What was it that that turned the tide for 40-year-old former El Paso councilman Beto O'Rourke, a guero dude in a supermajority Latino Texas district, in his quest to unseat eight-term incumbent and totally cool drug warrior Congressman Silvestre Reyes? Was it the Drug War? Probably. Was it also almost $200 large for TV ads from everybody's favorite billionaire Cubs owner/embarrassed Rev. Wright chaser Joe Ricketts? That too!
O'Rourke is getting help from the Campaign for Primary Accountability, the anti-incumbent super-PAC funded in part by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts. The group has spent $195,000 on television, radio, and direct mail attacking Reyes for voting to raise his own pay (a common CFPA trope) and granting a federal contract to a firm that hired three of his kids.
And now O'Rourke has ousted Reyes with just over 50 percent of the primary vote, which means he will be the Congressman from Texas's 16th District. Districts that are 77 percent Latino may vote for an Irishman (if he's named "Beto" and looks like a Kennedy) but white is one thing, "Mitt Romney" something else entirely. So if crotchety old GOP billionaires want to help liberal Dems primary Blue Dogs in ultrasafe Democrat districts, you won't hear Wonkette pissing and bitching. [ LasCrucesNews ]
Pro-Pot Primary Challenger Harshes Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes's Mellow
Legalize it.