Tuesday's primary produced a handful of runoff races. The drill: Early voting starts March 31 and runs for five days. Election Day is April 8.
Five of the tie-breakers are for open statehouse seats. One's an incumbent fighting for another term. And one features the two survivors of a 10-way contest for the chance to challenge an incumbent Democratic congressman. All of those contests are on the Republican side.
• The Democratic primary produced only one state race runoff: Mark Thompson of Hamilton didn't get quite enough votes to avoid another month of work in his bid for Texas Railroad Commission. Now he faces a runoff with Dale Henry of Lampasas, who previously ran for that post as a Republican. Henry, if he makes it into the general election, will be the first candidate to run against each of the three members of a sitting Railroad Commission. He's already lost to Victor Carrillo and Elizabeth Ames Jones; Republican Michael Williams is the incumbent seeking reelection this time.
• The herd of elephants in CD-22 is down to two — Dr. Shelley Sekula Gibbs, with 29.7 percent of the primary votes, and Pete Olson, with 20.7 percent.
Olson put out a press release calling for five debates with his opponent — one in each county in the district and one on a local radio station. "We're going to start talking about something different — the specific issues," Olson said.
"Shelley thinks that's a brilliant idea," said C.B. Currier with the Sekula Gibbs campaign. Currier said they'll pull back from big media ads and focus on the small community of voters likely to stay in the game until April.
"They have a lot of work to do," said Kevyn Bazzy. "But in a way it's easier because if you don't get a good vibe from a voter, you can mark that one off and move on." Bazzy, who received less than two percent in the primary, said Olson's military experience has a chance of standing out now that the other military men — Brian Klock, Ryan Rowley and Bazzy himself — are out.
"I'm excited for the voters that they have two good choices," said Jim Squier, who ended up with 1.8 percent on Election Day. He wouldn't name a favorite.
It's a double-edged sword for Sekula Gibbs and Olson. A one-on-one race is more intense, but easier on candidates and voters — the two will try to win new support but won't have to do it from a ten-candidate crowd. Sekula Gibbs ran before, losing a write-in campaign to Democrat Nick Lampson; that and her short-but-turbulent tenure finishing Tom DeLay's term could draw institutional opposition to her from other politicians. Watch the endorsements.
• It was a tight race in HD-52, where Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, decided not to seek reelection. The work isn't done for prosecutor Dee Hobbs, who got 31.8 percent, and insurance executive Bryan Daniel, with 30 percent. John Gordon was 83 votes behind, with 29.2 percent (and says he won't seek a recount).
"There were three of us spending a lot of money, and we were all three working real hard," said Gordon. "One of us three was going to come up short." He said he hasn't decided who he'll endorse or even who has the best chance to win in April — but he's certain they'll throw in a lot of cash over the next few weeks.
Hobbs and Daniel seem to be friendly foes.
"I wasn't sure what kind of campaign we were going to have," Hobbs said. "It's been a very friendly race."
"I'm very pleased with the outcome," said Daniel. "I'm ready to move forward and I hope we continue to campaign on the issues."
Neither candidate is changing their campaign strategy. Both say it's time to focus on keeping the voters energized for another round.
• Martha Tyroch and Ralph Sheffield have another month of campaigning ahead in HD-55. She led with 36.1 percent; he ended up with 31.1 percent.
After finishing with 20.4 percent, Mike Pearce sent a personal thank-you to his supporters and said he'll endorse Sheffield. "He is a good man, and we need him to win this race, as the alternative would be deleterious to District 55," Pearce said in the e-mail.
"It was very obvious that there would be a runoff and we were prepared," said Tyroch, a former member of the Temple City Council. "We are ready, I'm not tired at all."
John Alaniz, who ended up with 12.4 percent,said both candidates have asked for his endorsement, but he's still wavering.
"I'm not surprised at the outcome... at the end of the day, it was who had the most money," Alaniz said. "I think the two strongest conservatives were the two that had the least money."
Tyroch raised $145,557 so far. Sheffield raised $69,713 and loaned his campaign another $88,546. They both spent a lot on ads and start Round Two with about equal standing.
• Rep. Buddy West of Odessa made his own pickle, telling the full House at the end of last session that he'd enjoyed his eight terms in office but that, for health reasons, he was moving on and wouldn't seek reelection. By the time his health improved and his mind was changed, the pickle was sour — he'd attracted the attention of other Republicans in HD-81. Now he's fighting for his life. He finished second in a four-way race on Tuesday with 38.4 percent — enough to make the runoff with front-running Tryon Lewis, an attorney and former judge who won the support of 44 percent of the voters.
• Angie Chen Button and Randy Dunning are headed for a runoff in the HD-112. She led with 37.9 percent to his 35 percent. Jim Shepherd wasn't that far behind with 27.1 percent.
"It was a very nice campaign in the first round," said Button's consultant Craig Murphy. "But [Dunning] started attacking at the very end. We're not going to let him get away with that now." Murphy said he thought Shepherd was the stronger opponent, but he just got a late start and didn't run a negative campaign.
"It's a classic runoff between someone who's got a proven conservative record and someone who does not," said Kevin Brannon, Dunning's consultant. That campaign is zeroing in on political contributions Button, a former DART board member, made to Dallas Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, state Rep. Terri Hodge and Sen. Royce West.
Shepherd had the endorsement of incumbent Fred Hill – now Shepherd is deciding who he'll back for the runoff. He said he's taking a few days to figure it out. "I know that an amazing amount of money will be spent over the next few weeks, because a lot has already been spent," Shepherd said.
Sidebar: A local blog in the district— suziblitz.com — backs Dunning, but they got pranked by an anonymous computer wiz who pasted ads against dunning all over their website. That's been cured now, they think.
• District 144 is heading for a run-off between Ken Legler and Fred Roberts. Legler led Round One with 45.9 percent of the votes to Roberts' 39.5 percent. John Hughey got 14.6 percent.
Incumbent Robert Talton ran (unsuccessfully) in CD-22 and the statehouse seat is open. He's backing Roberts.
"On a one to ten scale, I'm a seven right now," said Roberts, a Pasadena school board trustee. "I'd be a ten if I won by 51 percent, but I fell a little short."
Allen Blakemore is consulting for Legler, a businessman who served on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and is now chairman of the EPA's national advisory board. Blakemore said Roberts got a lot of the "school crowd" to the polls.
"My attitude toward runoffs is turnout, turnout, turnout," Blakemore said. "It's usually pretty low, so you're back to the party faithful. We know who our people are."
Legler has big business support. PACs from Chevron, AT&T and Valero contributed to his campaign.
But the third-place finisher isn't a fan. "Mr. Legler is totally unqualified," Hughey said. "I have a feeling he's not going to win. He's a tool of the lobbies and they will spend a lot of money to try and get him elected."
He's still deciding whether he'll back Roberts: "It all depends on how various people act in the upcoming days."
—
by Karie Meltzer
