Ciro Surging ...
Jeez, if you're a Republican, go to bed early tonight. Ciro's leading nicely in the early going in CD23. Currently ahead by about 5000 votes and I expect Bonilla to get about 2500 net votes out of Medina County, which isn't even logging votes on the SecState site. Currently as follows:
UPDATE: IT. IS. OVER!!!
RACE NAME PARTY TOTAL VOTES PERCENT U. S. Representative District 23 Henry Bonilla - Incumbent REP 30,818 45.49% Ciro D. Rodriguez DEM 36,923 54.51% --------------- Total Votes Cast 67,741 Precincts Reported 244 of 267 Precincts 91.39%
Two of Tom DeLay's redistricted Dems will be sworn into office while Tom DeLay joins the lowly ranks of the blogosphere. The conventional wisdom that the national wave was met by a levee in Texas has now been shown to be a broken levee.
UPDATE 2.0: AP Calls It ...
AP: Rodriguez defeats Bonilla
Greg Jefferson
Express-NewsU.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla lost Bexar County for the first time in his political career Tuesday night, and trailed Democrat Ciro Rodriguez in total votes in the sprawling Congressional District 23.
The Associated Press declared Rodriguez the winner shortly before 9 p.m.
But early in the evening it remained unclear whether Democrats could claim another seat to their new majority in the House of Representatives.
Still, the 14-year incumbent saw bad signs out west.
Bonilla lost ground in at least part of his West Texas stronghold. He carried El Paso, Culberson, Presidio and Brewster counties in the seven-way special election on Nov. 7, but lost them Tuesday to Rodriguez.
“It's an uphill battle, no doubt about it,� Bonilla spokesman Phil Ricks said at 8:15 p.m. “I think the other side was much more organized in getting the early vote out, and that's why they sought extra days of early voting.�
Soon after Gov. Rick Perry set the runoff date, the League of United Latin American Citizens sued and eventually wrangled three extra days of early voting before dropping the complaint.
Vanessa Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Rodriguez, said the former four-term congressman's campaign had placed heavy emphasis on coaxing voters to the polls early.
She also said the early results Tuesday indicated District 23 would join the Democratic trend that hit Nov. 7.
“People realized the only way to change things was to go out and vote,� she said. “Ciro's impending win is going to be part of the national momentum.�
On Nov. 7, Bonilla came within one percentage point of an outright majority, which would've allowed him to avoid a runoff. Still, after an August redistricting decision, the district proved to be much less receptive to the San Antonio Republican — the only Mexican American Republican in the U.S. House.
Tuesday's runoff stemmed from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last June that Texas Republican leaders breached the Voting Rights Act by slicing 100,000 Hispanics from the district in their 2003 remap. A three-judge panel answered by removing several largely Anglo Hill Country counties and pulling heavily Hispanic South Bexar County into the district.
The move put Democrats on equal footing with Republicans and increased the Hispanic population to 61 percent.
Bonilla came into the runoff with $1.6 million in the bank and the advantages of incumbency — a familiar name across the sprawling district and list of projects for which he'd secured federal funding.
Rodriguez hobbled out of the special election in debt and with the reputation of a less than savvy campaigner.
But he had a name that registered in Bexar County and into South Texas, and soon he had the interest of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The organization wound up spending more than $900,000 on mail-outs and television ads.
Adam Segal, director of the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins University, said he's talked informally with both campaigns in the past month.
“I think a lot of Democrats involved think making the investment was a wise decision that just weeks ago looked pretty risky,� Segal said.
W hn national Democrats came on the scene, Rodriguez's campaign was transformed from a largely all-volunteer effort to a more professionalized operation.
The race quickly turned bitter.
Rodriguez accused Bonilla of slashing veterans' health benefits and voting against a $1,500 bonus for troops active in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Bonilla called Rodriguez's judgment into question over his support for repealing a law allowing the use of secret evidence in deportation cases, saying it would have lead to the freeing of suspected terrorists.
The campaigns made those swipes mostly through television and radio advertising and mail-outs.
Richard Langlois, chairman of the Bexar County Republican County, blamed Bonilla's fall in Bexar County on his supporters staying home Tuesday.
“Obviously, it was voter apathy,� Langlois said. “Obviously, something happened.