Turner heads home to Houston and mayor's race

When state Rep. Sylvester Turner arrived at the Capitol on Monday morning for the final day of the legislative session, his bags already were packed, his black Lincoln Navigator waiting.

Twenty-six years after taking office, Turner, also a Houston mayoral candidate, was coming home - for good.

After the final gavel sounded, he wasted no time trading one political hat for the other, heading straight from Austin to a mayoral campaign event in Houston on Monday night.

Even as Turner's attention turns full time to the mayor's race, however, his lengthy record in Austin is expected to remain a staple throughout the campaign.

When Turner took office in 1989, he joined a Democratically controlled House and focused mainly on Houston-specific policy. Over time, though, Turner rose through the ranks to become one of the most outspoken African-American lawmakers and the de facto leader of the fractious Houston delegation.

With a knack for passionate, sermonizing speeches, Turner began focusing on juvenile justice and criminal justice reform, as well as public health policy and social services, advocating against state budget cuts that would impact welfare.

The lengthy tenure provides Turner with name recognition and a track record for policy- making, but it also comes with ample fodder for opposition attacks.

"While I'm sure that some of Rep. Turner's votes and statements will be used against him, in balance his legislative career will be I think a campaign asset, not a detriment," said Rice University political science professor Mark Jones, noting the Houston Democrat's reputation for brokering deals across the aisle.

"He's someone who generally eschews a pure ideological and partisan, bomb-throwing approach."

That legacy was recognized Sunday, when representatives from both parties, including former Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, spoke to Turner's career before passing a resolution in his honor.

"At the same time," said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus, "there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be on the negative side of the ledger, where he's going to have to defend himself against votes that he may have had to take for compromise reasons."

Already, candidates including former Kemah Mayor Bill King and City Councilman Stephen Costello have criticized Turner for authoring a bill aimed at lowering Houston's pension payments by $77 million over three years - a short-term solution they say would have failed to adequately address the city's mounting pension liabilities. The bill never made it to the House floor.

"The big issue for the city of Houston was we didn't make any progress on pension reform," King said, calling Turner's bill, which Parker supported, "terrible."

Turner's return to Houston comes as the more than half-dozen contenders seeking to replace term-limited Mayor Annise Parker prepare for a series of three mayoral debates and rush to fill their campaign accounts.

Texas Ethics Commission rules preclude Turner from fundraising until June 22, leaving him just over a week to collect contributions before the end of the reporting period June 30. The campaign finance reports due July 15 are seen as an early test for whether candidates have a realistic shot at the mayor's office.

However, Turner, a three-time mayoral candidate, entered the race in February with $900,000 in the bank, having been allowed to move that sum from his legislative account.

Turner's spokeswoman, Sue Davis, said he will be running a grass-roots campaign, with his early start setting this year's bid apart from his unsuccessful runs in 1991 and 2003, when he did not begin campaigning until after the close of the session.

If elected mayor, Davis said, Turner would resign his House seat before the inauguration. Regardless of the outcome, Turner has said he will not run for re-election to the lower chamber, to which he bade an emotional farewell Sunday.

"The reality is, if it makes any sense, I still want to stay," he said. "But you have to recognize when your time is up; you have to recognize when your season is about over."

Mike Ward contributed to this report.