Twas the day after the 2014 primary, and all throughout Texas, tea party voters were shouting, we’re in control of this house. Or something like that.
My, my, one very surprising outcome. But first, I want to say a big thanks to Barbara and Richard Florance, Neil Moyer, and my girl for working with me on election day and running a smooth election. We arrived at our location at 6:00 am amid pouring rain and 34° F cold and finished packing up and delivering the equipment around 9:15 pm. As far as I know, we had no complaints and the experience that Richard and Barbara brought were the biggest part of that.
Lt. Governor’s race
If you predicted that Sen. Dan Patrick would lead this race by a comfortable margin over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, I tip my hat to you. I surely didn’t see that coming, thinking, like most Texans, that David would be somewhere around 40{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} and Dan around 30{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. The voters flipped that and it went Dan 41{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}, David 28{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. As I noted here, Dan ran an almost flawless race and you have to tip your hat to his general consultant, Allen Blakemore. It is going to be very hard for David to reverse this and win the runoff. He might want to think about his legacy and consider his alternatives.
Streusand to the runoff
One race that did follow predictions was the race to replace Rep. Steve Stockman in CD-36. Dr. Brian Babin and Ben Streusand will face off in my home district. After we finished at the polls last night, we stopped by Streusand’s victory party and he was very upbeat, as expected. Although I enjoyed meeting Dr. Babin, Ben remains my choice to fill this seat and I think that as more voters in deep East Texas meet him, he’ll be able to convince them that he is the right choice.
Vote of no confidence for Pratt
Over 70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the voters said no to returning the incompetent Denise Pratt to the bench. If she were half the person her supporters say she is, she would do the honorable thing and step aside now. It was a close race for second, with Alicia Franklin making the runoff with 23{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the vote. I don’t know Ms. Franklin as she declined to meet with me but as they say, Anyone But Pratt. I was proud of the race that my friend Anthony Magdaleno ran, relying strictly on a grassroots campaign and refusing to pay money to the slate mailers but in the end, the slates won the day.
HCRP Chair race
Paul Simpson managed to win without a runoff and that is a good thing for the party. A runoff would have deepened the split between social conservatives and moderates. Now the hard work starts for Simpson, as he must transition quickly from negative campaigning mode to reconciliation and leadership. It will be very interesting to watch and we’ll be able to tell fairly quickly what the party will look like during his tenure. The biggest winner was probably Phil Owens, the consultant that helped Paul to victory. I’ve said for at least the last 5 elections that Phil is the best ground game guy in Harris County. This time he had the money to fully exploit his ability and you see the results.
I’ll write separately about the slates because they have dominated the talk this cycle. Are the big 3 losing their grip on Harris County? We’ll see but I can tell you for certain that the ladies had a great day in my area.
Now, about the pay for people that work on election day. If the rate isn’t raised, we need to unionize!