Texas Remains Red

Here are the Election Results, Texas-style...

Texas November 4, 2008 election night highlights

Early voting was the winner with 47 % of the voters casting their votes before Nov 4.
With 13,575,062 registered voters in Texas, 59% cast their ballots this election cycle.

At the top of the ticket, McCain carried TX with 55%.

US Congress – Texas picked up one Republican seat and kept Sen. Cornyn.

Sen. John Cornyn was re-elected with 55% of the vote.

Republicans picked up a US House seat with Pete Olson defeating incumbent Nick Lampson who took Tom DeLay’s seat in a special election for HD 22.

So Texans will now send 20 Republicans and 12 Democrats to DC, a pickup of one Republican seat.

Texas Statewide elections saw no changes

Republican Michael Williams won re-election to the Texas Railroad Commission with 52% of the vote.

Each of the 3 sitting Texas Supreme Court Justices on the ballot won re-election with 51 and 52% margins. All 3 are Republicans.

Three Republicans on the Court of Criminal Appeals handily won re-election.

State Board of Education saw no upsets as the five Republicans and two Democrats won their re-election bids.

TX Senate – D’s gained 1 seat, one in run-off, now 19 R’s, 12 D’s

Of the seats up this cycle, only one incumbent lost as Republican Kim Brimer lost his bid for re-election to Wendy Davis in SD 10. That shifted one seat from the Republicans to the Democrats making the totals now 19 R’s and 12 D’s.

The special election for SD 7, Kyle Janek’s vacated seat, is in a run-off between Democrat Chris Bell and Republican Joan Huffman. They received 38% and 26% respectively.

TX House – D’s gained 3 seats now 76 R’s, 74 D/s

HD 11 – Republican Brian Walker came within .2% of taking out incumbent Chuck Hopson losing by 102 out of 52,830 votes cast.

HD 17 – Republican Tim Kleinschmidt beat Donnie Dippel for Robby Cook’s seat, an R pick-up.

HD 29 – Randy Webber, Republican handily defeated Kevin Murphy for the Mike O’Day seat. The seat didn’t change parties

HD 32 – Todd Hunter defeated Democrat incumbent Juan Garcia 50% to 47%.

HD 47 – Donna Keel failed to unseat Democrat Valinda Bolton.

HD 48 – Pam Waggoner failed to take Democrat Donna Howard’s seat.

HD 52 – In this open seat once vacated by Mike Krusee, this once considered safe Republican seat went to Democrat Diana Maldonado who beat Brian Daniel by less than 1%. The Libertarian candidate got almost 4%.

HD 55 – open seat - Republican Ralph Sheffield handily beat Democrat Sam Murphey
(this is formerly the Republican Diane Delisi seat)

HD 73 – Republican Doug Miller handily defeated Daniel Boone in this open seat after defeating Nathan Macias in the primary.

HD 78 – Republican Dee Margo who beat Pat Haggerty in the primary was defeated by Democrat Joseph Moody so this El Paso seat goes to the Democrats.

HD 81 – Tryon Lewis easily picked up the former Buddy West open seat.

HD 82 – Speaker Tom Craddick easily beat challenger Bill Dingus

HD 96 – Democrat Chris Turner unseated Republican incumbent Bill Zedler 51-47%.

HD 97 – Republican Challenger Mark Shelton defeated incumbent Dan Barrett 55-45%.

HD 101 – Democrat Robert Miklos defeated Republican Mike Anderson by 1.2%
(The Republican incumbent Thomas Latham was defeated in the primaries)

HD 102 – Democrat Challenger Carol Kent defeated incumbent Tony Goolsby 53-47%.

HD 105 – Incumbent Republican Linda Harper-Brown narrowly defeated challenger Bob Romano by a mere 25 out of 40,700 votes cast.

HD 107 – Conservative Bill Keffer failed to unseat incumbent Democrat Allen Vaught to win back the seat he lost last cycle. The vote was 50-47%.

