Just sayin' no to the rodeo

The rodeo & fair people could have saved themselves a whole lotta trouble if they had done a simple telephone poll of 100 or so people in Brazoria County before they went and put a $38.5 million bond issue on the ballot to build a new rodeo palace in Angleton.

The telephone poll, which could have been conducted by a 7th grade civics class, would have come up with the same answer the voters came up with on Tuesday.

Now the rodeo & fair people, not to mention the Brazoria County Commissioners Court, look like nincompoops, since voters didn't just say "no" to the proposal ... they said "HELL no."

The final vote was: 20,256 (66.6%) AGAINST and 10,166 (33.4%) FOR.

The big loser in this may be County Judge John Willy. Instead of washing his hands of the whole thing by turning it over to a 31-member Blue Ribbon panel, and then stepping back and saying he wasn't gonna endorse or oppose the bond issue, he looks like an indecisive fence-sitter. He didn't please the Chamber-of-Commerce types who wanted to build a brand new rodeo palace, and he didn't please the taxpayer watchdog types who thought the bond proposal was a ridiculous, over-the-top idea that wasn't right for our beloved but humble Brazoria County.

Now there's no way he'll be re-elected over former Sheriff Joe King, who's jumping back into politics and looks to be the favorite in next spring's Republican primary race for the county judge's spot.

Of course, I could be wrong. If I am, feel free to leave a comment below.