With 157 out of 171 precincts reporting (92%), here’s how it looks:

Dan Patrick: 68%
Peggy Hamric: 17%
Joe Nixon: 9%
Mark Ellis: 6%

A runoff is now mathematically impossible. It’s all over, folks.

With 134 of 171 precincts in (78%), here are the numbers:

Dan Patrick: 68%
Peggy Hamric: 16%
Joe Nixon: 8%
Mark Ellis: 5%

If Ree-C were still here with her camera, y’all would get to see pictures of my victory dance. Fortunately, she’s gone.

I am watching KHOU and these were some comments overheard from the opponents.

Mark Ellis….."What would I do different? I’d buy a radio station."

Peggy Hamric…."Dan Patrick had the radio station"

Joe Nixon…….."I’m glad I won…excuse me I’m glad I ran."

It seems to me that it has not sunk into the other candidates and talking heads on KHOU that the reason Dan won is because the people want change. 

With 95 of 171 precincts (55%) reporting, here are the results:

Dan Patrick: 69%
Peggy Hamric: 16%
Joe Nixon: 8%
Mark Ellis: 5%

Dan is poised to win BIG. This isn’t "barely made it into the runoff" victory. This isn’t a "whew, we eked that one out" victory. This is a "we just stomped the guts out of the Austin fat-cat establishment" victory. An absolute landslide.

Feels so good.

As I type this, Dan Patrick is arriving to the kind of applause and musical fanfare traditionally reserved for NBA pregame festivities. The gang’s all here: Edd Hendee, Paul Bettencourt, Chris Begala, LST’s Fearless Leader David Benzion, and now the man of the hour, Mr. Dan Patrick.

Chants of "Dan! Dan! Dan!" are echoing, and it’s now time to sing the National Anthem.

This is gonna be a LOT of fun.

We’ve set up a little "war room" with a couple of computers to keep track of results as they come in. As I sit here, I’m deluged with Dan’s supporters, asking for the VERY LATEST in results. Well folks, you’ve come to the right place.

General reflections from the par-tay!

• The DJ is good– "Disco Inferno" is on right now. I want you to imagine the scene– a room packed full of KSEV listeners [I couldn't get enough, so I haaaad to strut my stuff!]
• This restaurant is unbelievable– FULL of Texas historical artifacts. You couldn’t order a better Victory Party setting out of Central Casting.
• BRAMANTI ADDS: I’d like to compliment the proprietor of this joint on his excellent selection of Scotch. Well done!

These are early vote totals:

Prop 1, requiring a photo ID to vote: 88% for
Prop 2, prohibiting eminent domain abuse: 94% for
Prop 3, limiting government spending increases: 89% for

On a personal note, the Steamboat House has really good chicken wings. More as we know it.

To be updated throughout the night–

DeLay: 65%

Campbell: 25%

Fjetland: 5%

Baig: 3%

To be updated throughout the night–

Yes: 92%

No: 7% 

Early vote only–

John Devine: 51%

Patricia Harless: 48%

Early voting only, as of 7:32 PM–

Gary Michael Block: 30%

Jacqueline Lucci Smith: 69%

Comment away.

Carson Koenning says…

"Nice job running Dan’s campaign, Pops!"

We’re having server problems, but will reboot as often as possible– we’re finding the best numbers here.

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Just a reminder, folks, the LST Election Night Party is TONIGHT, at the Steamboat House Restaurant, near the North Sam Houston Parkway (Beltway and Gessner. There’s a big statue of Sam Houston in front. Here’s a map.

LST staffers will be there in force, if we can get away from making OBSCENE PROFITS. We look forward to seeing y’all there.

By the way, if you haven’t voted yet, go out there and prove that you don’t deserve to live in a hellish 1984-style Godless totalitarian dictatorship. Democracy is not a spectator sport.

This bald-faced lie from Fred Hill is starting to have repercussions:

"We just went through a regular session and two special sessions in which the whole idea was to reduce property taxes, and I voted for that every single time."

Fred Hill, Dallas Morning News, 3/5/06

In our previous post on this subject, we encouraged LST readers to respectfully contact the Dallas Morning News and ask them why they allowed this demonstrable untruth to be published in their paper.

A caller to Edd Hendee’s show on KSEV this morning stated that he had actually spoken with the reporter who had written the article, and that he seemed genuinely unaware of the fact that what Hill told him was a lie.

We’ll take the reporter at his word.

