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Primary Mapping: Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector (D)


by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Fri Aug 17, 2012 at 06:49 PM CDT


Yesterday, we began our mapping series with the Travis County District Attorney's race in the Democratic Primary. We continue today with another countywide office, that of Tax-Assessor Collector. This was an open seat after the retirement of longtime incumbent Nelda Wells Spears who resigned at the end of 2011.

The color scale divides the % share of the vote into six categories from dark orange to dark purple, leaving three color densities for each candidate based on the share of the vote they received in the precinct. The breaks denote every 1/6th of the vote or 17%, 33%, 50%, 67%, and 83% to reflect not only the winner of a precinct but also the margin so as to highlight voting patterns across the county more easily. Precincts in red indicate no votes cast- most of these are fragmented precincts from congressional redistricting.

Takeaways: It is clear that Bruce Elfant's strongest base of support comes from the area that he currently represents as Constable in Precinct 5. If you check out the lines of his current district, you'll see that's where Elfant ran up margins in excess of 80% of the vote. Stan Wilson's only area of electoral refuge was in some of the more heavily African American precincts in East Austin.

Disclosure: I worked on Bruce Elfant's campaign.

To see other Travis County maps in this series, click here.

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How I size it up (0.00 / 0)
Bruce started with a huge advantage, being extremely well-known and well-respected among Democratic insiders across the county. This not only got Bruce a lot of votes directly, but it also got him the endorsements of almost all of the Democratic clubs, who were choosing between an old friend and somebody we had never heard of. These endorsements wound up pulling in a bunch more voters. Against this sort of juggernaut, Stanley Wilson never got any traction.

In truth, Stanley Wilson was extremely well qualified. People who took the time to talk with him one-on-one learned that he understands the tax assessor's office amazingly well, and that he would have made an excellent chief. Maybe not as good as we expect Bruce to be, but excellent nevertheless.

But aside from the African-American precincts, he remained an unknown, and his campaign went nowhere.

For the record, I voted for Bruce and contributed to his campaign. But I insist on giving Stan Wilson his due. It's a real shame that the local political landscape never let him be heard, and that most voters never got the opportunity to make an informed choice. (When it comes to down-ballot races, they rarely do.)


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