Good news for Senate Republicans: With all 211 precincts in, Joan Huffman won the special run-off election in Senate District 17 with 56% of the vote, blowing Democrat Chris Bell out of the water. She’ll finish off the unexpired term left by Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston.

But who is the real winner? Well, not participatory democracy, it seems. Total turn-out slipped from 223,295 in Nov. 4’s six-way special election to 43,535 today. Now while everyone knows that run-offs are terrible for turn-out, consider this: In 2004, there was around double the number of voters for the special run-offs in SD-1 (89,540) and SD-31 (73,196.)

Neither campaign fared well. Bell only got 22% of his Nov. 4 turn-out, while Huffman rustled up 43% of her base.

This article appears in December 12 • 2008.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.