West Texas U.S. House race headed for runoff

The Associated Press ^ | 5/4/03

[LdSentinal]

LUBBOCK -- West Texans will have to wait until a June runoff to find out who will replace longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Larry Combest in the historically agricultural district that has been redrawn to include 19 counties and more oil and gas interests.

Republican Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock and Mike Conaway of Midland qualified for the runoff as none of the 17 candidates in the special election earned more than half the vote, according to unofficial election results reported by the Texas secretary of state.

With all precincts counted, Neugebauer -- a real estate developer and former Lubbock city councilman -- won 22 percent of the vote and Conaway-- an accountant, former Midland school board member, and friend of President Bush -- had 21 percent.

Republican State Rep. Carl Isett of Lubbock followed close behind with 19 percent of the vote.

Combest, of Lubbock, announced in November he would resign at the end of this month after serving in Congress for 18 years. His successor will serve out the rest of his term and become only the fourth representative of District 19, which includes Lubbock, Ector and Midland counties.

In a predominantly Republican part of the state, 11 GOP candidates were on the ballot. Others included two Democrats and four third-party candidates.

Republican candidates included Bill Christian and Richard Bartlett of Midland, David Langston, Vickie Sutton, Donald May and Stace Williams of Lubbock, John Bell of Kermit and Jamie Berryhill of Odessa.

Democratic candidates were Kaye Gaddy of Odessa and Jerri Simmons-Asmussen of Lubbock.

Other candidates were Libertarian Chip Peterson of Lubbock, Constitutional Party candidate Tommy Flournoy of Midland, Green Party member Julia Penelope of Lubbock and Denver City independent Ed Hicks.

[LdSentinal]

Top 3 vote totals:

Randy Neugebauer (R): 13,029 - 22.4%
Mike Conaway (R): 12,254 - 21.1%
Carl H. Isett (R): 10,971 - 18.9%

SPECIAL ELECTION, US REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 19

It's a bit of a surprise that St. Representative Isett did not make the run-off.

[UCAL]

Wow, the leading democrat received only 2.9% of the vote. That's my kind of district but it's also probably the result of a gerrymander that dilutes our strength elsewhere.

[LdSentinal]

Actually, after the redistricting, the 19th congressional district in Texas was made more Democratic.

19th District:

1992:

Bush: 80.4%
Gore: 19.6%

2002:

Bush: 75.6%
Gore: 24.4%

[LdSentinal]

I forgot the link to the above data.

Texas: New Congressional Districts for 2002

[Paleo Conservative]

Top 3 vote totals:
Randy Neugebauer (R): 13,029 - 22.4%
Mike Conaway (R): 12,254 - 21.1%
Carl H. Isett (R): 10,971 - 18.9%



As Harry Truman once said, "give the people a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they will choose the Republican every time."