| Election day has arrived. Once the polls close in Texas (7 p.m.), we’ll have results from the State Board of Education races here and on Twitter (@TFN). Look for #SBOE2012. Because of redistricting, all 15 SBOE seats are up for grabs tonight. And with several incumbents losing in their party primaries or declining to run for re-election, we are assured that the board will look different next year. The question is, how different? We’ll find out this evening. Hat tip to the Texas Tribune for the awesome results widget below. |
11:09 p.m. — Carlos “Charlie” Garza has lost his District 1 seat to Democrat Martha Dominguez. This is the first, and perhaps the only, to switch parties tonight. If results hold in District 2, Democrats will pick up one seat on the board.
10:30 p.m. — We’re down to two pending races as District 10 has gone to Republican Tom Maynard. The incumbent in this district ran for the Texas House instead of re-election.
9:50 p.m. — Republican Ken Mercer is projected to win re-election in District 5.
9:23 p.m. — Looks like missed two calls earlier. In District 6, Donna Bahorich, a Republican, will her race. She takes over for fellow Republican Terri Leo who didn’t run for re-election. In District 8, board chair Barbara Cargill has also been re-elected.
9:09 p.m. — Republican Marty Rowley is projected to take the seat vacated by Bob Craig in District 15. In District 12, Republican Tincy Miller will return to the board after losing this seat in 2010.
9:00 p.m. — We have new projections. In District 3, Democrat Marisa Perez is the projected winner in this San Antonio-based seat and becomes one of the new board members. In District 4, Democrat Lawrence Allen has been re-elected and so has Democrat Mavis Knight in District 13.
8:39 p.m. — Martha Dominguez has pulled ahead in District 1 after being down big early. It’s not surprising. The big population center in this district is El Paso, which leans heavily Democratic and whose vote count lags an hour behind due to a different time zone. Here’s an explanation of why El Paso matters so much and why Democrats think they can retake the seat.
7:54 p.m. — Polls are about to close in west Texas. Most observers think District 1, anchored in El Paso, could flip parties. In 2010 the current incumbent Carlos “Charlie” Garza, a Republican, was a surprise winner there in what had been a Democratic seat.
7:20 p.m. — Texas Tribune has called the races for incumbents in districts 7, 9 and 11. In 14, Sue Melton becomes the first new member to win election tonight. All of these are Republican candidates, so no change in the partisan balance thus far.
7 p.m. — Polls closed. Republican Maynard leads in District 10. No results elsewhere yet.
6:19 p.m. — Polls close in most of Texas at 7 p.m. central time and an hour later out in west Texas. Here’s where things stand at the SBOE going into tonight.
Republicans: 11
Democrats: 4
Incumbents not running for re-election: 4 (Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi; Leo, R-Spring; Farney, R-Georgetown; Craig, R-Lubbock)
Incumbents defeated in primaries: 3 (Soto, D-San Antonio; Clayton, R-Richardson; Lowe, R-Lampassas)
Bottom line: no matter what happens tonight, almost half the board will be new faces.
All of this info is available at tfn.org/sboe2012.
Mercer and Cargill…deep sigh….the stuff nightmares are made of.
Let me guess, they’ll thank all their supporters for all those many prayers! Yes indeed! The prayers were the reason they won! And now they’re going to do God’s work!
Jesus Christ Almighty.