Election becomes complicated for Lloyd Doggett(Texas CD-25)

Rebecca Klein - Commissioner/Chairman 2001 - 2004

Rebecca Klein was appointed on June 27, 2001 by Governor Rick Perry as one of three Commissioners of the Texas Public Utility Commission. On May 17, 2002, Rebecca Klein was appointed Chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission by Governor Rick Perry.

Prior to her appointment to the Commission, Mrs. Klein served as Policy Director of General Government for Governor George W. Bush. Her areas of emphasis include technology, telecommunications and energy issues. She worked at the Public Utility Commission of Texas between 1997-1999 as a Senior Attorney in the Office of Policy Development. Prior to returning to her home state of Texas, Mrs. Klein worked as a Telecommunications Law Analyst at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., where she resided since 1988.

While in Washington, D.C., Rebecca served as Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Trade & Development Agency from 1992-1993, where she oversaw accounts at numerous multilateral banks. From January 1989 to January 1992, she had the privilege of working at the White House and was appointed Associate Director for National Security in the Office of Presidential Personnel. Prior to her tenure at the White House, Rebecca was selected as one of twelve individuals, nation-wide, to receive a Ford Foundation Fellowship. Under the aegis of the Ford Foundation, Rebecca served as a Legislative Officer in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Legislative Liaison Division.

Rebecca is a Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. She was awarded the National Defense and Southwest Asia Service Ribbons for her service in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield/Desert Storm

Rebecca graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Human Biology. She received her Masters in National Security Studies at Georgetown University, and earned her JD at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.

She is married to Dale Klein, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs.

Interesting résumé. However, more important to her chances of pulling of a monumental upset will be how well she speaks Spanish and how well connected she is with Hispanic politicians.

One way that she could actually win is if Doggett wins the bloody primary and Democrat State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos (who represents Austin and was a natural for the district but didn't run because he was afraid of Doggett's money) puts all his weight behind the Republican (behind the scenes, of course) so that Doggett is defeated and he can have easy pickings in 2006 (when Doggett probably wouldn't run and when the Democrat nature of the district and Bush's absence atop the ballot would give Barrientos the seat). Of course, the GOP thought a similar thing would happen in 2002 in Anglo Democrat's Eliot Engel's CD in Westchester and the Bronx, where black Democrats could conceivably mobilize behind black Republican Joseph Holland in order to defeat Engel and allow a black Democrat to waltz to victory in 2004, but none of that happened and Engel won in a cakewalk.

The GOP created this district with a full expectation that it would be won by a hispanic Democrat. Doggett's entry gives an opportunity, but it still is a long shot at best.

A victory by the GOP this year would almost certainly be a fluke and couldn't be repeated unless the winner voted like the worst RINO ever. It's Rat territory.

If the GOP strategy to bring more hispanics into the party is successful, then things might change in the next 10 years. But hoping for good things out of this district this year requires hoping for the perfect storm.

"Bonilla's old district was 66% Hispanic, and he took it and held it."

Yeah, but the old 23rd district (i) had very few Democrat Anglos (most of its Anglos were Bexar County Republicans, (ii) had fewer blacks than just about any other district in Texas, and (iii) had a large number of non-citizen or otherwise non-voting Hispanics. This is why Bush was able to get 56% of the vote in 2000 in the old 23rd and why the GOP performance in 2002 (with a Hispanic Democrat from Laredo running for Governor) was like 46%. The new 25th CD (i) is chock full of Anglo liberals from Austin, (ii) has a substantial black minority---17% of its Austin residents are black) and (iii) includes some of the few Rio Grande Valley Counties where Hispanics actually go out and vote, and overwhelmingly vote Democrat (Starr, Duval and Jim Hogg), which is why its 2002 Republican performance was only 31%, 15% lower than in Bonilla's old 23rd (in which he barely won with 51% in 2002 even though he was a 10-year incumbent). It would take a miracle for us to win the new 25th CD. We'd have a lot better chance in the new 15th, 27th and 28th CDs, or even in the new 16th, 20th and 29th CDs.

"How did Gene Green (29th) aviod a Hispanic Primary Challenger?"

No idea. They must have all chickened out. His new district is even more heavily Hispanic than before (66% vs. 62%), and probably over 50% of voters (although not much more than 50%) are Hispanic. Actually, I would have liked two-time Republican mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez take on Green. If he could mobilize Hispanic voters like he did in his 2001 mayoral race (although he wasn't quite able to repeat the results in 2003), he could beat Green in the general election.

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