Seven Austin Democratic Clubs Release Endorsements

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Fri Jan 29, 2010 at 01:33 AM CST

Below are the results; a key is located at the bottom to decode the club acronyms. Also to note, the Austin Tejano Democrats do not endorse in statewide races which is left to the statewide organization which supports White, Chavez-Thompson, Uribe and Gilbert.. Circle C Democrats do not endorse in the JP or County Commissioner races in which they are not located.

For the statewide candidates, I don't think there was ever a question that these informed Democrats were every going to endorse anyone other than White & Gilbert. In the two low information races, it's interesting that Hector Uribe also took a clean sweep while the Lt. Gov primary was a mixed bag. Chavez-Thompson may be the pick of statewide insiders, but Earle seems to be more comfortable choice for Austin voters which won't be surprising since he's an Austin boy.

As we head farther down ballot, a couple of candidates are breathing easier tonight. Rebecca Bell-Metereau is going to feel better coming away with a clean sweep in order to help maximize her ability to avoid a runoff in her 4-way race in massive district with little money. Brown & Crain's clean sweeps are reassuring against last minute opponents. Sage won back some momentum in the 299th race (and won a runoff with Leonard Martinez in the ATD group) but it's likely that the 299th will be a runoff between Sage and Montford regardless.

The big winner of the judicial races is John Lipscombe who was not expected to win an majority of endorsements tonight but swept the 5 that did endorse. Lipscombe tied among the Austin Tejano Democrats- a club that Seelig should have won outright. Circle C was split by a vote or two and doesn't endorse in those situations.

In this race, CAPD issued no endorsement and Circle C did not have it on the ballot. This was a needed series of wins for Alvarez.

Nothing unexpected here. BAD had no endorsement in JP5 because of a ballot error and may re-endorse later. Bradford failed to make much of a dent in the JP1 open seat even though this was the first time many people had actually heard from his opponent.

One final note on this set of endorsements. One thing that is pretty clear is how efficient the Austin Democratic Machine can be. You can tell where it is engaged or disengaged. For instance, Shami can't buy off any of it and probably won't win a single endorsement in Austin anyways. The Machine doesn't care about the Lt. Governor's race and that was the most split race tonight. The Machine is fully lined up behind Cliff Brown & David Crain. It has blessed Amy Clark Meachum to steamroll over Jan Patterson and that is happening perfectly.

The biggest test was County Court at Law #3 and tonight's results will give comfort to any wobbly players to go with Lipscombe. The Machine isn't in full agreement or engagement yet in the 299th District Court race because of the last minute array of candidates but will probably organize itself in the runoff. And in the JP races- the Machine recognizes that Williams is the chosen African American replacement for that district and while she's relatively unknown, she's got the nod of support. There are a couple of different machines in the Commissioner 4 race which are pulling in different directions (and without much direction).

But that's our local democracy.