David Alameel
This is pretty straightforward, as there are only two races in the runoff for me to consider.
Senate – This is the definition of a no-brainer. David Alameel wasn’t my first choice. I voted for Maxey Scherr, and didn’t recommend a vote for Alameel in March because of questions about his past (and possibly present) political activities that I didn’t have the chance to ask and didn’t see get answered elsewhere. None of that matters now. Alameel’s ubiquitous web ads have put him firmly on the right side of issues I care about, and while there are still questions I’d like to ask Alameel – and I plan to try again to set up an interview with him – I’m satisfied with that. Just as I didn’t believe Mark Jones when he tried to convince me there were stealth moderates in the GOP primaries, I will take Alameel at his word on these issues. And not to belabor the obvious, but the alternative is unthinkable. I speculated before that perhaps the reason the establishment all lined up with Alameel early on is because someone foresaw the Kesha Rogers problem and reasonably concluded that Alameel and his bankroll were a solution to it. Whether that was by accident or design, it seems to be working pretty well and almost closed things out in the first round. I’ll be voting for David Alameel in the runoff.
Ag Commissioner – I feel terrible for Hugh Fitzsimons, who was clearly the best and most qualified candidate running in either party. I wish I had an answer to that; I do have a couple of thoughts that I’ll get back to later. I think I’ve been pretty clear about my view of Kinky Friedman and the pros and cons of his candidacy. I ultimately voted for Fitzsimons because I wasn’t fully sold on Kinky and his one-note crusade, but at least Kinky can articulate a reason why he’s running and is actually trying to win. That’s more that can be said for Jim Hogan. Here’s Hogan in his own words in the Trib:
Hogan said he did not spend money during the campaign because “it’d be silly to raise money.” He added that there was no need for a campaign website, which he doesn’t have, because “somebody’s going to Google you anyway.”
And in the Observer:
I talked to Hogan today, and he attributes his victory to the Almighty.
“It was a miracle and only God could’ve pulled it off,” he told me. “That doesn’t sell papers and you may think that’s corny but I truly believe it.”
I can understand why God wouldn’t want the atheistic Kinky Friedman representing God’s Party but what about Fitzsimons, who actually campaigned?
Hogan scoffs at the idea that “the Establishment” has anything to teach him.
“When I called Democrats and told them I was gonna be on the ticket first thing they said was, ‘How long you been in politics?’ I said, ‘I’m not no politician.’ They said, ‘Let me tell you something: It takes a lot of money to win a state race and you can’t win.’ I said, ‘Let me tell you something, y’all haven’t won since 1994.’”
And that’s true enough. Democrats have lost every single one of the last 100 or so statewide races since 1994. Hogan thought he’d try something a little different: He wouldn’t really campaign.
“Basically I run on the internet and a phone,” he said. “My motto is: My phone and Internet can outrun any jet plane or car across the state of Texas. I don’t have to be there.”
But how did voters know about him at all? Details about his candidacy only appear in a handful of small-town papers.
“All you gotta do is Google my name—’jim hogan ag commissioner’—and there’s enough on there.”
Sorry, but I refuse to vote for someone who doesn’t campaign. If Hogan wants to be the next coming of Gene Kelly, he can do it without my help. If the result of the Ag Commissioner primaries has you looking elsewhere or sitting it out, I understand. But you can’t beat something with nothing, and Hogan is nothing. I’ll be voting for Kinky.
As I said, I’m sad this happened to Hugh Fitzsimons. Frankly, we’re lucky it didn’t also happen to Steve Brown, but one random result is enough. Someone needs to be thinking how to deal with this in 2018, because unless everyone is running for re-election, Dems are going to have to try to fill out another slate with quality candidates. Getting such people for the top of the ticket shouldn’t be too hard (we hope), but we still need those Commissioners and Supreme Court/CCA justices, and raising statewide money for those offices is a huge challenge. It shouldn’t be that expensive in a primary to establish enough name ID for someone to avoid this scenario. Some targeted mail, some online ads, maybe a spot of cable TV – I saw plenty of ads for Nathan Hecht and Glenn Hegar on ESPN and CSN-Houston during early voting. Maybe if some people would quit screwing around with Republican primaries and questionable PACs they might realize such a thing wouldn’t be all that expensive and it might just help the next Hugh Fitzsimons make it through to November. Our bench isn’t nearly deep enough to burn candidates like that, and it won’t be deep enough in four years’ time. If we can’t figure out a way to invest in these guys, we’ll face the same problem then. BOR has more.
On the contrary, a zero-effort candidate is exactly what zero-effort Democratic primary voters deserve. Might as well meet these fools on their level, since they’re immune to information and won’t stop voting despite their commitment to ignorance.
To be a little more constructive: There are two mechanisms to win a low-turnout race: spending money, and a grassroots volunteer movement. The problem is that an Ag Commissioner will NEVER be able to get the latter going in cities and suburbs, and that’s where the great majority of votes are. The Railroad Commissioner’s race is more relevant to those areas, and can’t get that.
We will never get good candidates if they need sugar daddies to survive the primary. Let’s give credit where it’s due: Hogan had the political sense to realize that he could win on name alone. We need to draft candidates with better names, and have them change their names legally if necessary. All the Democratic candidates who won contested races/made the runoff either had good names, vastly outspent their opponents, or were Kinky Friedman. Given a choice, I’d rather spend money in the general election for a relatively obscure statewide office than fight tooth and nail just to survive a Kesha Rogers.
Fitzsimmons has three syllables so of course uneducated, guessing votes won’t check that name.
Fitzsimons has three syllables so of course uneducated, guessing votes won’t check that name.
yet another reason the state party should be run out on a rail.
but i just don’t get it. the margins were big enough that it was no fluke. any new theories on why these two losers made their respective runoffs?