Back Talk Oak Cliff

Bishop Arts District: Swept up in the moment

There's nothing like watching history-in-the-making.

If you're a Democrat, there was no better place to be last night than Chicago's Grant Park, but for dems in Dallas, a close second was Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District. The Dallas County Democratic Party closed down Bishop Avenue from Davis to Eighth, and had two giant screens fixed on CNN. When the news team called the election for Obama, pandemonium erupted. The entire place began chanting "Yes, we did! Yes, we did!"

Most people stuck around for Obama's speech, and the screams and cheers went completely silent as people listened to the president-elect. It was a night full of elation and hope, with people shedding tears, shouting "Amens", and hugging complete strangers.

A friend of mine who lives elsewhere watched the returns at a sports bar. She's not much of a sports fan, so observed, "I imagine this is what it feels like to closely and passionately follow sports events." I mentioned this to Advocate publisher Rick Wamre this morning, and he agreed — on any given Saturday, he said, you can head into Humperdink's and observe people having the same elated reaction to a UT game.

As long as UT wins, of course. If UT loses, the response might compare to the other half of America last night — viewing it as a sign of the apocalypse.

Here's more about the democrats' election night watch party, in as many places as I could (quickly) find stories:

Elections results, part I

A few quick thoughts until I get chance to examine the numbers:

• U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, who ran 30 points ahead of John McCain in Dallas County, becomes a leading contender for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate when incumbent Kay Bailey Hutchison resigns next year to run for governor.

• Will the Democratic landslide in Dallas County give Mayor Park Cities and his allies on the city council second thoughts about rushing the convention center hotel package through before next spring’s referendum? And don’t you think the anti-hotel people wish they had put the issue on the ballot yesterday?

• Turnout was almost 62 percent –- good, but not staggering. Statewide, it was about 59 percent. This means that early voting doesn’t necessarily translate into more voters, but the same number of voters voting early. This should change the way candidates campaign, putting more of a focus on early voters.

• The race for Dallas County judge in 2010 gets much, much more interesting, since the Democratic nominee would seem to have a leg up on winning. The Democratic incumbent, Jim Foster, may have as many as four opponents in the primary, all well known and respected -– former city councilmen Larry Duncan, John Loza and Chris Luna and ex-mayoral candidate Sam Coats.

• Democratic incumbent Allen Vaught beat Republican Bill Keffer by 1,800 votes for the state District 107 House seat. That’s 700 votes more than he beat Keffer by two years ago, and probably means the end of Keffer’s political career.

• The same is probably true for Republican incumbent Tony Goolsby in the District 102 House race. He lost by 2,500 votes to Democrat Carol Kent after holding the seat in 2006 by 1,500 votes.

Technorati Tags: Dallas County elections,Pete Sessions,Allen Vaught,Bill Keffer,Tony Goolsby,turnout

Election results: Where to get what you need

Know what really makes me feel old? Remembering when the only way to find out who was winning the presidential election was to watch one of the three major networks, something that was true as recently as 1992.

Nowadays, of course, there are an infinite number of ways. Here’s a quick look at where you can keep track of what’s going on locally, plus some interesting national sites. Plus, for those too young to remember, how TV used to cover politics –- in glorious black and white:

Election Day

Lunchtime update: So far, turnout seems to be much lighter than expected. Many media outlets are reporting that this morning's long lines are gone. "It was almost like it wasn't a presidential election year," county elections boss Bruce Sherbet told Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper. Will it pick up this afternoon and evening?

If you vote today, comment here, and we’ll update this post throughout the day. If you aren’t sure where to go to vote today, check here.

Later this afternoon, we’ll post some web sites and other places to get results tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll have our usual spot on commentary about what happened locally and why.

Technorati Tags: election,voting

Pop culture: SNL on the presidential campaign

If you've been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, it's possible that you may still have caught wind of Saturday Night Live's special segments on the presidential campaign, along with all of its politician guest stars.

The last show airs tonight at 8 p.m., but if you miss it, you can always watch it (along with the other past episodes) on NBC's website. Tomorrow, when tensions are running high around the water cooler, it will be a good stress reliever.

