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HD-73 
Mon May 19, 2008 at 07:17 PM CDT
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Over two and a half months later, one-term Republican representative Nathan Macias, who defeated 2005 Texan of the Year Carter Casteel, has finally given up his endless series of pointless court challenges. Republican Doug Miller has won by 17 votes.
Herald-Zeitung: The close Dist. 73 Republican primary drew recounts and double checks as the original 38-vote margin for challenger Doug Miller dwindled to 17 votes. Accusations of double voting and voter fraud emerged as Macias sought to overturn Miller's victory margin. And Macias' attempt to get the lawsuit judge replaced - just because, rather than for a specified reason - was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court last week.
The incumbent's decision to drop the lawsuit is the best decision for the Republican Party, which stands divided in the four counties of District 73, where more than 29,000 voters split their allegiances between Miller and Macias. This process already has been expensive and stopping the lawsuit halts that expenditure, particularly for Comal County taxpayers where the case was to be heard.
And this post would not be complete without reminding you to read this from Karen Brooks over on the Trail Blazers Blog..
At any rate, Macias is not giving it up without one last dig at, well, everybody. And I mean, everybody. In a long concession statement sent to us this afternoon, he blasts:
The courts: "With the Supreme Court denying our request for a new judge and understanding the potential for this litigation to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, only to have a judge rule against the facts, is not my idea of a good investment."
Doug Miller: "Let's not forget the extremely suspicious irregularities that occurred with Doug Miller's sister-in-law counting the ballot box ...."
The media: "It is a shame that most, not all, of the local/regional media appear incapable of reporting the news in an unbiased manner to allow the voters to decide an election."
The "cross-over" Republicans: "For all the conservatives who crossed over and voted in the Democratic primary, the reality is that it had a profound impact on our State Representative race."
He even managed to take a shot at Rep. Carter Casteel, whom he beat in the 2006 primary: "Unlike your previous State Rep, I will contact Mr. Miller and make myself available to him."
And as Brooks points out, $5 million later... "this makes Rep. Wayne Christian the last Leininger man standing."
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Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 10:30 AM CDT
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Poor Nathan Macias. A couple weeks ago, he went all Jack Stick on us, contesting the results of the HD-73 Republican Primary where Doug Miller defeated him by a mere 17 votes.
His charge? According to Macias, 253 people double-voted, casting both a Republican and Democratic primary ballot. Problem for Macias- they didn't!
Bandera County Elections Administrator Toba Perez said clerical errors made it appear that about 130 people voted twice, but those have been corrected and there is no evidence anyone voted in both primaries.
Comal County Elections Coordinator Linell Hinojosa said 38 voters were stamped as having voted twice, but after a review of the sign-in sheets, each person was found to have only voted once.
According to Hinojosa, mistakes included husbands and wives who voted in different party primaries, but one spouse's name was mistakenly stamped twice; Or someone who signed in on one sheet, then realized they were in the wrong party's line and signed in on the other one without taking their name off the first one.
Good riddance. Move that furniture on out of here.
P.S. Daniel Boone is the Democratic nominee in HD-73. Check him out!
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Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 01:23 AM CDT
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My hometown state house district (as long time readers are painfully aware) was once represented by 2005 Texan of the Year Rep. Carter Casteel. In 2006, she was defeated by James Leininger Nathan Macias in a very close race (around 50 votes).
Back on March 4th, Macias got a little taste of that in the other direction, when Republican challenger Doug Miller defeated him by 29 votes. Because of the closeness of the race, Macias is asking for a recount. Sound familiar?
In any case, that process started Monday as Bandera County recounted their votes.
Update The end result was no change. (Macias had won Bandera by 28 votes.) Comal and Kendall counties tallies votes yesterday, where it appears Macias picked up 2 votes in Kendall shrinking Miller's margin to 27 with no report out of Comal as of yet. Gillespie County recounts today.
Gillespie County (site of my hometown of Fredericksburg) is key- it's the only county Miller won providing him with a 1,131 vote margin of victory there. It also happens to be the only non-Comal outlying county Casteel won against Macias in 2006. I'm still a little amazed by the margin Miller was able to pile up back home; I guess I can be proud of the hometown Republicans once in a while!
