Precinct 3 Upset

Travis Co. Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, after a stunning upset by Karen Huber

Photo by John Anderson

ELECTION WRAP-UP

• President-Elect Obama

  Ending the politics of fear and hate

  BY MICHAEL KING

• Cornyn Holds Off Noriega Challenge

  Noriega missed it by a million

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Texas House: GOP Hangs On to a Whisker-Thin Majority

  Dems come oh so close to rocking the House

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Craddick's Grip Goosed

  Who'll be the next House speaker?

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• WilCo

  Close calls suggest WilCo is turning, well, purple anyway

  BY PATRICIA J. RULAND

• No Regrets for a Disappointed Doherty

  Larry Joe Doherty didn't win the race, but he made it winnable, which was no small feat

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Precinct 3 Upset

  Dems may have Libertarian to thank for victory

  BY KATHERINE GREGOR

• Travis Bench Is Solid Blue

  Dems pick up another local judicial post, plus another high-court seat

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• Despite Loss, Prop. 2 Makes Its Point

  The amendment lost – but not without sending a message

  BY KATHERINE GREGOR

• AISD

  Voters support pay raise

  BY MICHAEL KING

• Nov. 4 Election Results

"I'm excited because the people are excited!" beamed Karen Huber on election night. In what the Democratic challenger characterized as a victory for the environment, controls on growth, and better transportation planning in southwest Travis County, Huber unseated Republican Gerald Daugherty as Travis County commissioner for Precinct 3 in a three-way race; it's likely Daugherty could have retained his seat if not for Libertarian Wes Benedict, who nabbed 7,088 votes. With all 64 precincts reported, Huber won the seat by a slim but decisive 2,986 votes. That makes the Democrats five-for-five on Travis Co. Commissioner Court seats, including Judge Sam Biscoe.

At the Driskill Hotel party, Huber said that "traffic congestion alone" was enough to explain voter turnout in her favor. Her campaign manager, Mary Ann Neely, said voters had seen the downside of the "totally unregulated growth" favored by Daugherty. Both she and Huber thought the pollution and degradation of Lick Creek, Bee Creek, and Hamilton Pool had served as wake-up calls to voters, raising awareness that a change in county commissioner was necessary to get better water-quality regulations. "And she's really talked about transit seriously," Neely noted.

"If people understood what [future new developments] had already been approved, without adequate transportation planning and infrastructure, they'd be horrified!" said Huber with what was left of her voice late Tuesday night. "We're killing the golden goose if we don't protect the beauty of our natural Hill Country." As commissioner, she said, she's most excited about swiftly crafting new informal land-use agreements (in the absence of county regulatory powers) to protect the precinct, which includes all of Lake Travis and nearly half of Travis County. She also hopes to more broadly use and test existing statutes that give counties power to protect residents' "health, safety, and well-being" as a means of regulatory control. "I don't think elected officials should be held hostage by threats of lawsuits," she noted.

Huber won in early voting with more than 50% of the vote. Daugherty returned serve with an Election Day lead of 52%, but it wasn't enough to maintain the seat he first won in 2002. Daugherty's campaign chair, Mistie Davis, still was not conceding defeat when reached after 11pm, due to conflicts between vote totals reported online and on TV news. In the end, it was Benedict who helped win the race for Huber, capturing just over 5% of the total vote.