Gov. Rick Perry today set Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, as the special election date to fill the Texas State Senate District 6 seat formerly held by the late Sen. Mario Gallegos.
Candidates for this special election must file applications with the Secretary of State no later than 5:00 p.m. on Dec. 27, 2012. The early voting period runs from Wednesday, January 9 to Tuesday, January 22.
The winner will serve a four year term beginning in 2013.
The proclamation is here, for those of you who need your whereases and whereofs to make it all real; Trailblazers and the Trib are now reporting it. I was sure that Perry would drag things out as long as he could, so I’m happy to have been proven wrong. If my interpretation of Robert Miller’s timeline is accurate, we can expect a runoff (if one is needed) four to six weeks after that, so we ought to have a new Senator in SD06 no later than early to mid March. That’s still a little late for my taste, but it’s at least two weeks earlier than the late-case scenario, so it’s better than it could have been. A statement from Carol Alvarado about the election date is here.
UPDATE: And here’s Sylvia Garcia’s statement.