The Austin Chronicle has taken notice of the recent developments in the CD31 race between Mary Beth Harrell and John Carter.
It’s unclear exactly what Carter fears from Harrell, unless you buy into his theory a few paragraphs later that “this is not a fair fight. … The national media has a clear agenda to bring down Republicans.” Back in the real world, and discounting the unlikely map-drawing, Carter appears to be in a safe district – he trounced his opponents in 2004 with 65% of the vote, and although both he and Harrell were unopposed in this year’s respective primaries, the 23,438 votes Republicans cast for him tower over the 7,023 Harrell received for the Dem nomination. It would certainly seem that he has violated a basic tenet of campaigning, which is that if one appears headed for an easy election victory, ignore your opponent, lest ye give away free publicity.
Yes, yes, poor baby. I think this race (among others) will provide an interesting test of the redistricting myth hypothesis, since by any objective measure Harrell has provided an infinitely more vigorous challenge to Carter than Jon Porter gave in 2004. If Harrell can take a chunk out of Carter’s margin and maybe give him a good scare, perhaps this will help to force a little rethinking in how Congressional races get targeted around here. Eye on Williamson has more.