HD 112 – Republican Angie Button won this seat with 56% of the vote against Democrat Sandra Vule. The Libertarian candidate earned over 4% of the vote in this open seat.

HD 130 – Republican Allan Fletcher beat libertarian candidate William Gray Junior to keep this seat Republican after defeating Corbin Van Arsdale in the primary.

HD 133 – Incumbent Republican Jim Murphy lost to Democrat Kristi Thibaut by 464 votes.

HD 144 – Republican Ken Legler defeated Joel Redmond for this open seat formerly held by Republican Robert Talton.


Bond Initiatives

A total of 37 School districts had bond initiatives on the November ballot. Only 11 failed, bringing the total debt passed in one day in Texas to a startling $1.4 billion. The largest was for $219 million in Allen, Texas. It appears even in this tough economy, most passed. The listing is here: http://s3-texasisd.s3.amazonaws.com/Public/Nov08_bond.pdf


Tax Rollback Elections

It appears that around 47% of the tax rollback elections in 49 ISD’s passed. That means that half the time, voters didn’t allow the taxing authority to take in more revenue. Six are slated for later this year. We thank the Texas ISD website for this information and for the bond initiative data: http://s3-texasisd.s3.amazonaws.com/Public/Nov08_TRE.pdf


Harris County

218,182 registered voters and 62.6% of them participated in this election
47% of the Republicans voted straight party ticket compared to 53% of the Democrats; but 59% of the early voting Democrats cast straight party votes; 119,484 cast a vote in the open senate seat SD 17 (Chris Bell and Joan Huffman are headed to a runoff)

Republican County Judge Ed Emmett won handily with 54% of the vote; Republican County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt won with 54% of the vote, Pct 3 County Commissioner Steve Radack won with 60%.

Almost 16% under voted down ballot, and a number of local judges were unseated. Even though Obama won big in this Houston area, Republicans Ed Emmit was re-elected as County Judge and taxpayer advocate Paul Bettencourt kept his seat as Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector.

GOUGED (Groups Opposed to Unsustainable Government Education Debt), Taxpayers Oppose Increased Taxes – Voting NO on RRISD Bonds

Contact: Kristin Jones, (949) 230-2965, Don Zimmerman, (512) 577-8842

Statements / Press Conference:
Wednesday, Oct 22nd, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Round Rock ISD central compound, 1311 Round Rock (Round Rock, TX, 78681)

AUSTIN – Groups of parents and property taxpayers and activists are meeting on Wednesday, Oct 22nd, 12:00 noon at the Round Rock ISD central compound to express opposition to November 4th ballot issues which would authorize unlimited tax increases and school debt by over 30%. The Round Rock ISD Bond seeks to add almost $300 million to an existing debt of about $680 million. Round Rock ISD taxpayers were hit with about $250 million of new debt just 2 years ago. The ballot language permits UNLIMITED TAXES to be assessed, at any interest rate, to repay the bond debt: "...and the levying of a tax in payment of the bonds and to pay the costs
of any credit agreements executed or authorized in anticipation of, in relation to or in connection with the bonds."

Says Michele Samuelson of Wells Branch Watchdogs, “"Round Rock ISD already owes taxpayers $600,000,000, 1/3 of this is in the form of interest payments from previous bonds. At this rate, the only thing we will pass on to our children is not an education, but a huge pile of local debt that our children and grandchildren will be saddled with. Our children's future depends on responsible spending policies that do not incur additional public debts."

Liz Elleson, former Round Rock ISD trustee and opponent of the failed $350M Bond issue of March, 2005, has filed an open records request for numerous documents, including for payments to Superintendent Chavez and salaried administrative (non-teaching) employees for 2007 – 2009, and for large expenditures approved on a “consent” agenda without full disclosure or debate. Liz will present facts on wasteful spending.

