Murder by Numbers

I was just analyzing some election numbers, which I love to do, and picked up on a couple of interesting tidbits:

1. So much for that "more conservative" Congressional District 25. After his district got realigned for the third time this decade, we noticed that Lloyd Doggett would be facing a somewhat more conservative electorate than ever before. Not enough to seriously threaten his re-election chances, since the district is still anchored in Travis County, but it looked like he might actually have trouble cracking 60%, as opposed to the blowouts he'd enjoyed in the past.

Well, we doubt the good folks in the seven other counties in CD 25 have suddenly turned into peace-sign waving hippies, but they did in fact support Doggett over the three opponents he faced in the special election. Perhaps it can be chalked up to a little-known Republican challenger who really wasn't even welcome within his own party (Grant Rostig called himself a "Ron Paul Republican," which won't exactly ingratiate you to the more theocratic wing of the party), but Doggett actually won a majority in every single county. Of the rural counties, he enjoyed a high of 65% in Caldwell County, and did no worse than 51% in Colorado County. Of course, most the voters live in Travis, which favored him with 74% of the vote.

2. Travis County (and more precisely, Austin) doesn't just love Democrats, it also hates Republicans. In races where Republicans faced no Democratic opponent (which included several statewide court races) Travis voters went heavily for the Libertarian alternative, presumably just out of protest. (I confess I did this myself, even though most Libertarian candidates make me cringe.) In most of these races, the Libertarian generally got around 45% of the vote, certainly much higher than the 6% or less more typical for the L party. And in many central-city precincts, such as my Pct. 242, the Lib actually won, easily getting more than 60%. Contrast those numbers with several local races where a Democrat faced no Republican: typical was the state Senate Dist. 14 race, where Kirk Watson racked up 80% vs. Rock Howard's 20%.