Our obsessive-compulsive election day and next day coverage: frenetically updated county-by-county maps and up-to-the-minute returns in every race on the ballot, Hu’s awesome crowdsourced liveblog, Ramshaw on the twenty surprise outcomes, Aguilar on recount possibilities and dead incumbents, M. Smith on how judicial races turned out, Rapoport on changes at the SBOE and who was elected before the first vote was cast, Thevenot on whether the GOP has a problem with Hispanics, Hamilton on how the Tea Party fared, Grissom and Ramshaw on the legislative and congressional mop-up, Ramsey on what happens now, Stiles on how much candidates spent per vote; and my post-primary debrief with Rick Perry’s pollster and George W. Bush’s former strategist. The best of our best from March 1 to 5, 2010.
Rick Perry
Posted inState Government
2010: Matt Mackowiak Opens His Wallet
The Republican primary is over, and now the GOP is lining up behind the governor — even the KBH loyalist who implored us to RETIRE RICK PERRY.
Posted inState Government
Advice for Bill White
Political strategist Matthew Dowd offers advice for Democrat Bill White as the general election race for Gov. Rick Perry’s job gets underway.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: March 5, 2010
Pundits and political observers may finally get what they’ve been wanting in Texas — a close race for governor.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Data App: How Much Votes Cost
Was Farouk Shami, in fact, “on fire”? The Democratic gubernatorial candidate burned through campaign cash, spending $135 for every vote he received in Tuesday’s primary on the way to getting trounced by Bill White — more than any other candidate on the ballot, and by far the most of any losing candidate. By contrast, Democratic land commissioner hopeful Bill Burton spent only 2 cents per vote in a narrow loss to Hector Uribe, who spent only 7 cents per vote himself. All told, candidates spent, on average, about $14 per vote. Explore each campaign’s bang for the buck in our latest data application.
Posted inState Government
A Conversation with Mike Baselice and Matthew Dowd
For the fourth event in our TribLive series, I interviewed Rick Perry’s pollster and George W. Bush’s former strategist about the results on primary night: why the governor avoided a runoff, what KBH could have done differently, whether the Tea Party is really a force to be reckoned with, and how Bill White will be caricatured on the road to November.
Posted inState Government
2010: Rasmussen: Perry 49%, White 43%
Rick Perry leads Bill White by six percentage points in the first poll released after Tuesday’s primary.
Posted inState Government
2010: Cook Calls Guv Race a Toss-Up
The Cook Political Report calls Bill White the strongest Democratic candidate since Ann Richards — possibly strong enough to oust Rick Perry.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: March 4, 2010
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s supporters have had over 24 hours to get through the seven stages of the grieving process. But there’s a little known eighth stage: deciding if they can support the man that defeated her.
Posted inState Government
What Happened Was…
Now that the battle is over in the Republican primary for governor, the pundits can begin the task of figuring out what worked for Rick Perry — and what didn’t for Kay Bailey Hutchison. Ben Philpott, who’s covering the 2010 elections for the Tribune and KUT News, shares an early post-election view from two veteran strategists.
