Well, that didn’t last very long. BOR had the scoop last night, and now it’s in the papers: Ciro Rodriguez has abandoned his effort to run in CD23 against Rep. Henry Bonilla and others.
Democrat Ciro Rodriguez told a roomful of San Antonio union activists Wednesday night that he was pulling out of the crowded race in Congressional District 23, according to one of the participants.
The former four-term congressman didn’t offer an explanation to the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, which met to consider an endorsement in the race, said the person, who asked not to be identified. Rodriguez couldn’t be reached for comment late Wednesday night.
His campaign spokeswoman said she was unaware of his announcement, which came a week after Rodriguez filed to run against 14-year incumbent Henry Bonilla and what turned out to be a bevy of other Democrats in the Nov. 7 open election.
Weird. I think PerryVsWorld is correct in pegging this as a problem Ciro had convincing people to fund his effort, and I unfortunately also agree that this makes it somewhat less likely that Bonilla wil be forced into a runoff. One thing that I hadn’t thought of before, though it’s forehead-slappingly obvious now that I’ve seen it in print, is that straight ticket votes won’t count in the special Congressional elections. They’re basically primaries, so with multiple Dems in a race like this, that of course makes sense. That may mean in practice that if you’re in one of these districts and you pick a straight ticket button, you still get presented with the Congressional ballot. Whether that is how it works or not, it’s how it should work.
I don’t know what will happen here now. Lukin Gilliland has the money to compete, but no name ID and not much time to generate it. Albert Uresti has a recognizable name, thanks to his brother, but doesn’t have any money (as far as I know). Rick Bolanos has been running the longest, since he was Bonilla’s original challenger, but he has neither of those things. I still think this district deserves attention from state and national Dems, but as I also thought Ciro was in the best position to take out Bonilla, I’m not as optimistic about things as I was before.