By Greg Giroux CQ-Roll Call
Republicans in the San Antonio area are being asked to decide whether ideology or ethnicity matters most as they vote on a House nominee. This district is made up of people who work for a living who are concerned about health care who are concerned about national security just like voters in any other district."
We believe that voters in district 23 will elect the candidate who is most in line with their views and we dont believe that candidate has to be Hispanic" said Barry Hammond a spokesman for the campaign of Will Hurd a former CIA case officer.
Rival Francisco Quico" Canseco a lawyer and real estate businessman argues that to defeat sitting Democrat Ciro D. Rodriguez You need somebody like me
Francisco Canseco to go up against Ciro Rodriguez and bring all of the independent populations of this diverse area into a conservative fold and wrest it from the incumbent" said Canseco who speaks fluent Spanish.
The 23rd Congressional district which runs for 600 miles along the Rio Grande is about two-thirds Hispanic. In the 2008 election Republican nominee Lyle Larson a non-Hispanic county commissioner took 42 percent of the vote against Rodriguez while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took 48 percent of the vote for president.
The ballot in Tuesdays primary gives GOP voters five choices of potential nominees so many names that a second round of voting next month may be needed to determine a nominee.
Canseco who ran for the seat in 2008 and lost in the GOP primary is emphasizing his background in business affairs and charitable pursuits in the community.
I am running because I want to bring the talents and the experiences I have in creating jobs and meeting a payroll to Washington D.C. which at this time right now is what we need" he said in an interview.
We need someone like me who has built jobs who knows how to make a payroll and knows how to lead the community as well as serve the community which I think is desperately needed right now."
Hurd a first-time candidate for political office said he is not a professional politician" and touted a nine-year tenure in the CIA that took him to posts in India Pakistan and Afghanistan.
With a steely resolve he learned in the CIA Will Hurd will take on reckless government spending an extreme liberal agenda" says a narrator in a Hurd campaign ad.
Canseco outraised Hurd $218000 to $152000 through Feb. 10 according to Federal Election Commission reports. Hurds fundraising has accelerated in the waning days of the campaign.
The other three candidates in the race are @url@Robert (Doc) Lowry@ a physician and business owner; Mike Kueber a lawyer; and Joseph Mack Doc" Gould a podiatrist who has run an offbeat and lightly funded campaign.
Though the primary election is Tuesday many Republicans in Texas 23rd may have already cast their ballots during a 14-day early voting" period that ended Feb. 26. Because an early vote may be cast at any precinct within a voters home county during that two-week stretch early voting is a popular and more convenient alternative to voting on primary day.
Rodriguez meanwhile is expected to easily set aside a primary challenge from Miguel Ortiz a little-known lawyer. Rodriguez will carry over to the fall campaign most of the $567000 he had in his campaign account as of Feb. 10.
CQ Politics presently rates the Texas 23 special election Likely Democratic.
