(cross-posted at Texas Kaos)
After a hiatus that lasted longer than I planned, I'm back at the Texas Congressional Race diary series. I'm doing this as a sort of counter-part to the incredible work BENAWU is doing elsewhere on DKos.
Having covered West, North, and South Texas, it's time to have a look at the Eastern portion of our fair state. I'll be covering CDs 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 17, after the fold.
TX-01
Home of Lufkin, Tyler, and Nacogdoches, this piece of Texas owns Republican incumbent Louie Gohmert. It was a 70/30 split for Bush in 04, and Democrat Roger Owen fell to Gohmert in 06 with a 30.6% vote.
There is currently no Democratic challenger in this race.
TX-02
This is another one of those "interesting" districts that is shaped, well, oddly. Port Arthur, LaPorte, Kingwood, Beaumont, Spring...yeah, these go together...All sort of suburbs of Houston, kind of.
Gary Binderim ran for this seat in 2006, but came away with 32.69%. This cycle, Conrad Allen is researching a run. There is no campaign website that I can find, but I hope Mr. Allen hangs in there to take on Ted Poe.
TX-05
By now, I am really starting to distrust anybody named Jeb. Hensarling has been a piece of crap, and in 2006, Charlie Thompson held him to 61.76% (gathering 35.58 for himself). The 'burbs of Dallas to Palestine have no Democratic challenger at this time.
TX-06
Home of "Smokey" Joe Barton, this stretch of Texas had a great champion in Democrat David T. Harris. Unfortunately, David isn't running again, despite pulling in 37.07%. It doesn't look like Ol' Smokey is going to run again, which is good. A rumored Republican replacement is George P. Bush. Let me just say "oh, for the love of all that is holy, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Folks, seriously. We need a candidate here, STAT.
TX-08
From Huntsville to the Sabine River, this district is represented by Kevin Brady. James Wright pulled in 32.73% in 2006, but I can't tell if he's running again. Benawu has him confirmed according to the Wiki, but the page isn't loading for me. Run, James, RUN!
East Texas is looking a little like a wasteland of Red, at this point, so I have to bring in the one Democratic incumbent in the bunch. One that tends to chap more Democratic hides than he sooths, but calls himself a D anyway. You guessed it, our Chet Edwards.
TX-17
Chet is running again. For this, I am grateful. That's about all I'm going to say, because I can't be all nice after that. It's good to have a Democrat representing the Bush "ranchlette."
That's it for the East side. I'll try to hit up Harris County and DFW in the next two diaries, and wrap up with Central Texas later. Thanks for playing along, folks. And if you know anything that I missed, feel free to chime in.