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Fields set for May primaries
By Bill Conrad, bconrad@starlocalnews.com
Collin County is dominated by the Republican Party and that is not going to change after the November 2012 elections.
The filing period closed last week and the May 29 primaries and November general election are going to be heavy with Republican candidates once again. Only one Democrat has filed for a state legislative seat, while three have filed for seats in the U.S. House. No Democrats will run for county-wide office.
Disputes over the state's redistricting process caused the filing period, which initially concluded in December, to be reopened from March 2-9. During that time, several candidates dropped out of races while several others officially filed to run, but the action was minimal compared to the number of applications filed in December.
"We are way ahead of where we normally are because there are a dozen open seats in the county, not counting state-wide offices" he said. "We have an open seat at the Commissioners Court and a whole bunch of judges. We always see more interest when you have open seats because you never want to take on an incumbent because they have a huge advantage right off the bat."
McCord's statement proved true in the races for legislative seats, as incumbents Van Taylor (House District 67) and Jodie Laubenberg (House District 89) drew no challengers from the two major parties. Laubenberg, however, will be opposed in November by Libertarian Bob Worthington.
On the other hand, the open seats of state Senate District 8, and state House Districts 33, 67 and 70 drew considerably more interest.
Candidates from three parties will vie for the open senate seat. Jack Ternan, the sole Collin County Democrat seeking a legislative spot, will go up against Republican Ken Paxton and Libertarian Ed Kless in the November election. Paxton originally had a challenger, but Scott O'Grady officially withdrew during the most recent filing period after having suspended his campaign in January.
The three house seats are solely Republican-affairs, with Bracy Wilson and Scott Sanford seeking the McKinney-centric District 70 spot, which is currently held by Paxton; and Scott Turner and Jim Pruitt seeking the District 33 seat, a new seat spanning from Frisco to Rockwall which was created due to the counties growth over the past decade.
The position which has drawn the most interest is District 67, which includes portions of Plano, Allen and Richardson. Five Republicans -- Jon Cole, Jeff Leach, Jeran Akers, John Pitchford and Roger Burns -- are seeking the seat. The field was even more crowded before the most recent filing period, during which time Richardson attorney Mabel Simpson withdrew from the race.
"The issues facing our district are not going to be put on hold until the election is decided," Simpson said last month after suspending her campaign. "I think I can make a bigger impact by withdrawing from the race now and immediately beginning to work on finding solutions."
Two long-time members of the U.S. House of Representatives will also have challengers during the May primaries. In District 3, Republican Sam Johnson will face off against Harry Pierce and Josh Caesar. There is also a Libertarian Party candidate in the race, Chris Claytor.
In District 4, incumbent Ralph Hall is being challenged by Steve Clark and Lou Gigliotti. Clark is a late entrant into the race, filing on March 9. A previous candidate for the District 4 seat, John Cooper, recently withdrew from the race. The winner of the District 4 Republican primary will face off against Democrat VaLinda Hathcox and Libertarian Thomas Griffing during the November election.
Also, while U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is running unopposed in the Republican primary in District 32, which is centered in Dallas but also includes Wylie, two Democrats are running for the seat: Walter Hofheinz and Katherine Savers McGovern. Libertarians Brian Zoch and Seth Hollist are also seeing the seat. The Libertarian candidate will be determined at the Libertarian Party District Conventions on March 24.
Four district judge seats are up for election: the 199th, 380th, 401st and 416th. During the March filing period, the only two changes to the original list of candidates from December was that Piper McCraw dropped out of the 380th race, while James Mosser switched his candidacy from the 380th to the 401st, where he will challenge incumbent Mark Rusch.
Early voting for the May 29 primary begins on May 14. If needed, a runoff election will be held July 31.
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