Dispatches from Dallas, November 8 edition

This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.

This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth, election results, and only election results, because we’re all dealing with our grief right now. Next week will be time for analysis and consideration of what we do next. I wish I could give all of y’all a good hug. Please take care of yourselves, friends. We have been in hard times here in Texas for a while, and harder times are coming. Each one of you is needed to hold up the barricades.

You’ve already seen the national and statewide results, so let’s talk about what happened in the metroplex. If you want the overall results, you can get them from the Dallas Morning News; the Star-Telegram should have a similar page but its election page is just a mass of stories. You’ll do better looking for numbers at the Fort Worth Report’s election page.

In Dallas, we are in a big hole of our own making. Remember the HERO amendments? Two of them passed. We now have given any old idiot the right to sue the city with no defense, and we lost the important one, Prop U, so we’re now on the hook for adding 900 cops and giving half our money to Dallas PD. And of course with state law around defunding the police, we’ll never get any of that money back to our city budget. So our streets and lights will be going unrepaired, our library and parks unfunded, etc. until we can get this fixed, which is going to take a while. Turnout in Dallas County was down, as it was nationwide for Dem voters. We did vote for Prop R to decriminalize up to four oz. of the devil’s lettuce, but given that other cities who have done the same have been sued by Ken Paxton, I foresee the same here in Dallas. Or possibly a citizen suit under Prop S.

We only had one opposed race in Dallas County. Most of our Democratic officials cruised to reelection after beating rivals in the primaries. Theresa McDaniel prevailed in Precinct 1. Meanwhile, “our man downtown”, John Wiley Price, the long-serving commissioner from South Dallas, marks a half century of public service.

Tarrant County held red again. Republicans held the tax assessor-collector, the sherriff (a real blow, considering how many people have died on his watch since 2017), and their seat on commissioner’s court that was up. Dems held their seat on the court as well but that was all the good news we got out of Tarrant County.

In Congressional news, all the incumbents held, and unsurprisingly Craig Goldman won CD 12, Kay Granger’s old seat. John McQueeney picked up HD97, Goldman’s old seat. And in Richardson, incumbent Angie Chen Button held off Democrat Averie Bishop in HD 112, a race we’d had our hopes up for.

The Fifth District Court of Appeals here in the Metroplex looks like it’s flipping red as part of the Republicans running the table statewide. School bonds in Frisco failed and part of Allen’s package failed as well, though parts passed. And in Tarrant County, Northwest ISD voted a tax increase down though it looks like Grapevine-Colleyville passed an increase in their district.

Last, but not least, I’m going to give you this adorable video of Baby Bruce, a calf with the zoomies. We all need a moment of uncomplicated lightness right now. Enjoy, and we’ll see you next week, friends.

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