National
Journal Group
Learn more about our publications and sign up for a free trial.
E-Mail Alerts
Get notified the moment your favorite features are updated.
Need A Reprint?
Click here for details on reprints, permissions and back issues.
Advertise With Us
Details on advertising with National Journal Group -- both online and in print -- can be found in our online media kit.
Go Wireless
Get daily political updates on your handheld computer.
|
Last Updated June 22, 2005
Waco, at the intersection of lines from Dallas to Austin and Houston to Amarillo, is arguably the geographic and cultural heart of Texas. The city was named after Indians the Mexicans called Huecos; by the late 19th century it was one of the largest cotton markets in the world, a rip-roaring town with legalized prostitution and with a graceful ox-cart-wide suspension bridge across the Brazos which, when it opened in 1870, was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the United States and the second longest in the world. Waco was the home of atheist William Cowper Brann, author and publisher of The Iconoclast magazine, who was shot down in the streets but managed to kill his attacker. Waco is remembered now as the site of the tragedy of February 1993, when agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms moved in on David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound, Ranch Apocalypse, near Waco, and Koresh and his followers were burned to death in the ensuing fire. But Waco should be famous for other things as well. It is the home of Baylor University, the oldest college in Texas and the largest Baptist university in the world. In Waco's McLennan County, is the tiny town of Crawford, with its Rainey Creek, which traverses George W. Bush's 1,583-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch. Waco is only a little more than an hour away from the gallerias of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, but it is still in touch with Texas's rural roots, with the days when cotton was the basis of Texas's economy. The 17th Congressional District of Texas includes all of nine counties and parts of three more but is centered on Waco and two other population centers. To the north is Johnson County, directly south of Fort Worth's Tarrant County, a fast-growing (population rose 36% between 1990 and 2004) part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Once almost entirely rural, with odd settlements like the Mennonites in Grandview, it is now becoming suburban, or at least exurban. The other population center is Brazos County, whose largest city, College Station, is home to Texas A&M University. Its agricultural and military tradition sets it apart from the University of Texas; it has a more conservative atmosphere and is the site of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. It is a world-class university, with 44,000 students; its president is former CIA Director Robert Gates and it has opened a campus in Qatar. The political tradition in central Texas for over a century was Democratic, heavily so. This area voted for Democrat Hubert Humphrey in 1968, when most of the rural South went for George Wallace and Richard Nixon; it voted Democratic when Texas first elected a Republican governor in 1978 and voted for Democrat Ann Richards, a Waco native, in 1990. But it seems to have followed most of Texas and become Republican. George W. Bush carried the area when running for governor in 1994 and 1998; the district voted 68% for him for president in 2000 and 70% in 2004. This was in effect a new district created by the Republican redistricters in October 2003. Only 7% of its residents lived in the old 17th District, which stretched far to the west; it includes parts of six old districts. The incumbent here was Chet Edwards, a Democrat from Waco, who had proved able to win reelections in the heavily Republican 11th District. But only 35% of the residents of the new 17th District lived in his old district; he lost Fort Hood, and Johnson and Brazos Counties were new territory for him. The redistricters obviously intended to beat Edwards, but at least in 2004 they did not succeed. The congressman from the 17th District is Chet Edwards, a Democrat first elected in 1990, and only the third congressman from the Waco-centered district since 1937. Edwards is one of those highly skilled and motivated Democrats who has made politics his life--and who kept the Texas legislature and the U.S. House Democratic for so many years. He grew up in Corpus Christi, was a junior golf champion and graduated from Texas A&M, where he studied economics under Phil Gramm, then a conservative Democrat. He got the attention of 6th District Congressman Olin Teague when he invited Ralph Nader to a campus event: Teague berated Edwards at first, but was impressed enough to hire him as his district director when he graduated from A&M. In 1978, Teague retired and Edwards, at 26, ran for the seat. In the Democratic primary, Edwards wound up in third place, just 115 votes behind Phil Gramm, who went on to win the seat; if Edwards had won just 116 more votes, a lot of Texas and national political history would be different. Edwards went off to Harvard to get an M.B.A., returned and moved to Duncanville in southwest Dallas County, and at age 31 ran for the state Senate in 1982 and won. In 1990 when 11th District Democrat Marvin Leath retired, Edwards moved his residence to Waco, and ran for the 11th District seat unopposed in the Democratic primary. With a promise of an Armed Services Committee slot from Speaker Thomas Foley and strong support from Leath, Edwards won a 53%-47% victory. In the House, Edwards worked for Fort Hood and eventually won a seat on Appropriations, where he claims credit for $700 million in construction there. When Democrats were in the majority Edwards took conservative stands on some but by no means all issues. He worked successfully to stop the designation of 33 Texas counties as a critical habitat for the allegedly endangered golden-cheeked warbler and supported the Private Property Owners Bill of Rights. He voted against the Brady bill but for the assault weapons ban and the 1994 crime bill. After Democrats lost their majority in 1994, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt asked Edwards to serve as one of four chief deputy whips. Edwards accepted, but promptly voted for the Contract with America's balanced budget amendment and line-item veto. In 1998 and 1999 he led opposition to the school-prayer constitutional amendment and opposed a resolution for a national day of prayer and fasting after the Columbine shootings in 1999. Later that year, he sponsored an amendment to ban government funds for "pervasively sectarian" groups. He has been critical of George W. Bush's proposals to fund