September 5, 2014
(http://www.quorumreport.com/)
Water infrastructure becomes central issue as Arrington tries to best Rep. Perry on Tuesday or force a runoff
The race to succeed former Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, has gotten somewhat nasty in the closing days before next Tuesday’s special election. The perceived frontrunner, Rep. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, is leading the way in the cash race with Republican former Texas Tech Vice Chancellor Jodey Arrington nipping at his heels and breaking out the long knives over a critical issue in West Texas: Water.
There are six people on the ballot vying to take Duncan’s old seat in the upper chamber of The Legislature, making it unlikely – though not impossible – the race will be settled without a runoff. The Secretary of State’s Office does not have early vote totals available for special elections, they told us, so Quorum Report called around to some of the elections administrators in some of the larger counties across the expansive district to find out how things are progressing.
The pace of early voting has been pretty decent, it seems. The elections office in Lubbock County, for example, told us on Thursday afternoon that more than 11,000 had voted. About a week ago, that number was right around 5,000, meaning there has been a steady trickle of voters either making their way to the polls or casting ballots by mail. About 2,300 of those votes were by mail, by the way. Early voting ends today.
Turnout, according to some observers, could be as high as 40,000 but 30,000 is more realistic. The latter figure would be on par with the first round of voting in the special election earlier this year in Southeast Texas to replace former Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.
In the last week or so, Arrington has been hitting Perry hard for what Arrington’s campaign portrays as Perry’s lack of leadership on water infrastructure for the arid and heavily agricultural region. The accusation is essentially that Perry claims to have led on the issue when, his critics say, he has not.
