If you thought the Republican primary was nasty in Central Texas, get ready for the general election. Rep. Chet Edwards (D) welcomed his newly chosen Republican challenger Bill Flores to the race last night with a to-the-camera video slamming Flores for trying to “buy” the 17th district seat.
Edwards, who has held the seat in the Republican-leaning district for two decades, wasted no time in criticizing his rival, posting the ad within hours of Flores’ win.
As we reported yesterday, Flores’ voting record was a big sparring point in the runoff election that he won last night. He didn’t vote in the 2008 general election in which Edwards prevailed over Rob Curnock (R), and he actually voted in the Democratic primary in March 2008, when Republicans were trying to prolong the fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. (Flores beat Curnock last night.)
In his video message, Edwards said the race would “focus on two key facts” — his own record helping vets, and something negative:
“Mr. Flores has been recruited by Washington D.C. insiders to try to buy our district’s Congressional seat with millions of dollars he’s made as a Houston oil executive even though he has never once voted in a general election in our district, not even once.”
For his part, Flores said he was running to fix the “damage that Congress and this administration have created.” He earned 64 percent of the vote last night.
Also last night in Texas, Franciso Canseco defeated Will Hurd in the Republican runoff for the 23rd district, a seat held by Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D).
Watch the Edwards “opening statement”:
Late Update: Flores campaign manager Matt Mackowiak sent us a statement responding to the Web video:
Career politician Chet Edwards didn’t even wait 12 hours to begin desperately attacking, cynically suggesting that a person’s vote can be bought. The fact is that Texans are tired of Chet supporting Nancy Pelosi 97% of the time.
While Chet can run, he cannot hide from votes for higher taxes, the failed stimulus, outrageous bailouts, and two federal budgets that grew government 44% in two years. With Bill Flores, Texans have an important opportunity to begin repairing the damage that Obama, Pelosi and Edwards have done to the country.
