Am I happy that Nick Lampson won?Of course I am.
I walked my tail off this summer on the Texas Gulf coastal plain for this man’s campaign. I’m happy that the Republican Party couldn’t foist an “anyone but a democrat” candidate on the residents of CD-22. Especially someone hand-picked by a smugly corrupt neocon politician like Tom DeLay.
Ecstatic.
We also managed to re-elect Grady Prestage to the Commissioner’s Court.
So why am I not ecstatically joyful? None of our countywide candidates won. Republicans still outnumber Democrats in Fort Bend County, and they all line up and vote for whomever their leader tells them to vote for, whatever their qualifications. This is going to happen until the end of time.
“Democrats want to fall in love, Republicans want to fall in line”
– Bill Clinton
With the exception of a few state house races, everything in Texas is status quo ante. The Blue Revolution occurred everywhere else but here.
How telling.
But there are some statistics from the Fort Bend County Elections office that are pretty interesting.
First, compare the 2002 midterm results to the 2006 results.
2002 Straight Ticket Republicans 59.22% (28,069)
2002 Straight Ticket Democrats: 40.21% (19,058)
2006 Straight Ticket Republicans: 47.81% (23,552)
2006 Straight Ticket Democrats: 51.28% (25,257)
OK, now while you might say that the straight ticket Republican vote was suppressed by Independent voting for the governor’s race, as well as that sage piece of advice from the RNCC not to vote a straight ticket (and it almost worked for us, too), look at that 6200 voter increase in straight Democrat votes. Does this signal a shift in demographics?
I think so. While difficult to prove because we had no countywide Democratic candidates in ’02, I am looking at the votes for Supreme Court and Appeals Court Justices in ’02, and comparing them to similar offices, including the countywide races and am seeing a trend.
In ’02 votes for state court justices averaged 58.4% votes for Republican Justice candidates and 40.5% for Democratic Justice candidates (Libertarians make up the odd percentage difference). (8 races)
In ’06 votes for state court justices and countywide candidates, together, averaged 54.3% for Republican Justice and county candidates and 45.8% for Democratic Justice and county candidates (Libertarians make up the odd percentage difference). (6 races)
These are the downballot races that tell you about the demographics of the county. It looks like Republicans lost nearly 5% of the total voters and Democrats made a slightly greater than 5% gain. A 10% turnover in 4 years.
Now that’s pretty darned good news.
And I am nearly joyously ecstatic.
Oops, sorry, now I am extremely joyously ecstatic. Bush had to fire Don Rumsfeld because he lost control of the House (Other states: thank you. You make up for Texas’ shortcomings).
Isn’t ironic that had Bush dumped Dreadful Don a couple of weeks ago, we would, in all probability, be celebrating a little less ecstatically?
Nice job, Dubya.
Here in Fort Bend County they are blaming Tom DeLay for the loss of the House. The evil that is Tom DeLay doesn’t hold a candle to Don “Iraq? Why the Hell Not?” Rumsfeld.
With the exception of a few state house races, everything in Texas is status quo ante. The Blue Revolution occurred everywhere else but here.
How telling.
But there are some statistics from the Fort Bend County Elections office that are pretty interesting.
First, compare the 2002 midterm results to the 2006 results.
2002 Straight Ticket Republicans 59.22% (28,069)
2002 Straight Ticket Democrats: 40.21% (19,058)
2006 Straight Ticket Republicans: 47.81% (23,552)
2006 Straight Ticket Democrats: 51.28% (25,257)
OK, now while you might say that the straight ticket Republican vote was suppressed by Independent voting for the governor’s race, as well as that sage piece of advice from the RNCC not to vote a straight ticket (and it almost worked for us, too), look at that 6200 voter increase in straight Democrat votes. Does this signal a shift in demographics?
I think so. While difficult to prove because we had no countywide Democratic candidates in ’02, I am looking at the votes for Supreme Court and Appeals Court Justices in ’02, and comparing them to similar offices, including the countywide races and am seeing a trend.
In ’02 votes for state court justices averaged 58.4% votes for Republican Justice candidates and 40.5% for Democratic Justice candidates (Libertarians make up the odd percentage difference). (8 races)
In ’06 votes for state court justices and countywide candidates, together, averaged 54.3% for Republican Justice and county candidates and 45.8% for Democratic Justice and county candidates (Libertarians make up the odd percentage difference). (6 races)
These are the downballot races that tell you about the demographics of the county. It looks like Republicans lost nearly 5% of the total voters and Democrats made a slightly greater than 5% gain. A 10% turnover in 4 years.
Now that’s pretty darned good news.
And I am nearly joyously ecstatic.
Oops, sorry, now I am extremely joyously ecstatic. Bush had to fire Don Rumsfeld because he lost control of the House (Other states: thank you. You make up for Texas’ shortcomings).Isn’t ironic that had Bush dumped Dreadful Don a couple of weeks ago, we would, in all probability, be celebrating a little less ecstatically?
Nice job, Dubya.
Here in Fort Bend County they are blaming Tom DeLay for the loss of the House. The evil that is Tom DeLay doesn’t hold a candle to Don “Iraq? Why the Hell Not?” Rumsfeld.
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