Posted on 11/22/2010 6:54:15 PM PST by LdSentinal
Rep. Solomon Ortiz conceded to his Republican challenger Monday night, according to a regional representative of the National Republican Congressional Committee who is in Texas’ 27th district.
The Texas Democrat called challenger Blake Farenthold, a former radio talk-show host, as the last county in his district worked toward wrapping up its recount.
The Farenthold victory brings the net Republican House pickups this cycle to 62 seats, with four House races still outstanding from the midterm elections. The Republican was on Capitol Hill last week for freshman orientation.
Ortiz asked for the recount, which cost him $23,500, after the original unofficial count showed him down by 799 votes. Five of the district's six counties had finished by Friday, but Cameron County — which was also dealing with a recount in a county judge’s race — was still finishing recounting absentee and early ballots Monday evening. Officials there expected to certify the vote count Monday night.
A former chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the current chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, the 14-term Congressman had never gotten less than 55 percent in a re-election campaign. His races in 2006 and 2008 were among his closest: he won re-election with 57 percent in 2006 and with 58 percent in 2008.
Ortiz’s son, Democratic state Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr., also lost Nov. 2. He represents Corpus Christi.
Hispanics losing in South Texas....interesting and hopeful!
Me too. Loved his super-classy concession speech. Saddened that he gets to stick around until January so that he can screw us over some more.
Hmm, 4 to 1. About average gains for a Rat in a recount.
Anyone recall Republicans getting 4 to 1 in a recount? Didn't think so.
Cameron county uses paper ballots, and it did go 60%-35%-5%, down from about 70-30 in 2006 and 2008. There were about 1.7 Democrat votes cast per Republican vote in the congressional race. I think the higher rate for "found" votes going 4-1 Democrat is lower educational levels and more mistakes among Democrats marking ballots.
goodie!
Sort of my point. Ballots marked incorrectly only count for Rats. Reference: Alaska.
Democrats? We don’t need no steenkeeng Democrats!
This must have the Dems quaking in their boots.
San Patricio County must have voted GOP in absolutely HUGE numbers to outvote the southern portion of the district. CNN's election site confirms my theory, it looks like Farenthold got over 70% in San Patricio.
You can see data like that in my local township in suburban Crook County -- on election night, the Republican candidate for Congress out here (Wardingley, 1st district) and the Republican candidate for state Rep. (Bellar, 1 district) both WON suburban Crook County by decent margins. But they got crushed districtwide because the Chicago portion of those districts routinely gives RATs 90% of the vote and this election was no exception. Republicans would have to get 65%+ in my region of the district to outvote the improvised brain-dead RAT areas on the other end.
Cameron County on the border, while like 85% Hispanic, isn’t as heavily RAT as many people assume; in fact, President Bush carried it in 2004 and even when it votes Democrat it results in relatively few net votes for the Democrat because of it abysmal turnout (caused, no doubt, by having such a high percentage of non-citizens in its population).
The TX-27 has been marginal in presidential elections for years, and it finally trickled down to the congressional level. If someone like Farenthold could narrowly defeat Ortiz, imagine how well a Hispanic military veteran would have done in the district—Ortiz could have been blown out.
Sheesh! The guy wins and you’re still crapping on him. Give Congressman-elect Farenthold a break, will ya? :)
+63 now and I want to see +63 more for the House GOP in 2012.
Hey, I’m ecstatic that Farenthold won; he appears to be a solid conservative, and Ortiz is a Marxist (albeit a generally pro-life, pro-military one). Farenthold had to run a much better campaign that, say, a Hispanic businessman who was a decorated veteran (and who weighed under 250 pounds)would have had to run in order to win, and it is a testament to his abilities that he beat Solomon Ortiz in that district. So kudos to Congressman-elect Farenthold. But just like the fact that Joe Walsh winning (very narrowly) in IL-08 despite all that personal baggage means that a less controversial Republican would have won by 10%, I think that Farenthold winning narrowly means that a candidate with a better profile for a 70%-Hispanic district (and without embarrassing pictures of him being disseminated) would have won by a comfortable margin.
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