Ten things to watch tonight in the returns

My poll duty completed, I'll excerpt and link this from Richard Dunham in the Chron's DC bureau regarding election results this evening. (It leans a little too much to the right, but -- as we always do in Houston, a blue city inside a purple county in the middle of a red state -- we'll roll with it.) Let's start with #5, #6, and #7, since they are locally relevant ...

5. Breakthroughs for gays and lesbians?
Gay and lesbian groups are looking closely at elections in Houston and Maine. In Houston, City Controller Annise Parker is trying to win a spot in a mayoral runoff. If elected, she would become the first out-of-the-closet lesbian to run a major American city. In Maine, voters will decide whether to overturn the legislature's endorsement of same-sex marriage. Note: Gay marriage has been defeated in every single statewide election thus far. Will today be any different?

I predict 'yes, today will'.

6. Will Houston elect a City Council member as its mayor?

It's been 41 years since a former councilman was elected mayor. Remember Jim McConn? So while Peter Brown leads in the polls and has deep pockets, history is not on his side.

7. What will happen to the supporters of Houston's third- and fourth-place finishers?

Only two candidates in Houston's race to replace outgoing Mayor Bill White can make a runoff, and the losers' supporters could play a pivotal role in the runoff. Roy Morales is the only conservative Republican in the race and, if he loses today, his supporters could be decisive in a close race. Likewise, Gene Locke or Peter Brown's African- American backers or Annise Parker's community activists could tip the balance.

My prediction, like Muse's, is Parker and Brown in a run-off, with the Locke and Morales endorsements as high up in the air as tonight's finish.

1. Can the GOP “sweep” the Big Three races of the day?

Those are the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races and the special U.S. House election in upstate New York. Virginia's a gimme. State Attorney General Bob McDonnell is headed toward a landslide win — despite Obama's fairly high approval ratings in the Old Dominion. New Jersey is a toss-up. And the Republican has actually dropped out of New York's 23rd District race (and endorsed the Democrat). GOP hopes are pinned to the candidacy of Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. If conservatives are charged up and beat the Dems in all three of these races, you can't help but call it a very bad day for Obama.

Two out of three -- Virginia and New York, but not New Jersey -- will still be interpreted as 'not bad' for the Repubes.

Rest here.

Election Day Wrangle

The day before, anyway. The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you to -- wherever in Texas (or elsewhere) you happen to be -- get out and vote tomorrow. Here are this week's highlights.

Aruba Petroleum is drilling a Barnett Shale gas well in the backyard of Tim and Christine. Their property was taken, its value diminished, they were threatened and now Aruba Petroleum spilled toxic drilling waste a few feet from where their daughter plays. Another tale (with video) about the victims of the Shale on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Justin at Asian-American Action Fund Blog has a roundup of the Houston city elections and proposed Texas constitutional amendments.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the high cost of low turnout elections by examining Denton County. $25 a vote, anyone?

This week at McBlogger, we took a look at Hank Gilbert's plan to Get Texas Moving Again.

Big news from San Antonio, where with just days before City Council was to vote to move forward with the South Texas Nuclear Project expansion, officials suddenly announced that the cost estimate for the project had ballooned by up to $4 billion! Find out more from Citizen Sarah over at Texas Vox.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the Texas' GOP leadership that thinks our state's economy is just fine: Dunnam hammers Perry, Dewhurst -- GOP needs to face rality on economy in Texas. They'll be singing a different tune when they're out of work in 2011.

TEXPAC, the Texas Medical Association's political action committee, hosted a forum where all six declared US Senate candidates -- John Sharp, Bill White, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Florence Shapiro, Michael Williams, and Roger Williams -- made an appearance. See the videos posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston wonders: What does it take for a Republican to resign?

Off the Kuff takes a look at how Houston's mayoral candidates are spending their money.

At WhosPlayin, Trace makes his case for why we need to talk to Iran.

Mean Rachel wonders why Texas Democratic statewide candidates have electile dysfunction.

At TexasKaos, liberaltexan brings us up to date on Republican efforts to "fight liberalism" on the A&M campus, and it ain't pretty. Check it out : Young, Conservative, and Intolerant.

At WhosPlayin, Trace makes his case for why we need to talk to Iran.

