We’re back at full strength in the Senate.
Sen. Jose Menendez
José Menéndez became San Antonio’s newest state senator in a ceremony Monday that featured the Alamo City Democrat taking the oath of office and urging his new colleagues in the upper chamber to chart a bipartisan course regardless of what “political price may come.”
In a 10-minute address to a packed Senate chamber, Menéndez waxed personal at times, reflecting on his experience growing up as a child born to two immigrants and who started kindergarten without knowing how to speak English.
But the thrust of his messaging revolved around the idea of lawmakers from both parties coming together to improve the state.
“I’m here to say that I’m ready to work with each and every one of you,” said Menéndez, who was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia. “I rarely care or worry about what’s your party politics what I worry about and care about is what’s in your heart.”
He later added: “It is our duty as elected officials not only to defend the Constitution … we have to be there to make the tough decisions for the right reason. Sometimes it’s easier for us to make votes that are politically correct, to say things that are politically correct. And that’s why sometimes I think people loose faith in what we do.”
PDiddie notes that the kerfuffle over how Menendez won is still active, with Menendez’s opponent, Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer penning a piece in the Quorum Report laying out the argument about Republican voters affecting the outcome. I’ve said my piece on that. and don’t plan to say any more. We will literally never see an election like that again, and I see no reason to dwell on it.
Of greater interest to me is that we now have a date for what should really, truly be the last special election of this cycle, in HD124, which has now been vacated by Sen. Menendez. It’s been set for March 31, with early voting from the 23rd to the 27th. As expected with such a short turnaround time, candidates have begun to emerge.
Delicia Herrera won’t have to crash at a friend’s pad during this election cycle.
Herrera, a former two-term councilwoman, is one of four declared candidates for the District 124 Texas House seat that opened up two weeks ago when the district’s long-time representative, José Menéndez, won a special-election runoff for the Texas Senate. Herrera was one of the jubilant supporters who stood by Menéndez’s side at his victory party on February 17.
Three years ago, Herrera had her eye on a legislative seat, but encountered a slight inconvenience.
Her home at SW 39th Street was located in District 124, but that legislative seat was occupied by Menéndez, an incumbent who already had nearly a decade under his belt and showed no signs of political vulnerability. But Herrera’s home was just outside the boundary line for District 125, and that West Side seat had opened up, because Joaquin Castro was stepping down to run for Congress.
So Herrera claimed the Northwest Side home of her former campaign treasurer — about nine miles north of her own house — as her residence, even as she admitted to the San Antonio Express-News that she continued to receive her mail and keep her dogs and “stuff” at the 39th Street house.
[…]
Ina Minjarez, 39, a local attorney who spent the first six years of her legal career working as a prosecutor, has made two bids for the County Court at Law No. 5 bench.
Nathan Alonzo, 52, is the lone declared candidate who has yet to appear on an election ballot, but he’s a familiar name to local politicos.
The legislative director for the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, Alonzo can make the case that his years of lobbying have given him the deepest understanding of the state legislative process of any candidate in the race.
I’ll be very interested to hear more about these candidates. If any locals want to chime in on them, please do so. The Rivard Report has more.
There is nothing remarkable about the circumstance that in an open primary run-off between two Democrats, Republican voters may participate and shift the result in favor of the more conservative. When Garnet Coleman won a special election over Jew Don Boney about 1990, the small GOP contingent in the area arguably were swing voters. When John Lewis ran against Andrew Young, GOP voters supported Lewis. When Cynthia McKinney lost in a Democrat primary in a state with no party registration, many usually GOP voters strayed into the Democrat primary. The same was true when Sheila Jackson Lee defeated Craig Washington about 1994, and the resulting loss of those more centrist GOP voters from the GOP primary that year, led to starkly conservative candidates winning on the GOP side of the ledger that year. Republicans were unsuccessful in blocking Sylvia Garcia, and so sometimes the participation of the minority party within a district can become a backfiring political issue in the campaign itself.
Conversely, when Dewhurst faced off with Cruz, I saw some D voters stray into the R primary, and in R v R open primary elections, labor and Democrat voters often influence the results by choosing the more moderate or pragmatic Republican on offer. I suspect in the recent special election for state senate in Montgomery County that Ds backed the more establishment GOP winner, over the more tea party GOP challenger. I cannot think of similar examples; arguably the Stardig-Brown rematch was influenced by D-leaning voters who wanted to rid the district of Brown, joining with Rs wanting better leadership in the district, too.