Posted on 12/09/2013 8:21:16 PM PST by SoConPubbie
At the very last minute, Representative Steve Stockman filed today to run challenge Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas in the 2014 elections.
Stockman, a darling of the grassroots with a penchant for controversial Twitter statements and headline-grabbing comments, is a very, very long shot. But he’s by far the most prominent threat to the senator, who has a number of other less well-known challengers. World Net Daily reported at about 7:30 p.m. today that the congressman would challenge Cornyn. The site says Stockman said he decided to run because he believes Cornyn “undermined Sen. Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare.” More from that article:
WND asked: What makes you think you can beat this entrenched incumbent?
“I don’t know that I can beat him, but I am sure going to try,” he said, adding that he thinks he has a shot because, “In Texas, conservative policies win over stabbing fellow Republicans in the back.”
Stockman will try to ride the wave of voter discontent with Obamacare.
In October, he was already predicting a silver lining to the failed attempt to defund the health-care law, telling WND, “In every loss, there can be a victory.”
Because Stockman filed so late, there aren’t any especially prominent East Texas Republicans running to fill his congressional seat, in southeast Texas’s 36th congressional district. As of 3:56 p.m., only Phil Fitzgerald, a former judge, and John Amdur (the address listed is a Houston P.O. box) have also filed to run for his seat. The surprising move has irked many Texas Republican insiders: One Austin consultant tells National Review Online that he believes Stockman went out of his way to keep his intentions secret from James White, a state representative from the district who probably would have run to fill the seat if he had known about Stockman’s statewide ambitions.
White may just wait for 2016: “No doubt about it, James White will run next year,” the consultant says.
“It’s a disappointment,” he adds, noting that a victorious White would be the only African-American Republican in the House (Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate in 2013 and Allen West lost his reelection in 2012).
UPDATE: Not everyone is disappointed. Matt Hoskins, the executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, tells National Review Online that his group is mulling an endorsement.
“We haven’t decided yet whether we will endorse Steve Stockman, but we’re excited about the potential here,” he e-mails. ”Texas deserves two conservative fighters in the Senate, not just one. John Cornyn has voted to increase the debt, raise taxes, bail out Wall Street banks, and fund Obamacare. He’s part of the problem in Washington and voters deserve an alternative.”
Meanwhile, Cornyn’s office released a statement this evening touting his endorsement from Texas Right to Life.
“Senator Cornyn looks forward to discussing his conservative record with Texans,” said campaign manager Brendan Steinhauser in the statement.
I am going to send him some of the money that I QUIT SENDING to the gop/e! Miss me yet boys?
There is no “write-in” permitted in a primary in TX. Write-ins must declare themselves within 45 days of a general election and run as essentially a third-party candidate. Looks like Stockman has once again ruined his own promising career. TX wouldn’t dare reject Cornball.
Stockman will have my vote.
/johnny
I lived in Houston for ten years and was very familiar with him.
“There is no “write-in” permitted in a primary in TX. Write-ins must declare themselves within 45 days of a general election and run as essentially a third-party candidate.”
That really sucks; but now that you mention it, I do recall hearing something about write-ins not counting after the ultra-tight Henry Cuellar-Ciro Rodriguez TX-28 primary in 2004 (when had there been like 60 write-ins cast and counted it would have denied Cuellar a majority and resulted in a run-off), but I thought that they were talking about write-ins for undeclared candidates.
Looked it up, and the write-in prohibition in primaries is from a 1986 law, amended in 1997. Maybe the TX legislature could amend the law and permit write-ins in federal primaries.
So, unless there’s a change in law, Stockman has really screwed conservatives by his last-minute decision; maybe he’s more than just a “fellow traveler” of the Paulistinians. That judge accused of fraud (Phil Fitzgerald) was not the only Republican to file yesterday right before the gun; TheGreenPapers.com also lists Doug Centilli, Chuck Meyer, Kim Morrell and Dave Norman as filing yesterday:
“House CD 36: Congressman Steve Stockman (Republican) - Open Seat; Doug Centilli (Republican) - added; Phil Fitzgerald (Republican) - added; Chuck Meyer (Republican) - added; Kim I. Morrell (Republican) - added; Dave Norman (Republican) - added.”
The question is, which one is the Paultard? Because I’m certain that Stockman whispered his intentions to his Paulistinian friends so that they could run a Paul cultist and steal a House seat that they could never win fairly. I think that, sadly, we’ll know which one is the Paulbot when one of them proclaims himself to be the “TEA Party choice” despite having no record of anything, and a bunch of FReepers are fooled into thinking that only so-and-so is a real conservative.
