The Hobby Center for Public Policy will be holding a mayoral debate between former reporter and city council member Chris Bell (Democrat), City council member Steven Costello (Republican), Houston Police Department Sheriff Adrian Garcia (Democrat), former city attorney Ben Hall (Democrat), columnist and former Houston Independent School District bond campaign co-chair Bill King (Republican) and former state representative Sylvester Turner (Democrat) Tuesday, Sept. 29th.
With so many candidates up for election, students have a variety of options to chose from.
“Chris Bell seems like a good candidate,” entrepreneurship freshman Charles Heeley said. “I like his focus on state schools. He (also) has a very interesting immigration stance that finds a middle ground.”
Psychology sophomore Efe Ajayi said he thinks Adrian Garcia is an ideal candidate.
“Garcia is an experienced individual with plenty of civil service to validate his potential,” Ajayi said. “He seems to have interesting ideas concerning improving public safety as well as the current situation involving the revenue cap, which I feel are increasingly important topics.”
The debate will take place at noon at the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater and will be moderated by Mimi Swartz of Texas Monthly magazine and Doug Miller of KHOU-TV.
“Selecting the mayor of the fourth largest city in the nation is important business,” Jim Granato, professor and director of the HCPP said in a press release. “Houston is doing well in many aspects, but still has critical issues to address, such as a crumbling public infrastructure, traffic and skyrocketing pension obligations. Our debate will showcase the differences among the candidates in tackling the problems most important to Houstonians.”
More information on the event can be found at www.uh.edu/class/hcpp/debate/.
With infrastructure being a hot button issue in this city I would think an engineer who’s been on city council for a while now would be a solid option.
Too bad he’s polling horribly right now!