A Valentine for the Texas Legislature - ONE MORE DEMOCRAT!

[crispini]

That's right, ya'll, Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Special Election. The Texas State Legislature just got a little bit bluer.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=180&topic_id=26294&mesg_id=26397

This is how we do it, ya'll. One State Rep and State Senator at a time. Because little Democrats grow up to be big Democrats.

[GOPisEvil]

1. That is MY NEW STATE REP!!!!!!!!

Please join me in some :woohoo::woohoo: and a big :party:

:bounce::bounce::bounce:

Congratulations, Donna Howard!

[FreedomAngel82]

2. YAY!

Good news! Has a democrat held the seat in a long time?

[GOPisEvil]

6. I haven't lived here long. It's been in Repugnant hands for the last few

years at the very least. The loser toad former Rep. (who took Tom DeLay's dirty money and still only won by 147 votes in 2004) quit and got a job lobbying, hence the special election!

:bounce:

[FreedomAngel82]

21. Oh wow

So that's a great victory! Hurray! It's my dream to see Texas go blue in an election even just once.

[jobycom]

26. It's better than YAY! Read my post 25.

[UrbScotty]

3. From Michigan

:toast::party::bounce:

[rodeodance]

4. I raise a glass to you and your new Dem. Rep.

[Generic Other]

7. Great news! Happy days are here again!

:party:

[crispini]

8. Yipppeeeeeeeee!

Katy's up next and I bet she gets in too! And I bet you we can take my district in the fall.

Ah, the bluing of Texas. It's not here yet but it's coming! All of our hard work is bearing fruit.

[GOPisEvil]

11. Yep!! First Donna, next is Katy!!

I think people here might be a tad miffed at the Republicans, ya think? :7

[efhmc]

20. Congratulations. Both of my daughters now are in Dem districts. Wish

I could say the same.

[GOPisEvil]

22. I now have TWO Democrats representing me!

:bounce:

Now we have to work on Congress!!

[efhmc]

31. Well the only one I had (Chet Edwards) was reredistricted from me

by the lovely Delay. I see little or no hope for any change in the future, but I am happy for you. The weird thing is that one of my daughters was actually hired for her present job by the horrid bb.

[crispini]

33. I managed to get added to an already Dem district in the redistricting.

I am now represented by the absolutely fabulous Eddie Bernice Johnson, who votes exactly as I would on almost everything, bless her! It feels so wonderful to have a Democrat voting for me and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus to boot!

Of course the fact that I got added to an already very blue district is part of the problem but hey, it's nice for me personally!

[efhmc]

35. Could you please stop bragging??? Just one person that is all I want to

represent me in any place and in anyway. I am happy for you. I just hope soon that we can all be so lucky.

[crispini]

36. Heh, sorry.

It was a long time coming -- before that, nothin' but Rs. Always felt like I just nagged nagged nagged and nobody ever listened to me.

[efhmc]

37. Lovely. Just send all that Dem power my way and I'll be very happy.

[Sydnie]

5. Glad to hear it - Congratuation on the new bundle of joy!

[efhmc]

9. Please tell our fellow DUers how this is another backlash to the Delay

reredistricting and that the opponent was a Delay man all the way. Wait, I guess I did that.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

16. Well, since we are celebrating - Kentucky Legislature just got two

more Dems tonight after special elections today. One of these battles has been ongoing since November 2004. Repug got most votes for the seat but candiate didn't meet state eligibility requirements to run for seat. Courts declared election null and void even though the repug led Senate decided to give the seat to the fellow repug and damn the rules (sound familiar?). Anyway Courts ordered a new election and here we are today. Two special elections today, one to fill the vacant seat and one to fill the seat of the resigning State Rep. Clark who was running for the Senate seat. We now have two new Dems in Frankfort. Things, my friends, are a changing. Things are getting hot for the Repugs. Don't ya just love the smell of napalm in the morning?

Posted from Kentucky Forum -

Clark, Weston win special elections
By Joseph Gerth
[e-mail]
The Courier-Journal

Former state Rep. Perry Clark will represent Jefferson County’s 37th Senate District, ending a yearlong battle over the vacant seat.

With 90 percent of the vote in, Clark had a 1,000-vote lead over his Republican opponent, political newcomer Debbie Peden, 6,461 to 5,472.

Clark, who resigned his 37th House District seat to run in today’s special election, will be replace by Ron Weston, a Democrat and Louisville Metro Council member. Weston received more than twice as many votes as his Republican opponent, Carolee Allen, 2,304 to 957.

[efhmc]

17. Now that is wonderful!!! If we can just keep this momentum going we

might just take back our country.

[crispini]

18. Yeah! Democrats for Valentines!

Better than chocolate!

