Democratic newcomer Shaw looking to deny Cagle another term on Commissioners Court
As Penny Shaw campaigns across Harris County Precinct 4, something keeps coming up: Not enough people know about Commissioners Court, the body that governs the unincorporated county, she says.
Shaw, a Democrat, lawyer and political novice, is looking to deny Republican Commissioner Jack Cagle a third term representing the north Harris County precinct, which tends to lean conservative. “I think it’s a matter of Commissioners Court not having very much oversight,” said Shaw, 52. “They conduct business in a way that may be adverse to the public interest, but because nobody’s watching and nobody’s checking up ... things go under the radar.”
Harris County’s five-person Commissioners Court sets the county’s tax rates and adopts its budget, oversees county courthouses and jails, and directs the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and parks, among other duties.
Republican Cagle is running in part on the capital improvements finished under his watch, such as the Grand Parkway toll road, that he said have increased mobility in unincorporated areas of Precinct 4. And he said he wants to stick around to build a third Harris County reservoir.
For the most part, Cagle takes a simplified approach to the position he has held since 2011, when County Judge Ed Emmett appointed him to replace Jerry Eversole, a longtime commissioner who resigned as part of a plea deal in a federal corruption trial.
“We like to think that the job of the commissioners is to be some great policymaker, but in real candor, for ages we used to be called ‘road and bridge commissioners.’ It’s our job to render service,” Cagle told the Houston Chronicle editorial board, noting, for example, the 2,700 miles of roadway and 300 bridges he is tasked with overseeing. “Keep the parks clean, keep the potholes cleared.”
Cagle, 57, began his political career as a precinct chair for the Republican Party. After a couple unsuccessful runs for the bench, he won an open county civil court-at-law seat in 2000. He was re-elected twice, then appointed to Commissioners Court. Uphill climb
On paper, the race appears an uphill climb for Shaw: Political newcomers rarely beat incumbent commissioners, often facing vast fundraising deficits and the struggle of gaining traction in precincts larger than some major cities. Precinct 4 has roughly 1.2 million residents.
By Sept. 27, Cagle — who has beaten his two previous general election opponents by 29 and 37 percentage points — had a cash-onhand advantage over Shaw approaching 500 to 1, with a total of $708,000.
Of the $401,000 Cagle has raised since the end of June, just $165 came from donations of $50 or less. He received 16 contributions of $10,000 or more, and averaged $4,217 per contribution.
Meanwhile, from July 1 to Sept. 27, Shaw took in about $10,000 from 73 donations, averaging $142 each. She spent $8,700 during the last cycle, and had about $1,500 cash heading into the home stretch.
None of the typical barriers of running against an incumbent commissioner have escaped Shaw’s notice. She said she was “aware from the very beginning that commissioners get about $1 million from special interests a year.” She added: “People vote, not dollars.”
“I felt like if we don’t stand up and try to make a change, we will just have the exact same thing year after year. And we can do better, I know that we can,” Shaw said in a recent interview. “When I decided to run for office, I didn’t know there would be a Beto (O’Rourke Senate candidacy), I didn’t know there would be a blue wave … I just knew that we’ve got to try to change at every level so that we can have a different future.”
Shaw grew up in southwest Houston to a mother who worked in the pharmaceutical industry and a father who worked for IBM. Her legal practice covers a range of topics, from employment to family to business law.
She spent about a decade as a lawyer in Florida before moving back to Texas about eight years ago to care for her ailing father. Since 2015, she has worked for the county as a volunteer deputy registrar, helping to register eligible voters. She also has been a member of the League of Women Voters.
‘No. 1 consideration’
If she wins, Shaw said her focus would fall on flood control, improving the county’s bail and mental health systems, and preparing unincorporated Harris County for “sustainable expansion.”
“I think that needs to be the No. 1 consideration when we’re talking about economic growth and expansion,” she said. “Yes, we need economic growth. Yes, we need expansion. But at what cost?”
Shaw, without mentioning Cagle specifically, criticized Commissioners Court for what she described as the county’s lack of preparation for Hurricane Harvey. She said the county’s $2.5 billion flood bond, approved by voters in August, should have included a “comprehensive countywide plan,” possibly broken into phases, instead of simply listing the bond’s myriad projects.
“Nothing has been concrete. And I just don’t understand how a piecemeal, hodgepodge, ad-hoc plan can be a long-term solution to an unending problem,” Shaw said.
Cagle scoffs at claims the county has not done enough to mitigate flooding, pointing to the Harris County Flood Control District’s annual $120 million budget that is split between maintenance and new projects.
“When folks without all the facts say you’ve not done anything because ‘my house flooded’ ... it’s easy to say that,” Cagle said.
He added that the flood bond now allows the county to put a bigger chunk of the flood control district’s budget toward maintenance, as the bond funds go toward future projects.
‘Doubly unfair’
Both candidates said they would support the idea of redrawing precinct boundaries for constables and justices of the peace after the 2020 census to line up more closely with those of the commissioner precincts.
They also each advocated for the state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, a position that puts Cagle at odds with Texas’ Republican Party leaders such as Gov. Greg Abbott.
Cagle further said the state should cover the cost of the county’s indigent health care, which he called an unfunded mandate.
“When the state starts to pay for it, then they’ll start making different decisions on what money we’re allowed to take or not,” Cagle told the editorial board. When state leaders say “we’re also concerned about your rising property taxes, when our property taxes are rising to pay for the indigent health care that they not helping us with … it’s doubly unfair.”