Better yet, we’ll help him clear this whole mess up by providing him (and you) clips from his very own paper proving our point. [Emphasis' in bold added by LST.]

First– color us skeptical, but this recent endorsement of Hill by the DMN editorial board doesn’t exactly encourage us to think that the paper is interested in holding his feet to the taxpayer’s fire:

HEADLINE: Fred Hill has earned the GOP nomination

If Richardson voters like state legislators with independence and backbone, Fred Hill deserves their vote in the March 7 GOP primary.

Here is the most recent reason for our support of Mr. Hill: The nine-term member of the Texas House single-handedly saved cities and counties from fiscal calamity last year.

When Gov. Rick Perry and GOP House Speaker Tom Craddick pushed the Legislature to sharply limit local  property appraisal increases, Mr. Hill responded with powerful common-sense arguments, such as how the vote would cripple communities’ ability to pay for services like health care and roads. He was so convincing that the House, in a rare move, voted down the governor and speaker…

Dallas Morning News Editorial, 2/2/06

And it’s not like the anti-taxpayer implications of Hill’s moves haven’t been pointed out to the paper:

I am sure that all who are in local government love Fred Hill, too. He never met a tax increase he did not like. I talked to his office about the 48 percent increase in my property valuation. "Oh, we can’t cap the increase to 5 percent because that would hinder the local government in their operations!"

Sounds like an enabler for the out-of-control spending and mismanagement within DISD and the city of Dallas. Need more money for yacht trips, golf tournaments and car allowances? Mr. Hill is your man. Can’t keep on top of services like crime response and infrastructure repairs, but gotta have a suspension bridge over the Trinity or tax abatements? Mr. Hill is there for you, forcing the cost onto the homeowner.

David W. Tuthill, Dallas

Letter to the Editors of the Dallas Morning News, 2/6/06

What about the paper’s coverage of Rep. Hill during the legislative session? Were they aware of his anti-property tax relief actions way back then?

HEADLINE: House sends revenue caps bill back to committee

Cities and counties staved off another property tax measure they despise Wednesday.

Lawmakers sympathetic to local leaders first weakened a bill to limit revenue growth for local governments, then used a parliamentary maneuver to delay further House action.

The wrangling dealt Gov. Rick Perry a second setback on his tax relief agenda in two days. On Tuesday, House members rejected a measure that would have capped annual increases of property appraisals.

The measure sent back to the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday was a revenue caps bill. Its author, Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, said he hopes the panel will revise and return the measure to the full House soon. 

The bill, which Mr. Isett calls "truth in taxation," would increase the threat of rate rollback elections. He says that would discourage higher property taxes. Cities, counties and hospital, community college, fire protection and other districts say the bill would force them to cut services and increase fees. His bill wouldn’t affect school districts. 

"It’s a well-documented fact that there are those who don’t believe you can tax and spend enough," Mr. Isett said when asked why measures suppressing property-tax increases have stalled. "I am not one of them. But I serve with some of them."

Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, a leading foe of the appraisal and revenue cap bills, said "cities and counties have a lot of strength" in the Legislature but haven’t flexed it. "The issue of appraisal caps and revenue caps is what has energized them," he said.

The day began with Mr. Isett agreeing to drop a proposal that rollback elections be automatically triggered if property tax revenues would increase by more than 3 percent from the previous year. In exchange, he wanted to lower how many signatures are required on petitions for a rollback election.

Mr. Hill objected.

"You might be able to get that in front of a Wal-Mart on a Saturday," he said.

The House approved, 73-72, an amendment by Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, to reinstate the current requirement – 10 percent of the registered voters in a district.

Dallas Morning News, 4/13/05

The next day’s edition (4/14/05) highlighted this quote:

"The time to kill a snake is when you’ve got the hoe in your hand."

– Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, moments before he struck the final blow on a bill to reduce the cap on increases in property appraisals

Far from "unaware", the paper’s editorial board was thrilled by Hill’s actions:

HEADLINE: On behalf of cities and counties, thank you, Fred  Hill

The next time you drive down the street, visit a public health clinic or call the police, thank State Rep. Fred Hill , R-Richardson. He turned the House away from a suffocating 5 percent cap on increases in annual property appraisals. Because of his legwork,  communities that depend upon property taxes to build bridges, fight crime and care for the sick can breathe easier. The tax cap was tempting, but it could have strangled the rest of us back home.

Dallas Morning News Editorial, 4/16/05

And another quote (4/28/05) highlighted in a Karen Brooks column:

"Mr.Speaker? I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. This thing just keeps coming back and coming back. I just wondered if you felt the same way."

– Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, a leading opponent of the constantly disappearing and reappearing bill to cap local governments’ revenue increases

And another editorial!

HEADLINE: Voices of Moderation: Speak out against Austin — for Texas’ sake

Conservative Democrats and independent Republicans face the same predicament in Austin these days. 

They’re increasingly voting against bills that don’t seem right for Texas, or they are holding their noses and voting for them. Whether it’s financing schools, capping funds for local governments or arguing about gays as foster parents, the middle-of-the-road crowd finds itself out of step with the prevailing culture.

Republicans such as Fred Hill, Charlie Geren and Brian McCall and Democrats like Rafael Anchia and Helen Giddings certainly don’t yearn for liberal leadership. But as Austin shifts further to the right, independents can easily feel like legislators in search of a state.

That’s a feeling shared by this editorial page. We take no joy in opposing the Legislature on so many issues, but we find ourselves with no other choice.

We can’t stay quiet and allow legislators to provide insufficient funds for schools. We can’t step back and let lawmakers strangle counties’ ability to raise money for roads and health care.

[snip]

To some extent, these challenges require money. In other places, they only require thoughtful planning.

But one thing’s for sure: Picking issues that separate Texans by class, race, gender, sexual orientation or whatever won’t meet the state’s challenges. Nor will failing to provide enough money to meet real needs. Both, however, have become Austin’s norm.

Dallas Morning News Editorial, 4/30/05

Are you detecting a pattern yet?

But wait– there’s more!

HEADLINE: Delegation aids Dallas development efforts, kills damaging bills

Good defense proved an effective offense for lawmakers and lobbyists who spent the legislative session looking out for the Dallas area.

They managed to kill several bills that municipal authorities called potentially disastrous and, at the same time, helped further economic development efforts, formulate a regional transportation authority and secure funds for Parkland hospital.

"I guess we earned our money," said Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson and chairman of the Dallas-area delegation. "There are still things to be done, but this will go down as one of the best sessions we’ve had in a long time."

Mr. Hill played a big role in killing a cornerstone of Gov. Rick Perry’s property-tax relief plan – a cap on appraisal values and local revenue programs.

Dallas Morning News, 5/28/05

But the absolute creme de le creme is this mawkish profile by columnist Karen Brooks, which quivers with so much admiration for the balding slayer-o-property-tax-relief that it was actually republished in full (pdf) by the Texas Association of Counties in their official propaganda organ:

HEADLINE: For uphill battle, legislator was up to challenge

When state GOP leaders squashed the power and hid the staunch opinions of a Richardson state representative who was one of their biggest supporters, they thought they had shut him up for good.

But at the end of the session, Rep. Fred Hill outlasted them all. He won his cause; he made new friends; he took on the establishment here and back home.

And his calm, laid-back demeanor in the face of intense political opposition by some of the state’s most powerful politicians earned him a reputation as the veritable Steve McQueen of the Texas House.

[LST Editorial Insert: Blech.]

[snip]

What the GOP lawmaker’s political adversaries had tried to do was make him irrelevant. What they succeeded in doing was something else entirely.

They made a mountain out of  Fred Hill.

[LST Editorial Insert: Groan.]

This session, the 14-year veteran prevailed over Gov. Rick Perry by killing a cornerstone of his property-tax relief plan – a cap on appraisal values and local revenue programs.

[snip]

Appraisal caps seemed to crystalize [Hill's] strong hardcore belief in local control and community values. The report he wrote in October blasted the plan and was never distributed.

The bill by Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, landed in another committee chaired by a new leadership favorite.

So Mr. Hill teamed up with Rep. Mike Villarreal, a San Antonio Democrat young enough to be his son, rounded up support and killed it on the House floor.

Dallas Morning News, 5/26/05

This is the paper that carried this quote from Fred Hill in last Sunday’s edition:

"We just went through a regular session and two special sessions in which the whole idea was to reduce property taxes, and I voted for that every single time."

Fred Hill, Dallas Morning News, 3/5/06

The Dallas Morning News either needs to issue a correction, or come clean about their bias.

If they agree with Fred Hill that appraisal caps and revenue caps are a bad idea, fine.

That doesn’t give them the right to report as "fact" Mr. Hill’s assertion that he voted "every single time" to "reduce property taxes".

Click here to respectfully contact the Dallas Morning News and ask them to either correct the record or come clean.

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