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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Biggest winner in Saturday elections: Once again, low turnout


No surprises in the groundwater district board race. Going in, the bets were on Ed Pope for District 4, and Greg Nesbitt from the northern Dripping Springs District 2


Note: Go to this link on the Hays County website for all of Saturday's election results: http://www.co.hays.tx.us/index.php/government/elections-and-voting/election-results/

Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the story

Saturday's
local city council elections and for two spots on the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Board of Directors produced no real surprises and one very narrow upset in Buda: Incumbent Mayor Bobby Lane was defeated by Sarah Mangham by eight votes, 188 to 180. Lucy Johnson won re-election as Kyle Mayor, beating challenger Graham Mendel 514 votes to 215. Kyle had a slew of propositions on the ballot, most of which passed by large margins,
including one addressing debt management and another setting council member term limits.

The one exceptional footnote in Saturday's local election results was, once again, the dismally low turnout of voters. The grand total average turnout of registered voters across the county (about 52,000) eligible to vote in the city council and school board elections in San Marcos and Drippings Springs, to Buda, Kyle, Wimberley and to the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Board of Directors (two seats) was . . . 7.54 percent, about 4,000 voters. The exceptions were turnouts in the groundwater district races and a few council races that attracted about 25 percent. About 17% of registered voters participated in the District 4 (Pope-Banks race) and about 12% in the District 2 (Nesbitt-Janda race).

This is nothing to be proud of, and, the winners certainly cannot assume their offices thinking they have won any kind of "mandate" from the people. What is clear is that some of the winners have won a mandate only for their personal political and business agendas.

In the Wimberley city council race, Place 1, Tom Talcott bested Cynthia Marion, 283 votes to 212. A 24 percent turnout, not too shabby. Make a note that it will be almost impossible for Talcott to solve the city's financial problems by taking sales tax money from the Wimberley Village Library – a strawman issue raised by some in the final days of the campaign.
Meeks/Statesman
In Place 3 (24 percent turnout), Wimberley High School grad Matt Meeks edged out Scott Johnson 258 to 241. Both are members of families with a long history in the Wimberley Valley. Guess we now know which family rules.

No surprises in the groundwater district board race. Going in, the bets were on Ed Pope for District 4, and Greg Nesbitt from the northern Dripping Springs District 2. From the looks of it, Pope, and this particular race, was among the highest vote-getters in the county in Saturday's election. Pope easily outdid challenger Erin Banks, 460 to 358. Nesbitt won his bid for re-election over newcomer Steve Janda, 307 to 187. Bottom line, we are not expecting any change in the control and policy directions on the groundwater district's 5-member board. Important groundwater management votes on policy and permitting will continue to be controlled by the 3-member voting block (Skipton, Key and Nesbitt) representing the northern portion of the District.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention the reason for the higher turnout for the HTGCD Dist. 4 race was from the huge Gay and Lesbian turnout for from Wimberley for Ed Pope.

Anonymous said...

By "policy", I assumed the editor is talking about the current board's policy of recognizing individual property rights. Let's sure hope they continue to protect individual rights instead of trying to turn everyone else's property into "people free zones" as CARD and WVWA have been trying to do.

We'll have to see how the substitution of a CARD member for a WVWA member goes for the board. It's hard to imagine worse than all the stunts engaged in by the WVWA while on the HTGCD board. Good bye David Baker!

Dumb Hetero Basher said...

Anonymous of May 15, 4:17 PM forgot to mention that the meager vote count for Erin Banks was due to the small number of brain damaged voters from the group home who actually got out to vote for her.

Anonymous said...

This election was quite interesting because it no longer allows those citizens who complain before the HTGCD Board to claim the board members need to be more educated when those citizens voted for ed pope over the far more educated and qualified Erin Banks

Rocky said...

The mean spirited gay references and the name calling - whether left or right - gets citizens and voters nowhere.

This is what the worthless politicians at the state and federal level want us to do so they can pilfer our taxes and get us to ignore their lies and their political betrayals.

Stop this bad loser/tit for tat foolishness and let's start to solve the problems like water shortages and bad low paying jobs.

Acting like ignorant chumps makes you be one.

IC_deLight said...

