For anyone wondering how Ronnie Earle's son did in his runoff, he got creamed. Not even close: 67%-33%. Because Ronnie has been in the national spotlight for his prosecution of Tom Delay, many thought the younger Earle would win overwhelmingly on name rec alone. Turns out you have to actually be a good candidate too.
For those who could use a little background:
Jason Earle was the presumptive favorite from Day 1 - with veteran political consultants predicting he would cruise to victory with about 75% of the vote. Throughout the campaign, however, he proved to be a terrible candidate with no passion and no grasp of the issues whatsoever.
Valinda Bolton, our new Democratic nominee in TX-47 is like a PTA mom who lives down the street. She's just great. She's very warm and genuine - a total pleasure to be around. Though I think her win was probably more of a referendum against Jason, she did a great job and her campaign seems to have had a good ground game.
Now onto November!
Valinda is definitely more viable and more prepared to run against the Republican (Bill Welch) in November.
Travis County has a great slate of Democrats who really have a chance to help take back the Texas House. All of the incumbents will have very strong chances in November: The formidable Donna Howard has a great chance to beat dipshit Ben Bentzin again in November like she did in February; Mark Strama has proven himself to be an innovative campaigner with very strong youth and internet components that should help get him a second term; Reps. Eddie Rodriguez and Elliot Naishtat will be back again, and now we have Valinda on the ticket.
Go Democrats!