Knee-Jerk Reaction to Election Day

Yesterday was a long day. I was up early and out late with Bernie Scheffler on the campaign trail. So if anyone dropped by expecting up-to-the-minute coverage, sorry.

I'm still processing everything that went on yesterday, and I'll have more to write on this in the coming days, but I do have a few thoughts I would like to share about yesterday's District 9 election:

Before I get into anything else, my first question is this -- was my vote counted? When I look at the precinct-by-precinct results for both the District 9 City Council race and the House District 97 race, I do not find results for my precinct, 1435. Was mine the only missing precinct? Or were there others?

Obviously, I am disappointed that there were not more votes for Bernie, but I don't think it diminishes his effort. As that great Republican environmentalist, Teddy Roosevelt, once said: "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause." That describes Bernie pretty well. I admire him because of his effort and his enthusiasm. And Fort Worth is a worthy cause. Our community is a better place because of you, Bernie. I am honored to be your friend.

So our choice is this: Joel Burns or Juan Rangel. Although I have previously taken issue with the conduct of Joel's campaign and I have had one particularly overzealous Juan supporter make a racist comment directed at me on my blog, I am taking the approach that this is a new campaign. I am starting with a clean slate. I will write more on this later, but for now let me just say that in the last few months, Wendy Davis has been a much-needed advocate on gas drilling safety issues at City Hall. As the City Council considers revisions to the gas drilling ordinance and considers the future of injection wells in the city, we need a candidate who will actively work to protect the citizens and environment of Fort Worth and not just kow-tow to the desires of gas drilling companies. If one of these candidates shows a willingness to stand up and show leadership on this issue, I will endorse and vote for that man. But I haven't ruled out not voting at all.

You know, I always thought that District 9 was liberal, but I didn't know it was that liberal -- two-thirds of the vote went to Burns, Rangel and Scheffler.

Maybe I drank a little of the Kool-Aid, but I thought Chris Turner would do better than 18 percent. Did the whole Silcox-gate thing hurt Turner? Yeah, I think so. The funny thing is that I don't believe that Turner or Silcox are homophobic, I think Silcox was just cynically throwing out red-meat for Republican voters and Turner was paralyzed by indecision about how to handle the issue. Was that indecision enough to cost Turner a shot at the runoff? Maybe. What's interesting is there are rumblings that Turner may endorse Juan Rangel. It's pretty clear there is no love lost between Turner and Burns. I think these guys truly hate each other.

Another candidate that had a disappointing day was Jim Beckman. He had a lot going for him -- a big pile of money, the top Republican political consultant in Texas -- Bryan Eppstein running his campaign, and the endorsements of lots of big names and fat wallets. What happened? My hunch is that he really didn't want it bad enough. It's a hell of a lot of work, and if I'm Jim, I'm thinking "Who needs it?" You're a nice guy, Jim. Get back on your bike and forget about all this political nonsense.