Thompson for RRC, Lehmberg DA, and West Gone
April 8th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
The Texas primary runoff elections were a hiccup compared to the March 4 presidential primary. Turnout reverted to its normal dismal lows. Statewide, according to the secretary of state, it was just 1.55 percent. But history was made nonetheless.
In the closely watched race for Travis County District Attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, Ronnie Earle’s hand-picked (some would say anointed) successor, won handily, slamming challenger Mindy Montford 64.5 percent to 35.5. Lehmberg has served under Earle as First Assistant, and now, she will be Travis County’s first female DA — taking the reins of the Public Integrity Unit along with the other powers of the office.
Montford, who took a leave of absence from the Travis DA’s office (all of the candidates worked under Earle in some fashion), will presumably head back to work Wednesday — and that will certainly be an interesting conversation, given how heated the campaign had become between the two during the runoff.
The final numbers for the DA’s race came in just before 10 p.m. They show Lehmberg with 65.21 percent, or 19,197 votes, to Montford’s 34.79 percent, or 10,243.
Out in the Panhandle, Tryon Lewis beat incumbent state Rep. Buddy West of Odessa. This race was all about the power of West’s Midland rival Speaker Tom Craddick. The speaker’s money helped knock out West who only got 23.97 percent of the vote.
In the statewide contest, Texas Democrats continued to support a political newcomer. Voters favored Mark Thompson over Dale Henry 59 percent to 40 percent. Thompson is a therapist for blind children and former Austin Capitol and Park Police officer — who had spent (as of April 4) only $200 on his entire campaign.
I wrote about Thompson’s inexplicable Mar. 4 victory and have spoken with him on several occasions. He says he is running a campaign on issues and he says he will not take any money from oil and gas interests.
Thompson told me Tuesday that he intends to court those voters who supported his opponents and to raise money for the general campaign. He has consistently refused to “go negative.” He even neglected to mount a campaign to debunk the allegation that he hadn’t voted since 1996 (a charge floated by the Henry campaign). In fact, he did vote in Austin in 2005 and 2006.
Thompson’s victory shows Texas Democrats don’t always follow the leads of bloggers — since most of the progressive blogging community had piled on Henry’s bandwagon. Thompson even beat Henry in Travis County, 51-49.
Thompson will face Railroad Commission Chair Michael Williams in November. Expect Williams to raise a ton of money from the Oil & Gas industry and anyone else who will fork it over.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:39 am
TX voters need to get a clue. Williams will hand Thompson his backside on a platter. Way to go TX Democrats! Another term for the paid protector of oil and gas.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:55 am
While you’re taking the convenient lesson from this, I think it’s the wrong one.
Mark Thompson is not some grassroots hero-he’s a clueless hobby candidate who will have no chance against a well financed incumbent.
Even if he prevailed, by some miraculous blue wave taking over Texas, he is ill suited to protect the citizens of Texas against greedy, lying oil and gas corps who’ve had their way for a very, very long time.
I realize that trad media enjoys any chance to bash bloggers, but the fact is no blogger I know thinks writing a blog post by itself does a damn thing to elect anybody.
Nor did anyone I know think that the huge turnout for the Presidential primary, thrilling though it was, meant cotton candy clouds, lemondrop trees, and the best candidate always coming out on top. We live in real world Texas.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Most voters dont read blogs. Most voters dont read the Texas Observer. Most voters wont read this comment.
That is good, cuz most voters are pretty stupid people in this state.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
“Thompson’s victory shows Texas Democrats don’t always follow the leads of bloggers.”
So does Rosemary Lehmberg’s victory show that Travis County Democrats did follow the lead of bloggers since we supported and endorsed her?
April 10th, 2008 at 11:15 am
How about another statewide race, KT et al.?
We endorsed Barack Obama earlier than most major news sources and he won more delegates in Texas. Do we get credit for that too? Our coverage of that race has been nationally syndicated so a few people paid attention to our unimportant jibber jabber on that little, irrelevant race.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Why does it bother you guys so much that Thompson beat Henry?
Thompson has the benefit of having had over 900,000 people vote for him once already — and over 100,000 of those came back to vote for him again.
Instead of offering him help and supporting the nominee, what we get are these sarcastic comments?
Is it because the line between blogging and campaigning has been blurred in 2008? Thompson won fair and square — why not give him a chance — since he is and will be the nominee?
The fact is, the only place anybody could read about the Democratic runoff for railroad commissioner was in the Texas political blogs (R.G. Ratcliffe at the Houston Chronicle made a valiant effort). But, as Vince has pointed out, there was little coverage of it in the mainstream press. The blogs were all pro-Dale Henry, often just pasting in press items from CapitolAnnex.
And nobody — still — has been able to explain why Thompson has done so well. I think there’s something to be said for it. You’re welcome to be as sarcastic as you want in reply. It’s cool. I live for it.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
You’re missing the point.
The critique has nothing to do with Thompson beating Henry. It has to do with you including a throwaway line about bloggers. The only purpose for its inclusion is to make a dismissive statement about bloggers and voters (which doesn’t hold true in other races, including one mentioned not five paragraphs earlier in the same story!). I’m just calling that out as a bunk point to include in your article.
As an aside- you use the fact that no one wrote about this race except the blogs. You’re right. Where was the Texas Observer on that one, eh? What’s happening on the Texas Railroad Commission and the oil & gas industry is truly saddening in regards to the Texas environment and regulation. Sounds like something that would normally be up the Observer’s ally- don’t you think?
Thompson’s win will still do down in history as an electoral mystery. Good thing- it’s about time Gene Kelly had some competition.