Don't Stand Too Close To A Craddick D
Rep. Burnam's endorsement of Dukes opponent makes split over speaker explicit.
By Richard Whittaker, 4:59PM, Fri. Jan. 11, 2008
While talking yesterday to Brian Thompson, aka The Man That Would be Dist. 46 Rep, he let it be known that he knew he would be getting a primary endorsement from Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, in his struggle against incumbent Dawnna Dukes.
In fact, he was pretty happy. Normally, such primary endorsements are pretty much verbotten, but if that's a sin, then Burnam sinned and sinned again. He also threw his support behind Sandra Rodriguez, who challenges Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Mission, after he took cash from the Craddick-connected HillCo PAC. He's also made an early bid for the Christmas Card list over at Armando Walle's office, chasing the Houston house seat held by Kevin Bailey (a man who has already rumbled that he's being picked on for his support of the speaker.)
The reality is, in Texas this year, some primary races are going to be about one issue: where do you stand on Tom Craddick? It's as much an issue amongst Republicans as it is amongst Democrats. With Burnam announcing that next week he'll talking about the new PAC, "Too Close to Craddick," that he's backing, there's one real question: is it going to be bi-partisan?
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Elections, Election 2008, Legislature, Tom Craddick, Brian Thompson, Dawnna Dukes, Lon Burnam