David Bruce Collins—the Official Site
  • Index
  • Blog
  • Biography
  • Writing
    • Novels in Print
    • Eastern Daylight (1997) >
      • Eastern Daylight: April
      • Eastern Daylight: May
      • Eastern Daylight: June
      • Eastern Daylight: July
      • Eastern Daylight: August
      • Eastern Daylight: September
      • Eastern Daylight: October
    • Bite-Size Hungarian
  • Politics
    • Life As a Green
    • Ten Key Values of GPUS (English)
    • Issues (2014)
  • County Gov't
  • Web Links

First Round of Thanks

5/11/2014

0 Comments

 
100% of Harris County's precincts are now reported and counted. Nothing is official yet, but...News Flash: I didn't get elected.

The really sad news is this: Turnout countywide just topped 33%, which is awful even for a midterm election. Statewide turnout will be about the same, not topping the nearly 5 million who voted in 2010. Is this the effect of the Voter ID law, ignorance, apathy, or a combination of these factors?

As tonight bleeds into tomorrow, however, I am full of gratitude, poor turnout notwithstanding. The Greens will get a ballot line in 2016, thanks to three attorneys willing to run for Supreme Court or Court of Criminal Appeals. State law requires at least one candidate to poll 5% in a statewide race for the candidate's party to retain ballot access; we got one candidate over 10%. It doesn't hurt that the Democrats found nobody willing to run for those seats and lose.

I will probably not get to thank everyone I intend to thank in this post. I'll make up for that later, when my mind is clearer.

Thanks to my dear Kayleen for putting up with all this electoral nonsense for the last three months.

Thanks to my HAUSmates for indulging my ego and letting me imagine that I could win this race. Of course, victory was highly unlikely, which is one reason I agreed to run.

Thanks to my hundreds of friends, from various periods in my life, who told me they voted for me. Most of them actually did, I'd wager.

Thanks to the 80,000+ Harris County voters who, for whatever reason, voted for the Green candidate for County Judge. I received 67,404 votes statewide in a four-way race in 2012.

Thanks to the 200,000+ Harris County voters who, for whatever reason, did not vote for either Judge Emmett or me. Most of you also did not vote in the three statewide judicial races wherein no Democrats ran. Most of you, I'm guessing, are Yellow-Dog Democrats to the core, and you weren't even going to fall into the lesser-of-two-evils trap. You represent our biggest challenge.

Thanks to the Democratic attorneys who got pitched an opportunity to run for the state's highest civil and criminal courts, after Republicans have run the table in Texas for 20 years, and said, "Are you kidding? Thanks, but no thanks."

Thanks to Judge Ed Emmett for stepping up to serve the 4 million residents of Harris County. Judge, it's refreshing to find a Republican who is truly interested in policy and governing.

Thanks to Ahmad Hassan for dropping out of the race. I would have been happy to be just a name of the ballot and a choice for Progressives who don't care for either major party. Your departure from the race made me want to earn the Progressives' votes.

Thanks to the Green Party organizations of Texas and Harris County for doing what they could to make running for office worth the investment of time and treasure.

Good night for now.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    DBC Sez...

    Conventional wisdom states that a politician's site should focus on the campaign. I can focus with the best of them, but I choose not to.
    Here you will find campaign-related entries, as well as some about my reignited writing career, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics.

    Archives

    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    2018
    ACORN
    Affordable Care Act
    Ahmad Hassan
    Ajamu Baraka
    Alabama
    Al Gore
    Amazon
    Ballot Access
    Bernie Sanders
    #BlackLivesMatter
    B&N
    Book Review
    Brains And Eggs
    Breast Cancer
    Burning Man
    Caitlin Johnstone
    Caleb Alexander
    Campaign
    Campaign 2018
    Candidates' Forum
    Candidate Workshop
    Catastrophic Theatre
    Cenk Uygur
    Cheri Honkala
    Chicago
    Chris Hedges
    Chuck Kuffner
    City Council
    Climate Change
    Climate March
    Convention
    Corporatocracy
    County Clerk
    County Judge
    Cover Design
    Cycling
    Dan Monahan
    Darryl Cherney
    David Cobb
    Death By Cop
    Death Penalty
    Debates
    Deep State
    #DemEnter
    Demexit
    #DemExit
    Donald Trump
    #DownticketGreens
    Dwight Boykins
    Early Voting
    Earth Day
    Earthworm
    Eastern Daylight
    Ecological Wisdom
    Economic Justice
    Ed Emmett
    Eleanor Goldfield
    Election 2015
    Election 2016
    Election 2017
    Election 2018
    Electoral College
    Emancipation Park
    Emily Sanchez
    Emily Sanchez
    Endorsements
    Energy
    Environment
    Erika Martinez
    Fiction
    Fourth Turning
    Full Frontal
    Fundraising
    Gary Johnson
    Gary Stuard
    Gerrymandering
    Gray Matters
    #GreenEnter
    Green Party
    Greenwatch TV
    Hal Ridley Jr.
    Harris County
    HAUS
    HAUS Project
    HCGP
    Hillary Clinton
    HMS
    Homelessness
    Houston
    Houston Area Progressives
    Houston Astros
    Hurricane Harvey
    Instant Runoff Voting
    Inverted Totalitarianism
    Iran
    IRV
    IUniverse
    Janis RIchards
    Jan RIchards
    Jill Stein
    Jimmy Dore
    Jonathan Franzen
    JosH Darr
    Juneteenth
    Justice
    Kenneth Kendrick
    Kenneth Mejia
    Kent Mesplay
    Keystone XL
    Key Values
    KPFT
    Laredo
    Last Week Tonight
    League Of Women Voters
    Lina Hidalgo
    Local Democracy
    Maine
    March For Science
    Margaret Flowers
    Marijuana
    Martina Salinas
    Mass Shootings
    Mayor
    Media
    Medicare For All
    Metro
    Mudslinging
    Naomi Klein
    NationBuilder
    New Orleans
    New Zealand
    NORML
    North Carolina
    Our Revolution
    Outlander
    Outreach
    Overdevelopment
    Pacifica
    Parkland FL
    Paul Ingmundson
    PDiddie
    Pennsylvania
    Platform
    Plutocracy
    PNC
    Police
    Polls
    Proofreading
    Puerto Rico
    Ranked Choice Voting
    Recount 2016
    Remington Alessi
    #Resistance
    Revolution
    Russiagate
    Samantha Bee
    San Antonio
    School Shootings
    Scotland
    Scottish National Party
    Sema Hernandez
    Sheila Jackson Lee
    Single Payer
    SKCM Curry
    Smart Growth
    Socialism
    Socialist Alternative
    Spoiler Effect
    Straight Party Voting
    Strauss & Howe
    Sylvester Turner
    Tax Policy
    Ted Cruz
    Texas House
    Texas Leftist
    Texas Progressive
    Texoblogosphere
    Texpatriate
    Thom Hartmann
    Traffic
    Transit
    Urbanism
    UU
    Van Cliburn
    Vanessa Edwards Foster
    Vish
    War On Drugs
    Website

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
✕