South Belt candidates buck nationwide Blue Wave
The results from the Nov. 3 election have now been fully tabulated, with some South Belt-area races bucking the Democratic wave that swept across Texas and much of the nation.
While Democrats captured Texas’ top statewide offices and dominated Harris County contests, Republicans held two closely watched legislative seats serving the South Belt area, including one decided by fewer than 1,000 votes.
Republican Dennis Paul won the open Texas Senate District 11 seat over Democrat Shannon Dicely, receiving 174,935 votes to Dicely’s 164,777.
In Texas House District 129, Republican Scott Bowen prevailed by an even narrower margin, defeating Democrat Albert Wittliff 37,491 to 36,659, a difference of just 832 votes. Both races had remained too close to call when the Leader went to press the morning after the election.
The two Republican victories stood in contrast to much of the rest of the ballot, as Democrats scored major gains statewide and continued their dominance in Harris County.
Among the most significant was the open U.S. Senate race, where Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton and Libertarian Ted Brown. The Texas Secretary of State reported 5,444,982 votes for Talarico, compared with 4,249,373 for Paxton and 190,237 for Brown, with 100 percent of polling locations reporting.
Democrats also swept three major statewide offices.
In perhaps the most closely watched of those races, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott. Hinojosa received 5,230,789 votes to Abbott’s 4,524,527. Libertarian Pat Dixon received 148,078 votes.
Democrat Vikki Goodwin defeated Republican incumbent Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, 5,083,581 votes to 4,484,652. Libertarian Anthony Cristo received 170,444 votes, while Green Party candidate Kevin McCormick received 88,033.
The open race for attorney general produced a similar result. Democrat Nathan Johnson received 5,133,629 votes to Republican Mayes Middleton’s 4,502,442.
Libertarian Tom Oxford received 165,550 votes.
New congressional maps
New congressional districts produced mixed results.
For South Belt residents, the election was also the first general election conducted under recently redrawn congressional boundaries. Voters in the area were divided primarily among congressional districts 9, 18 and 36.
Democrats won two of those three races.
In Congressional District 9, Democrat Leticia Gutierrez defeated Republican Alex Mealer, receiving 98,079 votes to Mealer’s 72,340, or approximately 58 percent to 42 percent.
Democrat Christian Menefee won Congressional District 18 by a considerably wider margin. Menefee received 193,144 votes, compared with 31,333 for Republican Ronald Dwayne Whitfield, with 100 percent of polling locations reporting.
Republicans fared better in Congressional District 36, where incumbent Brian Babin won another term. Babin received 138,008 votes to Democrat Rhonda Hart’s 119,681, or approximately 54 percent to 46 percent.
The congressional results, coupled with the two close state legislative contests, produced a mixed picture for the immediate South Belt area despite Democratic gains elsewhere.
Democratic state Rep. Mary Ann Perez easily won re-election in House District 144. Perez received 26,214 votes to Republican David Flores’ 11,077, with all polling locations reporting.
Harris County
The Democratic wave was particularly pronounced in Harris County, where the party won nearly all county and precinct races.
Democrat Letitia Plummer defeated Republican Orlando Sanchez in the race for Harris County judge. Plummer received 816,215 votes, or roughly 61 percent, while Sanchez received 522,866, or 39 percent, with all precincts reporting.
Democratic incumbent Adrian Garcia also easily won re-election as Precinct 2 commissioner, defeating Republican Richard Vega by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
Garcia received 172,739 votes, or 66 percent, compared with 90,817 votes, or 34 percent, for Vega.
Democrat Abbie Kamin won the special election for county attorney, defeating Republican Jacqueline Lucci Smith 823,117 votes to 495,819. The contest was held for the county office previously held by Menefee.
Democratic incumbent County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth defeated Republican Mike Wolfe 831,525 to 495,870, while Democratic incumbent County Treasurer Carla Wyatt defeated Republican Marc Cowart 790,879 to 531,454.
Democrat Darrell Jordan Jr. won the district clerk’s race over Republican Chris Daniel, who previously held the position. Jordan received 803,669 votes to Daniel’s 522,724.
Democratic incumbent Dolores Lozano defeated Republican Jack Ezell in the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2, Place 2 contest. Lozano received 48,894 votes, or 69.4 percent, while Ezell received 21,528, or 30.6 percent.
In another race with South Belt ties, Ericka McCrutcheon – longtime president of the Kirkwood Civic Club – advanced to a Dec. 12 runoff for Harris Central Appraisal District Board of Directors, At-Large Place 3.
McCrutcheon, the Place 3 incumbent and current assistant secretary of the HCAD board, led the three-candidate contest with 387,019 votes, or 43 percent. Jesus Nieto finished second with 278,707 votes, or 31 percent, while Chris Moses received 245,589 votes, or 26 percent. Because no candidate received a majority, McCrutcheon and Nieto will meet in the runoff. Early voting will run from Nov. 30 through Dec. 8, followed by runoff Election Day Saturday, Dec. 12.