Deal the CARD (one too many for the House of CARDs) said:

Anonymous of May 15, 8:07 PM thinks "property rights" means they can do what they want no matter what the consequences are on neighbors and the community at large.

CARD tends to promote the ill-conceived theory that their members are entitled to special privileges. CARD and WVWA both try to wrap themselves in the flag of "community". "Community" is a meaningless abstract concept. Perhaps the aforementioned Anonymous is pointing out that other property owners have the same property rights as "the people that are here now".

Such irresponsible idiocy is the new right wing conservative mantra. These people are the real underlying economic and cultural disease America faces as we try to solve our problems.

The idiocy is exhibited "groupthink" and the use of illegitimate "stakeholders" instead of property owners.

These social misfits are so angry they no longer have any respect for the rule of law or a respect for community values.

Your version of community values starts with defining "the community" as consisting only of people that have the same belief you do. Anyone else is deemed to be a misfit from your "community". This trait is commonly exhibited by those with racist, religious, or other such intolerances. "Community" is not a legal entity nor a party to a lawsuit.

I suppose we are all (except the misfits you define) expected to bow to your superior intelligence and ability to recognize, understand, and articulate the "community values", right?

"Community values" are not a collective value but rather the diverse values of each of the individuals in the area. You do not represent anyone other than yourself.

You have misidentified the nonbelievers regarding the "rule of law". CARD and WVWA and the follower/member/advisers of these groups don't seem to want to operate within the law.

For example, one must meet deadlines to request a contested case. One must have "standing" to make the request. Folks associated with these groups simply don't believe that the deadlines or the legal requirement of standing should apply to them while they expect to be able to dictate what others can do with their own property. A very elitist attitude indeed. When these groups can't have their way (with everyone else's property), they resort to less scrupulous tactics.

Residents of the district absolutely look forward to watching CARD, WVWA, and the followers make good on their attorney's not-so-thinly veiled threats to sue the HTGCD. Discovery should prove to be fun - especially the depositions. Then they can all be tossed out on their ear for lack of standing to file/maintain suit to begin with. The "rule of law" is more than capable of dispensing with these folks and their meritless claims.

Anonymous said...

You have to hand it to the Gays and Lesbians, they stick together and can really mobilize their tribe. If only the straight people would wake up, they would easily be able to overpower them at the polls and elsewhere.

The G&L are a minority yet they can pull together to win an election regardless of the unworthiness of their candidate. I'm surprised that none of the "tribe" is exclaiming a "historic election".

There is a lesson here for the normal straight majority that is supposed to rule. The conservatives that stayed home are really the ones that elected Pope. Next time vote!

Right is Right said...

Though the defeat of Erin Banks by Pope and crew was a real disappointment, the lefty no-growth gang really lost. Baker, Hollon, McMeans, Caldwell and the like were unable to pull off a coup d'état but they sure tried with every lie they could think up. Greg Nesbitt won by a wide margin over the Karen Ford sponsored, Steve Janda. Jim McMeans called the previous HTGCD election a "Hostile Takeover" and he and his mental munchkins tried to pull off a coup with lies and stealth candidates Pope and Janda. They were only partially successful (less than 50%) with the election of Pope. Seeing an end to Bakers long winded rambling diatribes at Board meetings was worth it all. Pope will be nowhere near as obnoxious as David Baker's constant rants about Jacob's Well and the associated lies and myths he told about the wet cave.

Spin it anyway you want but there is still a conservative majority on the HTGCD Board, get used to it.

Anonymous said...

You dilute the percentages by including the entire voting numbers in all of Hays County - and many of those people could never have voted in any of these races. They live outside the area in which the vote took place.

Rocky Boschert said...

Well, so much for reason, civility and intelligence with this group.

Welcome to Hate Central.

Somepeople need to look up the word "shameful" in the dictionary.

Anonymous said...

Don't reply to the hatemongers and fearmongers. Don't take the bait. It just encourages them.

Let them rattle around and scream at each other in their self-inflicted cage of hate and fear.

Anonymous said...

Have you no shame Senator?

jwigginsburns said...

I don't even know where to start. Gay and Lesbian versus the "normal, straight majority that is supposed to rule"? Can anyone say bigot?

