Depending upon your point of view, Harris County is either the leader of the social conservative movement in Texas or is the millstone around the neck of the Republican Party of Texas, slowly choking off the oxygen and turning the state purple. In the largest runoff turnout in a decade, Harris County voters took a page from Nancy Reagan's playbook and just said no to broadening the base of the party. That's too bad but that is our system, so we live with it, learn from it, and continue to put forth ideas and actions that will eventually turn the party back to its roots.

The good news is that the turnout in this runoff was the highest it has been for a decade:

The bad news is that the 42,918 votes represent only 2.27% of all registered voters in Harris County versus the 5.42% that turned out in 2000. But at least it looks like the decline has started to reverse itself.

HCRP Chair Race

Jared Woodfill crushed Ed Hubbard, 62.7% to 37.3% (25,468 - 15,179). Disappointing for me and others? Of course it is. But certainly not unexpected. It was a long-shot to begin with and then when Paul Simpson stayed on the sidelines, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. Having Sen. Patrick and Hotze go negative in the last week was just icing on the cake.

The question is, will the large margin of victory convince Jared and his supporters that they do not need the rest of us this November? One of Jared's most vocal supporters decided to get snarky on Ed's Facebook page after the election results were in last night:

Mr. Hubbard, you ran the race. I hope that you will stick around to help build the party. Help the party towards victory in 2010. Work hand in hand with the party chair and pct chairs to those ends. It is time we pursue Victory!!

Classy, huh? Especially given all the work that Ed actually did to help stop the decline of the party over the last two years and the work he did with real live precinct chairs in the minority communities. I'm guessing they think they can go it alone. Bad mistake.

Justice, Supreme Court, Place 3

Harris County voters supported Rick Green over Debra Lehrmann, 56.3% to 43.7%. Fortunately, that spread was only 5,151 actual votes, allowing the rest of the state to save the party an embarrassment in the fall. As did the voters in SBOE, District 10.

State Representative, District 127

Dan Huberty easily defeated Dr. Susan Curling, 70.7% to 29.3%. Kingwood had a respectable (in today's climate) 8.1% of its 105,232 voters turn out. Huberty was the social con fave, paying all of the players plus having the support of Sen. Patrick.

Rep - State Representative, District 149

Jack O'Connor took a close race over Dianne Williams, 51.6% to 48.4%. The good news is that Mr. O'Connor didn't go back to the well of the Link Letter after the initial election and relied on hard work to win by a large margin on election day. I think he will be an excellent candidate if we can get people to get out and work with him and get the traditional Republican lobbyists to support him. They should - he left no doubt that he was willing to put his own money up and to work hard.

District Judge, 180th Judicial District

Marc Brown squeaked by Danny Dexter, 51% to 49%, thanks to a strong volunteer organization that won election day by 17%. The early voting numbers were very discouraging but when the numbers started rolling in, competency won the day over the paid slates that put Mr. Dexter in the drivers seat.

Family District Judge, 308th Judicial District

James Lombardino walloped Alice O'Neil, 65% to 35%. A clear victory for the slate cards but Mr. Lombardino is such a great guy, I forgive him! And will work hard to help him win in November.

Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 5, Place 2

Jeff Williams easily defeated George Huntoon, 59.7% to 40.3%. Not a lot to say about this one except that I think Mr. Williams should be commended for keeping the race as clean as it was because, although it seemed negative, he could have really unloaded on Mr. Huntoon.

Precinct Chairman, Precinct 0020

After the early voting results, I thought for sure I had the headline of the day: HCRP elects openly gay precinct chair. But alas, it was not to be. Robert Gray worked hard on election day and got out his vote, defeating Carlos Obando, 7- 4. Darn it!

What now?

Obviously, the ball is in Mr. Woodfill's court. I'll have to wait and see which direction he chooses to go. I admit that I was really disappointed that Sen. Patrick decided to go negative in the chair race because it just wasn't necessary unless his goal was to pile on and "prove" that he is the man. Hey, having a radio station proves that already. And then his ICRT (pronounced Ick-Rot) with the intention of further dividing Texas Republicans makes it clear that he wants to be king, even if it means defeat for Republicans. We shouldn't be too concerned about Ick-Rot though - as with most of his publicity stunts, I doubt it will last longer than a few months, then he'll move on to something else. Think CLOUT.

That's a wrap.