10 vs. 25

Congratulations to Congressman Doggett on his win in the Congressional District 25 primary. Doggett will now face former Public Utility Commissioner Becky Klein in the general election. In District 10, the eight-member field in the Republican primary has been winnowed down to two for the April runoff election. The winner of the runoff will then take a seat in Congress as there is no Democratic challenger for the November general election.

Do you notice anything odd here? The Republicans are willing to post a candidate in the overwhelming Democratic District 25, but the Democrats are unwilling to field a candidate in the nominally Republican-leaning District 10, even though it is a new district. As I predicted, the Republican candidates have spent nearly $3 million so far in an east-west tug-of-war between Harris and Travis counties for control of the district. The winner of the Republican primary will then have two years to consolidate their position in the district before running as an incumbent. The Democrats have got to be willing to field candidates and to challenge the Republicans even in difficult races if the Democrats are ever going to reverse their decline. Democratic leadership in U.S. District 10 would have been valuable for supporting candidates in the 2006 statewide elections, but the Democrats weren’t even able to field a candidate.  ¶ 11:37 AM