Texas held a special election for State House, district 17, on January 6. Five candidates ran. Texas special elections don’t have party nominees; all candidates file and run in the same election, and if no one gets 50%, there is a runoff.
The vote was: Republican John Cyrier 3,515; Republican Brent Goleman 1,866; independent Linda Curtis 1,046; Democrat Ty McDonald 907; Democrat Shelley Cartier 290. Because no one got 50%, there will be a runoff between Cyrier and Goleman.
Curtis, the independent candidate, placed third, ahead of both Democrats. This is probably the first time in decades that an independent outpolled major party members in any Texas race for federal or state office. Texas hasn’t elected an independent to the legislature since 1936. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s web page, giving election returns for that race.
In November 2014, the vote for this district was: Republican Tim Kleinschmidt 64.6%; Democrat Carolyn Banks 35.4%.
The record for Homer Leonard is ambiguous. He was elected as a write-in candidate in 1930, after the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that his party, the Good Government League, shouldn’t have ballot access.
While some Legislative Research Library materials show Leonard as an independent from 1931-1939, contemporary news accounts from 1934 note the defeat of the last remaining independent, Bodo Holekamp. Holekamp’s Hill Country district was the most Republican area of the state, so he probably was elected with Republican support (a 1950 newspaper account says that oldtimers recalled that Holekamp was an avowed Republican.
Leonard was definitely a Democrat from 1939-1947, and served as Speaker of the House from 1941-1043.
The next non-Democrat was elected in 1950, for one term; and then in 1962 7 Republicans were elected.
Howdy Jim — you are a treasure trove, like Rich Winger, on our independent history. Thank you both. I know Rich gets our emails, but I don’t know if you do, Jim — and the many others who read Ballot Access News. Please sign in so we can stay in touch. We’d like to bring our efforts to your area of Texas. Thanks again: http://IndyTexans.org
PS My 1046 votes has brought us tremendous leverage in the runoff. Stay turned for a challenge to election day mischief — suppressing the rural vote in Bastrop County and the judicial misconduct of our county judge. Ah, what fun and games we have in Texas eletoral politics.
Soon after I moved to my current residential location near Paige in 2010, I went to vote at the Paige Community Center. The Community Center was listed at the SOS website and at the Bastrop Co website as the correct location for me, along with the days and hours it would be open. When I got there, it was closed, no cars in the parking lot, no sign saying it was a voting place. Because I was so new, I thought they were just grossly disorganized, or had not updated their listings. Perhaps not.
Linda, I hope you will interview both of the run-off candidates and consider public endorsing the one who is most likely to genuinely work to protect rural water from exportation. Although I am a Fayette County resident, all rural county based small businesses and families need to join forces to protect their property from the water grabbers who will turn our farms into waste lands and our communities into ghost towns while urban residents pay these water grabbers monopolistic prices for our water!