No New Nameplate for District 97

There's still no resolution on who'll be replacing retired state Rep. Anna Mowery, representing Fort Worth in district 97 for the rest of the interim. In last night's special election, Dan Barrett, the sole Democrat on the ballot, came in with 31.54%, still well shy of the "50 plus one" he needed to avoid a run-off. This means he'll be facing up against Republican Mark Shelton, the eventual runner-up with 22.89%. He emerged from a field of six GOPers, shoving seeming party favorite (and early-vote winner) Bob Leonard back into the pack with 18.63%.

"We made history tonight," said Barrett on his semi-victory. "We are half of the way there and have a long way to go to," he added, a concession to the fact that, on paper, it's still the Republican's seat to lose, since Mowery held the seat for ten sessions. On his website, Shelton gushed that Mowery "served District 97 with steadfast conservatism for 19 years" (even though, in the Heritage Foundation's last 2007 Texas Conservative Report on voting habits, she scraped a 51% conservative rating, below many Dems.) So it could be interesting to see whether it's really that safe a GOP seat, or it was all about loyalty to the incumbent.