Posted on 12/09/2013 8:21:16 PM PST by SoConPubbie
At the very last minute, Representative Steve Stockman filed today to run challenge Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas in the 2014 elections.
Stockman, a darling of the grassroots with a penchant for controversial Twitter statements and headline-grabbing comments, is a very, very long shot. But he’s by far the most prominent threat to the senator, who has a number of other less well-known challengers. World Net Daily reported at about 7:30 p.m. today that the congressman would challenge Cornyn. The site says Stockman said he decided to run because he believes Cornyn “undermined Sen. Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare.” More from that article:
WND asked: What makes you think you can beat this entrenched incumbent?
“I don’t know that I can beat him, but I am sure going to try,” he said, adding that he thinks he has a shot because, “In Texas, conservative policies win over stabbing fellow Republicans in the back.”
Stockman will try to ride the wave of voter discontent with Obamacare.
In October, he was already predicting a silver lining to the failed attempt to defund the health-care law, telling WND, “In every loss, there can be a victory.”
Because Stockman filed so late, there aren’t any especially prominent East Texas Republicans running to fill his congressional seat, in southeast Texas’s 36th congressional district. As of 3:56 p.m., only Phil Fitzgerald, a former judge, and John Amdur (the address listed is a Houston P.O. box) have also filed to run for his seat. The surprising move has irked many Texas Republican insiders: One Austin consultant tells National Review Online that he believes Stockman went out of his way to keep his intentions secret from James White, a state representative from the district who probably would have run to fill the seat if he had known about Stockman’s statewide ambitions.
White may just wait for 2016: “No doubt about it, James White will run next year,” the consultant says.
“It’s a disappointment,” he adds, noting that a victorious White would be the only African-American Republican in the House (Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate in 2013 and Allen West lost his reelection in 2012).
UPDATE: Not everyone is disappointed. Matt Hoskins, the executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, tells National Review Online that his group is mulling an endorsement.
“We haven’t decided yet whether we will endorse Steve Stockman, but we’re excited about the potential here,” he e-mails. ”Texas deserves two conservative fighters in the Senate, not just one. John Cornyn has voted to increase the debt, raise taxes, bail out Wall Street banks, and fund Obamacare. He’s part of the problem in Washington and voters deserve an alternative.”
Meanwhile, Cornyn’s office released a statement this evening touting his endorsement from Texas Right to Life.
“Senator Cornyn looks forward to discussing his conservative record with Texans,” said campaign manager Brendan Steinhauser in the statement.
Maybe, but Stockman publicly used the two magic words: IMPEACH OBAMA !
Stockman’s primary opponent in the last election, Stephen Takach, is a very good conservative Christian. Should Takach run again, he will easily beat any Democrat in the District.
Stockman is my Congressman, and I would have been very satisfied with Takach. Stockman was very aggressive in his campaign and it was Takach’s first political contest.
Substantively, there was little difference between the two.
Then I hope he makes this the centerpiece of his campaign. Not the best messenger, but maybe he can get the ball rolling.
Is Takach running?
Stockman will get Michael Berry’s endorsement; that will be enough.
You say he is no Ted Cruz? Well, who else is?
How would I know? Stockman just announced he going for the Senate seat today.
White is Black and is a very popular conservative Republican elected by whites and represents James Byrd, Jr's hometown. Black preachers are not happy, happy, happy.
Steve is 57 and will be 63/64 when his first Senate term is up. That would give him two years to raise money and Campaign to run for POTUS.
Stockman beat his Democrat opponent 71-27%; so the Republican nominee will keep the district safely in the GOP.
Also, Stockman refused to vote for John Boehner as Speaker of the House. What else does a conservative Texan need to know about him?
” - - - Should Takach run again, he will easily beat any Democrat in the District.
- - - “
Sounds like a made-to-order Write-In Campaign to me!
May we call you “Head Writer?”
Was today the last day to file for the election?
Where do you live?
For the time being, I live in Jasper Co.
Surprise. It was the last day of filing. Cornyn doesn’t get off without a serious challenger after all.
