Posted on 11/26/2004 9:13:57 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN — Two losing Texas House Republican candidates, including House Speaker Tom Craddick's most powerful lieutenant, sought Wednesday to have the GOP-controlled House overturn their races' results or order new elections.
Also Wednesday, one-term Rep. Ken Mercer of San Antonio decided against contesting his 498-vote loss to Democratic challenger David Leibowitz in a bitterly contested District 117 race.
As expected, Talmadge Heflin of Houston and Eric Opiela of Karnes City filed documents Wednesday with the secretary of state's office formally contesting the results of their races.
History is not on their side: In the 10 times since 1942 that such election results have been challenged, only once — the 1981 San Antonio race between Alan Schoolcraft and challenger Al Brown — have they led to a new election. Schoolcraft won the second election by a wider margin than the original race.
In the other nine challenges, the losers either withdrew their complaints, or the House rejected them.
While both losing candidates in this November's election said they want the House to sort through allegations that some voters cast two ballots or should not have voted at all, they said their challenges aren't about partisanship.
Secretary of state spokesman Bill Kenyon said the House could reject the complaint filed by the losing candidate, order the governor to call a new election or award the seat to the candidate who lost the race.
That has led to complaints from Democrats that both Republicans want the 150-member chamber, which is overwhelmingly Republican, to decide who won.
Whatever it decides, the House decision is final and binding, Kenyon said.
Heflin, former chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, lost to rookie challenger Hubert Vo, a Vietnamese businessman.
In South Texas District 35, Opiela was defeated by Alice attorney Yvonne Gonzalez-Toureilles by 854 votes.
Gonzalez-Toureilles and Vo's campaign chairman said the losers are attempting to use partisan politics to have the wishes of the voters overturned.
Speaker Craddick now will appoint a House member as "master of discovery," whose job it will be to supervise the investigation, take depositions and gather information about possible irregularities the losing candidates alleged occurred.
The master would turn over those findings to a committee, also appointed by Craddick, which then would make its recommendations to the full House.
It was not clear when Craddick would appoint the information-gathering master. But Craddick spokesman Bob Richter promised a transparent process and said partisan politics will not rule.
In Houston, Heflin's attorney, Andy Taylor, said the election results in the southwest Harris County district were filled with what he termed fraudulent votes and other voting irregularities. He said they occurred in predominantly Democratic precincts that voted overwhelmingly for Vo.
Heflin, a House member for 21 years, lost to Vo by 32 votes. But Heflin said Wednesday the election results include at least 248 irregularities, including instances of people from Denton, 300 miles from the Houston district, voting for Vo, or of people voting more than once.
Vo said he was "disappointed that Mr. Heflin is trying to use his political power to overturn the will of the majority" of the district's voters.
In the District 35 race, Opiela said his campaign has uncovered a number of apparent irregularities, including more than 835 votes he said were illegally cast, mostly in Bee and Jim Wells counties, both of which he lost.
Gonzalez-Toureilles termed Opiela's findings "ridiculous."
"It is transparent that he lost, but he won't accept the will of the voters," she said. "Why else would he be challenging the results only in the counties that he happened to lose?"
In deciding against filing a contest, Mercer said he concluded "that an election contest would not be in the (district's) best interest."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ggarcia@express-news.net
Because that's where the illegal votes are!
Their action would add retain these House Republicans and the national media attention would help solidify the GOP Majority across America.
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