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Bell Loses Bid to Kick Out Opponent
September 8 - 10:54 PM
When Chris Bell decided to run in the special election to fill the Senate District 17 seat left empty by Kyle Janek, it was very carefully considered.
At stake is his political future. Bell has become a perennial candidate on the verge of being an embarrassment, as witnessed by his 30% showing in the 2006 Governor's race - an all-time low for a Democrat running for governor in Texas. General consensus in the Democratic Party is that he only has one loss left in him.
So it's win or step back for good, since Bell takes himself seriously and would never want others to do otherwise.
His victory in this race has been predicated on a split-Republican vote with Democrats unified behind one candidate, him. It looked great until filing closed ten days ago and lo and behold, a second Democrat appeared within hours of the deadline. An African American Democratic lawyer from Missouri City, Stephanie Simmons. Simmons is strangely unavailable for media queries, since all serious candidate love free publicity.
Bell accuses her of being a Republican stooge, and took her to court over it. This afternoon a state district court judge in Austin held an emergency hearing, and ruled against Bell's contention that Simmons did not live in the district. She remains on the ballot.
Seeming proof of Bell's contention came in the form of former State Rep. Ron Wilson of Houston, present at the hearing in support of Simmons. Wilson was unseated in a hard-fought primary in 2004 because of Democratic discontent over his willingness to play footsy with the House Republican leadership.
Bell lost this battle and if he is not careful, he will miss the bigger picture: a schism in the local Democratic Party between the African American elected leadership and the white leadership, elected and otherwise. Many in the black leadership (Sylvester Turner, Al Edwards, Harold Dutton) try to work with the House leadership on a bipartisan basis, so they can achieve things for their districts, but many white activists bitterly insist that they should have nothing to do with the Republicans. Hard feelings abound, from all corners.
DeLay's redistricting plan cleverly turned the black community on Bell, who held the seat ultimately went to now-Congressman Al Green in 2004. Bell had to run directly against the black Democratic community in a bitter primary, and they took him to the cleaners.
Now comes the emergence of Simmons. If she truly attempts to organize the African American Democratic base in the district, in the Year of Obama, she can fracture Bell's vote so badly that even making it to the runoff might be a dicey proposition -- especially since Republican Joan Huffman recently lent her campaign a half million dollars. If she spends it seriously, Bell should feel the heat in this Republican-leaning district.
Comment
JackWit
September 8 -
11:29 PM
Huffman is going to ring Chris' Bell, although personally I prefer Furse. I'm throwing my support to her because she's the pragmatic favorite for conservatives.
GunLovinGirl
September 8 -
11:25 PM
Huffman should lend Simmons $100,000 out of her $750,000 war chest. It would be smarter than any media buy that she intends to make.
DemoFan
September 8 -
11:22 PM
I can't see Simmons making signficant inroads in only eight weeks.
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