Fort Worth (Still) Blue

With a 77-73 majority in the House and an unpredictable general election ahead, Texas Republicans are looking to knock out a few Democratic incumbents. However their list of potential pickups just fell by one when House District 95 contender Monte Mitchell was forced to drop out because a filing error. His mistake? You can't run for two offices at once.

Mitchell was the sole GOP challenger to Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, who now has no opposition in either the primary or the general. So what happened to Mitchell? Tarrant County Republican Party chair Stephanie Klick explained, "He had filed for precinct chairman and then he came in and filed for House District 95 without withdrawing his initial filing. As such, the second filing is void."

Not that it would have been an easy fight: Veasey saw off his sole 2008 challenger, Libertarian Hy Siegel, with 96% of the vote, and it's traditionally been a seat that the Republicans have never even bothered trying to win. Neither Veasey nor his predecessor, Glenn Lewis, ever faced a Republican challenger.

However the upside for Republicans is that, while Veasey will now be free to work on other campaigns, Mitchell's exit may decrease local Democratic voter excitement come November. Some Travis County Democrats are rubbing their hands that tough-to-longshot Republican challenges against Democratic incumbents like Reps. Mark Strama and Eddie Rodriguez or Sen. Kirk Watson will motivate both their fundraising operations and their get-out-the-vote operations come November.