More campaign announcements

As Greg has noted, State Rep. Joe Nixon is now officially a candidate for the open SD7 seat, joining fellow Republican Rep. Peggy Hamric in the race. I've got a press release from the announcement which touts Nixon's "11-year record" of "fighting for tax relief, defending traditional family values, and passing historic tort reform" - you get the idea. Suffice it to say that I wish the Democrats had run a candidate against him last year.

Greg also notes that CD10 GOP primary losers Ben Streusand and John Devine are mulling this race over. Be sure the Mute button on your TV remote is in good working order if they do.

In HD48, Donna Howard is officially in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent GOP Rep. Todd Baxter, who won a squeaker against Kelly White last year. Karl-T reported a few days ago that White would be backing Howard, who will be up against Andy Brown and possibly others in the Dem primary. I have a press release on this one as well, and I'll quote a bit from it:

A former Eanes ISD board member, Howard was born and raised in Austin, graduated from Reagan High, and has spent her adult life working to help strengthen the community. She was a co-founder of Advocates for Eanes Schools, a parent organization that monitors the activities of the school board, and helped start the Texas Education Crisis Coalition, a grassroots group of parents and community leaders.

Certified as a Master School Trustee by the Texas Association of School Boards, Howard has previously run as a Democratic candidate for the State Board of Education.

[...]

Howard earned a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's in health education, both from the University of Texas. She has worked as a critical care nurse at Brackenridge and Seton hospitals, served as the first hospital-based Patient Education Coordinator in Austin history, and helped get the Seton Good Health School off the ground. She has also been president of the Texas Nurses' Association (District 5) and a Health Education instructor at UT.

Two good candidates there, hopefully whoever emerges in March can take out Baxter.

And speaking of close Travis County State House races, HD50's Mark Strama now has an opponent, Republican Don Zimmerman. Obviously, I'm a Strama fan, and I believe he'll win this race by a much more comfortable margin than he did in 2004 against then-incumbent (and TAB poster boy) Jack Stick, but I'll give Zimmerman credit for his role in defeating a bad anti-privacy bill from 2003 (thanks to Rob for the pointer).

For what it's worth, Zimmerman's announcement just about stands alone among Republican challenges to incumbent Democrats - other than this, State Sen. Frank Madla, and of course US Rep. Chet Edwards, I can't think of any others with opponents at this point. I'm sure that'll change, but for now at least the Dems are way ahead in the recruitment game.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 25, 2005 to Election 2006 | TrackBack