One Week, Then on to November

early voting totals (0.00 / 0)

are pitiful

---

by: David Mauro @ Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 04:56:37 AM UTC

More than pitiful (3.50 / 2)

How many registered voters are in HD 106?  And only 5,200 voted?

Katy may have lost the election but she won a lot of respect from Democrats all around the state.  She ran the kind of campaign we can all be proud of. The kind that eventually will get more Democrats to the polls and give us back the legislature and the governor's mansion.

---

by: Baby Snooks @ Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 05:54:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

apathy (0.00 / 0)

Voter apathy is the #1 cause of Republican victories. If upset Democrats actually voted when they have a chance, the Democrat will always win. But that rarely happens.

---

by: John McClelland @ Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 14:41:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

not going to happen (0.00 / 0)

everyone is too busy waiting for the results from last night....lol

---

by: hamiltonfan @ Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 15:54:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Good effort (5.00 / 1)

As someone who got up before sunrise on E-Day and drove to DFW with the Annie's list crew, and then didn't return to Austin until midnight, it's a bitter pill to swallow.  Losing sucks, and we should get pissed off and work that much harder in November.

Having said that, I was impressed with the way Democrats across the state rallied to help Katy.  Normally, a district like that wouldn't even have a chance for a Democratic victory.  Even though Team Katy did a great job of voter targeting, it was obvious that Grand Prairie is a conservative, blue-collar town.  As I block-walked our Dem GOTV precincts, I still saw a good number of Bush bumper stickers.  (It always frustrates me that these folks vote against their own economic interests, but it's reality). 

Despite this uphill challenge, Team Katy did a great job of targeting solid Dem ID's on our walk lists, and our field effort made a real difference.  The E-Day grassroots efforts helped turn around a huge EV deficit.  I honestly feel if we had a few more vans of volunteers, we might have made the difference.  I personally escorted 5 people to the polls, and another 10 voters were maybes.  The weird special election was a classic base turnout effort, and we almost pulled off the upset.

We all know the Republicans love dirty tricks.  But this election takes the cake.  Many of the voters I talked to were confused.  Perry purposely set the special election during the primary election, and many of our voters were understandably confused why we wanted them to vote twice.  But what really pissed me off was that the Republicans sent our base voters misleading mail regarding where their polling locations were.  Several voters that I met refused to vote because they had tried to vote at the wrong location, and they became frustrated.  It's absolutely pathetic that Republicans can't win on the issues alone.  Instead, they have to bend over backwards to launch dirty tricks in order to supress voter turnout. 

Despite all this, we still got within 350 votes.  Therefore, I predict that Katy will pull of this upset in November because voters won't be confused, and instead they'll vote on the issues.  The voters will be pissed off that Kirk England didn't have the guts to stand up for public education in Texas.

Most importantly, I'm proud of the way Democrats across the state rallied to help Katy get within striking range.  Without question, this district is Republican, and Katy at least made it interesting.  The fact that Republicans are forced to defend their safe districts is a good omen.  Texas Democrats are finally getting their groove back, and November 2006 will be a statement election.

---

by: Ian @ Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 22:23:03 PM UTC

Early Vote Totals, Hidalgo County (0.00 / 0)

Maybe I missed it or it slipped my mind, but what is going on in Hidalgo County to make (up to this point) over 18,000 people turnout in the Democratic Primary?  Not that I'm complaining, but what's their secret?

---

by: SADem @ Thu Mar 02, 2006 at 00:37:21 AM UTC

Hidalgo Co (0.00 / 0)

Only the hottest race in Texas -- former county clerk JD Salinas challenging incumbent county judge Ramon Garcia.  A classic new blood (Salinas) versus old blood (Garcia) race.

---

by: BenBentzin'sBrain @ Thu Mar 02, 2006 at 01:52:26 AM UTC

On to November (0.00 / 0)

Ray Allen in 2004, with all of his corruption and scandal got 52.57% of the vote.  Kirk England, relatively scandal-free and the son of the popular Grand Prairie mayor only got 52.86% of the vote.  Not a significant difference; which tells me that even with a relatively "clean" Republican with excellent name ID trying to sneak into the seat in a low turnout special election (possibly the best Republican scenario), this is not a safe republican seat anymore.

The turnout for the 2004 election was 35,815, more than six times the turnout for the special election.  If even one sixth of the voters who had voted for Katy in 2004 had voted for her in the special election, she would have won, so we are still very much in the game for the November elections.

Vision = Truth to Power

---

by: Jake @ Sun Mar 05, 2006 at 06:27:14 AM UTC