Early voting begins in the primaries today. With that in mind, the following are Democratic candidates I will be voting for, or would be voting for if I lived in their district. I am only addressing contested races – you may safely assume that I will vote for the uncontested candidates on my ballot.
Governor: Bill White. He’s the candidate I wanted in this race for at least a year now. I couldn’t be happier that he finally got in.
Lite Gov: Linda Chavez-Thompson. But I have no quarrel with a vote for Ronnie Earle. I just wish these campaigns would be a lot more visible.
Ag Commissioner: Hank Gilbert. To be blunt, I can’t say Hank has run a very good campaign so far. But he’s still the best qualified and most knowledgeable person running for the office, and that includes the incumbent.
Land Commissioner: Hector Uribe.
CD18: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. I have nothing against her opponents, Jarvis Johnson and Sean Roberts. But as I’ve said many times, Rep. Jackson Lee votes the way I’d want her to vote, and I’m happy with that.
CD22: Doug Blatt. Seems reasonable enough, and I do not want this person on the ballot.
Harris County Judge: Gordon Quan. A strong candidate and a good person.
Harris County Clerk: Sue Schechter. Ditto what I said about Gordon Quan.
HD146: Borris Miles. Miles did more in his one term in office than Al Edwards has done in a decade. I believe he’s gotten a handle on the personal demons that caused him problems during and after that first term, and as such I believe he will be an even stronger representative in Austin at a time when we’ll need all the strong representation we can get.
HD105: Loretta Haldenwang. The best candidate for the Democrats’ best pickup opportunity in the Lege.
SBOE District 5: Rebecca Bell-Metereau. A good candidate who is working the hardest in the race.
Judicial races: I am not going to publicly announce endorsements in these races, outside of the one I have already made. My mission for this primary, at least as I saw it, was to try to bring as much information about the candidates that I could for your inspection, and I hope I’ve done that with the judicial Q&As. There’s a lot of strong, well-qualified candidates running for these benches, and while I have a pretty good idea of who I’ll be voting for in most of these races, I have too much respect for too many of the ones I will not be voting for to say so in this space. Having said that, it has not escaped my notice that a few candidates have collected all or nearly all of the endorsements from the dozen or so groups that took the time and made the effort to screen them, and I think everyone would be wise to take that into consideration. Any single endorsement doesn’t mean that much in these races, but a whole bunch of them is worth noticing.
Speaking of which, please note that the 2010 Election page has been updated to include names and endorsements for all of the candidates for which I have received but not yet published Q&As. As of today, I expect all of them to be completed by Friday, and will be running two a day until they’re all done. In response to several requests, I have also created this Google spreadsheet, which is sorted by race rather than by the date the Q&A responses were received, and which includes candidates for which I have not received Q&A responses, so you can compare endorsements in individual races more easily. Please do remember you can sort the table on my page by clicking the arrow in the right hand side of the column header.
Finally, on a somewhat tangential note, I recommend everyone read Stace’s take from last week on Lisa Falkenberg’s column about endorsements for a thoughtful perspective on the process.
“… I have also created this Google spreadsheet, which is sorted by race rather than by the date the Q&A responses were received…”
Of course, the table on the 2010 Election tab is sortable by whichever column you want, also. That’s already helped me figure out a vote or two this election.
Willie Nelson for Governor as a write-in candidate. He would rebuild the middle class. He would have compassion for the unemployed and growing hungry (now 25% of Texas’ kids). He would help family farmers, ranchers, and homeowners in trouble. He would reduce corporatism’s excesses in so many areas including the quadrillion dollars of financial derivatives which are being used to short (profit by bankrupting) companies, nations and soon states. He likes evidence in elections–paper ballots hand counted–making him a defender of democracy rather than an oligarchy. He would return us to the enlightenment with real science and a really good education rather than accommodating all the dark agers who have to ruin education to get away with what they have done.
Write-In Update:
Unless you just want the practice for now or to send the message to other Texans to consider Willie Nelson as a write-in candidate during the general election, and to send a message to Willie Nelson to consider it….
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/candidates/guide/writein.shtml
Write-In Candidates
Write-in candidates are not permitted in primary elections, except for the party office of county chair or precinct chair. Tex. Elec. Code Ann. § 172.112.
In order to become a write-in candidate in the general election, file a Declaration of Write-in Candidacy with the Secretary of State or your county judge, as appropriate (see chart), no earlier than July 25, 2010, and no later than 5:00 p.m. on August 24, 2010. Tex. Elec. Code Ann. §§ 146.023, 146.025. Your declaration must be accompanied by either a filing fee or a nominating petition signed by a certain number of qualified voters.
……..
http://mydd.com/users/benawu/posts/texas-write-in-candidates-needed
Texas write in Candidates needed
by BENAWU, Thu Jan 07, 2010 at 06:56:33 AM EST
I ended up being (1) Indifferent-as-in-I-like-both-White-and-Shami about the Dem races and (2) still really annoyed with Rick Perry over, well, everything. After KBH’s performance in the debate defending (sort of) Roe v. Wade I decided to vote in the GOP primary. I feel like a crummy person, but I’ll get over it in and get back in the “D” line on primary day in 2012. And if the polling holds up it looks like it’ll be White for me in November.
I ended up not voting in any of the races except for Guv and TX-14, and I think for a couple of the judicial candidates who are not bad people.
Moreover, I look forward to getting all the crazy right-wing propaganda mail pieces that I am entitled to receive now.
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