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November 06, 2007
An Interesting Night
Well folks, another election is in the books. The 2007 affair was not particularly memorable here in the Houston area. In Harris County, about 193,000 people voted -- just shy of 11% turnout. In the City of Houston, 123,000 or so ballots were cast, 13.5% turnout.
There was no suspense in the Mayor's race. As we expected, Mayor White fell a bit short of his 90+% performance of 2005, this time settling for 86% and change against two nominal opponents. Remember, at this time in 2005, the City had rallied around the Mayor's extraordinary efforts following Hurricane Katrina. A little slippage in 2007 was to be expected, but 86% remains a dominant performance.
As for Council races, runoffs are on tap in Districts' D and E. In D, Wanda Adams and Lawrence Allen made the cut, while presumed frontrunner Michael P. Williams fell short after reportedly running a lackluster campaign. In E, Mike Sullivan and Annette Dwyer advanced as expected.
Only one at-large Council race held any suspense - Position #5 to replace term-limited Michael Berry. There will be a runoff here as well. As expected, Jolanda Jones ran first and claimed one of those spots. In a surprise, Joe Trevino took the other. Most =figured either Jack Christie, Tom Nixon or Zaf Tahir to make the finals, but Trevino, likely getting a bloc vote from the Hispanic community, edged them out. It must have been a particularly tough night for Tahir, who raised and spent far more than the other contenders only to run 5th with 10% of the vote. There were those who told him he had no base in a citywide electorate and therefore no real chance to win, but...
One other interesting note from the at-large races. Perennial candidate and also-ran "Grif" Griffin earned 47% of the vote against a certain first-term member in Position #2. Note to the incumbent: when you only won your citywide campaign by 600 votes two years ago after running third the cycle before that, maybe you should spend less time meddling in other races, and more time taking care of your own business. A decidedly weak performance from a Council Member who reportedly aspires to bigger and better things down the road. Color us unimpressed.
Finally, the bonds. All but one (the jail) of the six Harris County bonds passed, though only two of them by comfortable margins -- the Port and the forensic center. Newly appointed County Judge Ed Emmett has hardly shown much political muscle since taking office, and this performance won't help him a bit. We're betting Emmett's going to have big trouble indeed from Charles Bacarisse next Spring, and will be hard pressed to survive.
The much-maligned HISD Bond squeaked by, 52-48%. Its passage was a blow to certain elected officials who came out strongly in opposition, and a victory for HISD's students.
On to 2008!
UPDATE: Due to the lateness of the hour, we neglected to mention the other key District Council race -- in I to replace Carol Alvarado. Her former staffer James Rodriguez won by a surprisingly large margin.
Posted by houtopia at November 6, 2007 11:31 PM