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Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 07:24 PM CST
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While Matt works on a post that rounds up many of the candidates who have filed for office, I'd like to highlight one district since it is my home district. Many will remember HD-73 as the site of the infamous Carter Casteel (2005 Texan of the Year) vs. James Leininger Nathan Macias primary. Macias, after spending over $1 million of Leininger's money defeated Casteel by just 53 votes. I've never really let go of that one. When my relatives were in Austin visiting from Germany, I asked Rep. Bolton to introduce them from the House floor instead. Rep. Macias came up to the gallery afterwards to say hello (in truth, I did go by his office but no one was there at the time) but still, I didn't go our of my way to make nice. ANYWAYS... I'm happy to see the first of what may be a couple of Republican primary challengers step up- Doug Miller. Edwards Aquifer Authority Chairman Doug Miller filed papers Monday to run in the Republican primary for District 73 in the Texas House against first-term incumbent Nathan Macias. "Texas can accomplish great things if we work hard and work together," Miller said. "I am willing to do that hard work. Conservatives have been let down. There is too much spending and there are too many loopholes being left open for criminals to walk through. Those are the problems I intend to focus my attention upon." Miller represents Comal and Guadalupe counties on the EAA board, which he has served on since it was created in 1993. He has also served as a police officer and as mayor of New Braunfels. He owns an insurance agency.
The district will also see a Democrat running, Daniel Boone, who filed to run as a write-in last year when no Democrat filed in this highly Republican district. (Yes, he's actually a direct descendant of pioneer Daniel Boone.) Still, he got 5.6% as a write-in (nearly 8% in Gillespie County) which is pretty impressive for a write-in of any sort. He should have the Democratic ballot line this year which will be interesting to see what kind of support is out there next year. I heard some rumor earlier in the year that Fredericksburg School Board member (and past president) Wayne Harrell had been testing the waters as well. While still a conservative, he would be a great pro-education candidate and is a Republican that I respect.
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Mon Apr 03, 2006 at 01:41 AM CDT
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After the recount, Carter Casteel slipped a few more votes behind James Leininger funded Nathan Macias. I will take solace in the fact that Rep. Casteel will still be there to fight in the special session. Her official statement is included below the fold.
If you'd like to see some of the attack mailers from the Macias campaign, we have them online here. You have to right click and 'save as' to your computer to view them.
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Thu Mar 30, 2006 at 01:18 AM CST
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Two of four counties have finished their recounts and Macias has grown his lead by 5 votes to 51.
SAEN: Two of the four counties recounted their ballots Wednesday, and Macias' margin increased by five votes, from 46 to 51. Casteel picked up two more votes in Comal County and Macias picked up seven additional votes. The totals in Bandera County remained the same.
Gillespie County began the recount process but did not finish. The results are expected to be ready today, Gillespie County Republican Chairwoman Pauline Cusack said. She said the county's five largest boxes remain to be counted.
Kendall County is to recount its ballots Friday.
Gillespie County Chairwoman Pauline Cusack was a supporter of Casteel, but unless someone is willing to risk some Duval County type ballot stuffing, I don't expect the 52-48 Gillespie County to yield dozens of extra votes.
"I've dealt with it already and moved on down the line," Casteel said. "I only asked for the recount because my supporters were having a fit."
Macias said he was "delighted" by the recount results so far.
"We're definitely excited about the system and the quality of the system and the integrity of the system we vote under," he said. "We hope that will continue to play out and hopefully Friday we will have the final results."
My only question is, when they contact Macias for quotes, does the phone call get routed through San Antonio first? I just want to be sure that James Leininger approves of his message. Oh wait, he does to the tune of nearly one million dollars.
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Thu Mar 23, 2006 at 02:20 PM CST
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The HD 73 race between Rep. Carter Casteel and James Leininger Nathan Macias has been officially canvassed and Macias has increased his lead by 2 votes to 47.
MySA.com: "That's a large number to overcome and it's probably not going to happen, but we're doing it and that will put it to bed. And then we can move on down the line, and that will be good for the district," said Casteel, who cited encouragement by backers as the main reason she will seek the recount for the District 73 seat.