So I think that there’s a good chance that we’ll be stuck with a Paultard congressman for two years, and either James White or some other proven conservative can take out the trash in 2016, similar to what happened in MI-11 with Kerry Bentivolio.
This article and Politics1.com list several candidates you don’t as having filed. Someone is wrong. The 2 major ones are
Doug Centilli, Rep. Kevin Brady’s COS
Kim Morrell, former Seabrook City Councilman and 2012 candidate. The article says Morell had information that Stockman wasn’t gonna run.
Seeing as how he just got back into Congress I don’t see how he could have done as you suggested and quit the House race a week ago without tipping his hand.
I agree though, it was a *ick move to file so late, and frankly I don’t see the purpose of it. What exactly would have been the difference if he entered the Senate race last week or last month?
Checked out Kim Morrell, he got only 3.5%, last place in 2012.
Centilli looks like the frontrunner to me.
Of course he works for a Congressman so he’ll be smeared as the “establishment choice”.
It would indeed make more sense if the late filing was just to get his favored replacement the nomination for the House seat. Ala Ginny Brown-Waite in Florida.
Lose one good guy in congress. Maybe pick a few up. Vote for Katrina Pierson for Congress, TX 32.
She will more than make up for the loss of Stockman.
I was part of a successful write in campaign for congress in 1980 when Joe Skeen won.
I see Cornball with 70 percent in the primary. Is there a Democrat in the fall?
No write-ins in primaries in TX and maybe anywhere. Only in general elections. The NM election won by Skeen was a general election, not a primary. Many people would not understand how to write in a candidate; in TX the write-in candidate must be a “declared” candidate. One can’t write in his own name and expect it to be counted.
White can file as a write-in and run in the 2014 general election if he wishes. Many might be able to spell “James White” but might not understand how to write in a name on a ballot. Rush calls them “low-information voters”.
There's your formula right there to really freak out the CBC and other race-baiting crooks.
That must have been exciting! That’s the race where the recently deceased Democrat incumbent’s widow ran as a write-in as well, right?
Filing as a write-in for the general could throw the election to the Democrat; but if the GOP nominee is a Paultard or a RINO (but I repeat myself), I might be willing to support such a strategy.
BTW, you posted earlier “No write-ins in primaries in TX and maybe anywhere.” Write-ins in primary elections certainly are allowed in some other states: just within the past 8 years, Charlie Wilson won the 2006 RAT primary in OH-06 as a write-in after failing to turn in 50 valid signatures (!) to make the ballot (Wilson then went on to win the general); Dave Loebsack of IA-02 also won his 2006 RAT primary as a write-in (after not turning in enough valid signatures) and then won the general; and Nancy Cassis ran as a write-in for the MI-11 nomination after Congressman Thadeus McCotter didn’t turn in enough valid signatures to make the ballot, leaving Paulistinian reindeer rancher Kerry Bentivolio as the only candidate on the ballot; unfortunately, Cassis lost to Bentivolio, and we’ll have to wait until the 2014 primary to replace him.
I continue to be amazed how well informed people can so totally misread and fail to understand Steve Stockman.
1) He is the real deal. He is a close ally of Louie Gohmert. I’ve worked for and with Steve since 1988. He used to be president of the Young Conservatives of Texas while Reagan was president.
2) Steve waited until the last minute for a few reasons:
- see if Gohmert was going to declare
- keep his plans secret until it was too late for somebody else to enter the senate race targeting him.
- this is strategy
3) Regarding strategy - the goal for conservatives is to force a run-off — that is the only way to beat Cornyn. Steve’s entry makes the primary higher profile and brings lots of energy. Even if he falls short, now you have more candidates beating up on Cornyn. All we need is a good conservative in the run-off against Cornyn and he will be defeated.
4) Regarding tipping others for his seat - That undermines the strategy. The goal is to win. You don’t do that by blowing up your strategy on day one. Steve was targeted by establishment RINOs. Their whole strategy just fell apart since Steve is no longer where they are shooting. There are plenty of people in the race and the seat will stay Republican. Takach or White can run next time to remove the RINO or lightweight...1 of 435 is not as big of deal. The real whiners here are the ones who never liked Steve and/or had their own agenda (pushing White).
For years, conservatives complained nobody on our side plays hard ball. Steve plays hard ball and now some are whining and moaning he didn’t give the RINOs a chance to overwhelm him with millions. If you want to telegraph all your plans to Rove in plenty of time for him to foil them, go ahead. Steve isn’t giving Rove a chance.
We’re neighbors. I’m not far from Buna.
You say he is no Ted Cruz? Well, who else is?
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Linda Vega comes close.
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