Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D)

The congressman from the 20th District is Charles Gonzalez, a Democrat first elected in 1998. He is one of eight children of former U.S. Rep. Henry Gonzalez, who held the seat for 37 years. Charles Gonzalez grew up in San Antonio, graduated from the University of Texas and St. Mary’s University School of Law, and served in the Texas Air National Guard. He was an elementary school teacher, practiced law and served as a judge from 1983 to 1997. When his father announced his retirement, Charles Gonzalez was the front-runner for the seat, but the contest was more competitive than many had expected. Gonzalez campaigned as a consensus builder, emphasizing his background in negotiation and compromise. Symbolizing the economic transformation of San Antonio, he said he would work for the entire district, not simply its low-income groups. Taking a feistier tone was Maria Berriozabal, a former San Antonio City Council member, who called for more outspoken leadership. She displayed a picture of Henry Gonzalez in her campaign literature and claimed that she was more in his mold than was his son. Just before the March primary, Henry Gonzalez issued a brief statement endorsing his son, who wound up leading Berriozabal 44%-22%. In the April runoff campaign, he benefited from a fundraising advantage of more than 2-to-1 and mostly ignored his opponent. He won 62%-38% and went on to easily win the general election.

In the House, Gonzalez has a relatively moderate voting record, especially on economic issues. He has a seat on the influential Energy and Commerce Committee, and during the committee’s debate on climate-change legislation in 2009, he advocated incentives for the nuclear-power industry. He backed a proposal to require satellite-television operators to end a practice that forced users to have two satellite dishes to receive channels in both English and Spanish. Gonzalez also has called for stiffer penalties on businesses that hire undocumented workers.

As a member of both the Democratic Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus—which his father had refused to join—Gonzalez has been a leading proponent of census sampling, which statistically estimates the number of members in a community for use in redistricting processes and generally increases population totals for immigrant communities. But he opposed Latino activists who wanted to create an additional Hispanic-majority district for Texas in the 2001 redistricting, arguing that because of low voter turnout among Hispanics, such a step would reduce the Democratic majorities in other districts, an argument corroborated by subsequent redistricting in the state. After Democrats gained the majority in the 2006 elections, he led the House Administration Committee review of the contested 2006 result in the 13th District of Florida, in which Democrat Christine Jennings lost by 369 votes; more than 18,000 ballots had not been recorded. The panel unanimously dismissed the case in February 2008, after concluding that voting machines had not malfunctioned.

In 2004, Gonzalez faced his first re-election challenge since taking office, and it had unusual personal overtones. Initially, his ex-wife, Becky Whetstone, a marriage and family therapist, said that she would run against him so that voters would have a choice and he would be “held accountable.” But she failed to get the 500 signatures required to get on the ballot as an independent. In the general election, Gonzalez beat Republican Roger Scott 65%-32%.

Gonzalez was among the few Hispanics in Congress who endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois early in the presidential primaries. He said Obama brought “the wind of change.”