« Looking To November? | Main | Numbers! »
February 18, 2008
Here We Go!
Well folks, the time has come here in Texas. Early voting begins tomorrow (folks in Harris County can find out when and where to early vote here), and with the electric state of the Democratic presidential contest, it figures to be a primary like no other here. There are about 12.6 million registered voters in Texas, and some are predicting Democratic primary participation as high as 2 million, which would surpass the previous record of 1.8 million set in 1988.
Of that 2 million, 250,000 or so could come from Harris County. (Greg thinks that estimate is on the high side, and has some interesting posts debating the subject -- here , here and here.) Whatever the total ends up being on March 4th, there is no question this county this whole area is in a full-on political frenzy.
Suddenly, Houston is becoming a celebrity hangout. Over the weekend, George Lopez and America Farrar were in town to campaign respectively for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and tonight we enjoyed an opportunity to hear Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (a Hillary supporter) address the Houston Democratic Forum on her behalf. We can only guess that once the Wisconsin and Hawaii contests are over with tomorrow, Texas will become ground zero, along with Ohio, for intensive, high profile campaigning, not to mention national media coverage.
Indeed, for a few weeks, Texas will matter in the national political drama, before we are once again relegated to our role as ATM machine. Hey, we'll enjoy it while it lasts, right?
As we previously mentioned, the likely explosion in Democratic primary turnout here will dramatically impact down ballot local races, though no one quite knows how. Certainly, many of these new primary voters will pass on voting down ballot, but many will go ahead and vote, perhaps with less information about these races than more habitual participants.
We have a few suggestions for local contests -- here, here and here. Happy voting everyone, and hang on to your hats!
Posted by houtopia at February 18, 2008 10:12 PM
Comments
Small correction: In the first paragraph, I think you left out "million" after "12.6". ;-)
In the last 48 hours I've gotten two 'R' autodialer polls and a 'D' go vote call...interesting days ahead, indeed!
Posted by: Joe White at February 18, 2008 11:21 PM
Thanks Joe. The perils of typing late at night on half a brain!
Posted by: houtopia at February 19, 2008 11:27 AM