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Monday, December 19, 2005

Illinois House Races: Batting a Thousand

Posted by DavidNYC

According to frequent SSP commenter RBH, Steve Waterworth officially filed to run in Illinois' 18th CD today, the last possible day to do so. This means that all eight Republican Congressmembers in IL have Democratic challengers. Great work! Waterworth, an Air Force vet, joins the impressively long list of Fighting Dems to run for office this year.

Next up is Texas, which has a January 2nd filing deadline. Things there are not looking quite so good. The DCCC's site lists 11 GOP-held seats without a Dem challenger; Barry Welsh's page shows potential challengers in three of those seats, but apparently, they haven't filed.

If you're even remotely considering running for one of these seats (1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12, 13, 23, 24, 26, 32), please go here and check out the Texas Democratic Party's checklist for running for office. The main things you'll need are either $3,125 for a filing fee or 500 signatures. Obviously both of those are pretty sizable hurdles - it's a lot of cash, or a lot of signatures on very short notice, during the holidays. (On the flipside, you might be able to snag large throngs outside of malls and the like.)

Just one thing to think about: It's pretty much impossible to get a candidate on the ballot after a filing deadline has passed. But it's usually a lot easier to switch candidates if you already have a name on the ballot. So if you live in one of those Texas districts and have the time or money to get on the ballot, but aren't really sure you want to run for office, your presence as a place-holder is just as important.

Posted at 04:33 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Illinois, Texas

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Comments

We have candidates in four of those Texas races.

In the 1st, swimming pool contractor Roger Owen may run against Louie Gohmert.
No website yet!

In the 3rd, Fighting Dem Dan Dodd is running against Sam Johnson.
http://www.dandodd.us

In the 8th, we have 2004 nominee James Wright running again against Kevin Brady. http://www.wrightforcongress.com

In the 26th, we have 2004 nominee Actor Lico Reyes running again too against Michael Burgess. His website isn't up yet!

Posted by: pbcliberaldem at December 19, 2005 07:07 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Candidates who have filed so far (though Friday):

TX-01: Roger Owen
TX-03: Dan Dodd
TX-05: Charlie Thompson
TX-09: Al Green
TX-10: Pat Mynatt
TX-14: Shane Sklar
TX-15: Ruben Hinojosa
TX-17: Chet Edwards
TX-18: Sheila Jackson Lee
TX-28: Ciro Rodriguez
TX-29: Gene Green

Democratic candidates expected to file by 1/2:
TX-04: Kevin Anderson and Glenn Melancon
TX-06: David Harris
TX-07: Jim Henry and David Murff
TX-08: The Lesser Known James Wright
TX-10: Ted Ankrum
TX-16: Rep. Silvestre Reyes
TX-19: Robert Ricketts
TX-20: Rep. Charlie Gonzalez
TX-21: John Courage
TX-22: Nick Lampson
TX-23: Rick Botanos
TX-25: Lloyd Doggett
TX-27: Solomon Ortiz
TX-28: Rep. Henry Cuellar and John Castro
TX-30: Eddie Bernice Johnson
TX-31: Mary Beth Harrell
TX-32: Will Pryor

The open seats (that I know of):
TX-02 (Beaumont/Houston Burbs)
TX-11 (Midland/Odessa)
TX-12 (Fort Worth Burbs)
TX-13 (Amarillo)
TX-24 (in-between Dallas and Fort Worth, probably Arlington too)
TX-26 (Denton/Flower Mound/Parts of Fort Worth)

Posted by: RBH at December 19, 2005 07:11 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The placeholder idea would be nice if it were true in Texas.

My understanding of Texas law is that you can't switch candidates so easily, unless somebody else is on the ballot.

Posted by: RBH at December 19, 2005 07:17 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Does Illinois hold the First Primarys of the 2006 season or is it Texas just wondering.

Posted by: D in FL. at December 19, 2005 08:13 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Illinois has their primary on March 21st.

Texas has their primary on March 7th and the runoff on April 11th.

Posted by: RBH at December 19, 2005 08:31 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

From Barry Welsh to Kos to MyDD to here...

Can y'all please update your list of unchallenged seats already? Go by RBH's list - it's much more accurate.

It's not like some of this information is hard to find. Right on the index page of the Texas Democratic Party site is a link to a list of candidates who have filed. That would have given you correct information about CD01 and CD03. A little Googling might have led you to a site like Texas Tuesdays, which has a lot of this info plus some others stuff you're missing.

We're supposed to be the Reality-Based Community here. Let's try to be more accurate with these things, okay?

Posted by: kuff at December 20, 2005 06:45 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Wow. Ouch. I go by the DCCC, so that makes me not "reality-based"? Yeesh. All you had to do was provide some links, friend. No need for the harshness.

Posted by: DavidNYC at December 20, 2005 06:58 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment