March 05, 2008
Republican primary results

And the Republican results:

John McCain is now the official Republican nominee, with Mike Huckabee dropping out but Ron Paul (who also won his CD14 primary easily) carrying on. McCain won a fairly soft 51% of the vote statewide. Turnout was less than half of the Dems' at 1.38 million, a modest 12.3% gain over 2000.

John Cornyn won 81% against his token opponent. The one interesting statewide race turned into a dud as Court of Criminal Appeals judge Paul Womack won with almost 69%.

Congressional incumbents Sam Johnson, Ralph Hall, and as noted Ron Paul all won. John Faulk beat TJ Baker-Holm in CD18. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and Pete Olson will face off in a CD22 runoff. Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larsen won the right to challenge Ciro Rodriguez in CD23.

One incumbent who did go down was former HPD Chief Sam Nuchia, who lost his spot on the First Court of Appeals to challenger Ed Hubbard.

State Senators Tommy Williams and Craig Estes both won their races.

Another mixed bag in the State House. Let's break it down:

Craddickite incumbents who won: Betty Brown, Charlie Howard, Doc Anderson, Phil King, Bill Zedler, Frank Corte.

Craddickite incumbents who lost: Nathan Macias, in a replay of his nail-biting, last-boxes-counted win over Carter Casteel from 2006; and Thomas Latham.

Anti-Craddickite incumbents who won: Byron Cook, Delwyn Jones, Charlie Geren.

Anti-Craddickite incumbent who lost: Pat Haggerty.

A net loss of one for Craddick, which will likely become two in the fall, as I expect Democrat Joe Hardy to be the favorite to beat Haggerty's opponent, Dee Margo. I won't be shocked if Haggerty endorses Moody, for that matter. With the wins Craddick scored over Borris Miles, Juan Escobar, and Paul Moreno, that's a net +2 for now, likely +1 in the fall. Not too bad for him, though not enough one way or the other to say what his ultimate fate will be.

Other results from the State House: Jerry Madden held off his challenger in one of the nastier races. Harris County incumbents Joe Crabb and John Davis hung on. And in the marquee race of the day, Allen Fletcher knocked off Corbin Van Arsdale in HD130, winning just over 52% of the vote. Dan Patrick gets himself a minion.

The open HD144 seat will see a runoff between Ken Legler and Fred Roberts. And Joe Agris sent out enough mail to defeat Carlos Obando in HD134.

Moving to Harris County, Ed Emmett wound up with 55% of the vote against Charles Bacarisse. Maybe negative campaigning doesn't always work. As expected, Kelly Siegler and Pat Lykos will duke it out for the DA nomination. Sheriff Tommy Thomas and appointed District Clerk Theresa Chang won easily.

Incumbent District Court Judge Brian Rains won his primary in the 176th. Jeff Shadwick (55th), Patrician Kerrigan (190th), and David Farr (312th) won to fill the unexpired terms of those benches, while the open 174th will see a runoff between Bill Moore and Kevin Keating.

Both incumbent members of the Harris County Department of Education got whupped. That ought to make the April trustees' meeting interesting.

Turnout in Harris County was 170,836 for the GOP, and 344,689 for the Democrats. And just for fun, I'll note that Michael Skelly (46,560) got more votes in his primary for CD07 than John Culberson (44,406) got in his.

Let's check my predictions now...

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 05, 2008 to Election 2008
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