Texas BOMA: 2008 Primary Election Results
by Robert D. Miller, Yuniedth Midence Steen, and Gardner Pate

Texas recently held its Republican and Democratic primary and runoff elections. The United States Presidency was not the only office on the ballot this cycle, although you may not have known that from the media coverage. One of Texas’s United States Senate seats is up for election this year, as are all 32 United States Congressional seats. Finally, all 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives and 15 of the 31 state senators will be on the November general election ballot.

In the Presidential race, Senator Clinton defeated Senator Obama in the Democratic primary, even though it appears that Senator Obama will ultimately gain more delegates from Texas based on the post-election caucuses. Senator John McCain clinched the Republican party’s nomination for President with his win in Texas. In the race for Texas’s U.S. Senate seat, Rick Noriega, currently a State Representative from Houston, impressively won the Democratic nomination without a runoff, and will face incumbent Senator John Cornyn in November.

Texas State Senate races yielded two winners in contested primaries. Joe Jaworski won the Democratic nomination for State Senator representing Brazoria and Galveston County and will face incumbent Republican Senator Mike Jackson. Senator Judith Zaffirini of Laredo held onto her seat by defeating her opponent by a wide margin in the Democratic race.
The more closely watched of the state races were those for House of Representatives. Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland) has been under fire by many. His opponents targeted several current State Representatives who were loyal to Craddick, hoping to cut down on his base of support. When all was settled, Craddick had a very strong showing, net gaining at least four new supporters.

On the Republican side, Speaker Craddick kept Representatives Doc Anderson, Betty Brown, Frank Corte, Joe Crabb, John Davis, Phil King, Jerry Madden, and Bill Zedler. Four of Craddick’s former supporters retired. Randy Weber, who won the primary to replace Mike O’Day, won his primary outright, and has pledged to Craddick. In the other three races, Craddick supporters won in the April 8 runoff elections; namely, Bryan Daniel (replacing Mike Krusee), Ralph Sheffield (replacing Dianne White Delisi), and Angie Chen Button (replacing Fred Hill). Craddick lost some supporters, namely Representatives Macias, Latham, and Van Arsdale, but he picked up support from Mike Anderson (defeated Rep. Latham), Allen Fletcher (defeated Rep. Van Arsdale), Ken Legler (won the runoff to replace Rep. Talton), Tryon Lewis (defeated Rep. Buddy West in a runoff), Dee Margo (defeated Rep. Haggerty), and Mark Shelton (defeated Bob Leonard). At the end of the primary season, Speaker Craddick had a net gain of three Republicans (assuming all those seats stay in Republican hands).

On the Democratic side, Speaker Craddick kept three of his four “Craddick D’s”, and added at least two more. Representatives Dawnna Dukes, Kino Flores, and Aaron Pena all won their primary elections, and all support the Speaker. Craddick supporter Kevin Bailey lost his contest. While that put Craddick down one supporter, he picked up two more when former Rep. Al Edwards defeated incumbent Boris Miles in a rematch of their 2006 race, and Tara Rios Ybarra defeated incumbent Rep. Juan Escobar. This gave Speaker Craddick a net gain of one Democratic supporter, with the potential to pick up an additional supporter in Marissa Marquez, who defeated long-time State Representative Paul Moreno.
Because of Craddick’s success in maintaining his narrow lead, it is certain the Speaker’s contest will continue through November. Speaker Craddick managed to keep most of his supporters, and even pick up seats, something few observers expected him to do. It now all comes down to the general election. If the Republican hold or gain seats, Craddick is likely to be reelected as Speaker. If the Democrats have a net gain of two or more House seats in the November elections, it is likely that there will be a new Speaker in January 2009.

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