The Houston Chronicle endorses Pat Van Houte for Pasadena Mayor
"A Fresh Start"
A very informative endorsement that goes into Pat’s 8-year history fighting for fair representation in Pasadena.
"Councilmember Pat Van Houte confronts challenges that others ignore. Van Houte has a record of standing up for the hard fight during her eight years on City Council... she wants to replace the term-limited Isbell and run a city government that's open to all of Pasadena instead of merely the well-connected. This means fairness in contracting, competitive bidding, soliciting community input and promoting transparency. Van Houte also said that she wants to reinstate a public transit circulator for senior citizens that the city had stopped funding. She hasn't raised a lot of money - Van Houte declines donations from city contractors - and her personality is more cautious librarian than charismatic populist. But there's no doubt that Van Houte as mayor would be a fresh start for a city that deserves better than its current bad press."
I will provide a link to the candidate blog post with this full endorsement to avoid the pay wall.
https://www.pat4pasadena.com/2017/04/23/houston-chronicle-endorsement/
That link has the Houston Chronicle direct link as well as a link to the google cache.
By the way, not accepting city contractor money, who traditionally fund city political campaigns, means the people need to step up. One opponent has well over $100,000 in his war chest, mostly a loan to himself, that he expects contractors to make good on if he wins. This is considered standard behavior. The fact that Pat Van Houte won as an at-large candidate the last election proves her block-walking and small donations candidacy can work but for this mayor’s race Republicans and the contractors will pour a lot more money into the election.
Pat Van Houte is a 90For90.org candidate.
I have provided some financial support for the Pat Van Houte campaign.