Election Analysis

David Lancaster
TSA Senior Director of Advocacy

National trends of voter anxiety and anger contributed to surprising results that will shape the 82nd Texas Legislature, which convenes January11, 2011.

The Texas Architects Committee (TAC) contributed $70,500 to 62 different to candidates in 49 House, 10 Senate and three statewide races. Of those, 33 of the House recipients won, as did all 10 Senate and the three statewide candidates. (One House race is still undecided and unofficial this morning.)

The TSA Advocacy Staff summary is, “Since we follow the friendly incumbent rule as a general policy, we know we stand to lose a number of good friends when there are these ‘tsunami elections’ like this one or the 1994 mid-term election. While we hate to see many of these experienced legislators lose, we’re glad to see several former members we’ve worked well with in the past returning, plus we’ll have the chance to make a number of good new friends.”

Of the total dollar amount contributed, $62,500, or 89 percent of the funds, went to successful candidates due to TAC’s decision to support “proven advocates and friends for the profession” with larger contributions.

A more well-researched and detailed summary will be provided after staff has had the opportunity to analyze the results in more depth.