This is it--Primary Election Day!!

Well, it's not exactly "it"--we don't actually get any new elected officials today. We just select who will be the nominees from the two major parties in the fall General Election.

But today is the day that I've been working toward these last several months! And with an opponent who is deeply-entrenched and better-funded, I am not guaranteed another election date later in the year!

But if you are a challenger--and I am!--you've got to love the early election turnout the last two weeks!

Dallas County saw 34,599 voters cast their ballots in the Republican Primary--a significant increase over 2006, the last Gubernatorial election! And statewide figures are revealing fully 20% of voters who have never voted in a Primary previously, reflecting the disgust with Washington, D.C. and politics-as-usual.

Similar figures are being reported elsewhere in the State as well, with Tarrant County outpacing Dallas County. Tarrant reported nearly 39,000 Republican voters to some 5,700 Democratic voters. Reports out of Denton County were that Republicans were outpacing Democrats "ten-to-one." This in stark contrast to the 2008 Presidential election, when Democrats vastly outpaced Republicans.

In my own race, we don't have any solid figures yet, but in past elections Congressional District 32, 100% of which is within Dallas County, typically accounts for between 33% and 40% of total County-wide votes. That means that between 11,000 and 14,000 votes have been cast in my race against U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions.

In contrast, in all of 2006 Rep. Sessions only took in 13,000 votes unopposed with some 3,000 no votes. We have likely exceeded his total vote count in early voting alone. And the 2006 early voting total of 13,000 was nearly tripled this year!

So, if 13,000 County-wide early votes equated to about 13,000 total votes for Rep. Sessions, what will 2010 voter turnout look like in our CD32 race if some 34,000 voted early? I would say that it is likely that we will draw between 30,000 and 36,000 in our race. And a high voter turnout favors the challenger in this anti-Washington, anti-incumbent atmosphere!

Now, if these numbers end up being even remotely accurate...who do you think those incremental 20,000 voters turn out for?

Or, perhaps the correct question simply ends..."turn out"?

Now's the time,
Here is the place;
I am the candidate,
And THIS is the race!

David Smith for Congress, TX32!!


Paid for by Friends of David Smith, David Smith, Treasurer.