We had a historic election in Texas: the first Latina, the first lesbian, and the worst voter turnout since President Wilson.

On Tuesday, 415,000 Democrats showed up to vote for governor..."and the smallest number of ballots cast – in the 14 Democratic gubernatorial primary runoffs held since 1920.  That year, 449,000 Democrats voted, according to Texas Election Source's analysis of Texas State Historical Association data."

What happened? The easy answer is that the party was not excited about its choices.  Furthermore, Andrew White did not really campaign or put up much of an effort against a very flawed candidate like Lupe Valdez.

A few days after the election, we learned that Miss Valdez has a tax problem.

This is probably not a major scandal.  After all, many people fall behind on their taxes and settle with the IRS.

Nevertheless, this is not a good headline the first week of the campaign: "Lupe Valdez, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, owes $12,000 in property taxes."

Here are a couple of questions.  Why didn't this come out during the primary or when Miss Valdez announced her candidacy?  Did she get any special treatment, given her position as Dallas Police chief?

Again, I don't think the tax issue will cost her any votes.  However, it won't help her, either, especially when she delivers a populist rant.

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Image: velkr0 via Flickr.