Libertarian Wes Benedict may have helped oust Republican Travis County, Texas commissioner Gerald Daugherty

From an article in the Austin American-Statesman by Marty Toohey:

Partly out of frustration over the lack of progress on roads, Daugherty voted in October 2007 for a controversial toll-road plan that included building express lanes on five roads, among them U.S 183 and Texas 71, and charging tolls on the new lanes.

In a characterization Daugherty disputes, critics said the plan amounted to double taxation because the right-of-way for the toll lanes had been purchased with tax dollars. The night of one vote, Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian Party of Texas , publicly promised retribution against Daugherty, and later decided to run against him in this year’s election.

Daugherty also drew fire from a cadre of residents who opposed several proposed subdivisions, saying they were too large for western Travis County’s ecosystem and limited roads. Daugherty supported those developments, saying that Travis County shouldn’t curtail the free market and didn’t have the power to anyway.

Democrat Huber, one of those critics, ran this year on a platform of more comprehensive growth planning and stricter environmental regulations. Daugherty campaigned as a tax-cutting candidate.

Huber won by 2,956 votes, or about 2 percent.

David Butts, a veteran campaign consultant who worked with Huber, said the victory was possible because western Travis County voters, who had gone solidly Republican for years, now viewed President George W. Bush negatively by a two-to-one margin. Meanwhile, Obama appealed strongly to such suburban voters, Butts said, citing polling data the Huber campaign gathered.

In 2002, about 80,000 people in Daugherty’s precinct voted; in 2008, 139,460 did. Huber’s campaign dovetailed with larger Democratic efforts. “I’d love to think we won it ourselves,” Butts said, “but the truth is it started with Bush and Obama.”

Daugherty agrees that he was swept up in national trends — “the political climate was so elevated that an entire party got thrown out” — but he acknowledges that Benedict running as an anti-toll road Libertarian might have contributed.

Benedict drew 7,103 votes. Both he and Daugherty said there was a good chance that with no Libertarian in the race, those voters would have favored Daugherty, who has a reputation for supporting limited government.

“I said I wanted to kick Gerald Daugherty out of office,” Benedict said, “and I think that’s what I did.”

Daugherty, who carried a similarly combative attitude into his first election, said time in office has rubbed off the sharp edges. He said he’s satisfied that his votes — particularly the toll roads — were the right ones.

On the way out of Threadgill’s, Daugherty said, “Even if I had known then how it would all turn out, I still would have voted for the toll roads.”