Garcia wins!

It's official, Juan Garcia is Texas' newest State Representative.

When complete, unofficial returns in the District 32 state representative race were released late Wednesday, Garcia received 17,611 of the votes, or 48 percent, to Republican incumbent Gene Seaman's 16,847, or 46 percent. Libertarian Lenard Nelson received 2,038, or 6 percent.

"Last night about 9 p.m. I put together a concession speech," Garcia told about 150 cheering supporters at his Yorktown Boulevard headquarters Wednesday. "As it happens, we are not going to need it."

The race hinged on three San Patricio County voting precincts, for which election officials hand-counted ballots until almost 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Seaman, who had maintained a 24-vote lead with the three precincts out, could not be reached Wednesday but released a written statement.

"While we are disappointed we did not enjoy the same success we had in past elections, I am very grateful for the 10 years the people of this district allowed me to serve," the statement said.

Garcia said he was thinking about writing his concession speech as the returns continued to favor Seaman as of 9 p.m. Tuesday. While he stayed at his Corpus Christi campaign headquarters to prepare the speech, his campaign manager Christian Archer and supporter Mikal Watts headed to the San Patricio County Courthouse in Sinton, where votes were still being tallied.

Watts, a lawyer and Democratic campaign financier, had tracked results from his laptop all night. When he saw Seaman's lead had diminished and that San Patricio County - which leans Democrat - was missing precinct results, he jumped into the car.

Once in Sinton, he learned the results would be delayed, as election officials repeatedly emerged with promises of "15 more minutes."

Garcia said he started to have hope that he might have a chance after numerous calls from Watts and Archer reporting the results were turning around and that one of the voting precincts still out was in Odem, which is heavily Democratic.

By 2:30 a.m., Archer was pacing the courthouse hallway chanting, "We love Odem. We love Odem."

Garcia had politicked hard in outlying rural regions, including the areas in question.

"We knocked on 85,000 doors," he said. "Ultimately, I think that voters want to see a candidate face-to-face. Even when our polls showed that we were up, we treated this race like we were 30 points down."

San Patricio County Judge Terry Simpson said there were problems counting returns from the three precincts in question because of liquor elections there, and said the electronic machines did not register the returns properly.

Election officials reached an unofficial vote tally by 3 a.m., with all 35 precincts reporting. Election workers were telling Watts and Archer that Garcia was the victor, but the Secretary of State's Office advised them against releasing results until another count could be completed.

"The machines weren't able to scan both the liquor election and candidate ballots," said Stephanie DeLeon, deputy election clerk. "And some of the precinct workers organized their results by party affiliation, which isn't sufficient."

Congratulations, State Representative Juan Garcia! That now gives the House a ratio of 81 Republicans to 69 Democrats, meaning the Dems have gained seven seats since the 2001 redistricting and are halfway back to regaining the majority. Woo hoo!

Here's more on what happened in San Patricio, and a sidebar on how Republicans had pretty good turnout in Nueces, which helped them win some local races.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 09, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack