Regrets: My fantasy for the night was that John Weems’ superior qualifications for the Railroad Commission would impress enough people for him to beat David Porter, a stealth candidate who knocked Victor Carillo out of the race in the Republican primary. Not even close. Surprise: I didn’t think Republicans could win a legislative seat in Travis County. They almost won 2. Bolton got drubbed. Donna Howard barely won. Neil hardly did anything. I live in that district, I have voted in Republican primaries (though not in 08, when there were no races to speak of), I got one piece of mail from Neil, saw no TV spots, and got no phone calls. Republicans missed a bet here. Intriguing: Eddie Zamora (R) held Cong. Henry Cuellar (D) to 56.23%. Any time a congressman approaches 55%, he is vulnerable. Republican Hispanics did very well overall. Jose Aliseda beat Gonzalez-Toureilles and Ortiz Jr. lost to Raul Torres. Best result of the night: Blake Farenthold beat controversial congressman Solomon Ortiz Sr. I claim to be the first blogger to say Ortiz was in trouble — mucho dissents from commenters. Take that! Thanks to Hugo and other folks in Corpus who kept me informed about this race. Hmmm: Carlos Uresti was reelected to the state Senate with 52.17%. His opponent got only 45.14%, so the race wasn’t really close, but a state senator getting just 52.17% is not a good sign for Uresti. Another way to look at it is that Uresti survived while Ciro Rodriguez was getting his clock cleaned in a congressional district that covered approximately the same territory. Is Austin veering to the right? State senate districts are so big that incumbents almost never lose, but Kirk Watson won his Senate race with a fraction over 60%. No justice: Scandal-ridden members Harper-Brown and Driver won. Neither deserved to win. Readers should feel free to comment about their favorite results. I’m going to put a quota on celebrating Jim Dunnam’s defeat.