Primary Wrap Up

I think the first thing I take from last nights results - whether it's the commissioners race in Travis County, Grusendorf's loss in Arlington, Carter Casteel in New Braunfels, Sen. Madla, etc. - is that incumbents aren't safe in 2006.

Williamson County
Here in Williamson County there will be two runoffs. One on the Democratic side for County Chair:

County Chairman
VOTE FOR  1
(WITH 92 OF 92 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
Richard Torres.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,077   45.93
Henry Kight.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       700   29.85
Glen Fine  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       568   24.22
Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,345

On the Republican side it's the County Commissioner Precinct 4 race for the chance to face Brig Mireles in November:

County Commissioner Pct 4
VOTE FOR  1
(WITH 22 OF 22 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
Albert Filla  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       248    8.97
Louis F. Repa .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       527   19.07
Bobby Seiferman  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       129    4.67
Gary Coe.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       957   34.62
Ron Morrison  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       903   32.67
 Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,764

Barbara Samuelson, with little money and no support from the Republican Party in Williamson County managed to get better than a third of the vote against the incumbent Rep. Mike Kru$ee:

 State Representative Dist 52
VOTE FOR  1
  (WITH 48 OF 48 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
Barbara Samuelson.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,769   36.24
Mike Krusee.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,113   63.76
       Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     4,882

If you voted against him in the primary come and join Karen Felthauser's campaign.

Statewide
The governor's race is set it's Perry v. Bell...and eventually Kinky and OTG too. There will be a runoff for U. S. Senate, and Lt. Governor:

U.S. Senate - Dem Primary - Texas 8267 of 8289 Precincts Reporting - 99.73%

Radnofsky , Barbara Ann  Dem  227,892  43.50
Kelly , Gene             Dem  196,229  37.46
Hunter , Darryl          Dem  99,776   19.04

[...]

Lieutenant Governor - Dem Primary - Texas 8266 of 8289 Precincts Reporting - 99.72%
Name  Party  Votes  Pct
Alvarado , Maria Luisa  Dem  216,412  39.85
Grant , Benjamin        Dem  210,512  38.76
De Leon , Adrian        Dem  116,185  21.39

Around The State
The legislative races and especially the "Leininger 5" (L5) was a mixed bag. At this time the L5 is 2 for 5, in baseball that's a great day and against incumbents that's very respectable. Money, and lots of it, can really give someone an advantage in politics. I may be overstating the obvious on that. There are still some ballots out in the HD 73 race and it may very well go to a runoff since it's only a 44 vote spread right now. That one could change but I wouldn't bet the house on it. There are quite a few runoffs coming HD 47(Terry Keel's former seat)/DEM & REP, HD 50 REP (To run against Mark Strama), HD 146 DEM (Al Edwards race, he authored the cheerleader bill last session), to name a few. And Terry Keel himself will be in a runoff for the judge position he is seeking.

Damon McCullar has a good post over at BOR, A New Day in Texas to wrap it all up. It has this call to action:

What everyone who reads this blog needs to do now is seek out your local Democratic party or a local candidate's campaign and get invovled. You don't have to be a rich person to make a difference. Twenty dollars or so a week adds up in the end. And it doesn't have to be about money. I've found that some of the most effective campaigning comes not from high powered fundraising (though that is a part that can't be ignored), but from beatin' the streets as a field operative. Block walking can't be beat. Andy Brow was out last summer blockwalking in HD 48 and we now have a Democrat in that House seat. The inroads that Andy made with the HD 48 electorate was amazing. When he threw his support behind Donna Howard, there was no stopping her.

Bottom line is that the fight for November starts today! Get out there! Get involved! Check out the Texas Democratic Party's website for your local Democratic organization. Figure out which candidates are running in your district and campaign for them. Hold a fundraiser. You never know how much you can raise until you try. If we want our state back, if we are gonna turn this red state blue, it's gonna take some sacrifice. The Republicans aren't going to go down without a fight. It won't happen without you!