The Democrats pick up a Texas House seat! The special election House district 48 (in which I reside) came about after state representative Todd Baxter resigned "to spend more time with his family" by which he means he was involved in the Tom DeLay scandal--Baxter had taken money from Hot Tub's Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, at the center of his upcoming money laundering scandal. (click
here for more stories.
Democrat Donna Howard took the election with 57% of the vote against her Republican opponent, Ben Bentzin, despite a desperate smear campaign launched by the the Texas Republican party. Hopefully Howard will be able to hold on this seat now that she has it; Travis County is pretty liberal, but north Austin tends to be more conservative. Still, it's yet another ray of hope as we approach the mid-terms.
Addendum: Todd Baxter didn't just take a little money from DeLay's PAC. In the last month or so before the 2002 elections, Baxter received over $15,000 DeLay's committees, most of it ($13,373) from TRMPAC. That is according to the paperwork Baxter's campaign filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.