Local incumbents keep offices

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

From Capitol Hill to the Courthouse Square, Caldwell County voters expressed support and favor for existing leadership at the polls this year. Without exception, Caldwell County’s legislative and local leadership will return to office to serve another term.
At the local level, voters expressed satisfaction with their i

ncumbents in the two county-wide races.

Incumbent Sheriff Daniel C. Law (D) faced a challenge from Republican hopeful Jimmy Parker, which has been widely-discussed and closely watched by residents and voters across the county. When votes were finally tallied, just after midnight on Wednesday, Law emerged victorious, earning 7,028 votes (61.11 percent) to Parker’s 4,473 (38.89 percent). Parker, who waited out the election results at Caldwell County Republican Headquarters, expressed some disappointment at the outcome, but said he was pleased with the race he had run.

Another Democrat, incumbent Tax Assessor Collector Mary Vicky Gonzales, who is also the county’s election official, hardly had the opportunity to savor her victory over challenger Joyce Cayton (R), as problems with vote counting software stalled election results until nearly midnight.

Gonzales retained her office by a wide margin, winning 61.18 percent of the vote (4,071) to Cayton’s 38.19 (2,515 votes).

Precinct One Commissioner Tom Bonn defeated Democrat hopeful Richard Mendez 1,895 – 1,522, securing 55.46 percent of the vote.

Incumbent Precinct Three Commissioner Ernesto “Neto” Madrigal will also remain in office, having defeated Republican challenger Sergio Gamez by nearly 16 percentage points. Madrigal claimed 57.95 percent of his precinct’s votes (1,534) to Gamez’s 1,113 (42.05 percent).

At the State level, Caldwell County voters chose overwhelmingly to send incumbent Democrat Patrick Rose back to Austin to represent District 45. In Caldwell County voting, Rose won re-election by a wide margin, earning 7,598 votes. His Republican challenger, Matt Young, wooed 3,605 Caldwell County voters, around 31.4 percent, while Libertarian Tom Gleinser earned 270 votes.

Rose’s district-wide margins were similar to those reflected in Caldwell County. He earned a total of 43,891 votes in Caldwell, Hays and Blanco Counties, around 59.3 percent. Young’s totals stalled at 27,706 (37.43 percent), while Gleinser earned only 3.25 percent (2,406 votes).

Both John Cornyn (R) and Lloyd Doggett (D) will return to Washington, D.C., to continue to serve Texas residents, just as Caldwell County residents seemed to believe they should.
Cornyn narrowly defeated Democrat challenger Richard Noriega in Caldwell County, earning 51.45 percent of the vote (5,908) to Noriega’s 5,230 (45.54 percent). Libertarian candidate Yvonne Adams Schick earned only 346 votes in Caldwell County.

Once again, statewide results were similar to Caldwell County’s wishes. Cornyn won 53.81 percent of the statewide vote, while Noriega shored up 42.85 percent and Adams Schick earned 2.34 percent.

Finally, Caldwell County voters expressed confidence in incumbent US Representative Lloyd Doggett. Doggett earned 7,194 Caldwell County votes, (63.01 percent) while Republican challenger George L. Morovich earned 3,922. Libertarian Jim Stutsman earned 302 votes, or around 2.6 percent. Again, those numbers are similar to the district-wide percentages that will send Doggett back to Washington.

More than half of Caldwell County’s 21,200 registered voters expressed their views at the polls this year. A total of 11,841 voters, including a record 5,990 early voters, cast ballots.