Chron politics columnist John Williams explains how State Supreme Court judge Xavier Rodriguez, the lone Hispanic GOP candidate in Texas, lost the nomination to retain his position to a guy with a simple American name.

This isn't the first time a serious candidate with an ethnic name has been tripped up by an unknown with a familiar name. In Illinois in 1986, two followers of right-wing nutball Lyndon LaRouche won the Democratic nominations for Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State by capitalizing on ignorant voters and easy-to-pronounce surnames. And this sort of thing happens all the time here.