Friday, November 10, 2006

Harris County Area Winnable For Democrats


Janette Sexton sent me something I would like to share. All of these candidates except the first were unknown and underfunded. No Democrat with deep pockets and political name recognition, except for Ellen Cohen, wanted to enter this year but first time candidates stepped up to the plate. They lost but it is the new political philosophy of many Democrats to step up and try to not have the GOP with unchallenged seats.

Janette Sexton was not a perfect candidate and is now bitter about the old Democratic establishment which did not provide more assistance to all the newcomers. Sherrie Matula is likely to run again, and very soon, but not Janette. From her email:
You can see the results for the 11 novice candidates below. Only Ellen Cohen won, and she had many volunteers and received over $500,000 in campaign contributions. She also had the wherewithal to take 10 months off from her position as CEO of the Houston Women's Center.

Ellen Cohen: 54.70%
Sherrie Matula: 42.29%
Kristi Thibaut: 41.76%
Janette Sexton: 40.55%
Diane Trautman: 39.87%
David McDavid: 38.73%
Chad Khan: 32.61%
Dot Nelson-Turnier: 29.93%
Scott Brann: 29.1%
Pat Poland: 25.00%
Sammie Miller: 22.8%
The surprise to me is Thibaut who has experience working for other political campaigns and my checking now shows, oops, she did raise a ton of money as SR races go. I think her opponent was also well funded and it was considered a GOP seat but less than Sexton and Matula. Her district was 43.6% Democrat in 04, Sexton's was 38.2%, and Sherrie's was 32.7%. Why did Thibaut's district not match the Dem performance in 04 when Matula with lots of volunteers went up about 10% and Sexton improved with little funding or volunteers? Sometime after precinct results come back I'll like to look into these three races.


No comments: