Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project

Dear Friends and supporters:

We are writing you with an urgent call to action. Our SVREP Marcha Hoy, Vota Manana Campaign for the November elections was phenomenal. This has been a historic and unprecedented election cycle, and its not over yet!

We need to raise the financial resources to mount the most aggressive and ambitious Latino get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort for the December 19th Texas Congressional run-off election. We ask that you give; that you dig deep into your pockets and donate generously today.

In less than a month SVREP needs to raise $250,000 to mobilize 25,000 first time and occasional Latino voters for the December Congressional run-off election. Our GOTV plan will include earned and paid media, live paid phones, and volunteer/paid precinct canvassing with precinct captains. We expect to make live contact with our targeted universe 3-4 times each.

Given the low voter turnout in the 2006 general elections, the trend may be repeated in this run-off among Latinos, making our campaign imperative. Historically, voter turn out in special run-off elections is even lower and more depressed than general off-year election cycles. Intense efforts are needed in order to guarantee high Latino participation. With your help, our proposed non-partisan live voter contact plan will turn out voters.

In the 23rd Congressional District alone, SVREP contacted over 14,600 first time Latino voters who had no history of voting and voters who would be voting for the first time in an off-year election cycle with 3 live contacts. By SVREP targeting these voters and another 15,000 occasional voters for an aggressive ground operation with 3 to 4 live contacts, turnout will take place on December 19th.

It is crucial we receive sufficient funding immediately. Please give generously today to help us continue SVREP's founder Willie Velasquez's legacy.

Thank you for your generous support and leadership. With your help, Latinos will make history and determine this election.

Sincerely,

Antonio Gonzalez
President

Lydia Camarillo
Vice President
 

The story you did not hear on the campaign trail.

This one is going to make your skin tingle. 

During the past few months, Steve Hilbig did not attend as many political functions as he wanted to.  His sign and grassroots campaign was on and off since he was so busy. Steve had a difficult time raising money for his 32 county campaign due to the fact that he had endless obligations.  

What could keep this man so occupied during this election season?

Steve Hilbig was taking care of his very ill mother. She was in and out of the hospital over the past several months. Mrs. Hilbig passed away recently.

What did Steve Hilbig do during this time?

Steve did the right thing by tending to his family. He kept his chin high when he could have complained to the world. He just marched forward.

A few months ago, we held a small grassroots reception for Steve Hilbig. That is when I learned about the incredible challenges he was facing during this year. 

I could only think of one thing when he spoke: What a class act.

Steve, you ran a positive and first class campaign against a well-funded, respected and very popular Democrat. I can only think that your victory was a blessing from above.

A victory a mother would be proud of.
 

Regards,

Carolyn F. Kraft

2006 Membership Chairman

Bexar County Republican Women

(210) 492-2176  
 

Election Day should be a wake up call to the ‘compassionate conservative’ Republicans in office, including President Bush, whom I love dearly!

I have read many, many reports in the last few days since Democrats became the majority, and I agree with many of them. (Yes, technically that majority isn’t until January, but we shall see how the current Congress works together until then.)

This was in no way a mandate type win for the Democrats, in Texas or the Nation. The Democrats do NOT have enough votes in either the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House to override a veto or force a filibuster in the Senate. Republicans maintained control in the State House of Texas and gained 1 seat in the Texas Senate. Kay Bailey Hutchison was handily re-elected to the U.S. Senate. In Bexar County, the Courts lost 4 Republican seats, but let’s remember, judges don’t make the laws, simply are required to interpret them as intended. I hope after this election cycle, judges at every level will remember that. The races were too close to the very end for anyone to get ideas about overstepping their legal boundaries and/or breaking laws altogether as some have been accused.

Republicans need a stiff reminder of their principles, and Democrats need to realize the country needs to move to the right, not further left. The midterm elections seem to have taught the latter to the Democrats considering the majority of the Republican incumbents that were tossed were more liberal than the Democrats who will replace them (i.e. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island). This is particularly true when it comes to social issues like abortion and stem cell research.

I think Chuck Muth, a contributing columnist at GOPUSA.com, said it well in his article on November 8th: ‘The single, most important lesson here: Democrats didn’t win; Republicans lost. And they didn’t just lose; they were routed. Voters didn’t reward Democrats, they punished Republicans badly. This wasn’t the country saying it wanted to go further Left; it was the country saying Republicans had already taken the country too far Left. This wasn’t about taking the country in a new direction; it was about correcting the GOP’s course.’

Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio was thrashed soundly because he was part of the infamous ‘Gang of 14’. Because of this odiferous group of Senators, the Dems were able to put up a huge blockade against the confirmation of many conservative judges in the federal court system, and the Republican Party eased their finger off the nuclear option button. This is a ‘fine’ example of a so-called conservative compromising his professed principles.

I believe the defeat of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (whose campaign I volunteered for *along with 3 other US Congressional campaigns* in the last 14 days of this election cycle) was in part, due to his support of liberal ‘Republican’ Arlen Specter in 2004 against the truly Republican conservative Pat Toomey.

Senator Conrad Burns in Montana was ousted for his involvement in the lobbyist scandal with Jack Abramoff and for his opposition to disclosing of targeted project funding and their sponsors on every bill. This disclosure would have allowed more sunlight to the earmarks situation that led to the recent lobbyist scandals. This goes against every fiscal conservative principle! I hope Congressman Henry Bonilla has learned from his mistake of also opposing the same measure as Senator Burns.

Mr. Muth correctly stated, ‘Yesterday’s election was a repudiation of George W. Bush’s brand of “compassionate conservatism.” It was also a repudiation of waging a politically correct war with one hand self-tied behind your back. No American soldier’s life is worth a mosque. And American generals, not American lawyers should be running the war. You’re either all in…or get out.’

I strongly support our going to war in Iraq, but I have serious reservations about how it has been executed over the last 3 years. Yes, it took our fledgling Democracy 11 years to go from the Declaration of Independence to the U.S. Constitution; we were the first Democracy on the entire planet! There was a totally different learning curve in the 1770s-80s. This is 2006. It is time we forced the hand of the Iraqi government to get off its butt and get cracking on the insurgency and standing on its own two feet!  They have made many good strides…but they cannot afford to stand on their laurels. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could do FAR more to bring his country under control. We cannot stay forever and allow ourselves to be used as a crutch so the Iraqis feel no need to do for themselves what WE did in the Revolutionary War and during the Continental Congresses. Yes Iraq is rightly a part of the war on terror, but there are other equally pressing fronts to fight on. North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran come to mind, though not necessarily in that order. Did you know Iran has 25 TOP Al Qaida members operating out of Tehran WITH that government’s full knowledge and admittance?

I believe we must enlarge our Marine and Army forces here and abroad. If that means a draft, so be it!  We cannot afford to lose any more bright minds simply because we refuse to fight to win or force the Iraqis to do it themselves. I believe more troops are needed on the ground, but not just in Iraq…also in Afghanistan and throughout the Mideast. Osama is still out there…and A.Q. Khan is still working with the bad guys despite being under “house arrest.” We need to fix the Clinton era mess by strengthening our military, not destroying it! That includes this misguided idea of ‘re-alignment’ of our military.

The message to Republicans is clear, get back to basics!  Get back to your principles! Bring faith back into the government. Bring back the ideals of smaller government and lower taxes.

To paraphrase a recent Jay Leno monologue, given what we have been through in the last 2 years…hurricanes, floods, acts of terrorism the world over, governmental sex scandals; is it really a good idea to be kicking God out of our daily public lives? I don’t think so, and I think Republicans need to get back to that core principle. Come to think of it, EVERYONE needs to get back to that core principle.
 

Statement From Susan Combs

I am honored that the people of Texas have elected me as their Comptroller. This is one of the highest elected offices in our great state, and its responsibilities are vitally important to the future of all Texans. I have a full agenda of reforms to pursue and I will hit the ground running on Day One. It is going to be a “New Day” at that agency.

I have always viewed public service as a higher calling and believe elected officials have a bond of trust with the people. I will live up to the standards required to maintain this public trust and will serve the people of Texas to the very best of my ability. I look forward to working with the many dedicated public servants at the agency. Their professionalism and long record of accomplishments are legendary in the halls of state government.

I campaigned on a conservative reform agenda and am overwhelmed and honored that the people responded. I have pledged that the Comptroller’s Office must always be accountable and responsive to the people of Texas. This office must protect taxpayer money and help lead our state government as it takes on the exciting and challenging issues of the coming years with innovation, openness, fairness, cooperation, and communication.

We will work in a spirit of teamwork with every office in state government, elected and appointed, for the common good of Texas.

We will find new ways for the state government to save taxpayer dollars by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.

We will embrace information technology to increase efficiency and enhance procurement policy to ensure taxpayer money is securing the best products and services at the most competitive prices.

We will work hard every day and always keep in focus why we are there and for whom we are ultimately responsible and accountable.

Finally, there will be no place for politics at the Comptroller’s Office. The public interest, and only the public interest, will be served at the Office. Every Texan will be welcomed and treated fairly. Each issue will be judged on its own merits. No Texan will receive special treatment.

Tonight is a time of celebration. Tomorrow we will go to work.

Thank you.

Susan Combs

Susan Combs served two terms as a state Representative. She championed private property rights, reforms in education, juvenile justice, and tort reform laws. For the last eight years, Combs has served as Agriculture Commissioner, successfully changing policies to positively affect the increasing problem of childhood obesity and developing innovative programs to promote Texas agriculture products and to help economic development in rural parts of the state

COMMENTARY by Joe Solis/ Susan Combs for Comptroller Bexar County Co-Chair

Thanks to all of you who supported and voted for Commissioner Combs in Bexar County and South Texas. It was absolute honor to serve the Combs campaign this election season. For the record, I have never been involved in such an organized and professional campaign in my life.  Every detail of her campaign was conducted in a first class manner. Susan Combs is going to be a fantastic Comptroller for every citizen of Texas.
 

Lunch will be $8.00 and checks should be made payable to Caterall. Members are asked to make and bring 2 to 3 dozen cookies that can be frozen. These cookies will be used at the refreshment stop for the Tour of Homes.

Please RSVP to Gayna Wommack at jwommack@satx.rr.com or 629-5922.
 

I just thought I'd drop a note to let you know that Comal County stood for the right in the election. We won support for a conservative, pro-family, pro-life candidate in the primary in March, defeating an incumbent who, it turned out, supported Carol Keeton Strayhorn in the Governor's race.

My county's Republicans - at least my precinct's Republicans that I saw at the polls, yesterday - seemed to individually decide that national security, the war, the troops, personal property rights, and the children who will be thawed, frozen, cloned and destroyed for their parts were more important than some temper tantrum to "teach 'them' a lesson." We - or at least I assume that the hundreds and thousands of other Republican, pro-life and pro-family voters that showed up are like me - know that we can work better with Republican legislators and that the Dems and twitty RINOs and petty tantrum-throwers would respect a strong Republican base if they support the Party. If the Dems/RINOs/and tantrum-throwers have the power, they will abuse it and demand that we apologize for their hubris.

 May God preserve our Nation.

--

Beverly B. Nuckols, MD
 

I voted Libertarian against Bonilla and Kay and I voted Kinky over Rick “The Toll Road Ho” Perry. I voted straight ticket Republican last time.  I did cast one Republican vote for Balido.

Why not require a paper ballot be turned into a ballot box and have those ballots as auditable over the computer hard copy record? The paper ballots would be used for recounts of particular races. This would be a return to an auditable system of voting that since two methods of record keeping are used would be harder to cheat. The computer systems in Bexar County are so easily hackable without a trace it is not even funny. In light of Perry's astounding integrity when it comes to public issues, I would not put it past him to rig the election on the computer systems.  HB Zachry would do it in a heartbeat. I voted but I have nothing but distrust about the system in Bexar County especially in light of how easily computer systems have been hacked without a trace before. 

Your editorial in the Lightning shows how big of a blow hard and that the only person with less ability to think is a Senator from Massachusetts--take your pick between Senator Lurch or Splash.   

Sincerely An IRATE CONSERVATIVE

Esteban Erik Stipnieks

I got two cheeks for the RNC to kiss till it gets sense!
 

By John Merrifield,
Professor of Economics
Director, Entrepreneurial Conservatism Institute

November 13th, 2006

School districts and their superintendents have been around so long that few people question their necessity. Thinking outside the box - shedding the intellectual shackles of the status quo - is part of true leadership; entrepreneurial leadership. Certainly, as long as we want to use local taxes to subsidize schooling, we need something like a district to collect and disburse the taxes. But that’s it! We could disburse the tax revenues on a per pupil basis – certainly more for special needs children, and perhaps more for older children – and then let principals run their schools as they are trained to do. That would introduce some competition, and reduce school uniformity. Because incentives matter, and because children differ greatly in how they learn and what it takes to engage them in learning, we desperately need competition and reduced uniformity.

Instead, we cartelize schools into districts. We impose uniformity and prevent competition through voluminous district policies and attendance areas that prevent schools from specializing in particular learning styles and ways to engage children in learning. We expect principals to succeed with policies dictated to them from above, and with personnel hired by the district office. Principals would like to control their entire budgets, and hire the staff that implements their policies.

We hire superintendents to create district policies and one-size-fits-all schools that will satisfy a highly diverse clientele. That’s a difficult job; really difficult!!! The failure to significantly improve during 23 years of widespread agreement that public schooling is producing horrific results (since the 1983 ‘Nation at Risk’ report) says that it’s a recipe for failure. Superintendents have become scapegoats for a deeply flawed strategy. The turnover rate for superintendents is quite high. In the large urban districts, the average job tenure is about three years. School boards cling to their delusion that with the right person at the district helm they will finally achieve the sustained academic improvement that did not result from the last several superintendents. And they expect them to succeed without ruffling any feathers. 

Long-term superintendents walk a tightrope between political incorrectness (no drastic reform) and academic failure. Avoiding all the political third rails severely limits potential improvement. In a ‘Nation at Risk’ even rising to #1 is often not nearly good enough. The recently retired long-time Boston Superintendent (name deliberately withheld – ECI promotes/criticizes ideas, not people) is an excellent case in point. He was lauded for the slight improvements he made, but his long-tenure was not sufficient to lift academic achievement above abysmal.

By the way, none of these criticisms of the institution of School District Superintendent is a slap at the individuals that serve in that role. Some are the kinds of leaders ECI aims to foster and support. We need them running and reinventing specialized schools of choice, or working to change the system that frustrates their efforts as superintendents. Others are over their heads as administrators in any capacity, but are outstanding educators. We need them back in a classroom.
 

"Our Destination Of A Republican Conservative Government"

By Tim Weste, Bexar County Republican Precinct Chair

About a month ago I went to Dallas for an event, as I got into the cab at Love Field the cab driver asked one simple question, “Where to?” This is the same simple question that we as Republicans must now ask ourselves after the beating that we took in the 2006 election. Where to? Where do we want our party to go?

It is time for the people who are active in our party to step up and say we no longer want to be passengers in this “political cab” that we are riding around in. We need to become the drivers. Precinct chairs need to become a true resource for the candidates, we need to push the candidates to come walk our precincts but we must be willing to assist them when they need help. They need to learn that we are a resource, we are there to phone bank, blockwalk, and do whatever else they need. Without us, their campaigns struggle because we are the backbone of the party. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit I did less this year than I have in years past. While this is in part my fault because I lacked enthusiasm, the candidates also failed to reach out to the precinct chairs and excite the base.

So, now as we look at the scorched earth that is our political world, we have to determine how we are going to reach our destination of a conservative Republican government. The place to start is with the Henry Bonilla runoff. Love him or hate him, Congressman Bonilla needs our help or we may be sending Ciro Rodriguez back to Washington. Isn’t having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker bad enough without also seeing Ciro in DC? Helping Bonilla is the obvious answer but it goes so much deeper than just this one race.

Starting in January, candidates will begin to file for city council. We must find and support the Republican candidates; I know city council races are “nonpartisan,” but we can tell who the conservative/Republican candidates are and we need to start supporting them. This is something that has long been neglected by the Republican Party because they are nonpartisan, but while we are staying out of the races the Democrats are using them as a training camp for future candidates. Just look at Jose Menendez and Ruth Jones McClendon as well as the names that surface every time there is an open seat. We have to start by taking some of these city council races and using them as a training ground for our future candidates.

We then need to turn our attention to the 2008 races. No, not the presidential races, we HAVE to focus on retaking the courthouse. The “experts” have already declared that 2008 is going to be a bad year for Republicans in Bexar County because we always have a tough time in presidential years. Some are also saying that the changing demographics may mean that Democrats will dominate the courthouse to the point of the Republicans being the rare exception in the Bexar County courthouse. There are excellent Republican candidates out there who would love to run but are now gun shy about running because they don’t want to run and lose. I know many of these people and have talked with many of them and I am not sure we will ever see them run. Our potential judicial candidates fear a lack of party support. Our potential candidates don’t believe the party will support them and this is a justified fear because in the past, we haven’t supported them the way we should. If you have worked with a judicial candidate you know what I am talking about. If you know people who belong on the bench let’s start talking to them about running, but then let’s also do what it takes to make sure they are elected.

The question we should all ask ourselves now is this: do I want to keep answering the question “where to” or I am I willing to take control of this political cab and take our party in the right direction? Join me in doing what needs to be done to take over this cab, and prove the “experts” wrong by truly helping our candidates and retaking the Bexar County courthouse!
 

This political blog will highlight the important issues of the campaigns and how they will affect the constituents of Congressional District 23, the Texas Congressional Delegation and the future direction of political discourse throughout South Texas.

Coverage will be updated on a daily basis (three days of articles and comments are already posted) -- so, please bookmark the site for continued reference. We will also be distributing a weekly newsletter.

Contact Us

Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We have divided government. Good, and for many reasons. One: It confuses our enemies. "Who do we hate now?" they ask in their caves, "the evil woman from San Francisco or the old infidel from Texas? Which do we hate more? And if we hate them both does that...unite them?"

We are in a 30-year war. It is no good for it to be led by, identified with, one party. It is no good for half the nation to feel estranged from its government's decisions. It's no good for us to be broken up more than a nation normally would be. And straight down the middle is a bad break, the kind that snaps.

We all have things we would say to the new Congress if we could. We are a country that makes as many speeches in the shower as it sings songs. I would say this: Focus on the age you live in. Know what it is. Know what's coming. The old way is over; the old days are over; the old facts and habits of mind do not pertain, or no longer fully pertain.

____

 What can you do in two years? The common wisdom says not much. But here's a governing attitude: First things first.

Do all you can to keep America as safe as possible as long as possible. Make sure she's able to take a bad blow, a bad series of them. Much flows from this first thing, many subsets. Here is only one: Strengthen and modernize our electrical grid. When the bad thing comes we will need to be able to make contact with each other to survive together. Congress has ignored this for years.

Make America in the world as safe as possible by tending to and building our friendships in the world, by causing no unnecessary friction, by adding whatever possible and necessary emollients. In your approach to foreign affairs, rewrite Teddy Roosevelt: Speak softly, walk softly, and carry a big stick.
_____

At the end of the day, or the end of this day, I look at the new Congress and wish them so well, such luck. Don't you?  I want to say: Go, Nancy Pelosi. Be the speaker of whom historians will write, in 2032, "This was her moment, here was the summit, here she found greatness." Go, Democrats, be great and serious. Go, minority Republicans, refind yourselves. Go, conservatives.

To the freshmen: Walk in as if you're walking out. Put your heart on your sleeve and go forward. Take responsibility, and love America. No one will think less of you. They will in fact think more, as they do of politicians after the concession speech.

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father" (Penguin, 2005), which you can order from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Fridays on OpinionJournal.com.
 

We are very proud that the majority of Texans voted AGAINST this Governor. If anything, voters had too many anti-Perry choices. When 60% voted against this Governor…that didn’t happen by accident. Four of our top 8 candidates WON November 7!

We want to send a clear message…we’re NOT going anywhere and this issue is not going away.  This massive shift to tolls, especially on roads we’ve already paid for and for the Trans Texas Corridor transcends Party and has brought rural and urban Texans together in an unprecedented grassroots effort that now enjoys national attention and a resolution before Congress.

We have a documentary film made on this subject, “Truth Be Tolled” (http://www.truthbetolled.com/), that’s gripping and powerful and as we continue to educate more and more people through it and every other means, we continue to add more to our ranks. The more Texans and Americans who find out what’s going on, it’s a no-brainer to work to oppose every incarnation of this toll scheme. Carole Strayhorn made it clear that we can relieve I-35 congestion without tolls and we can meet all of our transportation needs with our existing funds. This myth that we’re out of money or that there’s not enough for future needs is just that, a myth! Read Jerry Corsi’s   http://satollparty.com/post/?p=455 article in Human Events just days ago that affirms this.

Many in the legislature are hungry to rein in our out of control Department of Transportation and their obsession with tolling everything they can get their hands on regardless of what we, the taxpayers, want. However, legislators have begun reaching out to us, and we’re receiving many invitations from politicians who are eager to sign-on to our legislative agenda. The hogs are still at the trough, so we have two choices: we, meaning the Governor, the Legislature, and the PEOPLE, either rein them in and our representatives start listening to the people or we’ll tie up every toll road plan in town using whatever means at our disposal until we get taxation with representation! So our question is, are we going to continue in this fight with line in the sand stalwart opposition to one another, or are we going to find common ground with what the people want?

The people have spoken, the choice is clear. Stop this shift to tolling Texas, foreign management of our infrastructure, and the Trans Texas Corridor or our Republican dominance may go the way of the Nation and Indiana who sold their toll road to foreign interests.

Perry's audacity to even THINK about VP aspirations after such a beating

Perry's audacity to be the VP candidate in ‘08 while in D.C. last week just flopped since he couldn’t even win a majority in his home state. Not the best VP candidate when he can’t even deliver his home state…Al Gore would be President had he won his home state.

I want to sincerely thank Comptroller Strayhorn for her dedication to our cause and for daring to step outside the Party system to fight for the PEOPLE. Without her “tough” relentless stance and campaigning against Perry’s toll road boondoggles, our movement would never have advanced to this level. Thank you! A tremendous THANKS to filmmaker Bill Molina for months of time and sacrifice on his own dime to produce a cinematically gripping and beautiful documentary, “Truth Be Tolled” (http://www.truthbetolled.com/), on this subject that made national news and educated thousands of Texans and certainly influenced this election.

Also, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of our supporters for all of their countless hours of hard work in educating thousands of voters about the double tax, foreign-controlled toll road plans and about the egregious NAFTA Highway, or Trans Texas Corridor. Without your efforts (stuffing envelopes, working the polls, volunteering at public events, getting signs up, and ELBOW GREASE) this issue NEVER would have become one of the TOP issues in this Governor’s race. Perry’s battered and pathetic showing is due to your diligent, undying commitment to this cause!

We have the momentum and have added thousands to our cause…this issue will not go away and we will not be ignored until we WIN!

MUST SEE:

Election analysis: Combined Independent vote took Bexar County, beat Perry - http://satollparty.com/post/?p=460

Houston Chronicle: Perry wins re-election by a negative landslide - http://satollparty.com/post/?p=462

Indianapolis Star: Indiana loses one U.S. House seat and control of State House due to toll road sale to Cintra-Macquarie - http://satollparty.com/post/?p=459
 

This is a series by an anonymous political insider in Bexar County. The views of this author do not represent the views of South Texas Republicans. 

Now that the political smoke has cleared, we move on to one Southside Congressional run off. I predicted the strong possibility of a runoff in the 23rd Congressional District.

And I said if that happened, it would be Ciro Rodriguez. Score one for me. I was emphatic that it would not happen in the 21st and I was correct in that assessment. Surprisingly John Courage did better than I expected.

Of course, I fell short of my prediction of Governor Goodhair losing. As they say, “Can’t predict them all.”

I did point out last week that it was probably more wishful thinking on my part than reality. Reality sucks sometimes!

Now that Goodhair stays for four more years, I do predict that the situation won’t improve too much and most Republicans will rue the day they kept him in office. I do question the intelligence of most Republicans who chose to vote for him again.

In other predictions, I also fell short in the 4th Court of Appeals race involving Dan Pozza and Steve Hilbig. Actually, in Bexar County, Pozza did win, but last minutes boxes from outside Bexar County turned that around.

The crushing blow was the election of Judge Tom Rickoff over Probate lawyer Barbie Scharf-Zeldes. Name ID and 25 years as a Judge did her in as well as another Rickoff on the ballot. It was truly a travesty of justice for the Probate Court in Bexar County.

Wayne Christian suffered at the hands of another Christian last time around and it didn’t help him get back on a bench this time either.

The others that I missed surprisingly enough included the astounding win by Gloria Saldana over sitting Judge Rene Diaz. Again, the plagiarism accusation and loss of the Express-News endorsement hit home.

I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see Catherine Torres-Stahl overtake Judge Luitjen, especially since I picked him to win. My predictions of Sakai and Noll were no surprise.

The comeback of Joe Farias at the last minute also ruined my prediction record. I still believe that race was Antuna’s to lose and that ad he ran attacking Farias on his supposed involvement with the architect in Harlandale angered Southsiders so much some switched at the end.

Negative ads did him in as they did in the Nelson Balido attempt to overtake Joaquin Castro in his race. The only negative ad that helped anyone was the Littlejohn “Lady or the Liar” ad.

Out of all the races, I only missed six. The only local race I am truly upset about is the Probate Court race. The Perry prediction was a throwaway. The Pozza and Farias races changed at the last minute and the two District Judge races were bona fide upsets.

I did say last week that God sometimes intervenes and answers prayers for Democrats. We didn’t lose any incumbents, gained four district court judges, one county court seat, a State Senate slot and a State Rep. Seat. We are facing a second bite at the apple in the congressional race to defeat Henry “the Horrible” Bonilla. LIfe is good. The ouster of Bonilla would make the retention of Governor Goodhair palpable. Only time will tell.

That is the moderate viewpoint. I AM the "Republicrat".