John Gordon, former GOP candidate for State Rep in Williamson County and opponent of the 2005 Bond, will present facts supporting the bad timing and overpricing of the Bond.

Says Craig Wilkerson, of the Williamson County Campaign for Liberty, “Most WilCo residents send their children to public school, but a growing number of parents prefer homeschooling or private schooling. It is against the principles of Liberty to force any WilCo residents to subsidize an educational system they do not utilize and philosophically reject.”

Says Pat Dixon, Libertarian Party state chairman, "As a member of city council in Lago Vista I have always worked to reduce spending and lower tax rates. … In a time when voters are threatened by federal, state, and local politicians with greater intrusion into their wallets, voters need to speak up and protect themselves."
Says Wes Benedict, Exec. Dir of LP of Texas, who had a role in defeating the March, 2005 Bond, “Taxes are already too high and we should not throw more money into government schools.”

Don Zimmerman, Republican candidate for Travis County anti-tax assessor-collector, a Round Rock ISD parent & taxpayer, adds, “The public school monopoly has given us what other government monopolies like the post office give us – marginal service at high cost. We need more school choices, not more debt and taxes.”

GOUGED includes Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and independent voters and taxpayers working to save their homes from confiscatory property taxes.
www.gouged.info
# # #

Last minute money dump could impact down-ballot races

A couple of weeks is a long time in political terms. There was plenty of time, for example, between this Feb. 21 post and this one for there to be much more to report on.

Kronberg made some noise last week complaining about the money game that appears to surround a few previously pro-Craddick legislators. Of course, what he didn't get into was that at least a couple of the groups collecting and spending cash were doing so along ideological lines, and not speaker-loyalty ones. I'll be far more fair than he was and state unequivocally that I believe the Texas Parent PAC is collecting and spending money along ideological lines, too - an ideology that favors school administrators over taxpayers, sure, but an ideology nonetheless.

The Parent PAC, previously focusing only on Joe Tison in HD 61, found itself flush with new cash recently, and dumped money into the coffers of Doug Miller (challenging Rep. Nathan Macias in New Braunfels), Rep. Charlie Geren, and Rep. Pat Haggerty. One has to wonder, what do Tison, Miller, Geren, and Haggerty really have in common? Haggerty is definitely furniture, and in Geren's and Miller's cases, it's just the same old song from the last primary (last time, instead of Miller, it was then-incumbent Carter Casteel - it's largely believed that Miller and Casteel are cut from the same pro-big-spending cloth).

Again, though, I wonder about HD 61. Rep. Phil King is taking hits from the gambling lobby and the educrat community. Is it just that any chance to gain an educrat in the House is a worthy cause for the Parent PAC?

Other races the Parent PAC has gotten involved in include HD 144, Robert Talton's former seat. They gave money to Republican candidate Fred Roberts. His website reveals....well, it reveals nothing about the candidate himself (check it out here). They've also given some money to former Richardson city council member James Shepherd, who is running in a four-way race to succeed local government's best friend and the taxpayer's worst enemy, Fred Hill. The Parent PAC also gave money to Republican Paula Stansell, challenging Rep. Charlie Howard down in Fort Bend County.

Never fear, Democrats! The Parent PAC is also looking out for your guys...kind of. They gave money to both Rep. Paul Moreno and Rep. Juan Escobar. But don't worry - the PAC's still got your interests in mind, just look at the so-called "Republicans" they're backing above!

Today is primary election day in Texas, and it's time to see if all the money being pushed around has a major effect or not. If you haven't gone to the polls, you better leave soon - lines are already forming.

The Texas Educrat PAC Revisited

In October 2006, I co-wrote this article about the Texas Parent PAC for the Lone Star Report and the Dallas Blog with my now-husband. At that point, we were watching the PAC closely, concerned that their influence could swing several elections in favor of educrat candidates. Our fears were not unfounded, as it turned out. Bill Keffer and Martha Wong were felled in the general election by moderate Democrat opponents who received ample support from the Texas Parent PAC, as did incumbent and still sitting Reps. Delwin Jones, Tommy Merritt, and Charlie Geren.

