Texas House Candidates Jockey for Position

The 2014 primary elections are still months away, but the candidates are already jockeying for position. The races for Texas House Districts 102 and 112, both of which include parts of Richardson, are particularly active, especially given the early date.

After the jump, a look at who's who.

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House District 102

Richardson residents in Texas House District 102 are already winners in that incumbent Stefani Carter has decided not to run for re-election. Apparently, she's trying to parlay her support for gas frackers over homeowners into a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission. Richardson's gain might be Texas's loss.

To replace Carter, former Dallas City Council member Linda Koop has the name recognition to win the GOP nomination and general election. She apparently plans to coast to victory on that name recognition alone as her campaign website has nothing in the way of her position on the issues. Zero, zilch, nada.

Koop faces opponents in retired Army Capt. Samuel Brown and regular tea party rally speaker Adryana Boyne.

Brown offers only boilerplate conservative issues (fighting wasteful spending, red tape, business regulation and high taxes, giving more money to our state Attorney General to fight Obamacare).

Adryana Boyne projects an image even more extreme than Stefani Carter, if that's possible (fighting Obamacare, gay marriage, gun control, reproductive rights, voting rights, etc., you know the routine).

The odd man out in this race was George Clayton, former State Board of Education member who lost his re-election bid in the 2012 GOP primary. In July, 2013, he announced he was running for House District 102. Then, in October, Clayton announced he was switching parties and would run as a Democrat. Sigh. All that is par for the course for George Clayton. Here's what I had to say about him last March:

Clayton came out of nowhere in 2010 to upset longtime State Board of Education member Tincy Miller in the GOP primary. In 2012, he announced he wouldn't run for re-election to the SBOE, but instead would run against Rep. Angie Chen Button in House District 112, only to drop out of that race when the courts threw out the state legislature's partisan gerrymandering and Clayton discovered he didn't live within the district's boundaries. So, he went back to running for re-election to his SBOE seat, only to be buried in a big loss in the GOP primary, as Tincy Miller reclaimed the seat. Now, in 2013, he filed to run for the RISD school board, only to withdraw just before the deadline.

Source: The Wheel.

House District 112

Angie Chen Button has represented Texas House District 112 since 2008. She drives down the middle of the right lane in the Texas House. Her issues are standard conservative boilerplate (for lower taxes, smaller government, border security, against reproductive rights, voting rights, gun control, etc.). She probably believes most of it. She is a safe vote for underfunding schools, health care, roads, water, and other necessities of a modern state.

She has drawn a challenger in Jared Patterson, who believes, apparently sincerely, that Angie Chen Button and the Texas legislature aren't conservative enough. He thinks they spend "lavishly." As SNL's Seth and Amy would say, "Really?!?" If Angie Chen Button is in the right lane, Patterson is in the right ditch.

Texas House District 112 has also drawn a Democratic candidate. I think. It's Kimberly Williams. Her Facebook profile lists her political views as "Progressive Party," which is kind of an odd way for a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination to put it. Her campaign website is pretty sketchy when it comes to her campaign platform, but to her credit, she is the only candidate for either of these two House seats who says she will "fight to make sure our public schools are fully funded." Run, Kimberly, run. Someone's got to say it.