First let’s take a look at historical straight ticket voting patterns in Harris County going back to G.W. Bush’s first run for President in 2000:
The darker green is the percentage of registered voters that cast ballots – note that the trend is generally up, indicating a general increase in voter participation. The exception was 2006 and the five or six candidate governor’s race. The lighter green is the percentage of those voters that chose to cast their ballot for a party rather than individual candidates. Let’s express the straight ticket voters in percentage terms of actual votes:
Now let’s take a look at which party benefited in each of those years:
First it was the D’s by a slim margin, then R’s for two elections, then D’s for two elections, and now we are back to the R’s.
Like I said, IF our elected officials will govern the way they ran, there is no reason to think that voters will confuse the two parties as they did after the R’s lost their way with No Child Left Behind, the Medicare Prescription debt, and their general arrogance that brought the two parties closer together in voter perception.
People that naysay straight party voting generally do so because their favorite candidate lost and they think that their favorite candidate would have one the day in a “fair” race. What they fail to take into account is that their favorite candidate chose to align themselves with a particular party for a reason. The could have chosen to align themselves with the philosophy that won the day – why didn’t they? And that is a very valid question for a voter to have.
Let’s take Jeff Weems and Wally Kronzer as examples. To me, Weems was by far the superior candidate for the position of RR Commish and I was able to overcome my reluctance to vote someone that identifies themselves with a party that thinks I don’t pay enough in taxes. With Kronzer, I thought that he might have been marginally better suited for a position on the Court of Appeals than Martha Hill Jamison because he has a ton of experience in that area. But Jamison was clearly qualified for the job AND she identifies with the party that best reflects my thoughts on government. So I voted for and recommended that you vote for Jamison by voting straight R.
See how simple that is? And it certainly isn’t “evil” as characterized by my friend Murray Newman, who said:
Once again, straight-ticket voting has proven itself to be an evil, evil thing.
He was saying that because his friend, Loren Jackson, got his tail kicked by Chris Daniel. What Murray failed to mention is that the only reason Jackson won the election in 2008 is because of….wait for it….straight ticket voting. Theresa Chang would have walked away with that election but for the Obama wave of straight ticket voting.
Oh, and BTW, Murray, you are wrong about Jackson losing because of straight party votes:
All I did was take the straight party vote for each person, subtract it from the total votes for each person and BAM! Chris Daniel won this race fair and square with split ticket voters. Loren Jackson LOST split ticket votes in 2008. Facts – pesky things they are.
So do vote straight party. Please.
As long as Republicans govern as Republicans, I’m certain that the majority of Harris County voters will vote a straight R ballot. And if you find someone you think is clearly superior, it is very, very simple to scroll down the ballot and check their name. Hey, if a simpleton like me can do it, so can you.