*heavy sigh*

As Election Day got under way, Houston City Council member Larry Green -- my representative downtown -- was found deceased in his bed at home after failing to appear at the regularly-scheduled weekly council meeting.  Just 52, it's a tremendous loss for the city, District K, and of course his family and friends.  His political future was quite bright.  And his legacy will encapsulate many things, but every time I see one of the painted electrical boxes in my 'hood, I'll think of him warmly.

As to a couple of top-of-the-ticket results from last night ...

-- Projected almost precisely by the TexTrib's poll from just over two weeks ago, Lupe Valdez and Andrew (Average) White (Guy) will run off in May for the right to get crushed by face Greg Abbott in November.  They finished at 42.9 and 27.4% respectively; the TT predicted 43-24.  Likewise, the Trib had Abbott prevailing with 95% in his primary; he underperformed that slightly at 90.4.  << This link has the final tallies for all the statewide, Congressional, judicial, and statehouse races I'll be referring to in this and subsequent posts.  Just click and open it now so you can scroll down as I continue.  It's the best resource I found, for the county maps alone.  (Credit where it's due: the TexTrib has beaten the pants off everybody else this cycle.)

My man Tom Wakely gained no traction.  The two African American candidates, Cedric Davis and Grady Yarbrough, along with Jeff Payne and even Adrian Ocegueda, finished ahead of him.  Valdez will win the runoff easily if Latin@s return in the summer.  But she needs to start raising some money, get better coaching and preparation if she's going to debate White, and otherwise project some viability as a potential and likely favored nominee.

-- Sema Hernandez earned almost 246,000 votes (or 23.7%) in the D US Senate primary.  She raised less than $10K for her campaign.  I'll let you nerds do the math on her cost per vote.  She won about three dozen mostly rural and RGV counties; Webb (Laredo) appears to be the largest.  Considering the degree to which she was both ignored and disrespected by the media and her primary opponent, that's amazing.  O'Rourke didn't 'coast', folks.  And because the GOP gorged their turnout numbers on Election Day -- the Senate primary on the R side drew over 1.5 million votes, while the Dems totaled just over a million, and Ted Cruz has already fired a shot at "liberal man Robert" -- the prospects for the blue wave seem to be ... swirling?

More on the way.

Final thoughts before the vote tomorrow

You already have my recommendations, so let's just provide an executive summary.

-- Sema Hernandez:

No matter what happens on March 6, 2018, I'm not going anywhere.#WeRise#TexasIndependenceDay

Pase lo que pase el 6 de Marzo 2018, yo no voy a ninguna parte. #SiSePuede #Elecciones2018#TexasPrimaries https://t.co/cuSTX4NXAJ

— Sema Hernandez for Texas U.S. Senate 🌹 (@ElectSema4TX) March 3, 2018

Well, you had better not.

It's been one of my deepest privileges to be associated with this candidate, her campaign, its nationwide presence and clout (just check her Tweet feed).  What she has accomplished has been against the headwinds of purposeful media ignorance, disrespect from her campaign opponent and, as usual, the Texas Democratic Party and its associated cohorts.

This piece from yesterday's Chronicle (firewalled after a few free clicks) and the accompanying video (she appears in the early part) was the best she received.  If Bob O'Rourke falls just short of defeating 'Poop' Cruz in the fall, I sincerely hope it is because of the votes of people like me that he loses, and also the blog posts I will write over the next several months that will continue to expose him for the fraud that I have found him to be.

Sincerely.

-- Tom Wakely:

Plain as day.  Andrew White is just bad news (as Aimee Cunningham reminds Texas women) and Lupe Valdez is just not ready.  Since there will almost certainly be a runoff, then I hope one of these two fails to make it.  If that happens, I'll at least be able to vote for the person not named White or Valdez in May.  This is a moment when a functioning Texas Green Party would have come in extraordinarily handy in November.  Alas ...

I'll return to that topic after tomorrow's primary election results get parsed.  Suffice it to say that I would like to hear from prospective gubernatorial candidate Janis Richards as to whether her bid to achieve ballot access as Green will go forward.  Or not.  Though a relative newcomer to the HCGP, she aligned with the Old White Guard against the black woman who finally succeeded in sweeping that trash out the door a week ago, at their monthly meeting/annual election of officers.  Bully on Bernadine Williams, whom I stood with a year ago against this crew.  I quit on the locals after that; she did not.  And she persevered.  It's the Pottery Barn rule for her now, though; she must rebuild the county party apparatus (which is essentially the same as the state party) with a goal toward functionality for 2020.  I just think the laws and internal obstacles regarding ballot access for 2018 are too stacked against them.  Couple that with the fact that the Democratic Socialists are ascendant, and it's a hard, heavy lift even if the Greens were united.

-- Enough has been said and written about the Texas Seventh Congressional District Democratic primary in the ten days since I posted this that linking to it all would take hours.  Check the #TX07 Twitter hashtag for the latest.  Forces aligned against Laura Moser include not just the Clintonistas and the Pelosiites, but the Republicans as well.  This should tell you all you need to know.

-- Last ... the only primary race on my ballot that I undervoted was the very last one, for Harris County chair.  I have not found the incumbent, Lillie Schechter, representative of my beliefs (since I'm an ultrasoft Democrat on a good day, and a Green on my best one, this should stand to reason).

The county chair needs a day job since the political one doesn't pay.  The problem here is that Schechter has been on the payroll of state senator (and CD-29 aspirant) Sylvia Garcia for several recent pay periods.  This isn't breaking news for those of you connected to the local D establishment's Facebook accounts, where the apparent ethical lapse has been mentioned more than a few times.  I've also been provided screenshots and CFRs that verify it.

No conflict of interest there, right?

Update: El Paso Democrats appear to have the same problem.  (At least he's 'former chair'.)

It's beyond my comprehension how the people who whine about Laura Moser's husband's consulting firm handling her business can seemingly overlook this more glaring, hypocritical contradiction.  Is there anybody who wants to explain this to me?  I'll keep an open mind if something is not as it appears.  For ... oh, another week or so.  The goose's sauce should have simmered long enough to be served by then.

-- If you haven't already, go vote tomorrow.  And don't wait until 6:30 p.m. to do so.