On the day before the start of early voting, the Chron gives a ringing endorsement to Mayor Bill White, which he fully deserves. I agree with Greg that it would have been nice to get this much ink in some of the other, more contested races, but not much I can do about that now. What do you think is the over/under on White’s vote percentage this year? All of his opponents would be hard-pressed to get as much as 1% if the election featured a real contender against White – indeed, none of the no-names who were on the ballot in 2003, a list that includes two people from this year, got as many as five hundred votes in that election. I’m thinking the line is at 75%, with no single opponent getting as much as 10%.
Today’s featured race is HD143, which gets some decent coverage and a good picture of all the contenders on page one of the Metro section. I don’t envy anyone the choice in this one.
Finally, BOR has the latest roundup of anti-Prop 2 editorials from around the state. Kudos in particular go to the Lufkin Daily News, which lives in the district of HJR sponsor Sen. Todd Staples, for getting it:
Proponents say the law banning same-sex marriage isn’t sufficient, because a judge could overturn it. First off, as another editorialist pointed out, no Texas judge is going to overturn a ban on same-sex marriage, because that likely will be the last term of office he or she serves. Second, a state amendment can still be overturned by a federal judge as being a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The ultimate arbiter is the U.S. Supreme Court, which is where this issue will likely be decided once and for all.
We urge voters to oppose Proposition 2.
They did finally find one newspaper that endorsed Prop 2, though by the brevity of the piece it’s clear they didn’t give much thought to it.
I’d bump up the Mayor’s re-elect number a bit there. Perhaps in the Lanier-esque range of 85%. Possibly higher, but it’s hard to predict that high. I think the Katrina/Rita effect is going to help him a ton (not as if he needed it), just a matter of how much built-in opposition there is for any elected official, I suspect.