Posted on 11/05/2008 6:13:00 AM PST by Paleo Conservative
Texas Democrats were poised to pick up seats in the Texas Legislature, including their first gain in the Senate in a decade, but their dreams of grabbing a majority in the House faded in the wee hours Wednesday.
Veteran Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, was defeated by Democrat Wendy Davis. Democrats also brought down a House committee chairman, Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas. But the Democrats had their share of losses, too, making it difficult to say how many seats each party would have when the dust settled. Two House races remained too close for The Associated Press to call.
Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, a friend of President-elect Barack Obama, was defeated by Republican Todd Hunter, a former legislator making a return to politics. And Democrats failed to keep the largely rural district lying just east of Austin. The open seat fell to Republican Tim Kleinschmidt.
Democrats were hoping to take a majority in the House but that didn't materialize. If current trends hold in the two undeclared contests, Democrats would see a net gain of three seats in the House.
Even a slight change in the House makeup could jeopardize the rule of longtime GOP House Speaker Tom Craddick, who easily won re-election against Midland Democrat Bill Dingus. Craddick has set his sights on winning a fourth term as speaker.
One contender already declared Craddick on the way out in an internal race that won't be officially decided until the Legislature reconvenes in January.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I was very glad to see Juan Garcia lose his reelection for a second term in the Texas legislaure. He is a big friend of Obama's from Harvard Law School. He is a trial lawyer and former Navy and Naval Reserve fighter pilot and has been promoted by DemocRAT heavyweights like Gen. Wesley Clark as an up and coming future leader in the DemocRAT party. DemocRATS had been grooming him to eventually be a candidate for governor or US senator. Overall both sides spend over $1.8 million on this race which is quite a bit for a state legislature race.
I was at Todd Hunter's victory party last night. It was one of the few places for Republicans to be upbeat last night.
Ping!
Hopefully this will help in redistricting....
My guess is he will probably be headed to DC to work in the new Obama Administration.
My mistake. "John's" ads showed an F/A-18 landing on a carrier. People who knew him from the Navy and Naval Reserves say he went by John till he decided to go into politics.
It’ll be two years before we elect the legislature that will do the redistricting.
Well it's a hell of a lot easier to reelect a Republican majority in 2010 than to overthrow a DemocRAT majority. The fact that the McCain/Palin ticket only got 55.5% of the vote in Texas will cause DemocRATS from around the country to pour money into political races in Texas in 2010 to try to swing the state House of Representative to the DemocRATS for the redistricting sessions in 2011.
It will only get worse...slowly. Look at the demographics and the same thing that has happened in California, Nevada and New Mexico will happen in Texas. The democrats know full well what they are doing and the republicans of the Bush/McCain ilk either don’t understand, don’t care or in any case are not going to act on it. They cannot see that the assimilation, if it is happening at all, is happening toward firming up a democrat majority.
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