Burnt Orange Report

Election Liveblog

By Byron LaMasters

[I've decided to post the most current update at the top of the thread. Just hit refresh for the latest.]

10:46: Ok, time to end this thread. I'll have some thoughts about the elections around the state later tonight or tomorrow on new threads. I also met Kimberly of A Little Pollyanna at a party earlier tonight. She's very fabulous. If only she would update her blog more often...

10:15: Dallas strong mayor plan defeated. This is a huge defeat for mayor Laura Miller. South Dallas turned out very heavily against as a personal rejection of the mayor. The Dallas Morning News reports:

Voters on Saturday overwhelmingly rejected a measure to give the Dallas mayor more power in what the victors said was as much a referendum on Mayor Laura Miller’s leadership as it was on city government. [...]

One of the most contentious issues in Dallas County, the strong-mayor referendum called for eliminating the city manager position and giving the mayor a slate of new powers, including the ability to hire and fire top city officials.

Supporters said empowering the mayor would make the city more accountable and put Dallas on the fast track to reducing the crime rate and furthering business development.

Opponents, including all 14 council members, argued that giving one person so much power would result in a dictatorship.

10:03: Wow. Austin (almost) finishes counting by 10 PM. Maybe it's just me but I remember some late, late nights with long vote counts in Travis County. The (near) final results are here. The surprise of the night is that political newcomer Jennifer Kim surged to a strong second place performance ahead of Gregg Knaupe and Mandy Dealey. Margot Clarke finished a solid first, but I expect a spirited run-off campaign. Here are the results:

AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL, PLACE 3
252 of 256 Precincts Reporting

Margot Clarke 23,332 40.36%
Jennifer Kim 15,764 27.27%
Gregg Knaupe 12,211 21.12%
Mandy Dealey 6,508 11.26%

Votes Cast: 57,815

In the other two races, Lee Leffingwell and Betty Dunkerly ran away with their races. Leffingwell won 62% - his closest opponent was Casey Walker at 14%. Andrew Bucknall won 8%. In Place 4, Betty Dunkerly won 63%. Her closest opponent was Wes Benedict at 18%. Jennifer Gale received 9% of the vote.

Finally the smoking ban narrowly passed. The FOR position won 51.7% (33,324) with the AGAINST position earning 48.3% (31,100). ACC Expansion easily passed with 79% of the vote.

10:00: Common Sense reports that Virginia DuPuy has been elected mayor of Waco. I know very little about the woman, so hopefully Nate can tell us more about her via comments, guestpost or trackback.

9:57: It's Castro and Hardberger in the San Antonio runoff:

Final numbers: 98.48% reported, Castro 41.81%, Hardberger 30.13%, Shubert 26.43%

9:55: Back online. Mavs up 15 at halftime in game 7, yay! More returns to follow...

8:42: San Antonio update - 17% reported: Castro 40.3% ~ Hardberger 31.5% ~ Shubert 26.5%

The first batch of election day returns are also in from Austin and Dallas.

8:38: Quick update. Karl-Thomas called me about 30 minutes ago. His father, Tom Musselman was elected to the Fredericksburg City Council. I know I speak for the entire BOR community in extending my congratulations to Tom Musselman, and their family. Not only was Tom Musselman elected, but he won the most votes in the race with four candidates (the top two vote-getters are elected). The one incumbent in the race came in second.

7:58: Returns should be trickling in for awhile now. I'm going to a few victory parties and catching some dinner. I should be back when things get interesting in a few hours.

7:48: Wow! The Dallas strong mayor proposal is failing very heavily in early vote. Based on these numbers, I would be very surprised if it were to pass:

Dallas-Proposition DALLAS
VOTE FOR 1
FOR 14,542 - 38.18%
AGAINST 23,543 - 61.82%
Total 38,085

This is a huge shock. I expected this race to be much tigher, but indications are that the southern sector likely turned out very high against the strong mayor, and the plan only received lukewarm support (if even a majority) in the northern sector.

Also in Dallas, a very close three-way race for District 14. Hunt (D) leads at 38%, Ingle (R) is second at 32% and Marcum (D) is third at 27% in the early vote. For the seat of term-limited John Loza in Place 2, Pauline Medrano looks to narrowly avoid a run-off if early vote numbers hold up - Medrano is at 51%, Barros-Greene at 34% and Tyler at 15%.

In District 8, former councilman Al Lipscomb has a narrow lead over incumbent James Fantroy of 36-35% in the early vote. This is an extremely interesting development. Lipscomb is a longtime civil rights activist who saw his political downfall after a bribery conviction that was later overturned. Many supporters of the strong mayor have suggested that Limpscomb was recruited to run against his former ally (Fantroy) in order to help drive up the turnout in the southern sector district likely to vote heavily against the plan.

Finally in north Dallas open seats 11 and 12 the early vote has Koop leading Harrison 55-45% in district 11. In district 12, Natinsky leads with 47% to 31% for Fleo.

On the Dallas County School Board two local Democratic activists are running in two of the seats. In District 1, Pauline Dixon has 34% of the early vote. She trails Jan Woody who has 39% of the early vote. In Place 4, Ann Hubener leads Sam Thompson 57-43%.

7:35: The Red State brings great news for Hardberger out of San Antonio:

7:17pm - Early voting numbers: Castro 38.5, Hardberger 31.6, Shurbert 28.0 Others: Who cares.

7:21: Just returned from the Travis County Tax Assessor/Collector office where they released the early vote count at 7 PM. Unfortunately, there was no Internet access available, so I'm back at home now.

The early vote is available here in PDF format.

In Place 1, Lee Leffingwell has a 40% lead over his closest opponent. Leffingwell took 56% with 15% for Casey Walker, 11% for Scott Williams and 9% for Andrew Bucknall.

Place 3 is already showing surprising results. Margot Clarke has taken an impressive 41%. Even more surprising is that Jennifer Kim leads Gregg Knaupe for the race for second place - and more importantly, a spot in the runoff. Kim has 24.3% (5368) and Knaupe has 23.1% (5100). If this trend holds up, it should be a long night to decide which of the two makes the runoff. Dealey is a distant fourth at 11%.

Betty Dunkerly has a solid lead in Place 3. She has 60% of the vote with 18% for Wes Benedict and 11% for Jennifer Gale.

In what will also be a closely watched race, the smoking ban leads 52-48% in the early vote. The ACC expansion has an overwhelming lead at 79-21%.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at May 7, 2005 07:21 PM | TrackBack