Photo: Joe Raedle
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo still hasn't announced whether or not she'll seek a third term as county judge, but her decision on whether or not to run could be made easier by the massive $600,000 spike in funds that her campaign account recently reported.
That's up from around $41,000, following a mere $26,000 in actual donations. Most of this massive spike in campaign funds came from refunded legal service fees.
Charles Blain, president of Urban Reform, says this is the result of Harris County commissioners voting to reimburse legal fees for cases where county officials are found not guilty or never go to trial in the first place.
He went on to say that this is the first time we've really seen this in action, and it's raising questions. He asked, "Should there be a cap on that, or if not a cap, should it be refunded into a campaign account? Because we're looking at purely taxpayer dollars refunded into a campaign account."
Blain did say that this could finally be the motivation that Hidalgo needs to announce for certain whether or not she will be running for a third term, saying, "That was a big part of the conversation there. There's no money, so she must not be doing it. Well, it seems like she was sitting there waiting for this money to be reimbursed. This does give her a boost."
Hidalgo had previously announced to the Houston Chronicle that she would be seeking a third term, but her office later walked that announcement back. Hidalgo will now have to face a primary challenge from former Houston mayor Annise Parker.
Blain says there is a chance that Hidalgo decides to take a step back this cycle and use these funds to run for another office later down the line. According to him, "There's been a lot of conversation about, 'Will she run for a congressional seat?' I mean, this would be her campaign account that she can spend on whatever the state and local authorities allow her to spend it on."
He says that if she does decide to look at running a federal race, that could affect how and how much of this money she's allowed to use.