Farewell 2012! This has been an extremely busy year for the blog. There has been much to ponder. When reviewing the year, I was astounded at the volume of posts and variety of topics.

Some of the most viewed blogs this year were tributes to special people I have known or had the privilege of working with over the years. Interestingly, I have seen little mention of most of them in Houston year end tributes. As a reminder, my tributes included Clymer Wright (who led the effort for term limits), Kay Crooker (long-time Planning Commissioner and civic leader), Council Member Ernest McGowen, and State Senator Mario Gallegos.

The most read blog other than these was the Mayoral Retrospective that highlighted my own theory on Houston Mayoral elections. You can read it here. Of course, it was written in summer and now we have an expected strong mayoral race in 2013. Will the theory hold?

The third blog of the year focused on the Iowa caucuses and we pondered all Presidential primaries, party conventions, debates and localized the elections. Another very popular blog was our revelation of all the bonds and Metro issues that were being considered locally, first written in May. That was, apparently, breaking news to many of our readers. In fact, all of the bonds were placed on the ballot as well as the Metro election.

We also provided coverage on local government issues like the city budget, feeding ordinance, Hobby airport expansion, pensions, drainage fees, regionalism and county issues. We tried to dissect the Astrodome conversation and it appears our analysis was dead on as nothing has changed.

We pondered most of the major news items of the day. The one topic I could not cover was the Sandy Hook shooting. It was just too personally painful for me as a parent and I felt my insights were not unique.

As we wrap this year, I want to thank all of you who drop by to read the blog, comment and share it. I sometimes feel as if I’m writing in the wilderness and then someone sends me a note or thanks me at an event. It means so much.

Thanks again and farewell to 2012!