There’d been speculation before that there could be a contested primary in Jon Lindsay’s SD7, and now thanks to Lindsay’s announced retirement, there will be.
Lindsay has been a fixture in local politics, serving eight years in the Senate and 20 years as county judge.
Lindsay, who turns 70 in December, said he announced his decision now to give prospective candidates time to gear up their campaigns.
A number have indicated an interest, as Lindsay has not discouraged months of speculation that he might retire from elective politics.
[…]
Some of the potential candidates are:
•Harris County state Reps. Peggy Hamric, Joe Nixon, Corbin Van Arsdale and Dwayne Bohac
•Term-limited Houston City Councilman Mark Ellis
•Mortgage banker Ben Streusand of Spring, who lost an expensive 2004 GOP primary runoff for the newly drawn 10th Congressional District.
I figured seeing this would make Anne happy. You can add Greg, Stace, and me as well. It’ll probably also make Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill happy, too, since he may finally be able to extract a little retribution against Mark Ellis for his sins of supporting Mayor White.
We all know this is a safe Republican district, and as such the main action will almost certainly be in the GOP primary. That most certainly does not mean that the Dems should let the Republicans fight this one out amongst themselves. This is a rare opportunity, since Senate seats don’t come open very often, and especially if Moldy Joe Nixon is the nominee there’ll be many chances to do some good for Democrats overall, especially for whoever winds up running for Nixon’s State House seat. Finally, as Anne notes in Greg’s comments, there’s a ready-made issue for the Democrat to champion, and that’s reigning in the Harris County Toll Road Authority, which is not only Lindsay’s prized offspring but also a direct threat to SD7’s constituents in Spring thanks to the proposed Grand Parkway extension. People can be remarkably single-issue-focused, especially in local elections, and here the issue is sitting on a silver platter for us. Someone needs to take it and run with it.
I believe Ben Streusand was going to run against Lindsey anyway. I got what sure sounded like a push poll phone call earlier this spring from what I believe was the Streusand camp.
Senate District 7 is one of the most Republican in the entire state. It is the reverse of a Republican challenging Senator Rodney Ellis. To even suggest a Democrat could compete in this district is foolish. It has elected Republican Senators since 1966.
Joe Nixon running for the Senate actually akes winning his House seat hard, if not impossible. A new face with clean hands will be much tougher to beat compared to Nixon.