Republicans more confident of defeating Edwards in District 17 U.S. House race
Republicans are looking for their next targets.
Fresh off their recent victory in Massachusetts, they are homing in on congressional seats held by Democrats they consider vulnerable, and they believe they may have one in Texas: the District 17 U.S. House seat.
The district, which covers a predominantly Republican region, stretches from College Station to Johnson and Hood counties and includes former President George W. Bush’s Crawford ranch. Still, voters have re-elected Democrat Chet Edwards of Waco three times since Republicans redrew district lines in 2003.
“Chet Edwards, who supports the Democrat agenda 97 percent of the time, has misrepresented his constituents for far too long in a district that overwhelmingly voted for the last three Republican presidential nominees,” said Joanna Burgos, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Some say Edwards is a moderate Democrat who voted against his party on cap-and-trade and healthcare. Others say the district needs a member that reflects the Republican population in the region.
“Chet Edwards fits the profile of the type of congressman Republicans will target this year,” said Isaac Wood, editor of political analyst Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball newsletter. “The GOP has pledged not to let him escape again.”
Democrats say it’s not time to panic.
“This message cannot be any clearer: The need for Democrats to unite, to organize and to get our vote has never been greater,” Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairman Steve Maxwell said in a note to party faithful.
One Democrat
Edwards faces no challenge from within his party, but five Republicans are seeking the nomination to face him in November.
Edwards, who is seeking his 11th term in Congress, drew national attention in 2008 when he was briefly considered as a potential running mate for Barack Obama.
He serves on the powerful House budget and appropriations committees and is co-chairman of the House Army Caucus.
He was one of several Democrats who saw their districts drastically redrawn in 2003 — and the only one of them to fend off GOP challenges.
“For several years, partisan groups in Washington, D.C., who don’t care about Texas have spent millions to defeat Chet, and all their efforts have failed because partisan attacks from D.C. outsiders don’t work here,” said Elizabeth Connor, an Edwards spokeswoman. “The voters of District 17 know Chet well and support him because he is a nationally respected champion for veterans who works hard and makes a positive difference for families in our district.”
Edwards won with 52.98 percent of the vote in 2008, 58.11 percent in 2006 and 51.19 percent in 2004. CQ Politics ranks District 17 as “likely Democratic” but notes that that could change at any time.
Five Republicans
The five vying for the District 17 GOP nomination are Bill Flores, Rob Curnock, Timothy Delasandro, Dave McIntyre and Chuck Wilson. Burgos said the NRCC, which initially tried to recruit Flores to run, will stay out of the primary and help the winner in November.
Flores, a Texas A&M University graduate and retired CEO of Phoenix Exploration Co., has ties to his alma mater, which has been a source of votes for fellow alum Edwards, even helping with the school’s presidential search committee after Robert Gates left to become secretary of Defense.
He is drawing fire from those who call him a “carpetbagger” who moved into the district solely to challenge Edwards and from those linking him to liberal financier George Soros. Flores has said he and his wife retired to the Brazos Valley three years ago.
Curnock, who ran and lost against Edwards in 2008, was a reporter and sports anchor at KWTX-TV in Waco before starting a video company in Waco. He won 45 percent of the vote in the 2008 contest.
He said he believes that the right candidate can beat Edwards this year. “When he endorsed Barack Obama and the agenda we’ve all seen over the past 12 months, it opened the eyes of many in this district,” he said. “They are now seeing that his voting record doesn’t match his rhetoric.”
McIntyre, former head of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M and the graduate program in homeland security at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, spent 30 years in the Army and served as dean of faculty at the National War College in Washington.
“This is one of the key reasons we keep losing against Mr. Edwards,” said McIntyre, of College Station. “We keep putting up good people, some of them with lots of money, but nobody who can compete at the national level. We keep sending in rookies against an NFL veteran, and he cleans their clock.”
Wilson, of Waco, who works in real estate, spent a decade as a CIA case officer. He won accolades for his role in the 1994 capture of Carlos the Jackal, a Venezuelan terrorist involved in, among other cases, the 1975 raid on OPEC headquarters in Vienna that killed three people.
“It’s a hard thing to be an incumbent in a year like this,” Wilson said. “Chet has got a difficult situation. He’s risen to leadership in a party whose values do not reflect the values of this district. . . . If we put the right candidate on the ticket, we’ll win. But we just can’t put anyone on the ticket.”
Delasandro, an intensive-care supervising nurse from College Station, served as a Russian language specialist for the Navy and a Soviet naval analyst for the National Security Agency. He said he’s the man who can topple Edwards
“I’m the most conservative and I’m the most passionate about our values,” he said. “I’m also an everyday person from this district. Our congressman must be representative of us. That must be someone like us.”
“This election will be a referendum on this administration,” Delasandro said. “Chet Edwards enables this administration, and the people can readily see that it is no longer safe.”
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