace in the historical record. Among the prominent mayors who made the direct leap from Congress to City Hall were James Michael Curley in Boston and Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. (now better known as Nancy Pelosi’s father) in Baltimore.

In New York, there was John Lindsay, who was first elected mayor in the 1960s, followed by Ed Koch, who served as mayor for much of the 1980s. In 1983, one of the most historically important mayors of all came from the House: Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington.

If Jackson Lee fails to stage an upset, though, she’ll join the long catalog of politicians who discovered voters didn’t take Congress seriously enough to entrust the city to someone who served there.

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— Harvard president says ‘I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret’ after antisemitism testimony: Harvard University president Claudine Gay apologized Thursday for her comments during a House Education committee hearing, during which she said that calling for genocide of Jews may or may not violate university rules “depending on the context.” Gay is among several university presidents who have faced intense criticism of their response to antisemitism on campus following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October. “I am sorry,” Claudine Gay told Harvard’s student newspaper in an interview on Thursday. “When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret.”

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Nightly Road to 2024

DITCHING THE DEBATES — The Republican National Committee decided today to pause its participation in 2024 GOP primary debates, POLITICO reports. The decision means networks independent of the RNC will host any upcoming debates.

“It is now time for Republican primary voters to decide who will be our next President,” RNC’s Committee on Presidential Debates said in a statement. “And candidates are free to use any forum or format to communicate to voters as they see fit.”

ABC and CNN have already announced plans to host future debates in Iowa and New Hampshire prior to primary voting in the two states. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has already said he plans to attend both debates.

THE ANTI-TRUMP TICKET — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is not ruling out picking Liz Cheney as his running mate — but said Cheney would have to endorse him first, The Messenger reports. Christie, who was campaigning in New Hampshire today, was asked by a voter if he would choose Cheney as his Vice President if he got the nomination.

Cheney has been a Republican vocal critic of critiquing former President Donald Trump like Christie. Christie praised the former House member from Wyoming, but said he thinks Cheney is still thinking about a third party bid herself and “wants to keep the hope alive,” he said.

“I have great respect for her and I think that her voice is a very important one in the conversation we’re having right now,” Christie said.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Here’s a Hollywood ending that President Joe Biden wants to bring to life: an incumbent facing tough polling numbers and questions about his advanced age overcomes a brash opponent to win a second term at the White House.

With strikes by writers and actors now over, reports the Associated Press, Biden is beginning to make that pitch to the Southern California set in person. He and first lady Jill Biden plan to attend six fundraising events and meetings between them this weekend in the Los Angeles area, asking some of the glitziest names in town to open their checkbooks for his reelection campaign.

Some of the events will be public and others private over roughly 36 hours in California. But organizers say Biden should raise more this weekend than in any similar time frame since announcing his campaign in April and potentially take in more than any presidential candidate has in greater Los Angeles this far out from Election Day.

AROUND THE WORLD

Vladimir Putin pictured.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in Moscow on June 26, 2023. | GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/SPUTNIK/AFP/GETTY

HE’S RUNNING — Russian President Vladimir Putin is on track to maintain his grip on the country’s top job until the end of the decade, declaring his intent to win an election even his own officials have said is more or less a formality given the near-total clampdown on domestic opposition, reports POLITICO EU.

The 71-year-old confirmed he will seek another six years in office during a vote scheduled for March 17 next year, state-owned news outlet TASS reported after Putin spoke at an event in the Kremlin today.

In an interview over the summer, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov revealed his boss “will be reelected next year with more than 90 percent of the vote” because Russia’s presidential election “is not really democracy, it is costly bureaucracy.”

Peskov later claimed he’d been misinterpreted and meant the vote was a done deal for reasons of Putin’s popularity alone. Putin was first elected as Russian president in 2000 and, other than a break when he took on the role of prime minister between 2008 and 2012, has held the top job ever since.

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Nightly Number

199,000

The number of jobs American employers added in November, a robust number that’s a fresh sign the economy could achieve an elusive “soft landing,” in which inflation would return to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target without causing a steep recession. Today’s Labor Department report also showed that the unemployment rate dropped from 3.9% to 3.7%, not far above a five-decade low of 3.4% in April.

RADAR SWEEP

HERE COMES THE SUN — A massive hole has emerged on the sun’s surface and is sending solar winds toward planet Earth. The hole, known as a coronal hole, is bigger than 60 Earths, according to scientists and first appeared around the sun’s equator on Dec. 2. The event is largely unprecedented at this point of the solar cycle. The solar winds heading in Earth’s direction are bursts of fast radiation, which have the ability to cause radio blackouts and auroral displays. It’s unclear how long the hole will last for — previous coronal holes have lasted more than 27 days. In a story for Space.com, Harry Baker reports on the 497,000 mile dark patch on the sun right now that has been pointing at Earth for the past four days.

Parting Image

On this date in 1980: John Lennon is shot and killed in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. Pictured is Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono in August 1980, arriving at The Hit Factory, a recording studio in New York City.