Posted on 02/02/2005 11:05:53 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
70-71 puts him in Austin right in the middle of the Sharpstown Stock Scandal that took down Ben Barnes. Gus Mutscher would've been speaker. It also looks that he either "retired" or was defeated in 1972, which indicates that he was on Mutscher's side during the scandal. About half the legislature was replaced that year due to public backlash over the scandal.
You might note that runoffs are not required in special elections in Texas for National office - Congress and the US Senate. If so we would never have elected John Tower or KBH.
Not quite Curmudgeon, Tower ran first in the 1961 special election and was forced into a runoff to get his 51 percent over William Blakely, who was said to be "more conservative" than Tower, who thereafter gradually drifted to the left. But I think Hutchison may have run second to Krueger in the 1993 special election, or she may have been in first place from the start -- can't recall without lookiong it up. Ironically, it was Krueger who nearly retired Tower in 1978. Tower wound up splitting the GOP because of his pro-abortion stance -- the same stance as his old mentor Goldwater.
The only "Republican" seat back then was probably Craddick's Midland district, and it was a newly Republican district at that.
I checked and found that Republican Straus did win the special House election. It's in the San Antonio Express-News, but I did not want to bother with "registration" to forward the article. But the Democrat lost in the S.A. suburbs.
Yes - Craddick was one of the "Dirty Thirty" who took down Mutscher and Barnes. There were about a half dozen Republicans at the time - Walter Mengden and Bill Blythe of Houston, Jim Earthman of Galveston are the ones that come to mind. There were also two or three Republicans in the Senate - Hank Grover is the one that comes to mind immediately, because he was our nominee for Governor in 72.
Unofficial Election Results As Of : February 06, 2005 11:20 AM
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RACE
NAME
PARTY
EARLY VOTES
PERCENT
TOTAL VOTES
PERCENT
State Representative District 121 - Unexpired Term
Paul Silbert
IND
64
1.79%
401
2.76%
Rose Spector
DEM
1,052
29.48%
4,707
32.34%
Glen S. Starnes
REP
41
1.15%
192
1.32%
Joe Straus
REP
2,411
67.57%
9,255
63.59%
---------------
---------------
Total Votes Cast
3,568
14,555
Precincts Reported
88
of
88 Precincts
100.00%
--------------------------------------------
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