February 7, 2005

Democrat Luna Says Congressman's
Son Plotting Against Her as Payback

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside

State Rep. Vilma Luna apparently thinks that some Democrats are out to get her in retaliation for her role as a star on Republican Speaker Tom Craddick's leadership team - and she's identified at least two Democratic Party officials who she suspects.

The Democratic lawmaker was quoted in a weekend report in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times as saying that Nueces County Democratic Chairman Solomon Ortiz Jr. had been making the rounds in Austin last week to inform interested parties that he plans to challenge the incumbent when she's up for re-election again in 2006. Luna's charge of a plot against her within her own party is all the more intriguing when considering that she has been mentioned often as a possible candidate against U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, who happens to be the county chair's father.

Ortiz denied that he'd been laying the framework for a state House race. "I have not told anybody I am going to run against Vilma," Ortiz told the newspaper. "Absolutely not, I am not running for anything. If anything I am running away."

Luna's claim about a possible challenge from Ortiz was supported by Austin consultant Dya Campos, who said she'd heard the county party chairman listing reasons why he intended to challenge the incumbent during a discussion with several others in Austin last week. But a state Democratic Party official is denying Luna's assertion that he'd talk to Ortiz about challenging the 12-year House incumbent's next re-election bid.

"Let me take this opportunity to assure you that I have never spoken with Mr. Ortiz," Texas Democratic Party Chief of Staff Mike Lavigne said in a letter to Luna on Monday. "I don't believe that I have personally even met the man, though all reports indicate that he is performing admirably as one of our better Democratic county chairs in the state."

Lavigne, however, did not pass up the opportunity to criticize the House Republican leadership and to spotlight Luna's ties to it. "I am sure you are as concerned as the voters in your district about the anti-democratic and short sighted actions of the House leadership over the past two years," Lavigne wrote. "You are no doubt then unhappy about being as closely associated with the leadership as you were in this story" in the Sunday edition of her hometown newspaper.

Lavigne said he hoped Luna bases her decisions as a legislator on "more solid information" that she had wen "falsely" suggesting that he'd been helping plot her defeat.

While some House Democrats have been unhappy with Luna for playing a major supporting role on the GOP leadership team as the vice-chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, the apparent bad blood between Luna and Ortiz may have more to do with local politics and speculation about the state lawmaker taking a shot at the county chair's father in a campaign for Congress. Some Democrats thought she might file to run against Ortiz in 2004 but waited to first see if party leaders were going to target her for defeat in the primary the way they had several other Democratic incumbents who'd been players on Craddick's leadership team. But while a handful of House Democrats including Corpus Christi's own Jaime Capelo were ousted in the primary after party leaders backed their opponents, Luna drew no foes in her re-election bid.

Luna spent most of the first part of her House career on the bench when Democrats were in charge of the lowe chamber. After backing Craddick in his bid for speaker, the Corpus Christi lawyer landed the leadership post on the Appropriations Committee at the start of the 2003 regular session. Craddick also named her to Legislative Budget Board and the Joint Select Public School Finance member while making her vice-chair of the House's own select committee on school finance. Luna is also a member of the second and third most powerful committees - Calendars and Ways ane Means. The Ways and Means Committee is especially important during the 2005 session because it will design a tax plan for the school finance bill.