Representative Jim Dunnam, the House Democratic Caucus chair, sent this e-mail out recently to Democratic members about Dan Barrett's election yesterday. I thought you might find it enlightening.

Number 71:  State Rep. Dan Barrett (D-Fort Worth)

In case you've missed the morning news, Democrat Dan Barrett of Fort Worth won Tuesday's special election runoff to take Republican Anna Mowery's place in the Texas House. There are now 71 members of the House Democratic Caucus.

To all of you who helped out in the race, thank you. Particular thanks to Rep. Barrett's Democratic colleagues in Tarrant County, Representatives Burnam, Veasey and Pierson. And to everyone in our caucus, please take time to give Dan a call, and welcome him to the Texas House of Representatives and our family.

Looking at some real numbers, House District 97 has been Republican territory for three decades. John Kerry received only 35.8 percent in the district in 2004. Even the strong performance of Moody in the 2006 Supreme Court race was only 43.1 percent. Not one pundit or "expert" predicted anything but a Republican landslide for Mark Shelton, the GOP's nominee.

So what happened?

First and foremost, Rep. Barrett was a great candidate who worked very hard. At the end of the day, a good candidate is the best ingredient for success. Dan won both the early vote and the election-day vote. He was outspent by a wide margin, but his campaign was organized and properly (albeit not lavishly) funded, and his message was right. Dan could not have won without the overwhelming vote of independent voters, and the trends in Dan's district reinforce what we have seen elsewhere in Texas for the last several cycles—Texans are sick and tired of what Republican leaders in the state are doing.

It would be putting blinders on to ignore the impact of Tom Craddick on the Barrett victory.

Craddick was in all the way in the race. Tom's original anointed candidate, Craig Goldman, widely touted his allegiance to Craddick during the race. Goldman ended up coming in fourth in the November special election.

What we know now is that at some point prior to the November vote, Craddick jettisoned Goldman because of real fears that Goldman was not performing well and anointed Mark Shelton as his new, favored candidate. Shelton kept his pledge to Craddick pretty low key, while Craddick quietly turned on the funding spigot for Shelton. Shelton ended up coming in second behind Barrett to advance to the runoff.

Because of campaign filings and the press spotlight, Shelton could not hide his Craddick pledge or his Craddick support in the runoff, and both the pledge and the support became an issue in the race. One of Dan Barrett's mail pieces made the choice very clear, stating "Since Mark Shelton already gave his vote to Craddick, why should you give your vote to Shelton?" Clearly this message resonated with the voters, with Barrett improving his 32 percent in November to over 52 percent last night.

In January 2003, we stood at 62 House Democrats and Craddick predicted there would be up to 98 Republicans within the next several election cycles.

In January 2005, after George W. Bush's last time on a Texas ballot, we improved to 63.

In January 2007, we weighed in at 69 members.

Three months ago, we welcomed Kirk England to our party and stood at 70 members.

Today, thanks to our faith in one another, our commitment to the best interests of our constituents and our working together, we are 71 strong.

Make no mistake, we did not get here by accident—it has been work (hard work)—and it will be a lot more hard work in the months to come.

Last week ended with Tom Craddick clinging on to some supposed victory in Greg Abbott's opinion/non-opinion of Craddick's "absolute power." But something interesting happened—no matter how much politicians might mess things up, the voters can be counted on to right wrongs. Just as Hugo Chavez recently learned from voters that his claim to absolute power might be a bit premature, so too have the voters sent Tom Craddick a message.

What is interesting about the Barrett race? Not only can you win a race by running against Tom Craddick, but it also might be the smartest way to win. Because then, all Texans end up winning.