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2006 electionPosted November 8, 2006, 12:40 a.m.
Democratic election wave |
SAN MARCOS – Among the 254 counties in Texas, the overwhelming majority are staunchly Republican and a handful are reliably Democratic.
Then, there's Hays County.
Though the majority of registered voters in Hays County are declared Republicans, they've long demonstrated moderating tendencies and generally decline extreme candidates either way. Their record shows a preference for moderate Republicans and Democrats.
In a year when voters nationwide were smitten with moderate Democrats, Hays County voters bucked the statewide preference for Republicans and went mostly with Democratic candidates.
On the local level, Hays County voters replaced three incumbent Republicans on the commissioners court with three Democrats, instantly flipping the court from a 4-1 Republican majority to a 4-1 Democratic majority.
Wimberley Democrat Liz Sumter ousted Dripping Springs Republican Jim Powers from the judge's office with 52.2 percent of the vote. In Precinct 2, centered on Buda and Kyle, Kyle Democrat Jeff Barton regained the commissioner’s seat he lost in 1998 to Uhland Republican Susie Carter, taking 54.7 percent of the vote in their rematch. In Precinct 4, anchored by Dripping Springs, two-term Republican Russ Molenaar lost to Democratic challenger Karen Ford, who took 52.8 percent of the vote.
The only two Republicans to defeat Democrats in Hays County won by paper-thin margins. In the race for 428th District Judge, incumbent Republican Bill Henry defeated Democratic challenger Anna Martinez Boling by 438 votes out of 29,690 votes cast – about 12 votes per precinct. Republican Linda Fritsche beat Democratic challenger Margie Villalpando by even less, 247 votes out of 29,413 votes cast, for Hays County Clerk.
In the closest race of the night, Democrat Sherri Tibbe, chief of the Travis County Domestic Court, beat Republican Wesley Mau for Hays County District Attorney by only 26 votes out of 29,784 cast.
Almost certainly, the elections for district attorney county clerk will be subject to recount, as less than one percent of the vote decided each race.
Republicans once again swept through the statewide offices to the extent that no Democratic holds a position higher than the state legislature or the state board of education. But Hays County voters gave Republican candidates smaller vote percentages than the rest of Texas in every statewide race and, in that of Place 2 Supreme Court Justice, Hays County voters gave a 47.53 percent plurality to Democrat William Moody. Republican incumbent Don Willett won that election statewide with 50.94 percent of the vote.
In the most notable race, Hays County gifted incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry with only 33.90 percent of its votes, just a nudge more than Democratic challenger Chris Bell, who won 31.52 percent of the county vote. The two high-profile independent candidates, Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, combined to take one-third of the Hays County vote – 17.46 percent for Friedman and 15.86 percent for Strayhorn.
Hays County gave state Senator Jeff Wentworth, a Republican, a 49.79 percent plurality. As a whole, Senate District 25 gave Wentworth 58.44 percent of the vote. Hays County finished about even with State House District 45, giving incumbent Democrat Patrick Rose 60.10 percent of the vote, compared with 60.13 percent across the district.
In only one election did Hays County swing further to the right than the rest of its district. The county gave long-time U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett 56.35 percent of the vote, while the Democrat won 67.25 percent of the vote across Congressional District 25.
Obviously, the straight party vote, which has gone mostly the way of the dinosaur, played little role in Hays County. Of 31,650 voters, only 9,375 (29.62 percent) voted straight tickets. Among the straight ballots, 51.04 percent were Republicans, compared with 46.71 percent Democrats and 2.25 percent Libertarians.
Of the 22,275 voters who didn’t vote straight party, it’s likely that the majority voted for Republicans in state offices and Democrats in county offices.
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