June 21, 2007
South
Texas House Democrats Could Face
Ex-Lawmaker, Perry Appointee and Others
Two
Democrats Who Backed GOP Speaker and Two
Who Did Not May Face Challenges on Ballot in 2008
By
Mike Hailey
Capitol
Inside Editor
|
Valley Activist Who'd Been
Mentioned as Potential Flores
Foe Says He's Not Running
Pharr attorney Eddie Anaya,
a leader in the activist organization Valley
Interfaith, says he has no plans to run
for the Texas House or any other public
office in 2008.
Anaya's name had been mentioned in Capitol
circles in Austin as a possible Democratic
primary foe against State Rep. Kino
Flores of Mission. Capitol
Inside reported Thursday that Anaya
had been encouraged to run for the House
seat. Anaya's assistant didn't know whether
he'd made a decision on the race when asked
in a phone call to his office earlier that
day. But Anaya said Friday that there would
be no annoucement because he did not plan
to be a candidate and hadn't considered
the race.
Anaya is from a well-known family in the
area as the son of the late Carmen
Anaya, who co-founded Valley Interfaith
and helped build it until she died last
year. Eddie Anaya spent time in Austin this
year lobbying lawmakers on behalf of the
organization on the Children's Health Insurance
Program legislation. He said he plans to
keep working for that cause in a non-elected
capacity.
|
Several South Texas state House members could
encounter opposition on the road to re-election
next year with a former lawmaker, a state board
appointee and other potential challengers contemplating
campaigns against them in 2008.
Ex-House member Todd Hunter, who
served eight years in the lower chamber as a Democrat,
has been encouraged to run as a Republican for the
House District 32 seat that State Rep. Juan
Garcia of Corpus Christi won last year.
Hunter said Thursday that he hasn't made a decision
on a possible comeback. Republican Gene
Seaman, who won the HD 32 seat in 1996
after Hunter decided to step down, has been weighing
the possibility of another House campaign as well
in 2008 after losing to Garcia last year.
Further south, McAllen attorney Javier
Villalobos appears to be eyeing a possible
race as a Republican for the HD 41 seat in a district
that Democratic State Rep. Veronica Gonzales
has represented since her initial election to
the lower chamber three years ago.
Primary battles could be in store for a pair
of Rio Grande Valley Democrats in neighboring
districts - State Reps. Kino Fores
of Mission and Aaron Peña
of Edinburg. Peña could end up in a rematch
with Eddie Saenz, a civil engineer
who came up short in a campaign to unseat the
incumbent in the Democratic primary election in
2004. Several names have been mentioned as potential
primary candidates against Flores.
Saenz has been encouraged to run for the House
by Democrats who are upset with Peña and
Flores as a result of their loyalty to Republican
House Speaker Tom Craddick during
his bid for a third term at the start of the regular
session in January and during an attempted coup
in May. Other Democrats are reportedly taking
a look at possible campaigns for those two seats
as well.
Flores, who's chaired the Licensing & Administrative
Procedures Committee since Craddick's initial
election as speaker in 2003, considered a race
for Congress in 2004 before deciding to seek re-election
to HD 36 instead. Peña, a lawyer who was
appointed chairman of the Criminal Jurisprudence
Committee in the wake of the speaker's election
earlier this year, has announced that he will
run for a fourth term in HD 40 next year.
A Hunter campaign as a Republican could prove
to be a formidable challenge to Garcia's hopes
for a second House term. Garcia, an attorney who's
also an aviator in the Naval Reserves, won the
HD 32 seat by knocking off Seaman in a November
nail-biter last year. Garcia received 48 percent
of the general election vote while Seaman had
46 percent with a Libertarian on the ballot claiming
six percent for himself.
Hunter, a lawyer and lobbyist, could probably
expect to have the support of powerful tort reform
advocates and some of the GOP's biggest political
donors as well if he decides to seek a return
ticket to the Texas House as a Republican. As
the chairman of the Civil Practices Committee,
Hunter had a key role in the monumental tort reform
legislation that lawmakers approved in 1995. Garcia,
on the other hand, received substantial support
from trial lawyers in his bid for the House last
year.
Hunter stepped down after an eight-year House
career when he decided to forego another re-election
campaign in 1996. The GOP took control of the
seat that year when Seaman won a close race for
the open seat against a Democratic foe and held
it for 10 years before Garcia ousted him in 2006.
But other Democrats on the ballot didn't do as
well in HB 32 as Garcia last year when Republican
statewide candidates captured more than 61 percent
of the vote in HD 32. The district includes part
of Corpus Christi in Nueces County and all of
Calhoun, Aransas and San Patricio counties.
The GOP would face longer odds if it makes a
run at the seat that Gonzales won by ousting the
incumbent, Roberto Gutierrez,
in the Democratic primary in 2004. But Villalobos
has connections as one of Governor Rick
Perry's appointees to the Texas Funeral
Service Commission, the city attorney for several
Rio Grande Valley cities and the general counsel
for the South Texas Economic Development Corporation.
Republicans had hoped to field a candidate in
HD 41 last year but the effort failed to materialize
as Gonzales was re-elected to a second term without
opposition. The GOP's statewide candidates won
a narrow majority in Gonzales' district last year
against one of the weakest group of Democratic
opponents ever. Villalobos had given a $300 contribution
to Gonzales a month before she was sworn into
the House for the first time in 2005.
Gutierrez's support for Craddick in his first
winning speaker's race became an issue when Gonzales
ran against him. The speaker could be an issue
in primary races in 2008 against Flores and Peña
as well if they materialize.
Saenz had support from the business community
and spent a substantial amount of his own money
when he challenged Peña during his first
re-election bid three years ago. But Peña
won the primary election with 64 percent of the
vote on the strength of grassroots support. | 