Casteel gained five votes in the canvass, pushing her total to 10,136, while Macias picked up seven votes, bringing his total to 10,183, with the additional ballots mailed by members of the military and received by Monday.
It is unlikely that the recount will overturn the victor here, but keep in mind that regardless, Rep. Casteel will serve in the special session starting April 17th, and considering she is exiting politics for the short term, she may now be freer to work for solutions and be more independent than she already was.
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Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 08:29 PM CST
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I've transcribed two paragraphs from a 1/3 page 'letter' ad that appeared in the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post back on March 1 in the Casteel v. Macias race. I thought y'all might appreciate this (paid for by these folks)...
"A third issue we examined was Carter Casteel's claim that she was not against the ban on homosexual foster parents. While it's true that she voted for the final bill that included the ban, when the ban all by itself was up for a vote, she voted against it. Then she went on record stating that she was for the bill overall, but expressed reservations on the ban portion. Again, Ms. Casteel's literature portrays her completely opposite of how she voted. Furthermore, in researching the matter on the web, we found a number of pro-homosexual web sites speaking very favorably of her vote against the homosexual foster parent ban. Also, about 17 pro-homosexual and/or left leaning bloggers even voted her "Texan of the Year."
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"Besides looking at individual issues, we also looked at some of those endorsing or supporting Carter. As mentioned before, we found the left leaning and/or pro-homosexual web sites (Pink Dome, for example said: "We all love Carter Casteel..."), and the liberal San Antonio Express News, to name a couple.
The liberal San Antonio-Express News. Hah- that's news to me. No wait, that's express news to me. And I think we are less pro-homosexual bloggers than we are anti-'send the SS in to root out same gender foster parents' bloggers.
Carter, even in likely defeat, you are still the Texan of the Year. Heck, maybe you've just been trying to win it two times in a row.
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Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 06:52 PM CST
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The overseas and military ballots were counted today in the Casteel vs. Leininger Macias race.
WOAI: 17 new ballots counted Tuesday, put New Braunfels Republican Carter Casteel 49 votes behind representative-elect Nathan Macias.
After the March 7th primary, Casteel was only 45 votes behind Macias. The new group counted today consisted of absentee and overseas military ballots.
Not the best direction those votes could have gone, but now the last step is the recount that Rep. Casteel has called for. At this point it's not likely that the results will reverse, but after a million dollar smear campaign, it's the least we could all ask for.
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Thu Mar 09, 2006 at 00:20 PM CST
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While most outlets in the state are reporting on Rep. Casteel's demise, some are coming around to the possibility that it's too early to write into the history books. The Express-News runs an article which you should go read in full if you want to know what is the latest.
Casteel is looking at a recount which she has until March 29 to call for. I got in touch with the campaign, and they have retained an election lawyer who is reviewing the situation. As to the ballot situation...
The 45-vote margin could narrow when mail-in absentee ballots sent to out-of-country military personnel are counted. They must be postmarked by election day but can be received until March 20.
Officials are awaiting 93 ballots that were mailed out, but not yet returned, including 79 from Comal County, Casteel's base of support. However, election officials expect relatively few of those ballots to come in. Four were delivered to the Comal County courthouse Wednesday, said Comal County Elections Administrator Linell Hinojosa.
There also were nine provisional ballots cast, seven from Comal County. Those will be checked by voter registration officials and counted if the voters registered properly.
I also received a pack of mailers and clippings from my parents last night from this race. I'll scan them and try to get some up in the next 24 hours so you can see the work of James Leininger. Speaking of him, I've taken the liberty of adjusting Leininger candidate Nathan Macias' quotes from the article for you below.
Macias said he's "telling everyone I'm victorious and will represent the district with [James Leininger's] strong, conservative values."
But he later added that with the number of ballots that still could show up and be counted, "I'm not sure anybody can claim victory, [but I'd need to call James Leininger to be sure of that.]"
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Macias said his campaign stuck to the facts.
"I believe the voters chose the representation they desire and deserve, which is [the] conservative, Republican representation [of James Leininger]" he said, [while uncomfortably adjusting the puppet strings attached to his neck].
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