services provided by faith-based organizations; he also opposed the partial-birth abortion ban. On several measures, he has worked with the Democratic leadership, supporting a waiting period for sales at gun shows and opposing repeal of the estate tax. He has not been shy about using his seat on Appropriations to fund local projects. In the years running up to the 2003 redistricting, Edwards won reelection in an increasingly Republican district by narrowing margins. In 2000, against retired Texaco executive Ramsey Farley, who raised over $500,000 and attacked him on education, taxes and abortion, he won 55%-44%. In 2002 Farley ran again and national Republicans ran ads against Edwards arguing that he had the voting record of a Northeastern liberal. Edwards argued that he supported Bush on terrorism, education, welfare, energy and the Iraq war resolution. Edwards gleefully pointed out that Farley had said he "very vehemently" opposed Bush's education bill. Edwards spent $1.6 million to Farley's $614,000. Yet he won by only a 52%-47% margin. In January 2003 Edwards resigned his position as chief deputy whip to spend more time on district affairs. When the new district lines were announced in October 2003 it was obvious he would face a serious challenge. The Republicans had a spirited three-way primary. Waco school board president Dot Snyder spent $200,000 of her own money and started off well known in the district's largest population center. Retired Army Colonel Dave McIntyre spent only $61,000 but had a local base in College Station. The most controversial candidate was state Representative Arlene Wohlgemuth from Johnson County. She made a name in the legislature for the "Memorial Day massacre" in 1997, when in retaliation for the defeat of a parental consent bill she made a point of order that killed 52 bills, many sponsored by Republicans; the parental consent law was passed in 1999. In 2003, when Republicans finally won a majority in the state House, she shepherded through a reorganization of the state's health and human services department which, among other things, reduced enrollment in the CHIP children's health program. Wohlgemuth was supported by many religious conservatives and by the economic conservatives of the Club for Growth, which raised $374,000 for her. In the March 9 primary Wohlgemuth led with 41% of the vote; she won 68% in Johnson County. In second place was Snyder, with 31%; but she led Wohlgemuth in Waco's McLennan County by only 44%-35%. In third place was McIntyre, with 28%; he won 60% in Brazos County. In the five-week runoff campaign Wohlgemuth launched some sharp attacks on Snyder and argued that she was the stronger conservative. Wohlgemuth won with 55%; almost all of her margin came from Johnson County, where she won 68% of the vote. Now Edwards was facing an experienced and aggressive challenger in a district sure to vote for its local president by more than a 2-1 margin. "I am proud that I will be receiving the vote of President George W. Bush," Wohlgemuth frequently proclaimed. In the race for speaker, she said, she would not vote for "Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco." Her ads showed her with George W. Bush at the top of the stairs to Air Force One. She attacked Edwards for voting against the partial-birth abortion ban. "This is a Republican district. It deserves to have a conservative Republican representing it." Edwards responded aggressively. He attacked her as overly partisan. "While Mrs. Wohlgemuth is focusing on partisanship on every breath in this campaign, I find voters feel strongly, including Republicans, that we need less partisanship in Washington, not more." And he repeatedly charged that her health and human services bill had removed 147,000 children from the CHIP program; she said the real number was 26,000. He argued that his seniority and his seat on the Appropriations Committee made him much better positioned to help the district, and he cited the projects he had funded; he pledged to fight to keep the threatened Waco VA hospital open. "I respect President Bush, and I have strongly supported him in his war on terror and his energy and education bills. But my philosophy has never changed. When I think an administration is doing right for district and country, I will support them. When it is not, I respectfully disagree." It seemed obvious that both candidates would carry their home bases and so they campaigned heavily elsewhere, with frequent debates--two in one day in October. Brazos County was a key battleground. Edwards signed off in his ads for the Bryan-College Station TV market by saying, "I'm Chet Edwards, Class of '74, and I approved this message." Wohlgemuth reminded locals that her two daughters had graduated from A&M and that therefore she was an "Aggie mom." Both candidates stayed off expensive Dallas-Fort Worth TV for most of the time, but advertised elsewhere. Edwards spent $2.7 million to her $2.6 million. Wohlgemuth raised money from local and national conservatives and was the beneficiary of $325,000 in national Republican ads. Edwards raised large sums from the unions and trial lawyers who had been his allies since his days in the Texas Senate. Edwards was one of five white male Democratic incumbents in Texas seriously threatened by the 2003 redistricting (another one retired), and he was the only one to win, by a 51%-47% margin. In McLennan and Bosque Counties, the only two counties in his old 11th District, he led 63%-36%, a big improvement over his 2002 showing there, and an impressive 30% ahead of John Kerry. In Johnson County and the two adjacent counties in the DFW media market, Wohlgemuth led 61%-37%, running 13% behind Bush. Edwards ran ahead of Wohlgemuth by 268 votes in Brazos County and carried all but one of the smaller counties, running ahead 55%-44%. After the election Edwards continued to talk about the need for bipartisanship and approached DeLay on the House floor and urged that they cooperate on Texas issues. He said he would continue to look after Fort Hood on the Military Construction Subcommittee though it is no longer in his district.
Committees
National Journal Group offers both print and electronic reprint services, as well as permissions for academic use, photocopying and republication. Click here to order, or call us at 877-394-7350. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW FEATURE
[ Site Index | Staff | Privacy Policy | E-Mail Alerts ]
[ Reprints And Back Issues | Content Licensing ]
[ Make NationalJournal.com Your Homepage ]
[ About National Journal Group Inc. ]
[ Employment Opportunities ]
Copyright 2013 by National Journal Group Inc.
The Watergate · 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-739-8400 · fax 202-833-8069
NationalJournal.com is an Atlantic Media publication.
