Congress is a mess, as most of us are aware. The elections for Congress are pretty messy as well. I took a good look at the vote tallies for the House of Representatives today. Here are some facts, followed by what I'll call, for lack of a better term, inferences based on the figures. Most of the figures were culled from Real Clear Politics, although RCP did not have any counts for Mississippi, so I checked Politico. NOTE: None of the vote tallies are entirely official yet. Small numbers of precincts are still unreported in some states, and at this moment Washington State still has a significant chunk unreported in some districts.
It would be tempting to conclude, because of safe seats, that Greens should not run for US House unless they can field excellent candidates. These aren't even statewide offices, so they cannot help a party obtain access to the ballot. Not so fast. First, it's important to provide alternatives when a major party doesn't show up, as Hal Ridley did in TX-36, taking 11% of the vote. Gary Stuard in TX-32 received nearly 10% against a Republican incumbent and a Libertarian opponent. Even in TX-15, where both major parties ran, Vanessa Tijerina did not crack double digits, but her campaigning gave voters from San Antonio to McAllen hope of escape from the Democratic machine's pro-corporate chicanery. Second, in districts with chronically low turnout, a Green has a better chance of winning a respectable percentage. Tijerina campaigned actively and took just over 3%. James Partsch-Galvan in District 29 barely campaigned at all and took just over 1%. Geographically compact districts like TX-29 make this easier; TX-15 is a narrow strip almost 250 miles (400 km) long. My recommendation for the Texas Greens in 2018 would be to cultivate strong candidates in targeted districts, preferably in urban and suburban areas, for US House seats. If Tijerina decides to give her not-so-compact district another try, her experience will come in handy. Comments are closed.
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Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
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