| When Leticia Van de Putte declined to run for Governor earlier today and instead threw her support behind the potential candidacy of Texas Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin), political observers in Travis County paid special attention. Sen. Watson was already known to be considering running statewide, but the apparently orchestrated plug by Van de Putte makes his entry seem much more likely today than it did yesterday. If Watson does decide to run, the Travis County Democratic primary will immediately become very, very busy. Three local state representatives -- Elliott Naishtat, Eddie Rodriguez and Mark Strama -- are thought to be considering running for Watson's seat if he decides to run for Governor. Naishtat would start off with a significant cash on hand advantage over any opponent and represents a vote-rich district. The Dean of the Travis County Delegation is the go to guy in the House on human services issues. Rodriguez could mobilize small donors and has ties to activists countywide dating back to his days as Executive Director of the Travis County Democratic Party. Rodriguez is one of only two representatives who never voted for Tom Craddick for speaker and won a tough primary in 2002 in which he was heavily outspent. Strama is a proven fundraiser and was Chairman of Technology, Workforce and Economic Development this past session. Though his voting record is more moderate than the other two, he has turned what was once a swing district into a Democratic stronghold. All three are well respected by local party activists and have distinct bases of voters that make all three of them capable of winning the seat. Assuming two of them do decide to run, that leaves two open House seats that are likely to be hotly contested as well. All of a sudden, what recently appeared to be shaping up to be a rather calm local Democratic Primary with a few contested judicial races, could be on the verge of dramatically changing. Of course, as Watson has said he won't make a decision until later this summer, we will have to wait to see whether any of this speculation actually comes true. |
