VOL 3 No. 45
Phone: 281-980-6745
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2010
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County & Sugar Land
Republicans retain control of county offices
YARD OF THE MONTH. Quail Valley Garden Club has selected the garden of Diane and Sandy Peyton as recipient of the November Yard of the Month. Diane and Sandy have been in their home at 3318 Boca Raton for the past 20 years. They are pictured with a plant provided by Flowers by Adela. Surrounded by beautiful palm and Gem Magnolia trees, the landscape is anchored by the ever-popular Knock-out roses and Carolyn Whorton caladiums as well as purple lantanas and bright yellow and purple pansies. Drive by to enjoy their seasonal color and painted pumpkins or visit http://traction.typepad.com/qvgc/yard-of-the-month.html
IAF donates $10K to Child Advocates
Jim Shaw, left, receives the check from Harish Jajoo.
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor
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Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.
The Indo American Forum of Fort Bend hosted its seventh annual Diwali (Festival of Lights) Gala on Oct. 29 at Safari Texas Ranch. One of the highlight of this evening was the recognition of a very worthy charity- Child Advocates of Fort Bend. Presenting a check for $10,000 to Jim Shaw, VicePresident of CAFB, IAF chairman Harish Jajoo said “We are very pleased to collaborate with a very well known charity organization for a very worthy cause. CAFB is well known to be the voice of abused and neglected children in Fort Bend County. We as Indo-Americans want to help out in this cause in support of the entire community.” Guests included US Rep. Pete Olson, Nancy Olson, and Fort Bend County Commissioners Andy Meyers and James Patterson. IAF is the premier organization in Fort Bend area that represents the growing IndoAmerican community. The focus is to encourage and promote participation in social, cultural and civic affairs to ensure a better future for the next generation of Indo-Americans. For more information, visit www.indoamericanforum.org.
By BARBARA FULENWIDER With the mid-term elections over it appears that folks in Fort Bend County did the same thing citizens across the nation did. They hit the button to elect all officials who were members of their political party of choice. In Fort Bend County, as was expected, Republicans won in every race where there were opposing candidates. Republican Thomas R. Culver III was returned to his job as judge of the 240th Judicial District by a vote of 80,378 to Democrat Fredericka Allen’s 55,341votes. Incumbent Republican Brady G. Elliott coasted back to the 268th Judicial District judge’s job with 80,169 votes to Democrat Albert Hollan’s 55,182 votes. County Judge Bob Hebert ran for re-election as a Republican and won with 81,225 votes to 54,233 for Democrat opponent Rodrigo Carreon. Writein candidate, Chris Meeks got 185 votes.
Republican Bud Childers put Democrat Milton Flick away with 80,154 votes for the job of judge, County Court at Law No. 1. Flick received 55,263 votes. Republican Jeff McMeans got 78,834 votes for judge, County Court at Law No. 2, over Democrat opponent Harrison Gregg Jr., who got 56,754 votes. In the district clerk race, incumbent Republican Annie Rebecca Elliott got 79,192 votes to win over Democrat Veronica Torres, who received 56,267 votes. Republican Dianne Wilson got 81,322 votes to win the county clerk’s job over opponent Democrat Korinthia Miller, who received 54,482 votes. Fort Bend County incumbents who ran unopposed so were returned to office are Family District Judge Ron Pope, District Attorney John Healey, Judge Susan G. Lowery, County Court at Law No. 3; Judge R. H. Sandy Bielstein, County Court at Law No. 4. Also, elected were Pct. 2 County Commissioner Grady
Prestage, Pct. 4 County Commissioner James Patterson, Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace Joel Clouser, Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace Ken Cannata and Pct. 4 Justice of the Peace Jim Richard. In other races, Dist. 26 State Rep. Charlie Howard, (R), Sugar Land retained his seat with 65 percent of the votes, defeating Democrat Philip Andrews who got 33 percent. Joey Rolan, a Libertarian, got 2 percent. In Dist. 27, Ron Reynolds, (D) trounced Libertarian Derek Grayson with 85 percent to 15 percent. In Dist. 28, John Zerwas (R) retained his seat with 72 percent of the votes polled, while his opponent, Wayne Raasch,(D), got 28 percent. Similarly, U.S. Rep. for Dist. 22 Pete Olson and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul for Dist. 14 easily won their respetive races in multiple counties. Incumbent State Senators Glenn Hegar and Joan Huffman were also re-elected.
Fort Bend stays red By SESHADRI KUMAR The Fort Bend County Democratic Party’s desire to turn the county blue miserably fell short on Nov. 2. If the 2008 presidential election gave hope to the local Democrats to stage a comeback, the 2010 midterm elections dashed their hopes. The local party got new leadership in Fort Bend Democratic Party Chairman Steve Brown who sought to reinvigorate the party machinery. He tried to activate grass roots by appointing precinct chairs, which remained vacant forever and he encouraged local clubs. The party opened an election headquarters and hired an executive director. Fort Bend County Democrats also fielded an unprecedented number of candidates to challenge the Republicans. All that is now history. The polling numbers now give a different story. In 2008, about 206,000 people voted. This year, the total turnout was only 140,000. The Barack Obama factor played a distinct role both in 2008 and in 2010, but in oppo-
site ways. In 2008, in Fort Bend 50.3 percent voted straight Democrat and 49.1 voted straight Republican. In 2010, 56.79 percent voted straight Republican and 42.62 percent voted straight Democratic. In 2008, Obama lost in Fort Bend County and John McCain won the county with 51 percent to Obama’s 48.5 percent. This year, Democrats pinned their hopes on Bill White for governor. Again, he lost to Rick Perry in Fort Bend. In Fort Bend, Perry received 51.5 percent and White 47 percent. The gap in straight party votes, where Republicans are 14 percent more than Democrats, appears to be consistent in all countywide races. The Republican incumbents defeated their Democratic challengers by a margin of 15 percent to 20 percent. Another interesting factor is that many candidates who had no Democratic opponent also received nearly 90,000 votes, thus showing that about
40,000 people who did not vote straight party ticket voted for these candidates. For example, District Judge Ron Pope who ran unopposed received 89,731 votes and District Attorney John Healey got 88,627 votes. “We’ve become the ground zero in Texas if Democrats are going to get serious about winning statewide,” Fort Bend Democratic Party Chairman Steve Brown was quoted as saying in an article by Mike Hailey (CapitolInside.com) before the election. Brown writes in the Opinion page that Democrats lost the Congress because Obama failed to communicate. While that assessment may be questionable, locally Fort Bend Democrats certainly need to learn to communicate effectively. Not one Democrat, barring K.P. George who ran for county treasurer, even once sent a press release to this newspaper saying he or she is running for office. They are loathe to get even free press. Maybe they believe it is the duty of the press to promote Democrats.