In case you weren't paying attention, although judging by the voter turnout you probably were, Democrats control pretty much everything in Harris County, Texas now.
As it stands they control the office of the County Judge, 3 of the 4 seats on the Commissioner's Court, The District Attorney's Office, The County Clerk, County Attorney, The District Clerk, The Harris County Treasurer (more on that office later), The Tax Assessor-Collector, the Sheriff, most of the Constables, and a solid majority of judgeships on both the Civil and Criminal side of the courts.
In short, Harris County is now the Bluest of the Blue counties in Texas.
Don't believe me?
In most races the Democrats in Harris County outpaced the Republicans by around a 2-1 margin. That means that out of every 100 votes case, 60-70% were Democratic. That means that only around 30-35 out of 100 Harris County Residents cast a Republican vote. That's not a win, that's a Mollywhopping. In football terms the Harris County Republican Party got boat raced in what they used to view as their home stadium. There might still be some Republican opposition to their policy goals but it is going to be isolated, pocketed, and unlikely to have any impact.
Harris County is now the single-party entity that dishonest players on both sides pretend to dislike.
Of course, they don't. Not really.
The Chronicle has been begging for the State of Texas to turn 'Purple' for decades now. But they have never once cried that Harris County is deep, deep blue and not purple. In fact, the only Purple they liked was the sartorial choices of late Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, who had a liking for the color. In fact, what the Chron is most giddy about is that both the County and the State are now politically aligned bringing in a new age of, they hope, increased political spending and funding from the State to the County to allow the Commissioner's Court members to even more greatly reward their political patrons. Watchdog media? Yeah, whatever.
But, and this is the important bit, here is my projection for Harris County after the recent Mid-Term elections.
1. Spending will skyrocket. Harris County is going to ramp up their spending spree to 11 on a scale of 10. there will be almost nothing that is off-limits for them now. They just enacted the largest property tax, to the highest rate, in recent history and now they're hoping to get even more money. Expect them to spend every penny of it.
2. That spending will NOT go to flood control, at least, not in a meaningful manner. If you want to get updated on the depth and breadth of the problems with Harris County Flood Control I encourage you to become a reader of Reduce Flooding Now! and it's author Bob Rehak. Mr. Rehak's website does yeoman's work in detailing the issues with Harris County's flood response to date, and will probably continue that work into the future.
3. With the extra money, expect to see a return of some of Lina Hidalgo's ideas. Remember her early child care tax increase failure? I predict that comes back in some form or fashion. I also expect the district of the remaining Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey to get totally squeezed out of the funding pie. To the victor go the spoils in politics after all, and Tom Ramsey's constituents will continue to be spoiless until they get the message and start voting the correct way.
4. There is one, kind of odd, thing about some of this. As elected officials are making inroads about contemplating further tax increases and greatly expanding public school funding, voters roundly said NO in the same election where they voted in the same people who passed the tax increases in the first place. This leads some credence to the theory that folks in this election were voting more against the Republicans than they were FOR the Democrats. Not all, of course, but a probably not insignificant amount.
5. Will the Office of the County Treasurer ACTUALLY go away? Color me skeptical. While I agree that almost everyone with a pulse and one active brain cell agree that Carla Wyatt should not be elected to any elected office, imagining Texas Democrats mustering up the will to cut government in ANY fashion feels like a stretch. Look, it very well COULD happen, it SHOULD happen, but I'll believe it when I see it. Wyatt's best chance for survival is to cozy up to some deep-pocketed Democratic donor and have them advocate on her behalf.
Out of all of these items one thing is for certain: Harris County Government is most likely about to go on a spending spree. They just got a credit card with no oversight, no media watchdog to speak of, very few spending limits and pretty much free hand to do what they wish, when they wish, with very little chance of being held accountable by an opposition party that no longer exists in any meaningful form. It's a politician's wet-dream come to life.
What you're seeing in Harris County Government now is the closest thing in the State that you will see to the old, machine political system. They have a huge one and it's purring along just as they feel it should with Commissioner Rodney Ellis now firmly in control. They won't have much luck reducing funding for law enforcement, at least, not for another electoral cycle or two as the Democrats try to wrest control of the Texas Senate, the last bastion of Texas Republicans, and get those laws reversed, but they do have a sympathetic Sheriff, DA and judges who will be more than willing to de-facto reform the Criminal Justice system in a manner of their choosing.
All that said, do I think Harris County is going to change all that much? No, I don't. The reason for this is because a lot of the changes they wanted to make have already happened. There will be some new stuff, sure, as laws change and opportunities to enrich political patrons increase sure, they'll take advantage of those. For the rest of their items they'll just continue to push things further. In Districts under Democratic Control, spending will continue to increase despite citizens gaining little from it. In the last District represented by a Republican? Again, if you are on the losing side, politically (and monetarily) you ALWAYS pay the price.
One thing IS certain. In American politics when elections happen and things go either wrong, or right, the electorate has no one to blame except themselves. This is going to be especially true in this situation. IF things go right then the politicians are going to take a victory lap. If things in Harris County go pear-shaped, they're going to scurry around and look for scapegoats, someone who did something that ran counter to their vision of Harris County Nirvana. The truth is that the people who voted them in should take both the credit OR the blame, whatever happens.
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