Progress! This year, Texas Supreme Court candidate Sam Houston lost by 5% but won over 3.5 million

[Stop Cornyn]

votes, and Houston was the top statewide Democrat. Both Obama and Houston broke the 3.5 million vote barrier, and no Democrat in Texas history has ever even come close to that mark before Obama and Houston both surpassed it this week.

Compare this year to 2006, when the top-performing statewide Democratic candidate was Texas Supreme Court candidate Bill Moody (whose son was just elected to the Texas Legislature!). Judge Moody lost by 6% (and came nowhere near the 3.5 million voter mark given that 2006 was a non-presidential election year). The fact that Houston narrowed the margin from 2006 to 2008 is especially remarkable because the margins for Texas Democrats are historically much worse during presidential election years.

Going back to 2004, the last presidential election year, the top-performing statewide Democratic candidate was Court of Criminal Appeals candidate J.R. Molina who lost by over 15% (and he didn't break the 3 million vote threshold).

In 2002, Texas Supreme Court candidate Margaret Mirabal and Lieutenant Governor John Sharp were the only two statewide Democrats who got over 45% of the vote, and the both lost their non-presidential-election-year races by bigger margins than Sam Houston lost in the most recent presidential election year.

If you want to go all the way back to the next most recent presidential election year, which was 2000, the top-performing statewide Democratic candidate was Court of Criminal Appeals candidate Bill Vance who lost by almost 13%.

.

What does all of this mean?

It tells me that for the last five election cycles the top Democrat was a statewide judicial candidate (Sharp slightly edged out Mirabal in 2006, but both candidates clearly out-performed the rest of the Democratic ticket), and that the margins from 2004 to now have been shrinking from 15% to 6% to 5%, and the numbers for the past three presidential elections have been increasing even more dramatically from 2.6 million Democratic votes for our highest performing statewide candidate to 2.9 million Democratic votes for our top candidate to over 3.5 million Democratic votes for our top Democratic candidates.

Is this enough progress? No!

But I am still thrilled about our pick-ups in the Texas House, the Texas Senate, the various Courts of Appeals around Texas (especially our new chief justices in Austin and San Antonio was well as our appellate court pick-ups in Houston and El Paso not to mention our re-elected appellate judges), and the various trial court benches in Texas (especially our masterful sweep of 22 of 26 previously Republican-held judicial benches in Harris County).

I want more progress, but that won't stop me from taking a moment to share my deep gratitude and a compliment in recognition of the hard work other have done and which has paid some real dividends.

[sonias]

1. I agree that with some more effort we can win a statewide race

I really wish we could have broken that supreme court republican block.

I want more progress on judicial courts too. This is key to restoring sanity to Texas.


Sonia

[Support the ACLU]

2. This needs a 5th recommendation!

[PDittie]

3. We must elect someone statewide in 2010

100% Republican governance in Texas is NOT ACCEPTABLE any longer.

Our state party has to make this their #1 objective.

[Hangingon]

4. A good name is a great thing.

Remember when Jesse James was state treassurer.

[sonias]

5. Sam Houston was a great name

And while he did get a huge turnout he didn't win.

Just saying!:shrug:

Sonia

[Czolgosz]

6. It's more than a good name. Linda Yanez and Susan Strawn both got over 3,400,000 votes. Sam Houston

is from Harris County and he benefited from his base turning out very well. If the Rio Grande Valley had turned out at just 5 percent higher numbers, Linda Yanez would have been the top statewide Democrat.

Also, I don't think Barack Hussein Obama surpassed 3,500,000 votes in Texas based on having a good name.

It is a mistake to suggest that Sam Houston broke 3,500,000 votes because he has a good ballot name -- Sam Houston is an excellent candidate, who ran an excellent campaign, who won many critical endorsements, and he won the votes he received based on merit. The fact that Linda Yanez, Susan Strawn, and Barack Obama all also exceeded 3,400,000 votes (which no Democrat had ever previously done), is evidence that our strongest statewide candidates are reaching a new levels of support and Sam Houston's success was not based on his strong ballot name.

[Stevepol]

7. How do you know he lost? Has TX suddenly adopted paper ballots and audits state-wide?

Until that happens, there's no reason to have the slightest confidence in the announced results of machine counted elections in TX.

Anybody wanting to win in TX should make sure to campaign heavily in McKinney (home of Diebold/Premier).

[Justitia]

8. Sam Houston's loss really hurt - he should have won this one.

As long as I live here, some things I will never understand.

I hope he isn't dissuaded from running again.

[Stop Cornyn]

9. Houston, Yanez, and Jordan were, objectively, much better than their Repub opponents

[Justitia]

10. Absolutely, by miles. I hate that we lost those races, I supported all of them.

And I actually thought we had a real chance to win them.