First Round of Thanks

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.