Fight!

From the Quorum Report:

Hays County Sheriff's Department confirms an altercation broke out between Rep. Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs) and Rick Green at Sunset Canyon Baptist Church, an election day polling site. Early unconfirmed reports are that Green punched Rose and the two had to be separated. We have a call into Rose's campaign for details. The Sheriff's Department will be issuing a statement shortly.

Ouch. Rose was the subject of a 2002 PBS documentary called Last Man Standing. He was the only Democratic challenger to knock off a Republican incumbent in the State or US House, in a year where Republicans picked up 16 seats in the Lege (after the 2001 redistricting) to take control of that chamber. The incumbent he defeated was none other than Rick Green. Green is not Rose's opponent this year (nor was he in 2004), so I'm not sure what's up with this. Maybe he's just carrying a grudge, I don't know. When I see the statement from the Sheriff's department, I'll post an update. Thanks to reader Scott for the pointer.

UPDATE: More from QR:

Reached this afternoon, Rose said Green approached him at the polling place around noon, pushed him and did punch him. Rose suffered no serious injury, and he would not speculate on Green's motives. Beyond that, Rose downplayed the event.

[...]

Rose said he was uncertain whether charges would be pressed against Green, saying that was something that the Sheriff's Department would be handling.

I have since heard from a source that Green was in fact arrested. Stay tuned.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 07, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack