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The loss of Ed Emmett


Reefmonkey

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I am not a Republican by an means, am very pleased that Fletcher beat Culberson in my district, but I do have to lament the loss of Ed Emmett. He has been a stable hand on the helm, especially during Ike and Harvey. His loss this year appears to be directly attributable to straight ticket voting. Glad this will be the last year the partisans and the lazy have that option. Trading an experienced, proven fair-minded hand for a 27 year old medical interpreter for such an important and far-ranging county position that handles everything from infrastructure to emergency management is not great news.

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Don’t blame the voters, blame the complete and utter idiocy in D.C. and the party supporting it 100%.  One can’t simply say the disgusting things that we’ve been hearing out of D.C. the last two years and expect there not to be any repercussions party wide. At this point, many voters weren’t the slightest bit interested in even entertaining the idea of electing or re-electing Republicans into ANY office, regardless of their track record. This is not lazy voting, it’s people desperate for change against what the Republican party has come to represent as of lately. The “partisans and the lazy” voters or the “sane” as I rather call them in this scenario, can still simply vote Democrat all the way down the ballot in future races, regardless if there is a straight ticket option or not. Anyway, at 10 years, Emmett was in office more than long enough. No elected official should keep an office that long, it’s ridiculous and then seeking re-election after 10 years is even more doubly ridiculous, if not downright greedy. So whats to cry about? Time for someone else to take the helm.

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What has happened with the Republican Party in the era of Trump reminds me of one of Orson Welles' more memorable quotes: "Never touch sh_t, even with the gloves on. The gloves only get sh_ttier, but the sh_t doesn't get any glovvier."

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4 hours ago, Reefmonkey said:

I am not a Republican by an means, am very pleased that Fletcher beat Culberson in my district, but I do have to lament the loss of Ed Emmett. He has been a stable hand on the helm, especially during Ike and Harvey. His loss this year appears to be directly attributable to straight ticket voting. Glad this will be the last year the partisans and the lazy have that option. Trading an experienced, proven fair-minded hand for a 27 year old medical interpreter for such an important and far-ranging county position that handles everything from infrastructure to emergency management is not great news.

Bold Prediction: Hidalgo will be a 1-termer in 2022 y'all watch.

 

Plus she's way too young & looks like a little kid.

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3 hours ago, intencity77 said:

Don’t blame the voters, blame the complete and utter idiocy in D.C. and the party supporting it 100%.  One can’t simply say the disgusting things that we’ve been hearing out of D.C. the last two years and expect there not to be any repercussions party wide. At this point, many voters weren’t the slightest bit interested in even entertaining the idea of electing or re-electing Republicans into ANY office, regardless of their track record. This is not lazy voting, it’s people desperate for change against what the Republican party has come to represent as of lately. The “partisans and the lazy” voters or the “sane” as I rather call them in this scenario, can still simply vote Democrat all the way down the ballot in future races, regardless if there is a straight ticket option or not. Anyway, at 10 years, Emmett was in office more than long enough. No elected official should keep an office that long, it’s ridiculous and then seeking re-election after 10 years is even more doubly ridiculous, if not downright greedy. So whats to cry about? Time for someone else to take the helm.

Look what happened to WI Governor Scott Walker (R) who lost reelection to 3-term WI Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers (D) in a close contest. 

 

Plus the WI Dems swept all of the down-ballot statewide offices. 

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5 hours ago, Reefmonkey said:

I am not a Republican by an means, am very pleased that Fletcher beat Culberson in my district, but I do have to lament the loss of Ed Emmett. He has been a stable hand on the helm, especially during Ike and Harvey. His loss this year appears to be directly attributable to straight ticket voting. Glad this will be the last year the partisans and the lazy have that option. Trading an experienced, proven fair-minded hand for a 27 year old medical interpreter for such an important and far-ranging county position that handles everything from infrastructure to emergency management is not great news.

 

Seems like a good bet that this is really what the $70 million Beto spent bought us.

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11 hours ago, Blue Dogs said:

Bold Prediction: Hidalgo will be a 1-termer in 2022 y'all watch.

 

Plus she's way too young & looks like a little kid.

I don’t get how that somehow means she isn’t smart enough to handle the position. Emmett was in the same boat in his early years. There will be growing pains for Hidalgo but she’s not a moron. And her being young and looking like a kid makes no sense. People who voted straight ticket wanted change and Harris County keeps getting bluer and bluer. 

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13 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

What has happened with the Republican Party in the era of Trump reminds me of one of Orson Welles' more memorable quotes: "Never touch sh_t, even with the gloves on. The gloves only get sh_ttier, but the sh_t doesn't get any glovvier."

 

This.

 

Sooner or later, the supposed adult Republicans are going to have to take back over.  Right now, they own the crazy by enabling the tiki torch brigade, p***** grabbers, and their ilk.  Either that or go the way of the Whigs - who ironically were replaced by the Rs.  

 

Until then, there are more and more people who will not vote for any R, myself among them.  There are some Rs that I haven't voted against, but I will not do anything to endorse or enable what's going on under the sign of the elephant.

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I for one am glad that straight ticket balloting will be eliminated in Texas for the 2020 election.

 

Judges should not be part of a partisan election, we should be voting for judges based on individuals, not parties. Emmett is the only Republican i voted for. 

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3 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

I don’t get how that somehow means she isn’t smart enough to handle the position. Emmett was in the same boat in his early years. There will be growing pains for Hidalgo but she’s not a moron. And her being young and looking like a kid makes no sense. People who voted straight ticket wanted change and Harris County keeps getting bluer and bluer. 

 

Well, except that Emmett wasn't 27 when he took office and didn't come in with his primary experience being that of a student and interpreter.  We'll have to see how it goes when the proverbial s*** hits the fan after the next, inevitable, natural disaster occurs.

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1 hour ago, skwatra said:

I for one am glad that straight ticket balloting will be eliminated in Texas for the 2020 election.

 

Judges should not be part of a partisan election, we should be voting for judges based on individuals, not parties. Emmett is the only Republican i voted for. 

He's the only Republican judge with common sense. I really liked him and I'm a Democrat.

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22 hours ago, intencity77 said:

Don’t blame the voters, blame the complete and utter idiocy in D.C. and the party supporting it 100%.  One can’t simply say the disgusting things that we’ve been hearing out of D.C. the last two years and expect there not to be any repercussions party wide. At this point, many voters weren’t the slightest bit interested in even entertaining the idea of electing or re-electing Republicans into ANY office, regardless of their track record. This is not lazy voting, it’s people desperate for change against what the Republican party has come to represent as of lately. The “partisans and the lazy” voters or the “sane” as I rather call them in this scenario, can still simply vote Democrat all the way down the ballot in future races, regardless if there is a straight ticket option or not. Anyway, at 10 years, Emmett was in office more than long enough. No elected official should keep an office that long, it’s ridiculous and then seeking re-election after 10 years is even more doubly ridiculous, if not downright greedy. So whats to cry about? Time for someone else to take the helm.

I will blame voters for not being able to differentiate between DC politics and county business, and not taking the time to think through each race on the ballot for themselves, instead of just being kneejerk reactionaries. It's not like Emmett or his position is some obscure person and office with no name recognition that would understandably be swept up in voting Ds, the man was on our TVs and radios in this county nonstop for at least a week just 14 months ago. Anyone who lets themselves get so swept up in partisan hatred that they mindlessly vote out a proven, experienced administrator for a young dilettante with absolutely no applicable experience is no better than the partisans on the other side, is part of the problem. What you're talking about is a pendulum swing, and we all know what happens after a pendulum reaches its maximum angle. And 10 years isn't all that long for a county judge, Emmett's predecessor served as long, and his (Eckles') predecessor (Jon Lindsey) served twice as long. Being a county judge, especially of a county like Harris, is a complicated position with a long learning curve, it's kind of like being the Chairman of the Fed in that it takes a lot of experience to consistently do it well, especially when the SHTF, so when you find someone who has amassed the kind of experience Emmett has and demonstrated he can do it well, you want to hang on to him, and not swap him out "just because."

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1 minute ago, Reefmonkey said:

I will blame voters for not being able to differentiate between DC politics and county business, and not taking the time to think through each race on the ballot for themselves, instead of just being kneejerk reactionaries. It's not like Emmett or his position is some obscure person and office with no name recognition that would understandably be swept up in in voting Ds, the man was on our TVs and radios in this county nonstop for at least a week just 14 months ago. Anyone who lets themselves get so swept up in partisan hatred that they mindlessly vote out a proven, experienced administrator for a young dilettante with absolutely no applicable experience is no better than the partisans on the other side, is part of the problem. What you're talking about is a pendulum swing, and we all know what happens after a pendulum reaches its maximum angle. And 10 years isn't all that long for a county judge, Emmett's predecessor served as long, and his (Eckles') predecessor served twice as long. Being a county judge, especially of a county like Harris, is a complicated position with a long learning curve, it's kind of like being the Chairman of the Fed in that it takes a lot of experience to consistently do it well, especially when the SHTF, so when you find someone who has amassed the kind of experience Emmett has and demonstrated he can do it well, you want to hang on to him, and not swap him out "just because."

 

1000%

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Actually, you can at least partially blame donors from outside Texas who gave millions to the Beto campaign and national media coverage for pushing record voter turnout for him here in Harris county.  Only 18K of those voters had to just select the straight ticket to vote for him and then be on their merry way.  No doubt many didn't even bother to think about the effect of the straight party vote on any races other than the senate.  We'll see how those folks feel next time we get a hurricane.

 

Thanks for nothing California and New York.  Now I'm glad you have to use our messed-up textbooks.

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And I do blame a system that requires multiple tens of millions of dollars for someone to be elected, and requires someone to spend half their time on job they're elected for out fundraising and campaigning to get reelected. It calls for a radical change to the way we elect people, including how we hold primaries, how we allow funding and spending in campaigns, etc, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this thread.

 

 TBH, I'm not a huge fan of "get out the vote" initiatives. People who have to be cajoled and guilted into showing up to vote probably aren't going to be very well-informed, good voters, and when you turn the act of voting into virtue signalling so that people can post selfies with their "I voted" sticker on Instagram, that's not a great thing. We don't need more people voting, we need more-informed people voting.

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12 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Should we discuss last night's mass shooting in California? I know firearms are peoples second child so it's a very sensitive subject. Especially here in Texas 

 

8 hours ago, Naviguessor said:

Suggest you Start another topic, ekderm. 

Not meaning to sound insensitive or snarky, but why? After so many, what fresh insights can people possibly offer?

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I was disappointed that Ed Emmett was defeated, but not especially surprised.
The Republican party has to decide if they're the party of sane people who offer a legitimate alternative to Democratic ideals, or the party of Trump, the so-called Alt-Right, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
They can't have it both ways. The party brand has been tainted to the point that a growing number of voters simply cannot support anyone with an 'R' behind their name. It's too bad that a very capable public servant had to be the sacrificial lamb, but maybe this collateral damage will force the party into examining its priorities.

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Actually, both parties are going to have to decide if they are going to go back to being two sides of the same coin owned by the establishment or if they are going to actually run on and implement policies guided by opposing philosophies.  Like him or not, Trump has shaken up the status quo in a way no other president I can think of ever has.  We might have gotten a similar shakeup if Bernie had been nominated by the Democrats, but of course he got derailed...by the establishment. 

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On 11/7/2018 at 5:50 PM, intencity77 said:

The “partisans and the lazy” voters or the “sane” as I rather call them in this scenario, can still simply vote Democrat all the way down the ballot in future races, regardless if there is a straight ticket option or not.

Rice University Political Science Professor Mark Jones acknowledged the impact: "Straight-ticket voting was unprecedented in Harris County. More than 75 percent of Harris County voters used the straight-ticket option. And when Democrats had an 11-point advantage over Republicans, 55 to 44 percent, that made it virtually impossible for most down-ballot Republicans to win," Jones said, "That’s why we saw all 59 Republican judge candidates lose, all 59 Democrats win."

 

Studies like Bonneau and Loeppe (2013), Alter (2005) have found straight party tickets and the lack of have significant effects on turnout and election results. First, it's going to deter the lazy partisans who just want to go in to rubberstamp their parties from voting. It's not just the increased time in the booth that would deter them, that increased booth time will result in longer lines at polling locations, which would further deter them. Second, for those voters who do take the time to go down the ballot, name recognition and positive associations with that name often trumps party leaning: "Ed Emmett, I forgot/didn't realize he was running this time, I like him even though he's a Republican," eg.