Tom Leppert: 'Doesn't give a darn about the citizens of Dallas'

So, do you think Mayor Tom Leppert cares about the citizens of Dallas or not? Councilman Mitchell Rasansky tells the Observer Leppert doesn't care — "doesn’t give a darn about the citizens of Dallas". Rasansky goes on to mention that Leppert was on the board of directors of Washington Mutual even as that financial institution bit the dust, saying Leppert's comments about WaMu's financial health a few weeks prior to its bailout — “the feeling is that there's sufficient capital and good things ahead" — is indicative of Leppert's go-for-broke actions with the convention center hotel, regardless of a possible pending referendum on the project and a disintegration of the bond market. It's worth clicking on the post, written by Sam Merten, because it has a whole list of interesting information and story links. As for me, I tend to think that it's not that Leppert doesn't care about the rest of us. I think he just believes he knows better than everyone else what's good for us. Come to think of it, that was the prevailing attitude on Wall Street for a few years, too, and look what happened to those guys...

Early voting update

All those stories and numbers about how many people are voting early? Apparently, they’re true. I waited in line on Tuesday for the first time since I started voting early, and there were about a half dozen people in line with me at 8:45 a.m. Plus, not only there were more people voting -– about a dozen, instead of two or three -– but twice as many polling workers as well. And it was one of the best-run operations I have ever seen.

The numbers, through Tuesday, suggest a massive turnout not seen in years, if not decades. Monday’s total was a record for one day, and through two days more than 50,000 votes have been cast. That’s about one-seventh of the total for early voting in 2004, and we still have eight days to go. State officials, meanwhile, expected the first day to beat records throughout Texas. And we didn’t do as well, proportionally, as some states -– more than 200,000 have voted early in North Carolina. Also important: We had record early voting in the Democratic primary in March, and the total was 119,885. We’ll probably pass that figure this week.

I long ago stopped trying to figure out whether early voting benefits particular candidates, but what is worth noting this time is that it’s a sign of heavy turnout, and heavy turnout makes polls less reliable. (Polling accuracy throughout the 2008 primary and general election campaigns has been abysmal, and no one is quite sure why.) Another kicker this year is the number of new voters; registration is up more than 100,000 in Dallas County. Again, it’s not as important who the new voters will favor, but that their presence makes the polls less reliable.

Remember, if you want to share your early voting experience, you can do it in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Early voting,presidential election,Dallas County,voter turnout

The Dallas County sheriff’s race

I have been writing about politics for more than 20 years, and this race seemed as easy to handicap as any over the past two decades. Incumbent Democrat Lupe Valdez has more baggage than a 747, and the challenger, Republican Lowell Cannaday, if unspectacular, seems mostly non-partisan with a squeaky clean record.

So why does it look like Valdez might actually win?

Early voting starts today

Time, date and place information is here. I’ll update the vote totals and offer some analysis a couple of times before early voting ends on Oct. 31. I’ll also put up an early voting post a couple of times each week; anyone who votes early can make a comment there. I’ll vote early Tuesday and report back then.

Double check the list of early voting locations, because there have been several changes. I’m assuming that’s because the previous sites aren’t big enough to handle the record number of early voters that the county is expecting.

Technorati Tags: early voting. presidential election,Dallas County

Hinojosa: Should he stay or should he go?

In the "I'm glad I'm not on the DISD school board" department, check out the comments at the end of this William McKenzie column in the DMN, titled "Why firing Hinojosa is a bad call": Anyone who publicly defends the superintendent these days probably needs to borrow Pacman Jones' bodyguard if he or she intends go out in public.

McKenzie makes an argument that keeping Hinojosa is a tougher decision than firing him, because DISD needs continuity — he points out that DISD has had eight superintendents during the past 20 years, meaning that on average, every 2.5 years, the district receives a new leader. And given that it takes that new leader a year or two just to figure out what's going on, which is just about the time he or she hits the road. Deciding what to do is a tough call right now; I admire the school board members (on the whole) for not being trigger-happy yet and doing what they can to resolve the issue as well as figure out what went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again.