We expected to see more Parent PAC activity in the 2008 primary, and we haven't been disappointed. Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) is in a fight for his seat against alleged Democrat interloper Joe Tison in HD 61. Tison has received, to date, more than $12,000 from the Texas Parent PAC, in cash and services. You can see Tison's latest Ethics Commission report here.

I've written more about this over at my blog, Blue Dot Blues.

Alvord ISD officials electioneering

Alvord ISD Superintendent John Trice and Larry Wilson (Assistant Secretary of the School Board) appear to have lost their minds, and should soon lose their jobs. They are using their positions to electioneer.

These nitwits have sent a letter to “Fellow Educators and School Employees” which all but threatens school district employees to vote for State Rep Dist 61 candidate Joe Tison.

This letter begins with, “We assume your family, health and livelihood are most important to you.” (Duh!)

“With confidence, we endorse Joe (Tison) and do ask your support and vote. As career educators, public schools are our 1st priority and primary reason to support Joe.” (And here we thought the family and health were priorities!)

Even superintendents should do their homework. Several items in the letter are blatantly false, such as Rep. King’s support for elimination of the Texas Infrastructure Fund (TIF) was a big loss to school districts.*

There was nothing subtle about the letter:

“…we can elect the candidate of our choice…….if we all vote!”

The letter goes on to say “We can win with Joe Tison in the primary and general election if….
1. Every school employee and their family members support and vote for Joe.
2. Every school employee tells other family members & friends why they should support/vote for Joe. Ask each of these to tell three others
3. Some employees participate in a campaign strategy meeting (inform Mr. Trice)
– This is the Superintendent!!!
4. Employees will display a yard sign supporting Joe Tison. You can contact Mr. Trice or Mr. Wilson at 427-8711 for a sign.
5. Go to the polls for early voting. Employees could group together and go vote.”

The letter ends with a basic civics lesson:

“Important to remember:
1. Please vote in the Republican Primary…
2. The candidate receiving the majority of votes wins the primary and their name will be listed on the General Election Ballot in November.
3. Registered voters can vote for any party’s candidate in the General Election.”

“You have our thanks and respect.

John Trice Larry Wilson”
(Letter is signed by each)

Tison was reported early in his campaign as “currently looking for a political consultant. In the meantime, he is relying on the Texas Parent PAC.” We don’t know who is advising him, but clearly no one with any sense is advising the Alvord school officials.

Friends, my bet is that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama won’t be any too happy that these school district employees are being encouraged to vote in the Republican primary.

And I anticipate that these school officials broke a myriad of laws.

But it isn’t our job to prosecute them, but to call public attention to their shenanigans and to call for a public outcry against public school officials using their position to influence elections.

UPDATE: A call to Supt Trice at 5:07 pm today went into his voice mail. He was likely out campaigning for Joe Tison.

-- Bahamamamasmama


* Brief on TIF Tax:

 The Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) was institute in 1995 and is a 1.25% tax on telephones

 The TIF Tax costs Texas consumers $200 million a year

 The TIF Tax was originally slated for repeal after the collection of $1.5 billion—this goal was met sometime ago

 The TIF Tax no longer serves the primary purpose it was intended to—which was to place broadband in schools, libraries and hospitals

Spending Limitation Resolution

This was posted by Marc Levin on Empower Texans blog.

Texas GOP Primary Ballot will include a Spending Limitation ResolutionTexas Republican primary voters will weigh in on a non-binding resolution that asks whether state and local governments should be required to limit annual budget increases to the sum of the population growth and inflation rate. The measure is likely to pass overwhelmingly, just as a similar proposition did several years ago. Hopefully, this time lawmakers will get the message.

http://www.empowertexans.com/node/441