The Chronicle does a nice bit of reporting on council member Carol Alvarado, detailing her beginning in politics, her longtime political alliances, and her history of misteps. I’m not certain how to characterize this article. It’s either fairly balanced, or somewhat negative towards Ms. Alvarado. It could be that after so much of Ms. White’s whitewashing its favorite people, we just can’t recongize balanced reporting about them. To figure out which it was, I compared it to articles written about Tom DeLay or Dan Patrick.

Ok, it’s balanced. Doesn’t hold a candle to Chronically Biased coverage of either of those guys.

While it discusses her early achievements as a UH student, and words of praise from Gene Green, it doesn’t hesitate to include an opposing viewpoint from fellow Hispanic Gabriel Vasquez:

But former Councilman Gabriel Vasquez, who represented the adjoining District H, believes Alvarado is not up to higher and more demanding public office.

“She’s good at relationships and constituent services,” Vasquez says. “But in terms of the functional responsibility of managing the budget, preparing the budget and understanding the whole function of being a mayor-in-training, she’s not so good.”

While on council, Vasquez sparred publicly and privately with Alvarado, one of a group of politicians born of Houston’s historical Hispanic leadership. Vasquez calls their style of politics the “Chicago ward-boss model.”

“It’s about power, authority and control,” he says.
(Emphasis added.)

We know about politicians and their penchant for control around here, don’t we? But the finishing touch for me was this:

Alvarado has taken well to the more rewarding side of public service. Beyond her $50,000-plus annual council salary, she supplements her income with consulting fees primarily for advising out-of-town Hispanic-owned businesses on the how-tos of seeking public contracts.

She lives in a chic apartment in Post Rice Lofts downtown, and is often spotted dining at see-and-be-seen La Griglia and other stylish eateries.

Consulting fees, eh? A girl’s got to have her priorities, after all.

Edit: I think I need to make that clearer: She’s accepting fees for advising businesses on the how-tos of seeking public contracts in Houston. Contracts on which she will later be voting. Nice business…. if you can get elected to it.