Primary Contests

The race for President may be over by the time it gets to Texas (though it doesn't look like that today!). In any case, we may not get a chance to vote on all of those candidates here, since Gravel didn't get filed in this state, and Kucinich's otherwise-adequate application was rejected under our rules because (unlike four years ago) this time he refused to sign the accompanying oath that he would support the nominee of the party. He has filed suit, so the courts will decide.

For U.S. Senator there are four contestants (see the link from the state party list at the end of this post to find their websites). Rick Noriega is a State Representative who has been campaigning for months, and Ray McMurrey is a schoolteacher who got in the race some time back. The other two are the perennial do-nothing candidate Gene Kelly, and a fourth last-minute candidate who ran for the Republican nomination for Governor two years ago, and says he is running for President as well -- as a Republican.

In other statewide contests, there is a three-way race for Railroad Commission, between one of our former candidates, Dale Henry, a San Antonio councilman, Art Hall, and a disabilities therapist, Mark Thompson. For the Supreme Court, there are two contests. For place 7, Sam Houston faces Baltasar D. Cruz (who lost the primary here two years ago when he challenged incumbent Democratic Judge Sally Montgomery.) For place place 8, two Democratic Judges have filed, Susan Criss and Linda Yanez, but there were questions raised about the number of signatures on Yanez's fiiling petition, which her campaign believes have been fixed, but
which may have to be determined by the courts.

Locally, there are several more primary contests, for:

• U.S. Representative District 3 -- Tom Daley, Ronald E. (Ron) Minkow
  
• U.S. Representative District 32 -- Dennis C. Burns, Stephen L. Love, Eric Roberson
  
• State Representative District 104 -- Roberto R. Alonzo (the incumbent), Harry O. Trujillo
  
• State Representative District 105 -- Jim Rea, Bob Romano
  
• Dallas County Sheriff -- Lupe Valdez (the incumbent), Sam Allen, Pete Schulte, Roy H. Williams
  
• Dallas County Tax Assessor-Collector -- Diana L. Lackey, John R. Ames, Norris "Stretch" Rideaux, Se-Gwen Tyler
  
• Judge, 14th Judicial District Court -- Eric V. Moye, Gerald Livingston
  
• Judge, Criminal District Court No. 2 -- Don Adams (the incumbent), Larry Baraka
  
• Judge, Criminal District Court No. 3 -- Heath Harris, Gracie G. Lewis, David Jordan
  
• Judge, Criminal District Court No. 4 -- John Creuzot (the incumbent), Hiram McBeth III
  
• Constable Precinct No. 5 -- Jaime Cortes (the incumbent), Beth Villarreal, Ozumba Lnuk-X

Again, for local campaign websites, see this DCDP page; for statewide candidates, see this TDP page; for a listing of all (including the District Court of Appeals), see my site. If none of the candidates in any race gets a majority in the primary in March, there will be a runoff between the top-two vote-getters one month later.