Anonymous said...

Okay, so while we were there LATE on Saturday afternoon, we voted behind a couple of ladies who had MOVED out of District 4 and were UPSET that they COULDN'T VOTE!!!

What kind of scam was actually pulled on Saturday at the elections office? Did these two get turned away because there were witnesses? This is a repeat of the whole Andrew Backus affair where voters from other counties were showing up to vote just because they were liberals and the rules don't apparently apply to them.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jim: if Jernigan and CARD steering member Pope plan to vote as an obstructionist bloc, it's going to be 3-to-2, you still lose.

CARD and WVWA feared the possibility of a candidate with a professional engineering license and considerable experience in water availability matters, subdivision platting, etc. being elected to the board. These fringe groups prefer superstition, fear, and doubt as opposed to science, logic, or rule of law.

Thank you candidate Erin Banks for conducting a positive campaign despite the mean-spirited and false propaganda put out by Jim McMeans and his House of CARDs. Sooner or later these fringe groups will have to deal with science, property rights, and logic.

Anonymous said...

To Anon May 16, 3:16 PM:

"Have you no shame, Senator?"

Love it! However, I'm sure your
allusion is lost on the hatemongers. They didn't read or watch "Angels in America." Or read
American history past the Civil War, as witness Clint Frankmann's Confederate-flag-bedecked pickup
parked outside the Woodcreek voting place all day every day. Looks like Erin Banks, who was
there to see it much of the time, would have asked Clint to take it down. Most of us aren't interested
in going back to those days almost150 years ago.

Anonymous said...

The Hate Crowd is fussy because they were so sure that their waving of Confederate flags and rebel yells, their lies about "new water taxes" and "metered home wells," and their extolling of a non-existent rainwater collection subdivision would motivate the fearful to vote for Erin Banks.

I am so proud of District 4 (mostly Wimberley) for not being taken in by The Dark Side and for voting for Ed Pope instead.

Let the sore losers whine a bit
longer. Don't pay any attention
to their jibes accusing Wimberley
of loving "Gays and Lesbians"; we
DO love them -- and any other good
citizens of any color or creed.

Anonymous said...

Only an ignorant liberal would think there is anything wrong with displaying the Confederate Battle Flag. Many of our ancestors fought under that flag and if you think something is wrong with it you are just a fool. The Confederate flag flew over Texas for a time. I'd be willing to bet that some liberals would love to outlaw it just like they would take away other rights of the people for the "Community". It is called Communism.

Anonymous said...

"Thank you candidate Erin Banks for conducting a positive campaign."

Do you mean the sore loser homophobia implied hate comments posted in this blog?

These comments coming from supporters of Erin Banks certainly makes me think the right person won the position.

Ms. Banks, who has a consulting engineering business in Wimberley, should write to the blog personally to disassociate herself from the hate being spewed by her supporters.

If she does not, her business should be boycotted and the Wimberley community should refuse to associate with her.

It is up to you, Ms. Banks.

Anonymous said...

To Anon, May 16, 10:13 PM:

Just what statement are you intending to make when you wave the Confederate flag? Why do you choose to wave that particular one?

Is it because you're proud to be a Texan? Then wave our Texas flag. That you're proud to be an American? Then wave the U.S. flag. When you wave the Stars and Bars, you seem to be saying, "Take me back to the good old days of slavery!"

(And, no, I'm not a Yankee. I'm a
white Texan, for several generations back. I have at least one great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War on the Southern side.)

Homo No Mo said...

As regards all these homophobic ramblings:

"Gays and Lesbians" were responsible for Ed Pope winning the election?

Just how many of your neighbors do you think are gay or lesbian?

Really, now, a "new voting bloc of gay and lesbian voters in Wimberley and Woodcreek" is the funniest thing I have heard in a long, long time.

If only this were true maybe they could outvote the knuckle-draggers who keep voting in their ilk.

Keep the jokes rolling in.

Anonymous said...

I'd be willing to bet that some liberals would love to outlaw it just like they would take away other rights of the people for the "Community".

Another example of extreme, neurotic paranoia. Please... get medical help! I'm not joking... These are classic schizophrenic symptoms!