 

Will the loss of a straight-party option reduce voter turnout? Yes, it will, but again I'll say we don't need more people voting, we need more-informed people voting. Do I realize that especially in states like Texas, eliminating the straight party option is likely to help Republicans more than Democrats, at least in the short term? Yes, I do. But as I am not a member of either party, I put principle above short-term outcome, and what I would ultimately like to see is an end to both parties' duopolistic stranglehold on our American political system. Eliminating straight party ballots is a necessary first step (one that Texas is behind the 8-ball on, as it's one of only 8 states that still has one as of this year), and it also cracks the door for independent and third-party options. The next step is to divorce state and local governments' election infrastructure from how political parties decide which candidates will represent them (ie primaries).

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46 minutes ago, Reefmonkey said:

Rice University Political Science Professor Mark Jones acknowledged the impact: "Straight-ticket voting was unprecedented in Harris County. More than 75 percent of Harris County voters used the straight-ticket option. And when Democrats had an 11-point advantage over Republicans, 55 to 44 percent, that made it virtually impossible for most down-ballot Republicans to win," Jones said, "That’s why we saw all 59 Republican judge candidates lose, all 59 Democrats win."

 

 

Lol...and Hidalgo is out there right now telling everyone it's the result of 15 months of hard work.  No, she has Beto to thank for this.

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First off, I am against straight ticket voting - wanted to get that out there before I provide these numbers. It obviously had an impact but if you look at other results around Harris County you see that its not that straight forward:

 

All of these numbers are for Harris County.

 

Hidalgo: 49% 590,524

Emmett: 48% 572,816

 

Valdez: 52% 627,446

Abbott: 46% 558,958

 

Beto: 58% 698,580

Cruz: 41% 498,175

 

So there are 108K people that voted for Beto who did not vote for Hidalgo.

Yes, she got help from Beto but there are also plenty of people that chose not to vote for that race or chose not to vote for Emmett.

 

I was thinking about how the Astrodome referendum failed in Harris County (53% against), but that was 2013 and he won in 2014 at 84%!

And I feel like he handled Harvey well and works with Turner well.

 

So the Beto effect, anti-Trump effect played a roll of course but there is more to it i think.

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5 hours ago, Reefmonkey said:

Rice University Political Science Professor Mark Jones acknowledged the impact: "Straight-ticket voting was unprecedented in Harris County. More than 75 percent of Harris County voters used the straight-ticket option. And when Democrats had an 11-point advantage over Republicans, 55 to 44 percent, that made it virtually impossible for most down-ballot Republicans to win," Jones said, "That’s why we saw all 59 Republican judge candidates lose, all 59 Democrats win."

 

Indeed. If you look at the results for each of the down-ballot judicial races, they are almost all within or very close to that same 55-44 spread, +/- a couple of percentage points.

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it's "Orange Man Bad" syndrome.

 

I agree that judges should not be elected on partisan basis, nor should they have to campaign for their post. It can cloud their judgement, but it also makes them accountable, too.

 

Term limits for everyone from dog catcher to Supreme Court justices is needed, too. I told Culbertson it was time for him to come home 5 years ago, now the 7th has someone who left to her own devices would be a green haired SJW...

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On 11/9/2018 at 9:39 PM, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

it's "Orange Man Bad" syndrome.

 

I agree that judges should not be elected on partisan basis, nor should they have to campaign for their post. It can cloud their judgement, but it also makes them accountable, too.

 

Term limits for everyone from dog catcher to Supreme Court justices is needed, too. I told Culbertson it was time for him to come home 5 years ago, now the 7th has someone who left to her own devices would be a green haired SJW...

I'm staunchly opposed to term limits. 

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We have a way to limit terms.  It's called the ballot box.

 

Funny thing is, the City of Houston term limits were approved by the voters in a referendum as a reaction to how long Kathy Whitmire had remained in office - during the same election that she was voted out of office.

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18 hours ago, mollusk said:

We have a way to limit terms.  It's called the ballot box.

 

Funny thing is, the City of Houston term limits were approved by the voters in a referendum as a reaction to how long Kathy Whitmire had remained in office - during the same election that she was voted out of office.

In 2015, Houstonians voted to extend the terms of the Mayor, City Controller & City Council to 4-year terms.

 

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