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Huffman gets set to take Senate seat early
  
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By CHARLOTTE AGUILAR
Even though she was the last chosen, District 17 State Senator-elect Joan Huffman won’t have to wait to join another newly picked state legislators to be sworn in.
Once the special election results are certified by the counties, the Texas secretary of state and Gov. Rick Perry, she can take office. Aide Jessica Colon said that could be before 2009 rings in.
“We don’t have any firm plans until we know the date,” said Colon.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett was scheduled to certify results Tuesday.
Former judge and prosecutor Huffman overcame a name recognition deficit and scurrilous charges in the general election to soar past Chris Bell into the State Senate Dec. 16.
Huffman will represent District 17 — which includes southwest Houston and parts of Fort Bend, Galveston, Chambers and Jefferson counties — when the legislature convenes in Austin on Jan. 13. She’s replacing Kyle Janek, who resigned in June.
Huffman pulled 24,431 votes to Bell’s 19,104, a 56 to 43 percent margin.
She carried Harris County by an identical margin.
An ebullient Huffman greeted supporters at a West University Place eatery.
The senator-elect said she’ll stand on the conservative values in which she believes to her core, including heightened border security, which she said is key to making Texas a safe place for children (see accompanying story).
It was shortly after 9 p.m. that Bell faced a crowd of loyalists at a Galleria-area restaurant to tell them he had phoned Huffman to concede — and ended up leaving a lengthy voicemail message.
Only about half of district precincts had reported, but Bell said he and advisers had figured the previous week when they saw the location of heaviest early voting that he might be fighting a losing battle.
Flanked by sons Connally and Atlee and wife Alison, Bell tried alternate to buoy the crowd with humor and inspiration.
“I have been here before, and I know it does not get any easier,” Bell smiled. “We need to stay in the fight.”
He told supporters not to look back or to make excuses, and he told the Examiner Monday he was still holding to that advice.
He said he intended to stay with his lobbyist job but wasn’t sure about other plans. “These losses always seem to spawn different types of opportunities,” he added.
With the victor
Republican candidate Joan Huffman has a new first name and it’s “Senator.”
That quip was one of many congratulatory remarks from elated supporters when the successful candidate for State Senate District 17 claimed victory after a long campaign season.
With her son — who “starred” in a television commercial with his mother during the runoff — beside her to share the moment, Huffman thanked her family, the neighbors who helped care and feed the, and the campaign workers and staff who helped bring her conservative message to voters in the general and runoff election phases.
She said she’s going to be busy “because I made a lot of promises” and she’ll be “working mighty hard for the families of ‘D-17’.”
Early in the evening, Huffman said she was too focused on the night’s count to speculate on which committees she might like to serve.
Later, staff member Jessica Colon said the work starts “now.”
The legislative session begins Jan. 13.
— By Cynthia Lescalleet
clescalleet@hcnonline.com
Once the special election results are certified by the counties, the Texas secretary of state and Gov. Rick Perry, she can take office. Aide Jessica Colon said that could be before 2009 rings in.
“We don’t have any firm plans until we know the date,” said Colon.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett was scheduled to certify results Tuesday.
Former judge and prosecutor Huffman overcame a name recognition deficit and scurrilous charges in the general election to soar past Chris Bell into the State Senate Dec. 16.
Huffman will represent District 17 — which includes southwest Houston and parts of Fort Bend, Galveston, Chambers and Jefferson counties — when the legislature convenes in Austin on Jan. 13. She’s replacing Kyle Janek, who resigned in June.
Huffman pulled 24,431 votes to Bell’s 19,104, a 56 to 43 percent margin.
She carried Harris County by an identical margin.
An ebullient Huffman greeted supporters at a West University Place eatery.
The senator-elect said she’ll stand on the conservative values in which she believes to her core, including heightened border security, which she said is key to making Texas a safe place for children (see accompanying story).
It was shortly after 9 p.m. that Bell faced a crowd of loyalists at a Galleria-area restaurant to tell them he had phoned Huffman to concede — and ended up leaving a lengthy voicemail message.
Only about half of district precincts had reported, but Bell said he and advisers had figured the previous week when they saw the location of heaviest early voting that he might be fighting a losing battle.
Flanked by sons Connally and Atlee and wife Alison, Bell tried alternate to buoy the crowd with humor and inspiration.
“I have been here before, and I know it does not get any easier,” Bell smiled. “We need to stay in the fight.”
He told supporters not to look back or to make excuses, and he told the Examiner Monday he was still holding to that advice.
He said he intended to stay with his lobbyist job but wasn’t sure about other plans. “These losses always seem to spawn different types of opportunities,” he added.
With the victor
Republican candidate Joan Huffman has a new first name and it’s “Senator.”
That quip was one of many congratulatory remarks from elated supporters when the successful candidate for State Senate District 17 claimed victory after a long campaign season.
With her son — who “starred” in a television commercial with his mother during the runoff — beside her to share the moment, Huffman thanked her family, the neighbors who helped care and feed the, and the campaign workers and staff who helped bring her conservative message to voters in the general and runoff election phases.
She said she’s going to be busy “because I made a lot of promises” and she’ll be “working mighty hard for the families of ‘D-17’.”
Early in the evening, Huffman said she was too focused on the night’s count to speculate on which committees she might like to serve.
Later, staff member Jessica Colon said the work starts “now.”
The legislative session begins Jan. 13.
— By Cynthia Lescalleet
clescalleet@hcnonline.com
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