| Gardner Selby over at the Austin American-Statesman puts out the word that former Democratic candidate for Governor Chris Bell may be throwing his hat into the ring for Kyle Janek's soon to be vacated State Senate seat in Houston. Janek has previously announced he would resign his seat in June, prior to completing his term.
Austin's State Senator Kirk Watson offered the following commentary.
"I've known Chris a long time, and was excited about the prospect he might consider it. I talked to him on Saturday," Watson said.
"He would be a formidable candidate in that district because of his length of service in the Houston area," Watson said, referring to Bell's background as a one-term U.S. House member and before that as a member of the Houston City Council who ran for mayor.
"My guess is he'd start that race with the sort of name ID that an incumbent usually enjoys, maybe even better than an incumbent," Watson said.
A special election date has not been set as Janek hasn't actually resigned yet. Another Democratic contender (according to Selby's piece) may be Rep. Scott Hochberg (who would have to choose whether to run for Senate or House if the special election coincided with the November general election). Potential Republican candidates include Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, Gary Polland, former Harris County Republican Party chair, Grant Harpold, a precinct chairman, and Houston money manager Austen Furse.
As gerrymandered as all Texas seats are to be incumbent protection plans, SD-17 is one of the very few that could be considered "swing" at all (we have a very distorted view of swing in Texas sadly....). Demographically, it has an Anglo population of only 53% (21% Hispanic, 14% Black) and the "Bill Moody Highwater Line" is 46.1% from the 2006 election. More from Selby...
If Bell seeks the seat, he'll enter knowing Perry won 39 percent of the district vote in 2002, with Bell drawing 30 percent and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman trailing.
In the closest non-judicial statewide race in the Senate district, Elizabeth Ames Jones won her race for the Texas Railroad Commission with 56.5 percent of the vote. Democrat Dale Henry took 43.5 percent.
Thoughts? |
