Posted on 06/03/2003 9:47:05 PM PDT by LdSentinal
LUBBOCK, Texas - A land developer defeated an accountant who used to be President Bush 's business partner in a tight Republican runoff Tuesday to succeed retired Rep. Larry Combest.
With all but one of the West Texas congressional district's 207 precincts reporting unofficial returns, Randy Neugebauer had 28,530 votes to Mike Conaway's 27,858 votes. The one unreported precinct was in a county where Neugebauer led by a 2-to-1 margin.
Neugebauer and Conaway, both Republicans, emerged from a field of 17 candidates in a special election last month.
They were in a runoff to see who will replace Combest, who retired at the end of May. Combest had announced his retirement shortly after winning re-election in November. He served the district for 18 years.
Neugebauer will finish the unexpired term and be sworn in Thursday in Washington.
Ector County officials had to bring in a generator to continue counting votes after a severe storm accompanied by straight-line winds up to 70 mph knocked out power in the clerk's office, officials said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.