Tuesday, March 18, 2008

In primaries, Richardson chooses McCain, Obama, Button

By Andrew Laska of Richardson Echo

The dust has mostly cleared from the March 4th primaries in Texas. Of course, we heard endless discussion about who won that day in Texas and Ohio. We wanted to share with you the opinions of Richardson alone. It appears the winners were John McCain, and Barack Obama on the presidential side. In the talked about State representative seat being vacated by Fred Hill, Angie Chen Button was Richardson's choice but by a narrow margin and not by a majority.

The Richardson Echo examined the Dallas County results for Richardson precincts. A breakdown to Collin County precincts in Richardson was not readily available. However, we did look at relative past voting patterns in Collin County precincts as compared to Richardson precincts. From this we wouldn't expect the Collin County results to alter the results significantly even if they were tilted toward one candidate given the relative turnouts.

Richardson Presidential Primaries:

Republican John McCain Mike Huckabee

Votes 3817 2484

Percentage 54.14 35.24

Democrat Barack Obama Hillary Clinton

Votes 5044 4390

Percentage 53.13 46.24

Note: Percentages will not add up to 100 percent because other candidate's totals are not shown.

In all of Dallas County, John McCain won with 51.33% vs Huckabee's 39.68%. Compared with Dallas County, Richardson Republican voters swung more to McCain by a few percentage points.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama captured Dallas County with a whopping 61.35% vs Clinton's 38.11%. Richardson Democrats supported Clinton mored strongly but Obama was still clearly the choice.

In Collin County, Obama was favored over Clinton 55.31% to 44.22%. McCain was favored over Huckabee 47.73% to 42.24%. Richardson's results on the Democratic side were more in line with Collin County but on the Republican side Richardson's results were more in line with Dallas County.

From 2004 to 2008, the number of Democratic voters in the presidential primaries increased by 670% in Richardson. The amount of Republican increase in the presidential primary in Richardson was not available because precinct breakdown was not available for the 2004 because George Bush was unopposed. However in Dallas County the increase was about 280%.

Another race which received lots of attention was the Republican primary race for State Representative Seat 112 currently occupied by Fred Hill. Hill announced he was not seeking reelection and three Republican challengers and one Democrat choose to compete for the seat. District 112 covers Richardson and an eastward swath over Garland.

The three Republican challengers were DART board member and business leader Angie Chen Button, former Garland councilperson Randall Dunning, and former Richardson councilperson and former RISD board member Jim Shepherd.

State Representative 112 Primary - Republican

Districtwide Button Dunning Shepherd

Votes 4138 3818 955

Percentage 37.93 34.99 27.08

Although Button got the most votes, she and Dunning face a runoff. Surprisingly, Shepherd was well behind his opponents given his experience, reputation, and endorsements from the Dallas Morning News, Fred Hill and State Senator John Carona. In public appearances Shepherd speaks strongly and clearly.

How did Richardson proper vote? The results are interesting.

Richardson Only Button Dunning Shepherd

Votes 2389 1836 2238

Percentage 36.92 28.38 34.59

Button comes out ahead here by a narrow margin but unlike the full district results Dunning comes in third and Shepherd is about 150 votes shy of Button. These results reveal Shepherd's weakness. 75% of Shepherd's votes came from Richardson as compared to 48% for Dunning and 57% for Button. Shepherd's poor performance in Garland cost him an opportunity at the run off.

As noted, nobody received a majority so a run off is scheduled for April 8. There is no clear front runner based on the initial results. One interesting item of vote is that sole Democratic challenger Sandra Phuong VuLe is Vietnamese and should Angie Chen Button, a Chinese immigrant, win the Republican run off this would guarantee that district 112 would be represented by an Asian American. That would be a first for this district.

Voters can vote in the run off if they are eligible to vote in that district, if they voted in the Republican Primary on March 4 or if they did not vote in ANY party's primary on March 4.

Pegasus News content partner - Richardson Echo

See more stories in:

• Politics and Government > Texas > Local Elections