Rep. Henry Bonilla (R) Elected 1992, 6th term
Born:	Jan. 2, 1954, San Antonio
Home:	San Antonio
Education:	U. of TX, B.A. 1976
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	married (Deborah)
Professional Career:	TV Reporter, 1976-80; Asst. Press Secy., PA Gov. Thornburgh, 1981; Writer/producer, WABC, New York, 1982-85; Asst. News Dir., WATF-TV, Philadelphia, 1985-86; KENS-TV, San Antonio, Exec. News Producer, 1986-89, Public Affairs, 1989-92.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Offices · Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results District Demographics
More On Texas
At A Glance · State Profile District Map Redistricting · Almanac Home

"On the streets of Laredo," runs an old country song, summoning up images of lonely cowboys on dusty streets outside a row of saloons in a tiny town. But this is not the Laredo of today. Laredo, on the Rio Grande 150 miles south of San Antonio, is the main border crossing for U.S.-Mexico trade: some 9,000 trucks and 1,200 rail cars cross its three bridges (one 17 miles upriver) every day, with merchandise worth upward of $100 billion a year, more than through all the other border crossings combined. Laredo was America's second fastest-growing city in the 1990s, with more warehouse space than San Antonio and Austin combined; its old downtown streets with their bargain stores are still filled with Mexicans who cross the border on foot, but those with cars head up the freeway to malls, and the Wal-Mart here is said to be the chain's top producer per square foot. Incomes and housing prices in Laredo (population 310,000 in 2000) are low by U.S. standards, but far above those of Nuevo Laredo (population 500,000 in 2000) across the Rio Grande, and there is money to be made here. Laredo's Tony Sanchez, proprietor of a family oil and gas business and owner of International Bank of Commerce, became rich enough to spend $60 million on his campaign for governor of Texas in 2002.

The border country along the Rio Grande is in some ways a zone all its own, a mixture of the U.S. and Mexico, where many people have roots on both sides of the border. As Laredo Mayor Betty Flores says, "The river for us is more like some street that we cross; it's really not a border." Webb County, almost all of whose people live in Laredo, had a population 94% Hispanic in 2000, and fast food restaurants here feature enchiladas more than hamburgers. Los Dos Laredos share a minor league baseball team. Yet the predictions that Latinos would Mexicanize the United States don't seem to be panning out. Years ago, movements like La Raza Unida--which got its beginnings here in 1969 when Hispanic youngsters wanted to elect high school cheerleaders in Crystal City--wanted the border country to become more like Mexico, with its union and party apparatchiks. More recently, Mexico, with its economic reforms and NAFTA, and with the election of President Vicente Fox in July 2000, has been trying to become more like the United States, and particularly like Texas, with open markets and privatized companies, less controlled by political or labor bosses.

The 23d Congressional District includes Laredo and nearly 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. Geographically, it is roughly the size of Illinois. Most of the borderland is barren scrub, like most of the land between Laredo and San Antonio. Some of it is mountainous: the mountains around Big Bend National Park have attracted artists and other eccentrics, enchanted with the landscape, the clear air in which you can see for 180 miles and the wide variety of birds you can watch. On the north it stretches from the north side of San Antonio west almost to El Paso. Most of the population is clustered in urban areas--27% in Laredo and 20% in San Antonio. Some 5% each are in and around Del Rio and Eagle Pass. Overall, the district population is 67% Hispanic. Politically, there are wide differences within the district. Laredo and the border counties are mostly very Democratic. The district's portion of San Antonio and Bexar County is quite affluent and heavily Republican. The ranching counties with low Hispanic populations are also Republican. In 2000 the district voted 59% for George W. Bush. But in 2002, when Tony Sanchez's campaign produced a huge increase in turnout in Laredo and Webb County, the House race here was very closely contested.