[GOPisEvil]

19. Way to go, Kentucky!

:party:

[FreedomAngel82]

23. Yay!

Great news Democrat4Ever!

[Raffi Ella]

38. This really does give me hope for '06

:kick:

[SeattleGirl]

10. All right!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[acmejack]

12. We did it !

Dancing in the streets! Symbolic in my case. I managed to screw up my sacroiliac they tell me just in time to avoid block walking. I had to call the campaign for a ride to go vote! Oh the ignominy! But I made a new friend, so it wasn't a total loss, and did I mention We did it!

Oh, and the republicon spent $ 800K to our $112K, and he went negative, which Donna refused to do. hahahahahaha!!

[efhmc]

14. Plus he will have to run against her again in November.

[Czolgosz]

13. Good work! k & r

[jobycom]

28. This needs lots of K&R.This is the undoing of DeLay's plans. nt.

[Raffi Ella]

15. WOOOooooooooo!!

This makes me very happy.It's not my state but still~HELL YEAH!Way to go you guys!


:evilgrin: :toast: :bounce: :dem: :thumbsup: :headbang: :grouphug: :yourock:


:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Rainscents]

24. Congrat!!!

Good job and thanks for the great news!!! Go DEM'S Go!!! :bounce: :kick: :woohoo:

[jobycom]

25. It's even better. This was a Republican district, drawn by DeLay

After the 2000 census, DeLay helped the Texas Legislature redraw state districts to get rid of Dems he didn't like, and this was one of them. Our Rep then was Ann Kitchen, a Dem. DeLay pumped a ton of money into the 2002 race through the Texas Association of Businesses, a front for his Texans for a Republican Majority PAC. They violated every rule in the book to do it, and Kitchen lost to Todd Baxter in a close race.

Ann Kitchen sued TAB, and that lawsuit helped set in motion a series of events that led to DeLay's indictment. Not many people gave Ann's lawsuit much of a chance, for the record.

DeLay took this district and several others in 2002, and turned the Texas legislature into a Republican majority. Not just Republican, but far right Republican. These are the ones who passed the second redistricting plan which gave the Repubs a handful more seats in the US House in 2004, so DeLay's actions had serious consequences. In 2004, in this Republican district, Todd Baxter won by less than 200 votes, and the district to the north of us, also a redrawn Repub district with a far right wacko incumbent, went Democrat (Mark Strama, for those keeping score. Cool guy.)

When DeLay was indicted, Todd Baxter out of the blue decided he had to spend more time with his family and resigned. Certainly just a coincidence, eh? So we had an open special election for this seat. There was a runoff between Donna Howard, a Democrat, and Ben Bentzen, a Republican Dellionaire who had tried to unseat a state senator in 2004.

What is impressive is not just that Donna won this supposedly Republican district, but that she got 58% of the vote. Bentzen seemed to have more airtime, though I saw more Howard signs. In other words, a lot of people who were supposed to vote Republican missed the message. And this was a special election--the kind that Democrats are supposed to be bad at because of low turnout and high church influence.

It's a big thing. It's a really big thing.

[KingFlorez]

27. Go Texas

Like I said in thread I posted, something is happening and the Democratic Revolution is starting.

[Jane Austin]

29. The rethuglicans threw everything they had at this race, too.

They imported political operatives from all over, spent a fortune and dominated television.

Ben Bentzin's two biggest doners were Bob Perry, of Swiftboat funding fame, and Linenger (can't remember first name) who is uber-right-wing and the biggest single supporter of Rick Perry.

Linenger was the spearhead behind getting tort "reform" in Texas because the hospital bed he invented and sold kept injuring people, and they sued him.

Rick Perry is pretty much a wholly-owned subsidiary of this guy, who is a right-wing religious fundie, intent on dismantling public schools in Texas in favor of school vouchers.

Linenger owns Promised Land Dairy, too, in case you are ever tempted to buy their milk.

The 48th district is a very well-off, and well-educated district which might ordinarily lean Republican, but it looks like even republicans are getting tired of their party's BS.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen!

[jobycom]

30. Exactly. And it wasn't close. 58 to 42%, roughly. In a Repub district.

It's hard to overstate how big this is. This was one of DeLay's pivotal districts in his 2002 coup.

[dweller]

32. here come's Nov06 ...

hopefully it will be the same but magnified 1000x.

keep the faith.
dp

[ClayZ]

34. Yay! The Bluer the Better!

[NoPasaran]

39. In 2001 the repukes drew 3 safe districts for themselves in Travis County

We took one back in 2004, now the second one yesterday. In November we're going to defend those gains and take District 47 as well and paint Travis County solid blue!