| I've finally had a change to get ahold of some Internet access out here to give everyone a short update on what has been going on.
As Matt mentioned earlier, turnout has been light. Matagorda County only cast 436 Early Votes total, even though around 90% of ID'd Democratic Primary voters are from there. This is due in part, though, by the fact that there was only one voting location for the entire county for EV last week. The DiNovo campaign has apparently been working on calling and contacting folks out there to push them to vote on Election Day instead.
In Brazoria County, home to fast growing Pearland, insterest seems to have been higher. (All 4 candidates are from this part of the district.) Through last Thursday, 2,223 voters had come out to vote here. My guess is there was about 3,000 when you include Friday. Over half of that is coming from East Pearland, with Alvin following in second before West Pearland in early vote showing. From what the person I'm staying with says, East Pearland is more Republican turf, but to note, it used to be the only early voting site until this year so many people aren't used to voting on the other side of town.
Of the candidates, John Gorman has the least number of signs up and apparently hasn't been campaigning all that much. (Check out his website linked above. The image has "December XXth whrer the election date should be on it.)
Randy Weber could be said as trying to go hard-right in the race from what I've seen of his direct mail, one of which features a giant picture of 'suspicious Mexicans' paddling an inflatable raft across a river and is all about Immigration.
Weber has been doing a lot of driving, trying to make events in Matagorda and Brazoria counties.
"We've also been calling our voters and doing mail-outs," Weber said. "It's going to come down to turnout and how many voters show up to vote."
Mike O'Day, who has a hardware store down the street, is the prime challenger and if this race is in a runoff it's likely it will be him and DiNovo. Through supposedly the moderate, you wouldn't know it for the campaign lit and local activities.
O'Day's campaign staff has been putting in 13 to 14 hours a day making calls and attending community events, he said. The high numbers of the east Pearland location are a good indication that some voters are paying attention, he said.
Anthony DiNovo's campaign has really kicked up in the last weeks. Volunteers have been making calls from early on until about 7-8 each day. Mostly everything that can be blockwalked has. It's true that voters are pretty clueless about there being a race going on, but in the last day, that seems to have changed. Many voters reported getting multiple contacts today about the race and those that are contacted by phone or door appear very receptive to voting tomorrow.
I spent the morning walking in Pearland's Precinct 63 which actually broke for Chris Bell. I had a higher than average rate of getting people at home. Within this one precinct, there was Democrats of two stripes- suburban upper class voters of mixed ethnicity and then a street of Hispanic mobile homes. One funny story from that part of town was reading the walk list notation of "moved". When we got to the property that was true- the mobile home was literally gone, with nothing but a brown patch of dirt and a lonely set of stairs in the yard.
During the afternoon I called voters with Martha about about 7 other folks at the Democratic Party HQ. Last night we ran into another blogger Hal of HalfEmpty, who was out here doing a lot of work. You should really read this and this post of his to get a better idea of what he's been seeing out here on the ground. The bloggers have really chipped in on this one and Tammy and the campaign staff, most all doing this for free, have been working harder than you can imagine trying to get this over the edge.
My ballpark estimate (which could vary based on tomorrow's chance of rain) is about 8400 votes total to be cast in this election. It's winnable, could go to a run-off (sorry Hal and Tammy), and in any case is something worthwhile to be a part of. Come down to help if you are in the area or call from home.
P.S. A big Thank You to Zada True-Courage for helping to pay over half my ticket cost after seeing this post from Sunday! You're the best!
Campaign HQ
The address for the Pearland HQ
3536 Broadway Pearland, TX 77581
The phone #281 412-0990 |