I'm grateful to that odd man who had this flag on his car! I am positive it helped us to win the election!

Thanks, buddy!

Anonymous said...

When the Pope campaign struck the fist of their negative blows via a mail-out claiming that Erin Banks was "backed by the real estate development company" and "Aqua Texas", Ms. Banks, knowing that was a lie refused to go negative and lower herself to the level of her opponents. The claim is completely false and they knew it. I would challenge anyone including Ed Pope to show proof of that vicious lie.

That mail-out entitled, "Aqua Texas might as well be on the Ballot", was a preposterous creation variously credited to, a former City Council person from Woodcreek or the long time political prevaricator and head of a no-growth group. That guilt buy association attack was a lie and a cheap slam against a clean run campaign. It was very effective however, since they knew that everybody in Woodcreek I & II are known to hate ATI. The Woodcreeks has just run a City and WPOA sponsored survey asking the Woodcreek I & II citizens what they thought of ATI with scathing results. The reported creator of the title, when asked about it, is claimed to have said, "It worked didn't it?"

Jack Hollon (WVWA) timed his collection of lies to the "letters to the editor" for May 11, allowing no time for a response in the local paper before election day. Hollon was also known to be the main preparer of Pope for his debate appearances. We are still waiting for Pope to explain his dance aground the question about support for SB 1901 where he said, "it may have unintended consequences"; what the hell did that mean? He later said he was against it but he also claimed to be an "Independent" and "as conservative as anyone" at that time. LOL

I have to give the Pope handlers and puppeteers credit for a very effective although very dirty Campaign. Last Laugh: There is still a conservative 3:2 majority on the HTGCD Board, not even counting the claimed, Born Again Conservative, Ed Pope. That coupled with the absence of David Baker is a win for our side.

Fag Hag said...

One Anonymous said:

"Ms. Banks, knowing that was a lie refused to go negative and lower herself to the level of her opponents. The claim is completely false and they knew it. I would challenge anyone including Ed Pope to show proof of that vicious lie."

Ok, since she has not shown the personal integrity to come out strongly against the innuendo gay bashing, or the angry Confederate historical revisionism lovefest, does that mean she is s victim of such redneck stupidity? Where is her integrity in all this? Let us hear from her directly.

And are not most of her clients developers? If not, have her post a list of her consulting clients for the past five years to prove the claim wrong.

Banks Supporter said...

@ Fag Hag,

Mrs. Banks has no intention nor obligation to respond to any unfounded personal attacks on this Blog from any of her detractors. The facts are out there if you care to look at them. You will probably prefer to keep throwing ridiculously absurd and unfounded attacks at her . Your attacks probably make you feel better since your team won nothing in the election. Talk about a "Sore Winners". No matter how loudly you scream or beat your drum you will still be a loser. You are a minority and will always be so.

Better Luck Next Time. You'll need it because we now know who and what we are up against. Next time we won't be so nice. After all of this, Wimberley will probably suffer as destination to move to and raise a family or maybe even visit.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous May 16, 2011 11:42 PM said...

Ms. Banks, who has a consulting engineering business in Wimberley, should write to the blog personally to disassociate herself from the hate being spewed by her supporters.

If she does not, her business should be boycotted and the Wimberley community should refuse to associate with her.


Ms. Banks isn't responsible for anyone's statements but her own.

By your own admission, the claimed statements were not made by Erin Banks - as to whether they were made by a supporter, who knows? Maybe they were made by someone that just didn't like Ed Pope.

Ms. Banks ran a clean campaign and did not stoop to the outright lies (e.g., falsely associating opponents with AquaTex or WSP) that were typical of Pope's campaign. Hopefully Pope will not just be another ne'er-do-well like David Baker. Pope's campaign and affiliation with CARD suggest otherwise at the moment.

As for efforts for trying to harm the livelihood of Ms. Banks, I would make three observations:

1) Folks like Ms. Banks pay taxes. When you put taxpaying residents out of business, who do you expect to get money from to spend on the alleged nonprofit organizations in the area?

2) You exhibited the danger of placing abstract concepts like "community" over the individual.

