Strange Facts
Last week we noted that Carrie Isaac is trying to win back her husband’s seat from Erin Zwiener in what we called a rematch-ish of the last state rep race. Really bad choice of words. Isaac, a Republican proud to be part of the conservative right, is indeed trying to win back her husband’s old seat from Zwiener. But to clarify, Zwiener, a Democrat, didn’t actually beat State Rep. Jason Isaac (Carrie’s husband) two years ago.
Jason Isaac resigned his seat to run for Congress. (He didn’t make it.) Ken Strange, a popular Wimberley school board member and EMS director from Wimberley won the Republican nomination and was favored to win the seat – until Zwiener, a newcomer to local politics, upset him. Carrie won a bruising Republican primary to become the nominee this year – forced to a runoff, but winning that comfortably. We corrected the story in online editions. Sorry for the confusion. One of the marbles was loose in the pre-frontal cortex.
A Taxing Race
Daphne Tenorio married into a legendary Kyle political family. Her husband, Willie Tenorio, Jr., is a Hays school board member. His uncles – Sam and Blas – broke barriers as Mexican-Americans elected to the Kyle City Council, and his cousins, and others in the family, have been influential in local and regional politics.
Daphne Tenorio has served on the Kyle City Council, where she made a name for herself both for doing her homework and for a certain mercurial combativeness and independence. Now she’s running as a Democrat for tax assessor collector. Her opponent, Jenifer O’Kane, took a much different route to what is typically a relatively low-profile and even somewhat stodgy job: she was a clerk to the former tax assessor, Luanne Caraway.
Educate Thyself
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, try again? If you think education is in part about learning perseverance, then you’re bound to like RBM – that’s Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Texas State University educator so fed up with ideologues at the State Board of Education that she’s making her FOURTH run for a seat on the board, representing a whole swath of Central Texas counties. This may be her best chance yet in what’s considered a close race against Republican Lani Popp and Libertarian Stephanie Berlin.
Deep in the Zelhart of Texas
In County Court-at-Law No. 3, incumbent Judge Tacie Zelhart, a Republican appointed to the seat in 2019, faces Democrat Millie Thompson, an attorney in private practice. In her short time on the bench, Zelhart has started the county’s first mental health specialty court and pledges to continue to implement specialty courts and diversion programs aimed at reducing jail recidivism and guiding individuals out of the criminal justice system.