Houston Proposition A
Houston voters also overwhelmingly approved Proposition A, the city charter amendment dealing with enforcement of misdemeanor marijuana offenses and no-knock search warrants.
The measure received 422,069 votes in favor, or 71.5 percent, compared with 168,501 opposed, or 28.5 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.
Proposition A amends the Houston City Charter to require the Houston Police Department to make enforcement of Class A and Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession its lowest law-enforcement priority. It also prohibits Houston police officers from requesting or executing no-knock search warrants.
Online county tool promotes health equity
Healthy Communities Framework to study societal factors affecting health
Harris County Public Health has launched a new online tool aimed at advancing health equity by giving residents, community organizations and policymakers a closer look at the conditions affecting health in neighborhoods across the county.
The Healthy Communities Framework brings together neighborhood-level health and social data using maps and visualizations designed to highlight disparities and areas of opportunity. County health officials say the information can be used to help guide programs and services that respond to community needs.
The framework takes a broad approach to defining what makes a community healthy, looking beyond access to doctors and medical treatment to the social, economic and environmental conditions that can influence residents’ well-being.
Harris County Public Health says conditions in people’s neighborhoods, including the air they breathe, the schools their children attend and the jobs available to them, can shape health outcomes. The department developed the tool around the premise that where people live should not determine “how long or how well” they live.
The framework organizes data into the following five areas:
– Population Health & Prevention
– Housing & Economic Conditions
– Neighborhood Environment & Conditions
– Chronic & Behavioral Health
– Social & Community Conditions.
Within those categories are measures involving preventive care, maternal and infant health outcomes, life expectancy, poverty, food insecurity, health insurance coverage, household income and housing stability. Environmental and neighborhood measures include air quality, ozone levels, proximity to parks and hazardous waste, walkability and nonautomotive commuting options. Other areas include chronic health conditions, frequent mental distress, educational attainment and language proficiency.
Taken together, the indicators allow users to examine health alongside some of the conditions that can differ from one community to another.
The Healthy Communities Framework hub displays data at the ZIP Code Tabulation Area level across Harris County and includes an interactive StoryMap and mapping application.
Putting health disparities on the map
A key purpose of the framework is to make differences among communities easier to identify.
Broad health statistics can provide a picture of a population as a whole, but the international model upon which Harris County based its framework emphasizes examining more localized and disaggregated data to identify inequities affecting disadvantaged populations.
The Harris County framework was adapted from the World Health Organization’s Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool, known as Urban HEART.
The WHO developed the model to help local policymakers, program managers and communities identify, analyze and address health inequities in urban areas.
The international program was developed and pilot-tested with cities in multiple countries and combines the assessment of health outcomes with examination of social factors affecting health. Those factors include physical environment and infrastructure, social and human development, economics and governance.
The World Health Organization says it worked with 17 cities in 10 countries during 2008 and 2009 to develop and test Urban HEART. The organization envisioned communities adapting the framework to their own circumstances while retaining its core principles.
One of those principles is collaboration.
The WHO’s Urban HEART manual says tackling health inequities requires coordination among different policy sectors, levels of government and communities. An inclusive approach can also bring together the different sources of data needed to examine health disparities.
Harris County likewise turned to organizations from several sectors in creating its version.
According to Harris County Public Health, development of the framework included a cross-sector steering committee representing academic institutions, healthcare organizations, community-based groups and local government agencies.
The county says the indicators included in the framework were selected based on data availability, reliability and relevance to priorities identified by the community, with an emphasis on making the resulting tool practical and accessible.
For Harris County, however, identifying health inequities is only part of the stated purpose.
The health department says the framework can be used to explore conditions neighborhood by neighborhood, identify disparities and support equitable resource allocation, program planning and policy decisions.
That makes the tool potentially useful to several audiences.
Residents can explore publicly available information about health and other conditions in their communities, while community advocates and policymakers can examine geographic disparities as they consider priorities and decisions. The department explicitly describes the framework as being designed for residents, community advocates and policymakers.
The framework also reflects an approach to public health that puts medical outcomes alongside the conditions in which people live.
A community facing economic hardship or housing instability, for example, can be examined through those measures as well as through data on chronic and behavioral health. Environmental measures can be viewed alongside health measures, while education and other social conditions are incorporated into the broader framework.
That does not mean the tool itself prescribes solutions. Instead, Harris County Public Health presents it as a source of evidence that communities and decision-makers can use in determining where disparities exist and considering how resources, programs and policies should respond.
It is an approach closely tied to health equity, which the county’s framework presents not simply as a question of healthcare access, but as one involving the broader circumstances that can influence people’s health.
And by putting those measures together geographically, the new framework gives residents, community groups and government officials a common source of information for examining those differences.
Harris County Public Health says making such information open and accessible can give communities, advocates and leaders knowledge they can use to pursue healthier and more equitable neighborhoods. Its stated aim is to move the information “from framework to action,” using data to support decisions about resources, programs and policy throughout Harris County.
The Healthy Communities Framework is available through Harris County Public Health’s online HCF Hub at www.healthy-communities-framework-hcpublichealth.hub.arcgis.com.
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