As you know, the Houston GLBT community, in particular the Houston GLBT Political Caucus, strongly supported Ellen Cohen in her race against Martha Wong in HD134. They did a ton of blockwalking in four key precincts in Montrose – precincts 37, 38, 39, and 60, to be precise. How did their efforts go? The numbers speak for themselves. Here’s a comparison of Wong/Danburg 2002 to Wong/Cohen 2006:
Candidate Year Pcnct Votes Pct Turnout ============================================== Wong 2002 37 161 21.2 758 Danburg 2002 37 580 76.5 758 Wong 2006 37 178 20.3 875 Cohen 2006 37 671 76.7 875 Wong 2002 38 371 32.2 1151 Danburg 2002 38 756 65.7 1151 Wong 2006 38 313 25.0 1251 Cohen 2006 38 904 72.3 1251 Wong 2002 39 302 25.7 1174 Danburg 2002 39 859 73.2 1174 Wong 2006 39 235 18.8 1247 Cohen 2006 39 986 79.1 1247 Wong 2002 60 278 28.0 994 Danburg 2002 60 696 70.0 994 Wong 2006 60 203 19.7 1032 Cohen 2006 60 798 77.3 1032
That’s 328 more voters overall, which is an eight percent increase, in a year where Harris County’s turnout was down almost eight percent, and it’s a swing of 651 votes in Cohen’s favor, which is 12.5% of Cohen’s margin of victory. It’s also almost a quarter of Wong’s 2785 vote margin of victory in 2002. That’s pretty darned impressive.
As it happens, there was one more precinct that the HGLBTPC wanted to canvass but didn’t have the time and personpower to do:
Candidate Year Pcnct Votes Pct Turnout ============================================== Wong 2002 200 621 42.5 1461 Danburg 2002 200 821 56.2 1461 Wong 2006 200 516 34.7 1485 Cohen 2006 200 940 63.3 1485
Another 200 vote swing to Cohen, but without the boost in turnout. However you slice it, Cohen cleaned up here.