Mean Rachel wonders why Texas Democratic statewide candidates have Electile Dysfunction.

At TexasKaos, liberaltexan brings us up to date on Republican efforts to "fight liberalism" on the A&M campus, and it ain't pretty. Check it out : Young, Conservative, and Intolerant.

This week Teddy at Left of College Station writes about the young, conservative, and intolerant Texas A&M Chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas and about the lies and misinformation that the Coalition for Life gives to women in front of Planned Parenthood. Check out the videos posted from President Obama's visit to Texas A&M including an interview with a Texas A&M student, a rant from a member of the Texas Minuteman, and highlights from the anti-Obama protest.

Sunday Funnies

Some good news for newspapers

Via Socratic Gadfly, there remain some optimists among industry observers.

Each time another report surfaces about the decline of newspapers, I feel like a death-row inmate counting the warden's footsteps.

The latest echo of doom arrived a few days ago: U.S. newspaper circulation dropped 10 percent from April through September, compared with the same period last year. The largest decrease recorded thus far, the decline was attributed to the usual -- advertising and readership lost to the Web. Industrywide, ad revenue, which constitutes newspapers' main source of income, is on track to drop $20 billion by 2010. Even so, most newspapers remain profitable, and circulation is astoundingly good, all things considered.

That's the delightful view of Alex Jones -- fourth-generation member of a newspaper-owning family, Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic and now author of "Losing the News." In his book, Jones, who also heads Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, manages to combine a dispassionate look at the news business with a page-turning story of traditional journalism's highs and lows.

A first-chapter excerpt is here and a lengthier Google Book preview is here. In my read it has a little more fear-mongering and a little less causality: corporate ownership -- specifically 30 per cent profit margins.

His nightmare scenario is that current trends eventually could produce "a yawning disparity in accurate knowledge just as there is in wealth," he writes in the book. "We could be heading for a well-informed class at the top and a broad populace awash in opinion, spin, and propaganda."

Traditional news organizations, especially newspapers, provide what Jones calls the "iron core" of information. Some new media, including Web sites and nonprofits, produce some news and investigative journalism, but traditional media outlets produce the bulk. The reason is that journalism is expensive. Thus far, only traditional media have the money and institutional wherewithal to withstand boycotts or to fight First Amendment battles. Unknown is how some of the newer journalism entities will respond when, inevitably, they are challenged.

Jones doesn't shy away from charges that the media are biased, but he insists that "the media" are not monolithic. Reporters and editors are human and make mistakes, but they also are bound by standards. Accountability matters. Jones, meanwhile, stakes great faith in Americans' ability to distinguish between entertainment centered on public issues and traditional journalism.

He predicts that newspapers will develop new business models and survive. And though every news organization will have alternate methods of delivery, including the Web, each entity should remain true to its "authentic self."

Web culture -- fast, irreverent, crude and subjective -- is one kind of creature. Traditional media are different and should stick to what they historically have done best. Crucial to survival will be a renewed commitment to community, to corporate citizenship and social responsibility, and above all, to quality.

Anyway, having subscribed to a dead-tree version of the Houston Chronicle this past week after several years away, I think I will pay to read all of Alex Jones' book. Hopefully some newspaper managers do the same.

The White (Haunted) House

Two thousand children rang the bell at 1600 Pennsylvania last night:

Dressed as superheroes, pirates, fairies and skeletons, the kids came in with their parents from Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., and lined up on the orange-lit White House driveway. ...

Mrs. Obama wore furry cat ears and a leopard-patterned top. Obama said the kids looked adorable, as well as his wife, "a very nice looking Catwoman."

This just cracks me up. We saw trick-or-treaters of all ages all over West U last night, on the way home from our sushi feast in the Village.

By early afternoon, a big, stuffed, black spider was dangling in a web of string from the top of the portico, and pumpkins had sprouted up around the columns. The White House will be lit orange for the occasion, and three giants pumpkins — about 1,000 pounds each — will be on the grounds.

The loot is just part of the treat for the kids, ages 6 to 14. Roaming the North Lawn were fairies, bubble makers, wandering trees, Star Wars characters, theater actors and artists and a “skeleton band.”

Here are more pictures.