The Morning After . . .
Joseph Vogas
will fill you in on every thing that happened in Texas at the Federal
and State levels that you need to know.
Total Democratic Primary Votes - 2,861,924
Total Republican Primary Votes - 1,383,932
Total Votes for John Kerry in 2004 General Election - 2,832,704.
Significance: We had more people vote in the primary this year than
voted for Kerry in 2004! The best part, they are all now registered as
Democrats and can now be contacted for the general election and
primary contests down the road! We now have the base to have a
functioning democratic party in the state of Texas. Expect significant
wins to start occurring soon. Democrats are back in Texas!
President.
Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Texas Primary. 51-48
Sen Barack Obama won the Texas Caucus. 56-44 (40% reporting)
Sen. Obama got more delegates out of Texas (count not final)
Sen. Clinton got 4-7 more delegates out of close to 400 delegates
nationwide last night.
Final Conclusion - Last night was a wash. Whatever number Sen. Clinton
got last night will be erased in the next week as Sen. Obama wins
Mississippi and Wyoming. It is 8 weeks to Pennsylvania and the next
big contest.
U.S. Senate
Lt. Col. Rick Noriega got 51% last night. No run off, he goes on now
to face Sen. Cornyn. With the primary complete, this is our top race
in Texas, sign up to help at www.ricknoriega.com
Supreme Court, Place 7
Sam Houston won with 56%. Yes, he is a descendent. This should be a
close race.
Supreme Court, Place 8
Linda Yañez beat Susan Criss 52-48
Railroad Commissioner
Mark Thompson (who no one on campus or online knows who he is)
finished first with 48%. 2006 candidate Dale Henry got 27% and will
face Thompson in the run off next month.
U.S. Congress, District 10, Democrats
TV Judge Larry Joe Doherty will take on the very vulnerable Mike
McCaul. We'll see how this turns out.
U.S. Congress, District 14, Republicans
2 more years of Ron Paul. He's crazy, but primary challenger Chris
Peden was worse. *author note, this district encompasses most of my
home town*
U.S. Congress, District 22, Republicans
Crazy Lady Shelly Sekula Gibbs and Cornyn's Former Chief of Staff Pete
Olson are going into a run off to see who gets to be beaten by
incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson. *author note, I am registered to vote
in this district*
Republican Tom Craddick is the corrupt, authoritarian Speaker of the
Texas House. The following races where incumbents were removed will
help determine his fate.
Texas House - Democrats
43 - Tara Rios YBarra beat incumbent Rep. Juan Escobar. Escobar was a
good voice for us, unknown where YBarra will stand on Craddick.
77 - Marisa Marquez beat Rep. Paul Moreno. Moreno, like Escobar, was
solid for us and Marquez is an unknown.
140 - Armando Walle beat Speaker Craddick loyalist Kevin Bailey. +1
for the Good guys here.
146 - Former Rep Al Edwards beat (now) one term rep Borris Miles.
Edwards will vote for Craddick, Miles had a good voting record, but a
horrible social life including showing up drunk at a party where he
kissed another mans wife and brandished a handgun. There were no
winners here.
Texas House - Republicans
73 - One term Representative Nathan Macias, a guy who loves him some
school vouchers, has lost to Doug Miller by 38 votes. A democrat is
not winning in New Braunsfels, so we'll take it. Paul Burka is calling
this "The Revenge of Carter Casteel," the long time moderate
republican who used to hold this seat before Macias beat her in 2006.
78 - Dee Margo beat popular incumbent Pat Haggerty. Haggerty had been
rumored to be thinking about switching to be a democrat. This should
sum things up. This is a swing district, which we can now win with
Haggerty gone. Our nominee will be Joe Moody. Keep this one on your
scopes for November.
81 - Incumbent Buddy West is going into a run off with Tyron Lewis. No
clue what this means
101 - Incumbent Tom Latham fell to Mesquite Mayor Mike Anderson. They
are identical on everything but transportation on which this is a win
for Texans. Latham was Pro Craddick, Anderson is not. Anderson goes on
to face Democrat Robert Miklos who is definitely not pro-Craddick. http://www.robertmiklos.com/
130 - Incumbent Corbin Van Arsdale lost to Allen Fletcher. Van Arsdale
was no friend for progressives and neither is Fletcher. It is rumored
Fletcher was recruited by right wing talk radio host Dan Patrick. If
true, this was bad to worse.
While no incumbent lost, it is important to point out that State Rep.
Dan Barrett, an incumbent Democrat from Fort Worth this organization
helped elect, will once again face Mike Shelton. This is the guy Rep.
Barrett beat in December to win his seat. Rep. Barrett's chances for
re-election this fall just went up significantly.
That's it, I'm tired.
~Joseph Vogas
President, UNT Democrats