The congressman from the 23d District is Henry Bonilla, a Republican first elected in 1992, when he beat a scandal-tarred incumbent. He was raised in a Latino neighborhood on the south side of San Antonio. His grandmother worked as a maid, and his father held down two jobs. Bonilla graduated from the University of Texas and then worked as a TV reporter, producer and executive in San Antonio, New York, Philadelphia and, starting in 1986, San Antonio again; his wife is an anchor for a San Antonio station. In 1991, Bexar County Republican leaders recruited Bonilla to run for Congress against incumbent Democrat Albert Bustamante, who reportedly was being investigated by the FBI for racketeering, who had 30 overdrafts on the House bank and who, after the election, was convicted of two counts of misuse of office for racketeering and bribery. Bonilla backed standard conservative planks but developed his own issues as well. Bustamante called Bonilla "a eunuch for the plantation owners" for opposing a minimum wage bill, but Bonilla won by a large 59%-38%, with most of his margin in San Antonio's Bexar County, which he won 81%-16%.

Republicans gave Bonilla a seat on Appropriations, where he has displayed a talent for placing deregulatory riders on appropriations bills--to eliminate funding for enforcing a rule on cardboard balers and to block the Labor Department from developing ergonomic standards. Bonilla voted enthusiastically for NAFTA and against gun control. He and Solomon Ortiz of the 27th District have been co-chairmen of the Border Caucus since 1997, and have worked successfully to get Mexico to abandon deposits on cars brought from the U.S. and to withdraw tax proposals which would affect U.S. companies operating maquiladoras and have sought equality in duty-free rules and reversal of a decision not to allow commuter students to attend U.S. colleges and universities. Bonilla has refused to join the Hispanic Caucus, lamenting that it lacks a bipartisan agenda, but he is cautious about banning racial quotas and preferences. He criticized a National Council of La Raza survey report. "All too often Hispanics are portrayed as victims, cowering in the neighborhoods, waiting for the federal government to rescue them. This is simply not the case," he wrote in July 2001. "There is a booming Hispanic middle class, with good prospects for future growth. Average Latino income has almost doubled in the past decade, and the amount of Latinos with a college education has risen almost 50%. … I don't know about the people who represent these 'professional minority' groups, but when I look in the mirror every morning I first see an American. I'm proud of my culture, but more proud and grateful to say I live in this country."

In January 2001 he became chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, one of the "college of cardinals." As an appropriator, Bonilla was hostile to the Republican leadership's attempt to confine the committee to the administration's $759 billion total for discretionary spending. In May 2002 he was one of three Republican appropriators who voted "present" on a rule that would impose that limit; three others voted no, but the leadership prevailed anyway 216-209. As chairman, he received in 2002 some 2,700 requests for special projects, some of which he wrote into the appropriations, most not. His appropriation was approved early by the full committee, on July 11, but it was not filed with the leadership until July 26, to avoid amendments. When there was talk that ranking minority member Marcy Kaptur would file an amendment to limit farm subsidies, a Bonilla aide let it be known that if she did Bonilla was prepared to zero out all her projects in the 2003 appropriation. He has earmarked money for district projects--$7 million for El Paso desalinization, $3 million for I-69 and $3.5 million for El Metro in Laredo, $461,000 for Texas A&M International University's English as a second language program--and he made sure to keep in money for a rail spur from San Antonio to the site of the newly announced Toyota plant. He serves on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and announced in September 2002 that San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston was chosen as the new home of the U.S. Army South. In March 2003 he announced a $16 million Colonias Gateway Initiative, a nonprofit entity to coordinate aid to colonias.

Bonilla was an early and enthusiastic supporter of George W. Bush for president. Redistricting in November 2001 did not change the district much, and he seemed to be on the way to easy reelection. Instead he had tough competition from Henry Cuellar, a state representative from Laredo from 1986 to 2000, who was appointed secretary of state by Governor Rick Perry in December 2000 and resigned in January 2002.

