The Democrats have added another seat to their list of Congressional Districts that span la frontera with our friends to the south. And yes, they are our friends, contrary to the rabid ravings of the Tom Tancredo-wing of the GOP (and Joe Biden).
Democratic former Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez (news, bio, voting record) upset Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla (news, bio, voting record) in a House runoff election Tuesday in southwestern Texas’ 23rd District, pushing the Democrats’ net gain to 30 House seats and concluding Campaign 2006 with one final stunning come-from-behind victory for the new House majority party.
Rodriguez, who served in the House from 1997 to 2005 in an adjacent district, scored a surprisingly strong 55 percent of the vote with 97 percent of precincts reporting (results). Bonilla, who was seeking an eighth term, had 45 percent of the vote. Bonilla fell well short of the nearly 49 percent he received in the Nov. 7 “blanket primary” that set the matchup for Tuesday’s runoff.
So let’s take a look at the chess board. I’ll provide a link to their stances on the issues.
District 53 – Susan Davis (D)
District 51 – Bob Filner (D)
Baja Arizona:
District 7 – Raúl Grijalva (D)
District 8 – Gabrielle Giffords (D)
Nuevo Mexico:
District 2 – Steve Pearce (R)
Tejas:
District 16 – Silvestre Reyes (D)
District 23 – Ciro Rodriguez (D)
District 28 – Henry Cuellar (D)
District 15 – Rubén Hinojosa (D)
District 27 – Solomon Ortiz (D)
Hmmm. Maybe we are taking over. ¡Ja ja ja ja!
On a serious note – this should snap some reality into the foggy brains of legislators who live far, far away from the U.S./Mexico border who insist on passing initiatives that affect our way of life in a negative way.
There is an overwhelmingly strong mandate for comprehensive immigration reform with that list of candidates. So stop sending your gun-wielding troops and focus on the real culprit of the human rights disaster unfolding everyday in our deserts – economic elitism.
Crossposted from my humble blog
Update [2006-12-13 20:7:48 by Man Eegee]: XicanoPwr has more analysis over at his blog.
If you’re a visual person, here is a good site with maps of Congressional Districts. Keep in mind that Texas is all effed up with their redistricting shenanigans.
YEEEEEEEEEEE HAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Texas is learning or at least part of us are.
the win, refi. This is especially sweet since it sticks a thumb in the eye of Tom DeLay and the rest of the redistricting power brokers.
Thanks!!!! We keep working on turning Texas back blue and we are getting there. Travis County has always stayed blue and Dallas County went blue this past election cycle. Williamson County had the largest dem turn out in years and not a single precinct was totally red!!!
why I continue to harp about this, even though I am a U.S. citizen, this is why: (courtesy of the TPMuckrakers)
The policies might not be racist, but the people carrying them out have a shitty track record.
has more info, including the reactions from some of the families of those rounded up like livestock.
It’s really creepy that all these people can be herded into buses and are at some ‘undisclosed location’.
I wonder how far these Immigration and Homeland Security goons would get if they rounded up between 1 to 5 thousand CEO’s(for their willfully hiring immigrants so they can have bigger and better salaries and bonuses)and took them off to an undisclosed location-yeah right like that will ever ever happen.
It continues to be a massive waste of taxpayer money to go after the immigrants instead of the CEO’s and managers who hire them.
Peace on earth and goodwill to all this season unless of course you are the wrong skin color. Let’s make sure the season is particularly horrible for all these people and their families. Sick bastards. And I bet Lou Dobbs will be drooling over this story today also.
situation stinks to low hell (as opposed to high heaven). I was reading earlier – can’t recall where – and they were mentioning that the plants had just finished up the Christmas shipments so the company’s bottom line wouldn’t be affected for the holidays. Nevermind the workers’ families.
I read about the willingness of the electorate to go after employers and I wonder if we really know what the implications are if the raids continue to spread. It’s serving as a fast-track path to the shadows for a community that the entire country would be better served by if they were out in the open. I dunno, complicated stuff, as usual, but one thing is clear to me – the timing of this really sucks.
where a teenage child of one of the arrested workers said she would now have to quit high school and get a job. Very sad, indeed.
over at Latina Lista, wrote this:
Great diary, MG!
I am so delighted to see Bonilla retired and Rodriguez returned to Congress where he belongs! This is a strong blow to the ridiculous use of immigration as a fear-inducing rightwing issue, as well as gesture of contempt for the terrible redistricting in Texas.
Hotline had this to say regarding the race:
Perhaps people are starting to get it that all these hardliner policies are being used to dredge out the worst in law enforcement and society in general.
I looked at the county-by-county results, and it was pretty much as I thought it might be (I used to live in Bexar county, spent lots of time in the surrounding counties). I could not see how Bonilla could survive with any kind of fairish redo of the 23rd district along with his execrable attitudes on immigration. I found it amusing that two days before the election, the Washington Post was commenting how unlikely it was for Rodriguez to win – because Ciro hadn’t speak a fortune on TV ads. Shows how little the MSM understands of talking among the people, and how much damage the ridiculous bushite policies have done to the repub dreams of being the party for chicanos and other Latinos in Texas and elsewhere.