Despite Bush Win, Tex Dems make gains : Houston Indymedia

For the first time in a generation, the slow slide into ideological
overreach in the Texas House of Representatives has been halted, and voters
have taken a significant step toward restoring balance and integrity in the
People's House.

We won!

Yes, I know, the pundits on Fox News will say that this was a bad year for
Democrats, and in much of the country it was. But here in Texas we had a
great Election Night.

For the first time in 32 years we have gained ground in the legislature.
Since 1972 we have lost seats or just barely held our ground. This year we
gained 1 seat and we won it in the best way possible- the 20 year incumbent
House Appropriations Chair, Talmadge Heflin, was defeated by Hubert Vo.
Heflin is the architect of the plan that cut more than 150,000 kids off of
their health insurance and has shown a callousness toward the people of
Texas that would make Tom DeLay blush. Hubert Vo beat him with a great
campaign and the people of Texas will benefit.

We also defeated 2 of the freshmen GOPers who were at the center of the
TRMPAC scandal- Jack Stick lost to Mark Strama in Austin and Ken Mercer lost
to David Leibowitz in San Antonio.

In Dallas County we elected a Democratic sheriff- Lupe Valdez, the first
female sheriff of Dallas County. We also elected some new judges there and
our friends who came up short lost by less than a percentage point. Dallas
County will be in the Democratic column in 2006 and 2008. Harris, Travis
and Bexar Counties also saw an increase in their Democratic vote and with
more than a third of our electorate in those 4 counties- Dallas, Harris,
Travis and Bexar- we are in very good shape for 2006.

Rural Texas also looked good. In 2002 Patrick Rose was the only Democrat to
defeat an incumbent Republican and he won by only a few hundred votes. This
year he defeated a heavily financed GOP opponent by 5725 votes in a district
that went heavily for Bush. And our number of base Democratic voters went u
p by 6 points since 2002. If we can do that again between now and 2006 we
will sweep this state in a landslide.

I know that many of us were looking forward to beating George W. Bush and I
know that we are all disappointed that he was reelected. But Texas is
turning blue and the people of this state are taking power back from those
who have abused it for far too long. There is work to be done and fights to
be fought. Let's get busy- Election Day is only 734 days away and the
Legislative Session begins in January...

Sincerely,

Charles Soechting

Chairman, Texas Democratic Party