I would not call it a good thing to come out of the updated interim maps since there’s a good chance one of these jokers will get elected, but for those of you with a morbid fascination with sideshows, the two Williams non-brothers who have spent the past year or so seeking out an office to run for have once again landed in the same race.
Executive-style hair...
Former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams will join the Republican primary for a congressional seat that stretches 200 miles from the southern edge of Tarrant County to Hays County, south of Austin.
“We’re excited and ready to get going,” Williams told the Tribune Thursday morning, as he was preparing to file with the state GOP.
...versus the Bow Tie of Doom
Williams initially set out to run for U.S. Senate, but switched to a race for Congress after the Legislature drew new maps. But those maps died in court, and the Weatherford Republican ended up in a district, CD-12, with an incumbent — Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth — that he didn’t want to challenge.
Now he’s jumping into CD-25, where the incumbent — Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin — has decided to move into a neighboring district where a Democrat has a better chance. Williams, a car dealer and former Texas Secretary of State, would join a pack of other candidates that includes former Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams (no relation), businessman Dave Garrison, former GOP consultant Chad Wilbanks and several others.
Roger Williams was going to run for CD33 originally, but it was re-drawn as a Democratic seat. No worries, he’s got the money to afford a house and a campaign wherever he wants. R-Dub managed to drop nearly two million bucks on his futile Senate candidacy, with another $425K of his own money for his brief run at CD33. I can’t wait to see how big a check he writes himself for this one. PoliTex has more.
Meanwhile, the Democratic primary in CD23 is on again as former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez made his move to that race, where he will take on State Rep. Pete Gallego for the right to challenge freshman Rep. Quico Canseco. This was the original matchup based on the Lege-drawn maps, then Ciro moved to CD35 when the original interim maps came out and State Rep. Joaquin Castro became Rep. Charlie Gonzalez’s heir apparent. Gallego threw a pre-emptive strike at Ciro a few days ago, but apparently it didn’t work. So this is back on, as if we didn’t have enough contentious primaries to watch.
And the most contentious of them all may be in CD33, not too surprising considering it’s a new strong-Democratic seat in an area that has had precious few opportunities for Democratic Congressional hopefuls. State Rep. Marc Veasey, Fort Worth City Council member Kathleen Hicks, former State Rep. Domingo Garcia, former Dallas City Council member Steve Salazar, who’s being backed by State Rep. Robert Alonzo, who’s a longtime rival of Garcia’s…this one will be manna for junkies, and will undoubtedly leave blood all over the place. And there’s still one more day of filing to go.
It’s funny to see Dallas and Fort Worth fighting over the scraps of a biased Republican Attorney General led redistricting effort. The game was fixed against Hispanics and Blacks from the outset. Some would like to have seen two new Congressional Districts created, but there is no way in hell they (Republicans) were going to let that happen…………..and they didn’t. Instead the Supreme Court approved a super majority Latino District at 66.3%, that is a sure thing for Democrats. You should be thankful that you got as much as you did, it could have been much worse.
Whether or not people want to accept it, Domingo Garcia was involved in a historical process that has produced the very FIRST Hispanic Congressional District in North Texas, ever.
To think that there is a question of whether or not a Hispanic should or can win the seat is absurd. The numbers all match up. If Domingo can generate even modest primary voter growth in the next ten weeks, he will win the primary. FACT.
If it goes to runoff, which it most likely will due to the high number of candidates, there may very well be a voter breakdown based on race. Again, this works in favor of Domingo with little primary voter growth needed to ensure a win….the writing is on the wall, all you have to do is tread it. Dallas-Fort Worth.
Roger Williams is a lightweight…thus I predict he will win. Its the GOP in Texas. That’s the way these things go.
What I find interesting is the amazingly poor job Democrats have done recruiting for congressional races. Democrats failed to field candidates in seven races, including CD25.