Posted on 04/13/2010 9:32:48 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
CORPUS CHRISTI — Republican Blake Farenthold beat James Duerr by 244 votes in Tuesday's U.S. House District 27 congressional runoff.
Farenthold took 4,738 votes or 51.3 percent in the district, which includes Nueces, Kleberg, Kenedy, Willacy and portions of San Patricio and Cameron counties. Duerr gained 4,494 votes or 48.7 percent. The race that boasted the highest Republican turnout in a runoff in Nueces County history.
Farenthold, 48, will challenge longtime Democrat incumbent U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, 72, in the November general election.
"This wasn't a fight," Farenthold said. "This was a skirmish. The real battle is in November versus Ortiz."
Farenthold is banking in part on polls that show an anti-incumbent sentiment and a general distaste for the Obama administration. He has said that enough people in South Texas are upset to turn the incumbent tide.
Farenthold has pointed to Republican Scott Brown's upset victory for the late Democrat U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts, a historically Democratic stronghold, as proof of potential upsets in November's midterm elections.
Farenthold said he believes that Ortiz is beatable based on his recent voting record. Recently, Ortiz voted for the federal health care reform bill that contains funding for abortion, a hot button topic for Republicans and a stance usually foreign to Ortiz, who has been anti-abortion in the past.
Farenthold, who is anti-abortion, is expected to use the issue against Ortiz in upcoming weeks.
Ortiz has said the majority of his constituents want better access to health care afforded by the health care reform.
Farenthold, Duerr, Rio Grande Valley Realtor Jessica Puente-Bradshaw and Willie Vaden, an Ingleside City Councilman and three-time Ortiz opponent entered the Republican primary hoping to challenge Ortiz.
Both Vaden and Bradshaw endorsed Farenthold in the runoff.
Duerr said he was thankful for the support he garnered in a hard fought race.
"I'd like to thank all of my supporters that voted and block walked and called their friends and supported me in the race," he said. "I really appreciate Blake putting his name in for public service, and I will continue to support Blake and the Republican Party in the defeat of Solomon Ortiz Sr."
Political scientists have said it will be difficult for any candidate to beat an incumbent such as Ortiz. He is entrenched, has extensive name identification and is well funded with the political clout to raise more.
To be taken seriously by national Republicans, Farenthold will need at least $750,000 on hand, Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson has said.
Farenthold has extensive personal wealth.
Farenthold won among voters who voted on election day. The early vote went to Duerr.
Has ANYONE EVER heard of a single CONSERVATIVE politcal scientist???? EVER??????
You mean the vote fraud went to Duerr????
Ortiz only got 57% of the vote against a weak candidate last time. Willie Vaden who was the Republican candidate in 2004, 2006, and 2008 got almost 39% last time. The rest of the vote went to a Libertarian candidate. I think the Libertarian vote vote will go to Farenthold this year instead of to a protest vote for a third party candidate.
No!
Texas has early voting. The early vote totals get released as soon as the polls close on election day. Duerr started out about 100 votes ahead but lost ground as the votes cast on election day started coming in.
Good thing...
I’m thinking this is pretty Safe D. What’s your read?
Also lots of people in are really upset at the way the Ortiz family throws their weight around in the northern part of the district by threatening towns and other politicians. Congressman Ortiz' brother Oscar is on the Nueces County Commission. Up until Republicans took control of the commission after the 2008 elections, Oscar Ortiz actually wielded more power than the elected county judge. The new Republican majority took Oscar off the board of the Port of Corpus Christi. In retaliation Congressman Solomon Ortiz threatened to take away several million dollars from the city of Ingleside. People in the district are tired of the Ortiz family running the district as a fiefdom.
Thanks for those tidbits of info. We’ll keep an eye on this race for the master list at keyhouseraces.com. It the experts upgrade it, it will go on the main list.
The seat is not safe rat by any means.
A glance at the recent POTUS results there.
2008 Barack Obama: 53% John McCain: 46%
2004 John Kerry: 45% George W. Bush: 55%
2000 Al Gore: 50% George W. Bush: 50%
Ortiz has been there since the seat was created in 1982 and I’m sure he has a son he’d like to eventually will the seat to.
It is a 2/3 Hispanic seat though. We’d have a better chance with a Hispanic candidate.
The neighboring seat, the 15th is more rat that the 27th but we could have a shot there too with Eddie Zamora.
I think that those 2000 and 2004 presidential election numbers reflect results within the district as drawn prior to the courts redrawing it in 2006; I think that Bush got 53% and 48% within the current lines in 2004 and 2000. So the district is winnable for the right Republican, but not quite as favorable to us as before 2006.
But I don’t think that an Anglo can beat Solomn Ortiz. Ethnic politics still matter in some districts, and we need a Yooper Republican in MI-01, an Italian-American Republican in NY-13, a Jewish Republican in FL-19, and, yes, a Hispanic Republican in TX-27.
How about Eddie Zamora’s chances in TX-15?
“Yooper”
What’s the biggest ethnicity up there? Finnish?
I failed to note Zamora was the ‘08 nominee. He only got 32% then. As Obama took the seat by 20 points.
That’s a tough district that got even tougher when the judges redrew it in 2006. Maybe Zamora can be competitive, but Hinojosa will be very hard to dislodge.
Barone says that there are more Finns than any other ethnicity in the UP, but he also says that the region is heavily Catholic, so I would guess that no ethnicity can claim more than 10% or so (and there must be plenty of guys whose four grandparents were Finnish, Cornish, Polish and German, respectively). It seems to me that what part of Europe a candidate’s last name comes from is far less important than whether he or she is a Yooper.
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