By Eleni Himaras & Charles McClure

The Democratic trend of the historic general election made its way to the local elections facing Lake Travis, giving Republican victories only to U.S. Senator John Cornyn and U.S. Representative Lamar Smith, who ran without a democrat opponent.

Dem. Karen Huber beat incumbent Rep. Gerald Daugherty by just under 3,000 votes, winning 48.53 percent to 46.39 percent in an extremely close vote for Precinct 3 County Commissioner.

“We always knew it would be close,” Huber said. “Our polling always showed we could win by two points and that is what we did. That was before the economy tanked, before Barack Obama won, so that is pretty well the proof in the pudding, from our perspective.

Huber said she seeks a cooperative environment from the various entities that play pivotal roles in Travis County’s Precinct 3.

“My highest priority is to get all the moving parts to working together,” Huber said. “It is essential to get all our regional authorities moving in the right direction, from the Lower Colorado River Authority to the Municipal Water Districts. We need to get in front of the game. We can’t just be interested mobility and water planning in a vacuum.”

Huber said she will be looking to all segments of the precinct for input.

“We need to work with the private sector too,” Huber asserted. “I think it is essential that we work from a collaborative approach. I am a believer in the people and I have been working for the people for years in the most constructive way I know how. We really have challenges facing us. I am not coming in with all the answers so I am a big believer in stakeholder participation.”

Huber credited her husband Leonard for being supportive throughout the elective process.

“He has been my rock,” Huber said. “He has been there in a big way for me through this entire campaign.”

The Hubers have four grown children.

“It will be a challenging run,” Huber said.

She will take the oath of office in January.

Incumbent District 47 State Senator Valinda Bolton also eked past her Republican opponent by a margin of 2.42 percent, winning 51.21 percent to 48.79 percent. Her lead narrowed from the 5.92 percent gap she had after early voting, but she still calls it a solid victory.

In both races, the winning candidates took the early voting totals. Election day results actually favored both losing candidates but they were not enough to sway the final results.

It was that early voting that kept Bolton confident throughout election night despite a tightening margin.

“I knew we had a good, strong lead coming out of early vote and we had 64 percent of registered voters had voted during early vote, it looked really good,” she said.

She believes her dedication to financial issues is what moved voters to elect her to a second term.

“We’ve been talking issues that, really resonate with voters — real pocket book issues impacting real families every day,” Bolton said.

Residents once again voted to approve Emergency Services District Six Proposition 1, to give Lake Travis Fire and Rescue one percent of the sales tax to fund additional firefighters, emergency medical personnel, new equipment and infrastructure. The measure passed by a reasonably large margin — 54.39 percent of the vote to 45.61 percent.

Last time this measure was approved by voters, it was blocked by a City of Lakeway vote that nullified the proposal by approving a half-cent sales tax cut for property tax relief.

The only city that will be affected by this decision will be the Hills of Lakeway, along with unincorporated areas.

“Fire and EMS calls in ESD 6 have increased by 25 percent since 2005, and the total number of calls responded to have increased by 41 percent,” said ESD 6 Fire Chief Jim Linardos.

ESD 6 officials believe the tax revenues will make a big difference for the department.

“We intend to cut response time and improve service by implementing the District’s five-year ‘Operations Master Plan’ which was completed in October 2007 by a nationally recognized team of experts in fire and emergency strategic planning,” said ESD 6 commissioner Debbie Tanner Jacobs.  “The recommendations identified critical needs in excess of $7 million in the district.”

According to ESD 6, the one cent sales tax will account for $780,000 in new annual revenues.

Both incumbent U.S. House Representatives with a local constituency handily won their races last night. Republican Lamar Smith beat his libertarian opponent, James Arthur Strohm 70.17 percent to 29.83 percent, a 40.34 percent margin. Democrat Lloyd Doggett beat his republican opponent, George L. Morovich by an even larger margin 73.84 to 21.97, a 51.87 percent margin. Libertarian Jim Stutsman took 4.18 percent of the total vote of 172,189 Travis County residents.

These largely Democrat victories came amidst the news that Illinois Sen. Obama defeated Arizona Sen. John McCain in a landslide election that made him the first black president-elect of the U.S.