Election Day

I predict there will be a run off. Morales hurts Ciro more than Cuellar.

This TX-28 race is much tougher than I think the folks at Kos and FDL, et al, expect. There are some heavy hitters batting for Cuellar (more in a moment) but look at what the San Antonio Express News wrote today in endorsing Henry:


"Democratic voters in the 28th Congressional District ousted Ciro Rodriguez two years ago in a close, controversial primary election.

Rep. Henry Cuellar won the primary and went on to defeat a Republican to win the seat.

Now, Rodriguez is trying to regain the job. Dallas-area schoolteacher Victor Morales also is seeking the post.

Cuellar has worked hard and demonstrated an independent nonpartisan mind-set that angered labor unions and other liberal interest groups.

Rather than change horses again, Democratic voters should keep Cuellar, a Laredo lawyer, in Washington. He has earned another term.

No Republican is seeking the post this year.

Standing up to fierce partisan pressure, Cuellar voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement. It was the right decision for a border congressman, particularly one with Laredo in his district. Laredo has blossomed under the North American Free Trade Agreement, and increased trade with southern neighbors is a boon for the border region as well as San Antonio.

The congressman angered some Democrats with his willingness to work with Republicans, but extreme partisanship is a cancer that threatens to destroy the nation's political system.

Cuellar's willingness to place his district ahead of his political party is refreshing.

The Laredoan's decision to challenge Rodriguez two years ago was surprising because the two had been friends.

Animosity and controversy from two years ago is not reason enough to retreat, and Cuellar is far more politically skilled than Rodriguez or Morales.

The congressman is attuned to the key issues of the region, including border violence and infrastructure needs.

Cuellar's first term has demonstrated that voters in the district, which stretches from Laredo through South San Antonio and north to Hays County, will be best served by staying the course with the incumbent."

Look, 38 people have died on or near the International Bridge in Laredo since January. Vicente Fox has mobilized the Mexican Army from Laredo to Matamores search cars at random (i.e. harrassing Americans) for drug interdiction. The wait at the border to cross is four hours on the average. The highways are still unfinished, there is no affordable housing, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, food stamps, HUD, school funding has been slashed. The Express is tanking for Boy King, and who knows why - they live in a Democratic city. What possible reason could they have for going ass up on this...hmm...

From the Laredo Morning Times:

Cuellar leads the pack in contributions

By TRICIA CORTEZ
LAREDO MORNING TIMES

Candidates seeking election to the U.S. Congress often raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for staff, political polls, advertising and consultants, among other items.

Henry Cuellar, Laredo's freshman representative for District 28, has raised $645,791. San Antonio opponent Ciro D. Rodriguez has raised $192,382, according to reports on the Federal Election Commission Web site.

The FEC campaign summary reports only cover the current election cycle through Dec. 31, 2005.

The third challenger, Victor Morales of Crandall, has taken the unusual step of refusing to accept special interest money and had raised only $101 as of Dec. 31.

Amounts raised by Cuellar, Rodriguez and Morales do not include personal or bank loans.

Morales has about $11,126 in cash on hand - a carryover from his previous campaigns for U.S. House and U.S. Senate - but it's still a far cry from Cuellar's $290,833 in cash on hand and Rodriguez's $43,070.

While Cuellar had spent $341,715 on his campaign through Dec. 31, Rodriguez had spent $160,433 and Morales had spent $10,648.

Roughly two-thirds of Cuellar's contributions are from individuals, but the largest checks are from special interests and political action committees.

Some of the biggest PAC donations to the Cuellar campaign from October through December came from USAA, Altria, Wal-Mart, Koch Industries, Home Depot, Centerpoint Energy, Chevron Texaco, Intel, Proctor & Gamble, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and others.

Larger individual contributions to Cuellar included USAMEX Logistics, the Austin law firm of Johnson & Johnson, Laredo housewife Carmen Wright, Austin lobbyist Mario Martinez, John and Cecilia Keck of Laredo, and Rod Lewis of Lewis Energy, among others.

Cuellar also received contributions from physicians, attorneys, developers, builders, ranchers, bankers, architects, top management from SBC and Philip Morris, and other businesspeople.

Those businesspeople include B.J. "Red" McCombs, Tom Frost, Russell Deutsch, Luis Portugal, Arturo Bazan, Edward and George Beckelhymer, Gerardo Garcia, and many others.

The latest report, from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, shows that Cuellar personally contributed about $104,263 to his campaign and is still paying an outstanding loan from IBC.

As for Rodriguez, some of his biggest contributors were unions such as the AFL-CIO, Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers and the National Association of Letter Carriers."

Ciro's only hope was for this race to be a referendum on Bush because the BIG ASS institutional money is going to Cuellar. They are robbing the poor on the border and in Mexico, and nothing like justice is gonna stand in their way. They don't need no stinking badges. (Thanks to Alfonso Bedoya)