Candidates want you to vote, even if they haven’t

By Crystal Hubbard | Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Harris County’s candidates for legislature want you to vote Tuesday. Even if it means a long wait, getting up early or being late for dinner.

But most of those candidates have missed at least one election as a voter over the last four years, and a few have missed several election days, a Texas Watchdog review of their voting histories shows.

The 63 candidates running for state representative and senator who draw a portion — or all — of their support from Harris County, voted consistently during November elections, Harris County election records reveal. (Click here to see a spreadsheet of candidate voting histories.)

However, in keeping with overall voter trends, participation and interest wane for primary elections, especially for those who have yet to enjoy the public censure attached to winning.

“I don’t do primaries. I only do the ones [that], in my eyes, count,” Joe Agris, Republican House candidate for District 134, told Texas Watchdog. Agris voted in two of the past four general elections, 2004 and 2006, as well as in this year’s primary. He skipped primary voting in 2004 and 2006, as well as the May 2007 constitutional amendment election, and the November 2005 and 2007 general elections.

When asked if he would be less inclined to vote for someone if he knew they had a shoddy voting record, Agris said no — because, he said, his votes are governed more by a candidate’s platform and whether they’ll deliver.

So what is it about spring-time elections that send the political class running for the hills?

Primaries often fail to decide much at all, by way of lack of competition, or issue, some candidates said.

“Often there isn’t [a choice to be made and] if there are no issues, there’s not a compelling drive for somebody to come out,” said Democrat Brad Neal, a candidate for state House 150.

Neal missed voting in the November 2005 election, the March 2006 primary, and the May constitutional amendment election, according to his voting history. But he voted more regularly than Howard H. Gano, a Republican candidate for House District 148. Records show that he voted twice over the last four years — in the 2004 general election and this year’s primary.

In 2004 “the Republican primary didn’t mean anything,” Gano said, so he didn’t vote. Gano also said that unless he really thinks his vote will make a difference, he just doesn’t see the point in showing up at the polls.

However, the race did matter to candidates in tight contests. The race between Sharon McCally and Reece Rondon for district judge was decided by 269 votes; it took a runoff to decide another two: the Congressional race for District 10 and the race for railroad commissioner.

Even a longtime political aide said he’s skipped the ballot box a few times after becoming alienated from political life.

Trey Fleming, a Democrat running for House District 135, worked in politics for 10 years but then became less engaged in politics — which is why he doesn’t see a disconnect between the gaps in his voting history and asking others to pull the lever for him.

After Fleming’s first political stint, he joined the private sector. Fleming said his absences, particularly in 2005 and 2006, were because of business travel.

Libertarian candidate engages in politics away from polling booth

Republican and Democratic challengers voted 81 percent of the time during the general elections; libertarians, 70 percent.

The Democrats and Republicans had worse records for the primaries, voting 73 percent of the time during those party elections; 54 percent voted during the May 2007 Harris County constitutional amendment election. Voters decided during that election to give the legislature power to reduce property taxes on the elderly and disabled.

Only two of the 12 libertarian candidates voted in the May election. Libertarians, by definition, can’t vote in Democratic or Republican primaries, and that’s why they were considered separate from GOP or Dem candidates.

For some libertarians, the democratic process may be more productive away from the voting booth.

Libertarian candidate Alfred Montestruc noted that primary elections often affect the political process less than other unofficial political involvement.

“Yes, it’s important to vote, and I have in some cases been remiss,” Montestruc said. But, “an individual vote is not as powerful when discussion with a lot of people is in some ways more effective in the political process. Some people don’t vote if they don’t have a reasonable choice.”

Here’s an overview of what we found in reviewing state House and Senate candidates’ records of voting in elections:

* Of the 63 candidates whose districts are partially or fully in Harris County, the 23 incumbents proved a formidable voting bloc. In the last four Novembers, not a single official failed to vote. Primary voting records were nearly as good: in the 2006 and 2008 primaries, the same group batted 1.000%. Only two current incumbents skipped the primary booth in 2004: Ellen Cohen and Ana Hernandez, both Democrats. At the time, neither were members of the legislature.
* In May 2007, five current incumbents failed to vote during the constitutional amendment election: Democrats Harold Dutton and Senfronia Thompson, and Republicans Patricia Harless, Mike Jackson and Debbie Riddle.
* These challengers voted in every primary and general election for which they were eligible, as well as the May 2007 constitutional amendment election: Democrats Carol Alvarado, Chris Bell, and Virginia Stogner McDavid; Republicans Michael Bunch, Austen Furse, Greg Meyers, Dorothy Olmos, Patricia Rodriguez; Libertarian Bill Gray.
* One candidate, Democrat Joel Redmond, disputed his record, which showed missing votes for March 2006 and May 2007, as well as the March 2004 primary, and the November 2005 and 2007 general elections. Redmond said he participated in both the March 2006 and May 2007 elections.
(Note: For the purposes of this report, Susan Delgado was considered a non-Libertarian challenger; Delgado told Texas Watchdog she became a Libertarian last year. Harris County databases show she voted in this year’s primary, but Delgado says she did not.)

(Photo: Voting booths at Sedgwick Middle School, West Hartford, CT. Photo by flickr user ragesoss, used via the Creative Commons license.)