Run-Offs, Victories, and Tear-Jerkers

I’ll just comment a little on some of the races that were on my radar.

CD29

Congrats to State Senator Sylvia Garcia on a decisive victory based on a disciplined campaign that surged from beginning to end. This, despite a big money newbie who came in from Beaumont to challenge her. Ultimately, all that big money guy did was take the oxygen out of the other challengers who were mostly ignored in the race. There are a couple in there with a lot of potential, so, they should keep active in the local scene and the Party. I wasn’t worried about the Senator as she had a pretty great team of campaign workers doing the GOTV.

SD6

With Senator Garcia’s victory, she will have an easier fall campaign since CD29 is a Dem seat. Eventually and some time after she wins CD29, the Senator will resign her SD6 position, and already State Reps Ana Hernandez and Carol Alvarado have announced their intentions to run for the seat. Of course, a special election date will not be set until that resignation and at the Governor’s leisure. Best guess:  May, 2019? Thankfully, neither Hernandez nor Alvarado will be required to resign and will serve during the next Lege session. So, stay tuned.

Rabeea Collier and Judicial Campaigns

Rabeea Collier, running for the 113th Civil District Court, achieved quite a victory with 73% of the vote, defeating an inexperienced, yet self-funded, lawyer. Rabeea will be among some great lawyers in the running to serve Harris County in various courts. Among the winners yesterday were Lauren Reeder, Cory Sepolio, Christine Weems, Barbara Stalder, David Fleischer, Raul Rodriguez, etc. We’ll have the long list soon.

My best wishes to Kathy Vossler, Fred Cook, Harold Landreneau, Juan Aguirre and Tracy Good. You all ran great races and are great lawyers whom I will always respect and support in your future campaigns.

Countywide Run-Offs

There is still voting to be done on May 22 as Democrats decide in several run-off races. For District Clerk, Marilyn Burgess, who came quite close to winning outright, will take on Rozzy Shorter. For County Clerk, it is Diane Trautman versus Gayle Young Mitchell. For County Treasurer, Cosme Garcia and Dylan Osbourne. And for At-Large Trustee of HCDE Richard Cantu and Josh Wallenstein. I’ve decided in three of the races, but I’ll need to be convinced about the race for treasurer.

By the way, my friend Nile Copeland (3rd place in the Treasurer’s race) had a good enough showing to be asked whom he is supporting in the run-off. Now that he can buy me tacos again without having to report them, I may just ask him.

The Commishes

Congrats to my long-time friend Adrian Garcia on a big win versus a few challengers. He’s the one candidate that can re-take Precinct 2 for the good guys. And what a showing by first-time candidate Penny Shaw in Precinct 4–75%. She earned every vote because she was everywhere, coordinated various events, and created relationships every step of the way. On to November!

Other Run-Off Races

I have all the love and respect for Jim Cargas and Dorina Papageorgiou for all they have done in CD7. Unfortunately, politics can be like kids with new toys at Christmas. Look at all the new candidates!!! Let’s open them up and see what they give us! And they gave plenty of ads, mailers, etc. So, it’ll be Moser vs Fletcher in the run-off. I’ll have to ask my sis whom she is supporting. And Nile Copeland, too!

In SD17, Fran Watson kept the race close in Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties to make it into a run-off with Rita Lucido. Good luck to Fran!

THE GOV

What a showing by former Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez with 42% against all those other politically inexperienced candidates. I was impressed with some great showings in South Texas, plus Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, El Paso, and Travis. She shouldn’t ignore Harris County, though, and do everything to cut into her opponent’s local margin. Oh, yeah, I still support Lupe Valdez for Governor.

The End of the Ballot

I heard a lot of chatter from a few political folks who didn’t like the end of the ballot survey questions–that’s all they are, a survey. Hell, I like them. And, apparently, so do the voters. While some of our candidate races had 15 to 20% undervotes, the ballot questions had less than 6% undervoting. I don’t mind if Dem voters talk to us since most of them won’t go to the county and district conventions to form the platform. And if we get some surprise answers we don’t want to hear, well, that just means the Party needs to work harder to ensure we stay true to our values and issues.

See you at the races!