March 8, 2006

Primary Winners and Losers Part Two: Results
Mixed for Educators, Lawyers and Tort Reform

Education Forces Could Claim Winning Primary Season with Runoff
Victories after Bagging Committee Chair Trophy in House Race - Tort
Reform Advocates' Wins Clouded by Nixon and Madla Senate Defeats

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

The biggest winners in Tuesday's primary election were educators, tort reform advocates, trial lawyers, conservative groups, Republican and Democratic political consultants, Bob Perry, Charles Butt and Jim Leininger. All of the aforementioned were the biggest losers as well.

Education forces that rose up in protest over the GOP leadership's public school agenda exacted payback by taking down the chairman of the House Public Education Committee - State Rep. Kent Grusendorf of Arlington. Former Arlington schools president Diane Patrick dethroned the 10-year House veteran with almost 57 percent of the primary vote.

But the Texas Parent PAC will come out ahead if state House Republican candidates Drew Darby of San Angelo and Jimmie Don Aycock of Killeen can hang on to leads they're taking into a couple of primary election runoffs for Texas House seats. Another candidate supported by the Texas Parent PAC - Republican Anne Lakusta of Flower Mound - emerged from a tight three-way battle for an open House seat in Denton County to qualify for a primary runoff as well.

Political action committees for the state's four major teacher groups - the Texas State Teachers Association, Texas Classroom Teachers Association, Texas Federation of Teachers and the Association of Texas Professional Educators - backed candidates who won 16 state House primary races, 11 who lost bids for the lower chamber and four who will compete in April primary runoffs. In a break from the past tradition of supporting mostly Democrats, the teacher groups endorsed and contributed to an equal number of Republican primary candidates in the first round of this year's elections.

Teachers, school administrators, school board members and others in the education community will consider Grusendorf's defeat worth more than the sum of some of the other victories on Tuesday night. Educators scored other significant victories with Sunnyvale City Council member Thomas Latham's defeat of State Rep. Elvira Reyna of Mesquite, big wins by three moderate House Republicans in the face of a spending blitiz against them by Leininger and tickets to runoffs for Abilene business owner and school board president Susan King, Darby, Aycock and Democratic State Rep. Richard Raymond of Laredo. Raymond came within 38 votes of winning outright against runner-up Mercurio Martinez in a HD 42 primary race that he didn't plan to make until opting out of a congressional contest late last year.

While educators celebrated victories by Republican State Reps. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Delwin Jones of Lubbock and Tommy Merritt of Longview, they lost a couple of friends in the House when Leininger recruits Wayne Christian, a former House member, and Nathan Macias of Bulverde knocked off State Reps. Roy Blake Jr. of Nacogdoches and Carter Casteel of New Braunfels. After trailing throughout the night, Macias surged past Casteel to claim a 45-vote win in a contest that has the potential to be reversed in a recount or with the tally of late-arriving ballots from military personnel stationed outside the United States. Education forces had warmed up for the primary with Democrat Donna Howard's victory in a special state House election in Austin last month.

While the Republican challengers who took on moderate House Republicans had more than $2 million worth of in-kind support and cash from Leininger, candidates backed by the key education forces had a good friend in H.E.B. grocery store owner Charles Butt, who contributed to a number of candidates on winning and losing sides in state House and Senate contests. His most significant victory came after giving $105,000 to Patrick in the closing days of her race against Grusendort. Butt had given the Republican challenger from Arlington $25,000 before the infusion in the campaign's final weekend.

Trial lawyers appeared to lose a few more battles than they won after Tuesday's ballots were counted. But like Patrick's win over Grusendorf in a Texas House race, Democratic State Rep. Carlos Uresti's victory over State Senator Frank Madla in a race for the upper chamber will be viewed as a major trophy for the plaintiffs' bar considering the massive amount of money that trial lawyers and tort reform advocates put into the campaigns of the challenger and incumbent respectively in the battle for a seat in a district that hooks San Antonio to El Paso. Trial lawyers and teachers, who've traditionally been allies in Democratic campaigns against Republicans over the years, will have different opinions about Uresti's victory in light of the fact that Madla had support from teacher groups in his bid for re-election.

Texas trial lawyers scored another victory with Democratic State Rep. Dora Olivo's win over Steve Brown in her bid for re-election in a district on the southwestern edge of the Houston area - and plaintiffs attorney have cause for optimism when Raymond does battle in a primary runoff with Mercurio after claiming more than 49 percent of the first round vote. But several high-profile lawyers who represent plaintiffs in civil court cases did not fare as well with other candidates that they backed with the Texans for Insurance Reform PAC, which had donated to challengers Wade Gent of Kaufman, Gus Ramirez of Tyler and Houston's Al Bennett, who all fell short in House races once they first round results had been posted. The Texans for Insurance Reform lost others races when former State District Judge John Devine was defeated by Houston car dealer Patricia Harless and State Rep. Jesse Jones dropped a close decision to former Houston city council member Barbara Mallory Caraway in a Democratic primary contest. TIR came empty again after Drew Mouton of Big Spring saw his lead in a race for an open West Texas House seat evaporate under an eventual victory by Plainview insurance agent Jim Landtroop.

Landtroop was one of a number of winning candidates who'd had support from the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC. TLR helped engineer victories for State Rep. David Swinford of Dumas in a hotly contested race against Amarillo school trustee Anette Carlisle - and the powerful grassroots group celebrated more success with victories by State Reps. Leo Berman of Tyler, Betty Brown of Terrell, Anna Mowery of Fort Worth, Larry Phillips of Sherman and Vicki Truitt of Keller. The tort reform group also backed State Senator Bob Deuell, a Greenville Republican who posted an easy primary win over ex-Rockwall City Councilman Tim McCallum - and it supported State Rep. Glenn Hegar of Katy in his successful primary bid for an open state Senate seat in southeast Texas.

But proponents of tort reform won more primary contests than they lost, they came up empty in the two races on which they'd concentrated the most firepower when Madla lost to Uresti and Republican State Rep. Joe Nixon finished third behind State Rep. Peggy Hamric and primary winner Dan Patrick in the race for an open Houston state Senate seat.

Houston home builder Bob Perry, who'd been the most generous Republican in Texas donor in recent years until being overshadowed by Leininger in the 2006 primary competition, supported most of the same candidates that were backed by TLR.

Coming this week: More winners and losers in 2006 primary election round one