State Political Profile: Texas
Governor
In true Texas fashion, the governor's race of 2006 is a big, brawling affair.
The entrenched Republican incumbent, Gov. Rick Perry, is the favorite and has the biggest campaign account. But his political rival, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, has millions of dollars, too, and is already showing she plans to run an aggressive race attacking Perry. Strayhorn ran for her current office as a Republican, but because the odds were against her in the March 7 GOP primary she decided to run for governor as an independent. Perry easily won his party primary against minor opponents.
Strayhorn has criticized Perry constantly for lack of leadership and for failure to repair the broken school finance system. Perry's campaign accuses Strayhorn of being a corrupt opportunist and of using her state office for political gain.
Another independent candidate, humor writer and musician Kinky Friedman, may draw the interest of voters who are fed up with the traditional political system, similar to the 1998 candidacy of Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. Friedman casts himself as an "anti-politician." He has hired as his campaign manager Dean Barkley, who helped engineer Ventura's surprise victory.
To make it onto the November general election ballot as independents, Strayhorn and Friedman each have to collect the signatures of 45,540 registered voters by May 11, and those voters cannot have cast ballots in the Democratic or Republican primaries or runoffs.
Democrats hold no statewide offices and admittedly are in a rebuilding period. Former congressman Chris Bell defeated former legislator and Texas Supreme Court justice Bob Gammage in the party's gubernatorial primary to win the nomination. Bell has not raised significant amounts of cash, something necessary for a gubernatorial candidate to spread his or her message through television ads in such a large state.
U.S. Senate
Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is seeking re-election after deciding against challenging Perry for governor. Hutchison faced no primary opposition. On the Democratic side, Houston attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky defeated retiree Gene Kelly in a primary runoff April 11 to secure the party nomination. Radnofsky faces a difficult road in her battle against Hutchison, a popular public official in Texas who has a much larger campaign account.
U.S. House
Among the state's 32-member congressional delegation, the most-watched race had been that of Republican Rep. Tom DeLay in suburban Houston. But less than a month after winning his March 7 primary over three GOP challengers, DeLay announced he would soon step down from the House after 22 years in office. He also plans to move to Virginia, making him ineligible to run for his House seat. The fallen majority leader is fighting money laundering and conspiracy charges in Texas connected to the financing of state legislative races. He's also under fire for his ties to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in Washington.
A committee of Republican precinct chairmen from the four counties that comprise DeLay's 22nd Congressional District will choose a new GOP nominee. That candidate will face former Democratic congressman Nick Lampson in November. Potential Republican nominees include Harris County Judge Robert Eckels; Sugar Land Mayor David Wallce; state Rep. Charlie Howard of Sugar Land; state Rep. Robert Talton of Pasadena; Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt; and Houston City Councilwoman Shelly Sekula-Gibbs.
Another notable congressional race was in the 28th District, stretching southward from the San Antonio area to the Texas-Mexico border. The Democratic primary featured a rematch between Rep. Henry Cuellar and former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, with additional competition from school teacher Victor Morales. Cuellar won the March 7 primary and faces no Republican candidate in November.
Legislature
Education funding-and the Legislature's repeated failure to repair it-has emerged as the leading issue. Numerous former teachers and school officials, both Democrat and Republican, are running for seats in the 150-member GOP-controlled Texas House. Some legislators were defeated in their primaries because of their stand on education issues or because of the House's inaction on school finance. One of the most high-profile lawmakers to lose his primary was House Education Committee chairman Kent Grusendorf of Arlington, defeated by former state education board member Diane Patrick.
San Antonio millionaire businessman James Leininger, a supporter of private school vouchers, is making his mark on Texas politics with major contributions in several Texas House races this year. Leininger, a longtime ally and donor to Gov. Rick Perry and other leading Texas Republicans, gave some $3 million to a handful of House candidates through political action committees before the March 7 primary. He got mixed results, with some of his selected candidates winning and some losing.
It isn't clear yet whether any legislative upheaval over school funding will result in a net gain for Democrats in the House. But there are sure to be plenty of new faces in the chamber because of the number of incumbents who have opted not to run again.
-- Associated Press