3) Anyone touring Wimberley can tell that the entire area suffers from serious infrastructure issues. Obviously you weren't utilizing Ms. Banks or any other professional engineering firm to begin with. Your boycott suggestion is good only to illustrate what a poor "winner" you are.

Anonymous said...

In my case, the have you no shame came from my life, not the film. RIP Mr. Murrow

Anonymous said...

How do you know that both of Wimberley's gay residents voted for Pope?

Anon May 16, 5:12 PM said...

To Anon, May 17, 2:19 PM:

If Edward R. Murrow said, "Have you no shame, Senator?" (and it certainly sounds like Murrow), then he was paraphrasing Joseph
Welch. Welch actually said," Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" to Sen. Joe McCarthy on June 9, 1954, in the McCarthy-Army hearings before U.S. Senate.
Through the years the quotation has
changed to the shorter "Have you no
shame, Senator?"

Welch was quoted (correctly) in the play and film "Angels in America."

Rocky Boschert said...

Banks Supporter said:

"After all of this, Wimberley will probably suffer as destination to move to and raise a family or maybe even visit."

I agree. With all of the implied gay bashing and the contentiousness displayed by all in this article's comment section, I would seriously question moving to this community - or even staying here after almost 20 years in Wimberley.

Oh yes, my wife and I are straight, in case some of you want to accuse me of being gay.

Get a life, people.

More importantly, we citizens should never rely on any elected person, or advisory/regulatory body to solve our problems. We should have enough experience to know the futility of that hope.

Regarding our water planning, it it much wiser and intelligent to 1) institute smart and rigorous water conservation strategies, 2) install rainwater collection systems, and 3) reject through boycotts any developers or real estate interests who are clearly irresponsible or insensitive to our water supply by not buying any homes in those subdivisions and make sure the local real estate agents know you and your group(s) are determined and organized to create economic pain to those who do not act responsibly toward our water.

However, it makes no sense to "boycott" individual businesses (like one commentor recommended for Erin Bank's consulting business), as that is not the problem nor will it solve our future water shortages.

As I have stated consistently since writing for this blog, citizens need to quit relying on elections to solve your problems. It is ineffective and futile. Your consumption and economic choices are much more empowering and ultimately effective. Just look at reality.

Finally, simply MOVE, if all else fails. Who would want to live here anyway if we don't have enough water to live normally?

And those locals who don't care about our water can stay and live here and enjoy the northern Chihuahua desert.

Anonymous said...

Bob Ochoa said... , "Important groundwater management votes on policy and permitting will continue to be controlled by the 3-member voting block (Skipton, Key and Nesbitt) representing the northern portion of the District."

Bob, if you would start attending the meetings again instead of just believing the left wing propaganda, your reporting might approach these subjects with a bit more objectiveness. Why have you never described the 2-member voting Block of Baker and Jernigan as such?

I don't know if I would describe this as a turnaround on the board, but in the last meeting on the 19th (with Ed Pope included) there was not a single 3-2 vote and once there was even a 4-1 vote with Skipton being the "1". It is normal and expected for members that share a particular ideology to vote alike on issues that are obviously split along those lines. There is nothing sinister about that as you seem to infer.

This voting block thing was a creation of the left to discredit the 3 conservative board members as mindless robots. It cuts both way Bob, if it were true, then Baker and Jernigan were mind numb robots for the leftists. This is probably a small point, but it is indicative of you receiving your information second hand.

I have always appreciated the fairness of your coverage, if not your selection of topics or writers. I hope you will begin attending and reporting on the HTGCD meetings "first hand" as you did in the past.

Whose best interests? said...

Since when did wanting plentiful, clean water equate with being a "leftist"?

And to the last poster, the word is "bloc", not "block".

Mind numb?

That would be Greg Nesbitt.

Anonymous said...

@ Who's... Sorry about the spelling. I am a product of our Public (Government) schools and our over priced liberal University System. Why would you expect a good speller from those sorry beginnings? Block or Bloc, you knew what it meant, Jerk.

Anonymous said...

Do you mean Greg "I got 62% of the vote" Nesbitt. Mind numb?? Greg owns you hippies.

Hey Susan who's your daddy? That would be Greg.