Bonilla said that he didn't need Laredo to win; he had never won more than 49% of the vote in Webb County. That didn't go over well with outgoing Webb County Republican Chairman Gene Belmares, who in January 2002 endorsed Cuellar. "If Henry Bonilla has said publicly that he does not need Laredo to win, and if he does not want to include us as Republicans, fine. I will support Henry Cuellar." It was clear that Tony Sanchez's campaign for governor would produce a big increase in voter turnout in Webb County, and Democrats hoped that would make Cuellar competitive. In February 2002, a Bonilla aide parked outside Democratic headquarters to see who would emerge from a Cuellar fundraiser; after that Bonilla was said to have threatened to retaliate against colleagues who did, and he exchanged harsh words with Ruben Hinojosa, Charles Gonzalez and Ciro Rodriguez. Cuellar attacked Bonilla for his votes against funding the CHIP program, passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, funding Pell grants, student loans, work study and classroom construction. And he accused him of being insufficiently Hispanic. "He said he 'doesn't wake up in the morning thinking he's Hispanic.' I don't know what he means by that."

Bonilla had the money advantage; he spent $2.4 million to Cuellar's $1 million. For most of the campaign, this race was not on either national party's radar screen. Bonilla had, after all, never won less than 59% of the vote. But despite miscues--he ended up hiring three campaign managers--Cuellar came up with an effective strategy given his comparative lack of funds. He started off by flying around to all the small communities in the district. Then he conducted an extensive blockwalking campaign in San Antonio and elsewhere; by August he claimed that he and his teams had walked every street in the district except in Laredo. He spent much of the last two months concentrating on turning out the vote in Webb County and only in the last month ran television ads. In Laredo he was helped by the great local enthusiasm for Tony Sanchez; Cuellar carried the county 84%-15%. On election night, that seemed to make the difference. Cuellar's 26,000-vote margin in Webb County gave him a 15,000 vote lead as the evening went on. But in San Antonio Bexar County officials were having trouble with their vote scanning machines. The final Bexar County totals were not reported until Wednesday night, and Bonilla's 75%-24% lead there erased Cuellar's lead and showed a 6,000-vote, 52%-47% victory for Bonilla. Cuellar acknowledged the loss, but seemed as if he were interested in a rematch. In 2003, national and Texas Democrats grumbled that Cuellar ran a flawed campaign; they were seeking a different challenger for 2004. How competitive this district will be in 2004 depends on whether Bonilla attracts a strong opponent and on whether the Webb County turnout was a onetime show of support for a local hero or the beginning of increased voter participation on the border.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, House Race Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

DC Office
2458 RHOB 20515, 202-225-4511; Fax: 202-225-2237; Web site: www.house.gov/bonilla

State Offices
Alpine, 915-837-1313; Del Rio, 830-774-6547; Laredo, 956-726-4682; San Antonio, 210-697-9055.

Committees

• Appropriations (11th of 36 R): Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA & Related Agencies (Chmn.); Defense; Foreign Operations & Export Financing.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	7	0	0	8	100	53	95	92	83	100
2001	0	--	0	0	--	--	61	96	92	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	15%	--	82%		9%	--	87%
Social	20%	--	69%		0%	--	75%
Foreign	0%	--	97%		15%	--	78%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Henry Bonilla (R)	77,573	52%	$2,413,172
	Henry Cuellar (D)	71,067	47%	$1,055,342
	Other	1,912	1%
2002 primary	Henry Bonilla (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Henry Bonilla (R)	119,679	59%	$1,050,250
	Isidro Garza, Jr. (D)	78,274	39%	$364,440
	Other	3,801	2%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (64%); 1996 (62%); 1994 (63%); 1992 (59%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	105,789	59%
	Gore (D)	74,727	41%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Twenty-Third District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 9
• District Size: 55,536 square miles
• Population in 2000: 651,619; 80.4% urban; 19.6% rural
• Median Household Income: $36,158; 22.1% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 21.8% blue collar; 61.0% white collar; 17.1% gray collar; 10.9% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 29.8% White, 1.4% Black, 1.0% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.7% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 66.8% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 6.8% German, 4.2% English, 3.9% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.