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.
There’d be no need for a special election. Unless White is resigning early, he’d serve until the expiration of his term, which would coincide with the start of the next Congress (Jan 2015).
Excellent.
This article which is apprently from a hostile liberal site says this Section 172.054 of the Texas Election Code required this action.
Sec. 172.054. EXTENDED FILING DEADLINE. (a) The deadline for filing an application for a place on the general primary election ballot is extended as provided by this section if a candidate who has made an application that complies with the applicable requirements:
(2) holds the office for which the application was made and withdraws or is declared ineligible on or after the date of the regular filing deadline and on or before the 79th day before general primary election day; or...
(c) An extension of the filing deadline under this section applies only to the primary election of the political party for which the withdrawn, deceased, or ineligible candidate applied for a place on the ballot.
The article seems to imply that GOP wouldn’t have wanted to extend the deadline, I can’t imagine why. I assume they are just engaging in Republican bashing.
It’s obvious why the GOP didn’t want to extend the filing deadline: the party is deathly afraid of former Congressman Jim Turner making a comeback and reclaiming the district for the Democrats. /s/
Don’t forget Vernon Parker running to unseat Kyrszten Sinema in Arizona.
LOL, it’s funny how he would have no chance now, probably even if he had his old district lines.
Presumably, they would reopen the filing for both parties.
**************
84th Legislature doesn’t meet until Jan. 2015 so my guess
is there would be a special election at some point.
Why go through the expense of a special primary and a special general if they just can open up filing for another week and have the primary and general on the same dates as in every other district?
Do’h! How could I forget Vernon Parker? I’ve been supporting him for Congress since 2010 (when he lost to Dan Quayle’s son in the primary).
Unfortunately, turns out White cannot run in this primary because he already registered to run for state rep. seat. Not sure why, but they wrote in that people cannot switch. :(
Byron Donalds is another one to watch. He lost to Trey Radel in a surprising primary in Florida. Now with Trey exposed as a scumbag, even if he continues to seek reelection, Byron is likely to run.
What a retarded rule. So White had to withdraw from his House district race prior to the closing of the filing deadline? But he didn’t even know that Stockman would drop out at the last minute—Stockman only told one or two candidates (whom I will assume are Paulbots until proven otherwise).
As for Byron Donalds, yeah, I thought of him when I found out that Radel is a cokehead. I can’t believe that Tadel hasn’t resigned yet; SW Floridians deserve to have a congressman who won’t lie to them and who isn’t in drug rehab. Donalds by no means would have an easy path to the nomination for a special election or for Nov. 2014—heck, Connie Mack might try to reclaim his old seat—but he’d have a fighting chance.
Mack is a loser. He phoned it in against senator Nelson. Disappointment. Radel should resign, but I think Bonehead is backing him.
I think it is too late for him to withdraw.
I did not know of this provision of the Texas Election Code.
James White has been an excellent State Rep. If he runs I’ll support him 100%...but he’ll b hard to replace in his current office.
I think what this statute is intended to do is prevent a current office holder to withdraw and set up on of his buddies to get a clear path to an election win by misleading other viable candidates into not running.
For all his positives, Stockman is pretty sleazy.
I think that is a misconstruction of the law. I think it means that if White were to file for Congress, he would also have to withdraw from is state office race.
I hope you’re right and that’s all it means.
I’m sure he will be hard to replace as state rep, but think of how much more important it is to have a great U.S. Representative.
BTW, your sentiment is the reasilon why I don’t support term limits: if residents of a district happen to find someone honest and principled who represents them adequately, and such person agrees to continue to represent them, why should they be prohibited from reelecting him?
Being in Mississippi, I do not know anything about him but please enlighten me before I invest in him. Thanks.
LLS
Are you familiar with him? I bet he doesn't weigh 140 lbs.
Ironically, if elected he would represent the home of James Byrd, Jr., of hate crime fame...and elected by white people.
I don’t know him personally, but I know of him. (And, yes, the fact that he’s black and from Jasper made his election to the state house more noteworthy to the media.)
I hope he runs; we need a greater number of black conservatives in Congress so as to remove the stigma that young blacks feel regarding their conservative instincts so that they can “comoe out of the closet” and start voting Republican. All we need to forge a national supermajority is 25% of the black vote; if Democrats only get 75% of the black vote, they won’t be able to win more than maybe 40 Senate seats and 150 House seats.
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