Former Councilmember Jack Christie’s mayoral marketing campaign boasted an endorsement from Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale on Thursday evening, however the Gallery Furniture proprietor stated he nonetheless plans to vote for state Sen. John Whitmire.
Christie’s camp posted a since-deleted video on Facebook in which anyone asks the furnishings magnate whether or not Christie would make a excellent mayor.
“Absolutely, lots of experience and a very hard-working, good-looking guy,” McIngvale responds. The marketing campaign posted the video out with siren emojis and an all-capital letters bulletin, “MATTRESS MACK ENDORSES JACK CHRISTIE FOR MAYOR.” They additionally made it the primary blurb on his marketing campaign site.
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McIngvale used to be certainly one of Whitmire’s early and outstanding supporters, serving as a sponsor for the state senator’s first marketing campaign kick-off tournament on the Post Oak Hotel. McIngvale launched a remark Thursday evening pronouncing his feedback weren’t supposed to be an endorsement.
“While I think Jack Christie would be a good mayor if he was elected, I am not endorsing him as has been reported by the Christie campaign,” McIngvale stated. “My vote will likely be for John Whitmire in November.”
That used to be news to Christie on Friday morning. He stated the staffer who took the video explicitly requested McIngvale later on if the marketing campaign may construe the feedback as an endorsement, and he stated sure. Still, Christie stated his marketing campaign got rid of the endorsement language from its posts after he realized of McIngvale’s rationalization.
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McIngvale has been a competent donor for Republican applicants, contributing masses of hundreds of greenbacks ultimate yr to Alexandra del Moral Mealer’s unsuccessful problem towards Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. He attended an preliminary listening to in a lawsuit in quest of to overturn ultimate November’s elections, and introduced a site in hopes of gathering proof of voter suppression. He additionally has sued to get election data from the county.
Christie, a Republican, has been looking to erode the bottom of conservative toughen that Whitmire, a reasonable Democrat, consolidated early on in the election cycle.
“Whitmire went out a year and a half ago to get these endorsements, and he went to a lot of my supporters,” Christie stated. “When they get in the voting booth, I know we’ll get 60 percent of them.”
A crowded box of applicants is vying in the November elections to exchange Mayor Sylvester Turner, who faces time period limits. Whitmire and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee have established themselves as frontrunners in the group, which additionally comprises former Metro Chair Gilbert Garcia, legal professional Lee Kaplan, Councilmember Robert Gallegos and previous councilmembers Christie and MJ Khan.
The time limit to register to vote is Oct. 10. Early vote casting starts Oct. 23, and election day is Nov. 7.
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