Recently retired (because of Ciro Rodriguez) Congressman Henry Bonilla has withdrawn his nomination to become an ambassador to the Organization of American States.
Bonilla, a San Antonio Republican who lost his seat to Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez in a December special election, said Monday he will join a lobbying firm as a consultant. He's barred by ethics rules from lobbying Congress for one year after his departure from office.
This is further proof of the benefits of controlling the Senate and House. By controlling the Senate, the Democrats are able to prevent bad nominees from representing our country.
As the Chronicle describes the Organization of American States, the group Bonilla would have represented us in, I am left with one question. Would you want this man representing us in this international organization?
The Organization of American States brings together nations of the Western Hemisphere to promote democracy and work on issues like poverty, human rights, drug abuse and trafficking.
Not only did Ciro's win in TX-23 make for a very nice Christmas gift to Democrats, it also is an investment. As many in Texas know, Bonilla (the only Mexican-American Republican in Congress) was the poster boy for the Republican Party's 'outreach' to Latino voters. Meaning of course, the photo-shopped version of someone who looks like you but sells you out and screws you over in reality.
Not only that, but it's an open secret that Bonilla had his eyes on becoming a US Senator for Texas. For now, we've taken away his launching pad and platform to run for statewide office. As Paul Burka said today...
Bonilla may have stayed at the party too long. He has always wanted to move up to the Senate, and it seemed a possibility four years ago when Phil Gramm announced that he would not seek reelection. But Gramm and Rick Perry could not agree on a scenario that would have led to Gramm's early resignation and Bonilla's appointment, and the moment passed. Since then, Bonilla has had a run of bad luck: the U.S. Supreme Court said that his safe district violated the Voting Rights Act last spring--the only district on Tom DeLay's map that didn't pass muster--and a three-judge panel drew him a 61% Hispanic district in which he had no long-term (and, as it turned out, no short-term) future.
In addition, Ciro should be able to hold this seat, becoming a Democratic Progressive Hispanic Representative in the majority party. That takes a load off the DCCC in 2008 when they will be fighting all over the country letting us focus in Texas on holding Lampson and taking out the like of McCaul and others instead.
The soundness with which Rep. Henry Bonilla, the one-time Hispanic poster boy of the Republican Party, was beaten Tuesday night was the equivalent of a political earthquake.
The seven-term incumbent, who as late as Tuesday harbored dreams of becoming a U.S. Senator, was essentially fired from office and replaced by Ciro Rodriguez, a former congressman known more for being a good man than a good campaigner.
Defying every political truism of Bexar County politics, Bonilla started the night by becoming the rare well-known Republican to not only lose early voting, but to lose it badly.
Great stuff- I've added the videos into the extended text. -KT
Ciro Rodriguez, the voters of the 23rd congressional district of Texas, and everyone who helped out won a great victory yesterday. And with that win, Democrats knock off Henry Bonilla, who went in one week from labelling Rodriguez as a terrorist-supporter, to reportedly making a gracious concession call, where he offered to work with Rodriguez during the transition.
We went down to Ciro's victory rally at the packed Harlandale Civic Center on the south side last night,and posted a video segment of Ciro's victory speech. Earlier in the day, we got short video interviews of Rep. Joe Baca of California and John Courage explaining why they were out supporting the GOTV effort for Ciro. The videos are at my blog, B and B.
Thanks again to everyone who helped make this victory a reality!
With the Bexar County vote 100% in and only 8 precincts out in Medina county, we can start looking at what happened in TX-23. So with that, I give you this wonderful quote from CQ politics.
The outcome will determine whether the Republican Party will get a little holiday cheer at the end of their worst election campaign in many years, or get one last bitter taste of unexpected defeat.
As my roommate just pointed out, having been in SA all day, Ciro was first elected to Congress in 1997 in a special election. That race, featured 9 Democrats (including now State Senator Carlos Uresti who went on 2 months later to win HD 118 which Ciro vacated after winning his seat in in TX-28), 5 Republicans, 1 Independent, and 5 write-ins. That 1997 race also went to a run-off after Ciro won 46% of the first round vote. He got 67% of the vote in the runoff against Democrat Juan Solis, III.
Former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez defeated seven-term Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla in a runoff on Tuesday, adding another Democrat to Congress and deciding Texas' final congressional seat.
Rodriguez's win gives Congress another Democrat after the party won control of Congress in the November elections. Texas added one Democrat already in the suburban Houston 22nd Congressional District once held by Republican Rep. Tom DeLay.
95% of the vote in Bexar is in. Ciro holds with 56.3%.
I've been pouring over data and just updated the County Comparison post. Seeing the counties that are out are still for Ciro, and that Bonilla's highest turnout counties are in, and Bexar County has just updated to 65 of 151 counties in, I just can't put the math together anymore expect to say this:
Burnt Orange Report is calling TX-23 for Democrat Ciro Rodriguez.
(The only thing that would mess things up is if the data is off. Along those lines, the SOS says there are 92 Precincts that Bexar can report and Bexar says there are 151 precincts that it can report. Either way, the amount reported on each page is the same % of precincts.)
Update: Bexar County just updated. Now says 75% reporting for the county. Ciro at 58.4% in Bexar.
Update 2: Check the posts below for more updates on existing totals and charts. Ciro's won this things. Congrats to the DCCC to whom major credit must be placed for winning this election. Those folks have been great and put their money where their mouth was. Looks like we just saved ourselves some time and money in 2008. And to think, Ciro had originally dropped out of this race back when he first filed before dropping back in. Looks like he's just dropped back into Congress.
Update: Ciro just won Culberson County, hahah. Bonilla had 53% of the vote there last month. Ciro just won it with 53.4%. Of course, there were only 146 votes out there compared to 397 last month.
Update 2: Ciro also won Brewster County, taking it away from Bonilla.
I'm keeping a table updated of how each county is coming in compared to Nov. 7th. If there is nothing in the last column, it means that it's just the early vote. I'll try to keep this updated every 15 min or as I can.
