March 20, 2007

Conservative Versus Moderate is Defining Issue
in Three of Five Runoffs for Texas House Seats

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

While battling for a spot in a primary runoff, state House hopeful Ralph Sheffield accused Republican primary rival Martha Tyroch in a slick direct mail piece of failing to take a stand against the Trans-Texas Corridor while serving on a citizens advisory committee when she was the mayor pro-tem in Temple.

The mailer helped put Tyroch on the defensive on the hottest issue in the race for the seat that State Rep. Dianne Delisi isn't seeking again in 2008. It didn't seem to matter that Tyroch has been contending that she never supported the massive road-building plan or that she's vowing to oppose it if elected to the House this year. And rank-and-file voters weren't going to notice the inherent irony in the fact that Sheffield's top strategist, Ted Delisi, is the direct mail consultant for Governor Rick Perry, the leading advocate for the Trans-Texas Corridor. Nor would they know that Delisi, the son of the outgoing incumbent, is married to a former Perry chief of staff who's been rumored to be among the possible candidates for a gubernatorial appointment as chairman of a state transporation commission that's put the highway plan into motion.

The mail piece that Delisi produced appeared to give Sheffield the lift he needed to stay fairly close to the frontrunning Tyroch and force her into a runoff with more than 31 percent of the March 4 vote while two other foes were eliminated. But the battle for the seat the Tyroch and Sheffield are seeking has been the only House race that's requiring a runoff with a policy issue at the heart of the debate.

The dominating issue in three of the five House primary runoffs is more about ideology and support - with candidates who are perceived as the most conservative option on one side of the battle line and their less conservative foes on the other. That's one way of saying it. The way the candidates who've claimed the conservative mantle are more likely to describe their runoff opponents as liberals.

The Republican runoffs in races for open House seats in the Dallas and Houston areas have evolved into battles between the conservative GOP base and voters whose views are generally more moderate.

Former Garland City Councilman Randy Dunning has generated more high-profile conservative support than any other House runoff contender at this stage of the game for a race against Angie Chen Button for the GOP nomination in the battle for the seat that State Rep. Fred Hill of Richardson is giving up.

Dunning added former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey on Thursday to a long list of endorsements from conservative leaders while pointing to contributions that Button has made in the past to Democrats such as former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk when he was battling Republican John Cornyn in a race for the U.S. Senate in 2002. Dunning's supporters also contend that Button has dodged tough questions about her positions on some of the issues that are top priorities for conservatives.

Ken Legler of Pasadena is the conservative choice in a primary runoff battle with Fred Roberts for the seat that Robert Talton of Pasadena are giving up. Roberts, a longtime Pasadena school board member, is viewed as the moderate alternative in light of his support from education interests such as the Texas Parent PAC and some House Republicans who oppose Speaker Tom Craddick's bid for another term as House leader.

Like the battles for the seats that Talton and Hill hold, the GOP primary runoff between State Rep. G.E. "Buddy" West of Odessa and round one leader Tryon Lewis is also shaping up as a fight between conservatives who back the challenger and others who support the incumbent with no overriding policy issue like illegal immigration, property taxes or school choice driving the debate. The battle line came into sharper focus this week in the West Texas runoff when several moderate House Republicans who want to replace Craddick appeared at a hometown rally for West.

The line between conservative and moderate has been fuzzier in the race between Tyroch and Sheffield and the GOP primary battle that pits Dee Hobbs against Bryan Daniel in a race for the seat that State Rep. Mike Krusee of Round Rock isn't running for again in 2008.

Sheffield and Daniel have both been endorsed by the Empower Texans PAC, a conservative group that donated a substantial amount of money to House candidates in the first round of the primary. Empower Texans is also backing Dunning, Legler and Lewis in their respective runoff campaigns.

Unlike the fight between Tyroch and Sheffield, no one issue has commanded more of the debate in the Daniel-Hobbs bout than other general concerns that Republicans voters share.