Early Vote Tomorrow Update: Endorsements, Endorsements, Who Got an Endorsement

Update:  How conservative a paper are you when you endorse Dan Patrick? Really Lubbock? From reading that paper's endorsement of Sam Houston, all Ken Paxton would have had to do was show up and he would have been endorsed.  Hell he probably could have driven by, waved, and still gotten the endorsement.

Most people who work on campaigns would probably agree that the larger the race (i.e., president), the less likely an endorsement from a newspaper matters.  It probably has a larger impact on those down ballot races that 1) nobody pays attention to and 2) the candidates don't have enough money to get their name before the voters.  Having seen candidates win a newspaper endorsement and lose, versus those who don't get the endorsement and win, it's easy to dismiss newspaper endorsements as a meaningless folly.  Having said that, campaigns being the competitive things they are, every candidate wants all the support they can get.

So how have these meaningless endorsements gone so far?  We'll update this list as more endorsements come in.

Governor
Wendy Davis (D): Austin American-Statesman, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Cosmopolitan, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News
Greg Abbott (R): Beaumont Enterprise, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Lt. Gov.
Leticia Van de Putte (D): Austin American-Statesman, Beaumont Enterprise, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, El Paso Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News
Dan Patrick (R): Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Attorney General
Sam Houston (D): Austin American-Statesman, Beaumont Enterprise, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, San Antonio Express-News
Ken Paxton (R):

Comptroller
Mike Collier (D): Austin American-Statesman, Beaumont Enterprise, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News
Glenn Hegar (R): Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Land Commissioner
John Cook (D):
George Bush (R): Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, San Antonio Express-News

Ag Commissioner
Jim Hogan (D):
Sid Miller (R): Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
No Endorsement: San Antonio Express-News

Railroad Commissioner
Steve Brown (D): Corpus Christi Caller-Times, San Antonio Express-News
Ryan Sitton (R): Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

U.S. Senate
David Alameel (D):
John Cornyn (R): Beaumont Enterprise, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News

Judicial Races Statewide:

Chief Justice, Supreme Court
William Moody (D):
Nathan Hecht (R): Beaumont Enterprise, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News

Supreme Court, Place 6
Lawrence Meyers (D):
Jeff Brown (R): Beaumont Enterprise, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News

Supreme Court, Place 7
Gina Benavides (D): Beaumont Enterprise, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News
Jeffrey Boyd (R): Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News

Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3
John Granberg (D):
Bert Richardson (R): Beaumont Enterprise, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News

Locally, who has the San Antonio Express-News chosen?

14 Years

14 years.  Unless someone else files on Dec. 9, this will be the first time Democrats have had 2 elected officials running for executive statewide office since 2002.  Democrats have had elected officials run for the U.S. Senate and the statewide judiciary, but it has been 14 years since at least 2 incumbent officials have attempted to make the leap to one of the statewide executive offices (Gov., Lite Gov, AG, Comptroller, Land Comm, Ag Comm, Railroad Commission).  Just to be clear, when I say elected official I mean someone who is currently in office and running for another.

We've had former officials run in the past:
2010 - Bill White and Hector Uribe
2006 - Chris Bell, Fred Head, VaLinda Hathcox
2002 - John Sharp and Kirk Watson

Elected officials who ran:
2014 - Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte
2002 - David Bernsen and Tom Ramsay

If Sen. Carlos Uresti had filed for Attorney General, we could go even further back.  The last time Democrats had at least 3 elected officials try for statewide executive office was 1998: Garry Maruo, John Sharp, Richard Raymond, and Pete Patterson.

Senate District 26

For San Antonians who are familiar with their political history, SD 26 should offer a plethora of names:  J. Franklin Spears, Henry B. Gonzalez, Franklin Spears, Joe Bernal, Nelson Wolff, Bob Vale, Cyndi Taylor Krier, and Greg Luna.  Following Luna's untimely death in 1999, then State Rep. Leticia Van de Putte was elected in a special election and has held the seat ever since.  The closest race she's had since then was in the 2000 Democratic Primary where she beat attorney and future State Rep. David Leibowitz by 54% - 46% margin.  She's managed to make herself a very popular figure among Democrats here, as well as statewide, most notably during the redistricting fight when she and the other Democratic State Senators went to New Mexico. 

2012

President

Obama - 62%; 127,237
Romney - 36.3%; 74,472

U.S. Senate

Sadler - 60.6%; 122,974
Cruz - 36.1%; 73,206

Blue crabs anyone?

It's Maryland that best fits this district.  Obama won by 26.08% in Maryland and carried this district by 25.7%.  Sadler won here by 24.5%.

State Sen. Committees

Lite Gov. David Dewhurst has filled out the rest of the committee slots in the State Senate.  How did Bexar County do?

SD - 19, Carlos Uresti (D)
Administration - Vice-Chair
Agriculture, Rural Affairs & Homeland Security - Vice-Chair
Health & Human Services
Natural Resources
Transportation

SD-21, Judith Zaffirini (D)*
Administration
Finance
Government Organization - Chair
Health & Human Services
Higher Education

*Only represents 3 precincts in Bexar County

SD-26, Leticia Van de Putte (D)
Business & Commerce
Education
State Affairs
Veterans Affairs & Military Installations - Chair

SD-25, Donna Campbell (R)
Education
Jurisprudence
Nominations - Vice-Chair
Transportation
Veterans Affairs & Military Installations