| Today's meeting of the University Democrats and Central Austin Democrats (who join to make up the Austin Progressive Coalition in races in which the two groups' endorsements align) lasted for over 4 and a half hours. The groups endorsed similarly on all but 2 races, though those two races happen to be the most contested. The jointly endorsed APC candidates are as follows. (APC produces between 10-15,000 doorhangers distributed in Central Austin student and progressive precincts for the March 7 Primary, giving this particular Travis County endorsement greater respect and attention on a regular basis locally)
Senate: Barbara Radnofsy
TX-10: Ted Ankrum
Governor: Bob Gammage
Lt. Gov: Ben Z. Grant
Ag. Comm: Hank Gilbert
299th Dist. Court: Charlie Baird
Cnty. Court at Law #2: Eric Shepperd
Cnty. Comm. Pct. #4: Margaret Gomez
In the County Commission Pct 2 race, CAD endorsed Sarah Eckhardt, and UDems went to 2 run-off votes where incumbent Karen Sonleitner was endorsed by a margin of one vote.
In the HD-47 race, CAD endorsed Valinda Bolton where UDems endorsed Jason Earle (by a margin of 4).
Some interesting points to note... Judge Charlie Baird won 100% of the vote in both groups. While Chris Bell came all the way from the Houston Tejano Democrats state convention today to speak to us, Bob Gammage won by fairly healthy margins from what I've heard in both groups, led in part by speeches from former Chris Bell supporters who I worked with back when University Democrats helped launch the Bell campaign here at UT in August of 2005. Oh the irony...
Speaking of the Tejano Democrats convention, where Bob Gammage stayed for the day, a little scuttlebutt on that made its way to Austin this afternoon. Apparently it was decided in the late afternoon that the Tejano Democrats as a statewide organization was not going to issue and endorsement in the Governor's race and voted instead to allow each individual chapter to make its own mind.
The result? Every local Tejano Democrats chapter except for Houston's, voted to endorse Bob Gammage. Apparently there was some internal wrangling on behalf of one of the gubernatorial campaigns which was working to not seat all the clubs due to technicalities in their paperwork, which resulted in a motion to localize the endorsements away from Houston control. (I'll update if I hear more that clarifies this situation). It is held by many that the Tejano Democrats are more active and valuable in terms of their endorsement than the Mexican-American Democrats who splinted away from the former body a number of years ago due to leadership and naming issues. |
