February 06, 2006
The Rodriguez-Cuellar debate

Today's debate between Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar was liveblogged here. (Victor Morales was not invited.) I'm guessing this will be more thorough than any news coverage, but I'll wait until I see some coverage before I say for sure.

By my count, over $55K has been raised on the three ActBlue pages for Ciro Rodriguez. Not too bad for a "one-day story".

Abram has a BOR diary that gives an overview of CD28. While it is true that Bush won 52.5% of the vote there in 2004, that's not the whole story. None of the other three statewide Republicans did nearly as well - Victor Carillo got 45.8%, Mike Keasler 44.4%, and Scott Brister 47.1%. Basically, the Democrats easily carried the Bexar and Webb County portions, while the Republicans took the rest by comparable margins.

Finally, DavidNYC explores the question of whether or not Henry Cuellar could switch parties and run as a Republican nominee for CD28 in the event Ciro ousts him in March. Far as he can tell, the answer is no.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 06, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack
Comments

A small caveat. DavidNYC says, and I agree:

Cuellar could run as a write-in candidate [if he loses his primary], but of course, his name wouldn't appear on the ballot.

You are technically correct, since Cuellar wouldn't be running as a Republican "nominee" in this scenario. And his odds of keeping his seat this way are, of course, quite slim. But he would be running, and probably as a Republican.

Posted by: Mathwiz on February 7, 2006 10:26 AM

Cuellar will NOT switch parties! People that are saying this simply do not understand South Texas politics. CD28 was created mostly to save Henry Bonilla from the stiff challenges he was constantly facing trying to run as a Republican in South Texas. Bonilla consistently lost Laredo with less than 30% of the vote. A Republican cannot win CD28, so it would be political suicide for Cuellar to switch parties.

If you really want an outsider and a man of the people in CD28, then vote for Morales. Check out the quote from the Laredo Monrning Times:

A political debate scheduled Monday by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce excluded congressional candidate Victor Morales from participating.

Ken Mireles, chairman of the chamber's South Area Business Council, said the chamber is a private organization.

"We do what's in the best interest of business," Mireles said.

Nuf said.

Posted by: Chito on February 7, 2006 11:10 AM