Texas Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Fri Oct 29, 2010 at 05:07 PM CDT

Vote Before 7PM: Find out your closest location in any county here courtesy of Bill White's campaign.

Volunteer for GOTV: Sign up for a GOTV shift this weekend through Bill White's campaign, check in with your area coordinated campaign, or a local race near you.

• A must-read piece in the New York Times on voter psychology and electoral experiments- including case examples in the Texas Governor's race.


• Mark Jones lays out some electoral benchmarks for Bill White in the event he doesn't win next Tuesday.  Jones is the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy's Fellow in Political Science as well as the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University.

  46.0 percent. This is the highest percentage won by any Democrat in a statewide race during the past decade. John Sharp (a potential rival in the 2012 Democratic Senate primary) won 46.0 percent of the vote in his 2002 campaign for lieutenant governor. Surpassing this mark would position White in the driver's seat for the Democratic Senate nomination, as well as provide strong support for the case that he would be a formidable rival for whichever Republican wins the party's nomination in 2012.

  43.7 percent. This is the percentage won by President Barack Obama in 2008 in Texas. While the overall political context, as well as the composition of the voters participating in the election is distinct in 2008 and 2010, White's 2012 quest for the Senate will be advantaged by the extent to which he exceeds President Obama's vote share.

  40.0 percent. This is the percentage (39.96 percent to be more precise) won by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez in 2002. Failing to cross this threshold would be a traumatic blow to White's political future.



• Paul Burka looks back to his thoughts from 2008 on Texas state house races. Then provides some 2010 thoughts on where house races stand.


• The Austin Chronicle runs through the 8-day Campaign Finance Reports in Travis County.


• Austin's Proposition 1 picks up support from 7 former Austin Mayors who endorsed the Get Austin Moving campaign today.


• 3rd Party candidates in Texas almost always overpoll their eventual vote percentages. Still, I do expect 3rd Party candidates to perform better this year than they have for the past decade.

Video Bonus

Bill White offers the following ad in his closing TV arguments.

Eerily similar to another closing ad from someone who ran against Perry? The answer is yes if you were thinking Kay Bailey Hutchison.