Don’t lose the county’s institutional memory
Prior to the holidays, outgoing Harris County Judge Ed Emmett made his farewell remarks at Harris County Commissioners Court — the last before a new Democratic majority took over the body this month. Emmett said he had no regrets but wished he had been able to see through the work he started on addressing mental health services in the county and the infrastructure projects stemming from the bond voters passed in August, one year after the devastating floods from Hurricane Harvey.
On election night the popular Harris County executive, who enjoys positive marks from voters in both parties, said he believed that straight-ticket voting had been the underlying cause of his defeat. Looking at the return numbers from the Harris County Clerk’s office, he is probably right.
More than 76 percent of voters used the straight-ticket option in Harris County. These voters gave Democrats an 11 percent advantage over Republicans, with more than 100,000 voters in the county choosing the Democratic Party over the GOP. Emmett lost to Lina Hidalgo by 1.62 percent overall — fewer than 20,000 votes. Emmett even outperformed Gov. Greg Abbott in Harris County, who was the most popular statewide Republican on the county ballot with 46.39 percent of the vote.
When looking at the portion of voters — slightly more than 20 percent — who did not vote straight ticket but did vote in the Harris County judge race, Emmett won about 3 out of every 5 votes. These numbers should not cast doubt on the outcome of the election but illuminate his popularity among the average voters who did not simply opt to support one party over another. This is in no way a slight at Hidalgo, who received nearly 80,000 more votes than her party alone did in the county.
Starting next week, newly elected County Judge Hidalgo will preside over a Democratic-run commissioners court and has the opportunity to govern a county that contains what will soon be the nation’s third-largest city and a narrow Democratic majority of voters. Politically, Hidalgo would go a long way in building a positive relationship with the voters and other elected officials in Harris County if one of her first acts as county judge was to ask Emmett to play an active role advising and coordinating the ongoing, bipartisan work on mental health and flood control issues with which he has been closely associated.
This move would allow Hidalgo to retain the invaluable institutional knowledge Emmett has accumulated over the years and avoid problematic missteps that often occur during electoral transitions.
We have seen an example of this in our national political system when president George W. Bush recruited his predecessor, Bill Clinton, to team up with this father, George H.W. Bush, to work on specific issues that went beyond party.
It is also well known that many presidents have made phone calls and sought guidance from their predecessors when facing issues in their administration that a voice of experience could help address.
In Texas, our parties have become more divided and the partisans more vitriolic in their hyperbole. Extending a symbolic olive branch would show that Hidalgo, a relative political newcomer, intends to put the people of Harris County over party identities.
It also allows Hidalgo to set an example for other political leaders in the state and nation of the deep truth that political opponents are not enemies; they are just opponents, and we all benefit when leaders can craft and execute policy together. Colby is a professor of government and politics at Lone Star College–Tomball.