Uh oh. It looks like he can’t run cause he filed for reelection to the state house.
http://www.12newsnow.com/story/24199659/state-representative-at-odds-with-party-leaders
This should encourage more primary challenging...but won't!
The article states that “according to an interpretation” of the Texas election code (but diesn’t say by whom), persons who had filed as candidates to an office during the regular filing period can’t file for an office whose filing period was extended *even if the relinquish their spot on the ballot for the other race*? That sounds like a ridiculous “interpretation”; candidates fiile for one office and then switch to another office all the time—why, had Stockman not done exactly that at the last minute we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place—and no one “interprets” the law to prevent that. Surely the fact that the filing period for CD-36 has been extended pursuant to the election code should color the analysis and lead one to conclude that, if a person relinquishes his spot on the ballot (something one can do in Texas after the filing period is over; Tom DeLay relinquished his spot even after he had won the nomination, and no Republican was on the ballot), then he can file for the ofice whose filing period was extended.
It sounds like James White is accepting such a counterintuitive “interpretation” of the election code because he won’t be able to get a court ruling prior to Monday and doesn’t want to risk dropping out of the state house race to then be denied appearing in the CD-36 ballot; I can’t say that I blame him. This is a travesty, and an affront to democratic principles; why should Republican voters in CD-36 be denied the chance to nominate the candidate of their choice just because Congressman Stockman is a scumbag who wants to rig the primary so that a Paultard replaces him? I hope that the TX legislature clarifies this issue for future elections. And as for James White, I hope that, if the TX legislature doesn’t make such fix retroactive, he runs in 2016 and gives voters a true choice.