If it’s Wednesday…
Then we probably have results from a Tuesday primary!
First, congrats to Jeanna Mastrodicassa, as she is Gainesville’s newest City Commissioner-At-Large, beating a former commissioner handidly, by about 55%-45%. Mastrodicassa has long ties to the UF Honors program (I remember her from my time there), and was clearly the more student-friendly of the candidates. Domenech, who had lost re-election once already, made his campaign focused around evicting students from neighborhoods of single-family homes.
Secondly, it appears Tom Delay was re-nominated by his fellow Republicans in the Texas-22nd. He won 62%-30%. The margin is not impressive, but not overly weak for an incumbent. I’d be more worried about the fact that 38% of the Republicans in a low-turnout primary still voted against him. It might be a sign of future weakness.
Elsewhere, in the Texas-28th, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar fought off a tough challenge from the former incumbent he ousted two years ago, beating him by a wider-than-expected 53%-41%.
Democrats should beware – despite Bush’s unpopularity, the wave of anti-incumbency many predicted has yet to materialize in the form of wins and losses. This means winning back one or both houses of Congress is going to be tougher than they and the media have predicted.