Congress & Texas State House races

The national House of Rep balance - 254 - 173, a 19-seat pickup for the Democrats. For the Republicans in the House, it was bad, but 'it could have been worse' is the watchword. In Texas, McCaul keeps his CD-10 House seat, by a comfortable 10 point margin against challenger Larry Joe Doherty, not much narrower than he did against a no-name in 2006; and Pete Olson wins back TX-22 for Republicans. It was also interesting that Chet Edwards' margin of victory was smaller in 2008 than it was in 2006. Chet got only 53% of the total vote. This wave election as about as tough as they could throw at the Republicans, so it would be hard to break it further; nationally as well as locally, 'we go up from here' but alas, how long until we get back to the magic 218? A long tough row to hoe, unless we can make like 1994 in 2 years hence.

There are many new Republicans coming to Washington many of them conservative, so the Republican minority, while smaller will be more consistently conservative. Politico notes:

Seemingly vulnerable Republican Reps. Lee Terry (Neb.), John Shadegg (Ariz.) and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Fla.) all won new terms in Congress. Louisiana Democrat Don Cazayoux, whose special election victory in May set off the GOP’s summer of discontent, lost Tuesday night to Republican Bill Cassidy.

As for the Texas State House and State Senate, in Tarrant county Democrat Wendy Davis beat Brimer in the State Senate, although the State Senate stays solidly Republican.

The margin in the State House however, has gotten very narrow, only 2 seats. From Empower Texans:

It was a bad night for conservatives around the nation, and even Texas wasn’t completely sheltered from the storm. The gap between conservatives and liberals became more narrow in the Texas Legislature. However, I’m pleased to report that 22 of our 23 Taxpayer Heroes and Champions on the ballot won re-election!

We had three very notable wins for conservatives. In Fort Worth’s House District 97, Dr. Mark Shelton defeated incumbent Dan Barrett by a margin of 54 to 44 (a Libertarian candidate had the remaining points). Similarly, central Texas rancher Tim Kleinschmidt defeated Donnie Dippel in H.D. 17. In Corpus Christi, liberal incumbent Juan Garcia of H.D. 32 was defeated by conservative former lawmaker Todd Hunter.

It is safe to say Shelton, Kleinschmidt and Hunter will provide strong advocacy for Texas’ taxpayers in the Legislature.

But we did suffer a difficult loss: taxpayer hero Bill Zedler, representing Tarrant County’s H.D. 96, was defeated. Mr. Zedler has been a staunch advocate for fiscal conservatives and we will miss his voice this upcoming Session.