December 12, 2006
Rodriguez
Scores Monumental Comeback
as Democrats Celebrate Gain of Two Seats
By
Mike Hailey
Capitol
Inside Editor
Democrats turned another red seat to blue Tuesday
when Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio
ousted the only Hispanic Republican in the Texas
delegation to Congress in a race that he'd dropped
out of once before surging to victory in a monumental
comeback that appeared improbable until the past
week.
Rodriguez - a former state legislator who'd lost
a primary rematch nine months ago to the Democrat
who'd knocked him out of Congress in 2004 - captured
54 percent of the vote as Bill Clinton
and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
carried him across the finish line in a special
election runoff victory against U.S. Rep. Henry
Bonilla.
| CD
23 RUNOFF |
VOTES |
SHARE |
| Henry Bonilla (R) |
31,165 |
45.7% |
| Ciro Rodriguez (D) |
38,247 |
54.3% |
The victory gave Democrats a net gain of two seats
in the Texas delegation and a 30-seat gain overall
in a U.S. House that they will control for the
first time in 12 years.
The GOP still maintains a significant advantage
in the state's delegation with 19 seats compared
to 13 for the Democrats when the new Congress
convenes next month.
Bonilla won 12 out of the 20 counties in his bid
for re-election to an eighth term in a Congressional
District 23, which had been redrawn by a panel of
federal judges in August in the wake of a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that the voting rights of Hispanics
there had been diluted on the map approved by the
Texas Legislature in 2003. But Rodriguez beat Bonilla
in the scramble for the district's newly acquired
voters and rose from what had appeared to be a political
grave with 56 percent of the vote in Bexar County
where almost two out of every runoff ballots were
cast.
The special runoff election brought an end to
a wild election-year roller-coaster ride for Rodriguez,
who'd claimed a dismal 40 percent of the primary
vote in a second consecutive loss to U.S. Rep.
Henry Cuellar of Laredo in CD 28. Cuellar
had unseated Rodriguez two years ago in a bitter
primary battle that was marked by recounts and
allegations of questionable activities. Hoping
that the third time might be a charm, Rodriguez
appeared on his way to a third strike instead
when he received less than 20 percent of the vote
in the first round of the special election that
was ordered on the latest map.
But Democrats on the national level saw the potential
for victory when Bonilla was forced into a runoff
with under 49 percent of the initial vote while
Rodriguez and five other Democratic contenders
split that same amount. The DCCC poured more than
$900,000 into the runoff with independent expenditures
in support of Rodriguez's campaign but without
coordination with it. The national party money
erased a huge fundraising advantage that Bonilla
had enjoyed going into the runoff and bought television
advertising, direct mail and phone banks that
Rodriguez desperately needed but could not afford
with a campaign that was in debt throughout the
special election.
Rodriguez received another boost when former
President Clinton led a rally for his runoff campaign
Sunday in San Antonio. Bonilla carried Val Verde,
Uvalde and Medina counties, which had the largest
turnouts outside of Bexar County where San Antonio
is located. He received more support in the counties
with the smallest populations as well. But Rodriguez
came out on top in Maverick, Dimmit, Brewster,
Zavala and Brewster counties while winning big
in a small slice of El Paso County in CD 23.
Democrats picked up another seat when former
Congressman Nick Lampson turned
back a write-in bid for Shelley Sekula
Gibbs in the general election last month
in the race to replace Tom DeLay in CD 22. Sekula
Gibbs, however, was elected to fill the final
two months of DeLay's term in a special election
that Lampson decided to bypass.
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