I’m sure it set off a mad scramble for Stockman’s safe house seat. Poltics1 lists 6 Republican candidates. And the only rat is the 2012 Libertarian nominee.
Steve Stockman is for real. I haven't followed his political career as closely as I probably should have but still in all, I don't recall ever hearing a discouraging word about him...from anyone that matters. He is my congresscritter; for the second time. The first being some years ago before the union thugs in Jefferson County(where I lived at the time) "fixed" their machines to more accurately reflect the views of the union label. Many things have happened since then; not the least of which was redrawing congressional districts. For now at least, Jefferson County's voting machine shenanigans aren't enough to foil the larger conservative demographic drawn into that district. Which BTW, no longer includes Stockman's district. Breaks my heart, truly... ;^)
Good man, Stockman. Bob
Would someone please tell me why Stockdale is here? Were he still alive, I am sure he wouldn’t know why either! Bob
He can run as a write-in, but his name won’t appear on the primary ballot. Good thing his surname is White and not “Sekula-Gibbs.”
From the article:
“Because Stockman filed so late, there aren’t any especially prominent East Texas Republicans running to fill his congressional seat, in southeast Texas’s 36th congressional district. As of 3:56 p.m., only Phil Fitzgerald, a former judge, and John Amdur (the address listed is a Houston P.O. box) have also filed to run for his seat. The surprising move has irked many Texas Republican insiders: One Austin consultant tells National Review Online that he believes Stockman went out of his way to keep his intentions secret from James White, a state representative from the district who probably would have run to fill the seat if he had known about Stockman’s statewide ambitions.
White may just wait for 2016: “No doubt about it, James White will run next year,” the consultant says.
“It’s a disappointment,” he adds, noting that a victorious White would be the only African-American Republican in the House (Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate in 2013 and Allen West lost his reelection in 2012).”
Sounds like Stockman is like school on Saturday: no class. Keeping his decision not to run reelection secret so that those who ran against him in the 2012 primary and other area Republicans missed the filing deadline, leaving only some unknown guy and a county judge indicted for fraud as the only two Republicans on the ballot? Stockman is one of the rare non-Paulbot who is strongly supported by the Paulistinians—I guess that he’s a fellow traveler of the cult—and this sounds like a Paulistinian tactic to make a Paulbot the default GOP nominee (like what happened with Bentivolio in MI-11 last year).
BTW, while I can understand that Stockman prefered to keep his Senate ambitions secret until the last minute, he could have announced a week ago that he was forgoing reelection so as to allow interested Republicans to file and thus give Republican voters a choice.
So what will happen now? If the filing deadline is final and filing can’t be reopened, I expect that there will be several write-in candidacies. Hopefully the method for writing in a candidate in the primary is less burdensome than it was in TX-22 in 2006 when Tom DeLay dropped out and the GOP was not allowed to replace him in the general-election ballot, so Republicans who wanted to stop RAT Nick Lampson (ironically, the man who defeated Steve Stockman in his 1996 reelection effort) from winning by default had to write in “Shelley Sekula-Gibbs” by spelling out her name on some sort of wheel contraption, and she fell far short.
With several write-in candidates, there likely will be a run-off for the GOP nomination (the indicted judge and the unknown guy would be unlikely to get the 50%+1 needed to win the primary outright), and the top-two finishers would have their names on the ballot for the run-off. Hopefully at least one of the write-ins makes the run-off and Republicans in the district get a real choice.
So, will Representative James White run as a write-in? The consultant’s statement that “no doubt he will run next year” was interpreted by the author of the article to mean that White would wait until 2016 and challenge whoever wins this time, but that diesn’t make sense, since “next year” isn’t 2016, it’s 2014. I think that James White will run as a write-in, with his easy-to-spell name being a plus (or at least not a liability). Others will run as well, and White will have to finish in the top two in the first round and then win the run-off. Tough but doable; so there’s still a chance that there will be a black conservative Republican representing SE Texas in Congress.
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