Railroaded into a Runoff
March 24th, 2008 at 10:35 am
You know these are heady days for Texas Democrats when there’s a heated primary fight to serve on the Texas Railroad Commission. In recent years, Democrats were lucky if they fielded even one candidate for down-ballot statewide races such as Texas Supreme Court and Railroad Commission.
This year there were three candidates. The two top finishers will compete in a runoff on April 8 for the right to face GOP incumbent Michael Williams in the fall.
The unusually crowded Democratic field wasn’t the only peculiar aspect of this race. Democratic voters eschewed the (relatively) bigger names and backed the low-budget, populist candidate: Mark Thompson, a former Austin cop who works as a disabilities rights advocate and therapist for blind children. In a distant second was Dale Henry, who has a wealth of industry savvy and campaign experience. Art Hall’s slew of big-name endorsements led to a third-place finish.
Hall, an investment banker and a former San Antonio city council member, gathered the endorsements of Henry Cisneros, Dolph Briscoe, and several daily newspapers, but still came in third, with 466,758, or 24 percent of the vote. Henry, a former Republican and industry professional, placed second with 539,300 votes — nearly 28 percent.
But it was Thompson, whose ethics commission filings show he only spent all of $150 on his entire campaign (through Feb. 24, anyway), drew 940,722 votes statewide — just over 48 percent and a mere two percent shy of winning the nomination outright. Henry and Thompson will face each other in the runoff.
So what happened?
Maybe it was the the heavy turnout or the Obama/Hillary dynamic. Or maybe it was simply voter ignorance. Most people just don’t know and don’t give much of a damn what the Railroad Commission does (hint: it ain’t trains).
But Observer readers know that the three-member commission has a hold on several important levers of power and responsibility, including regulation — and we use that term loosely — of the oil and gas industry in Texas. Commissioners enjoy a six-year term and occupy an office that even the late, great Bob Bullock once craved, at least according to biographers Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson.
Thompson says that voters responded to his message. “What happened was I was talking about the issues,” he said. “Art Hall and Mr. Henry just talked about themselves.”
Thompson said before the election he did some amateur polling and was told by voters that they were supporting him because of his call for reform — and, he added, because they didn’t want an investment banker (Hall) and they feared Henry was too close to the industry. There’s also the fact, which Thompson didn’t mention, that Henry first ran for the commission in the Republican primary in 2004.
“None of these candidates are right on the issues,” Thompson said. “Those guys… They forgot one thing. They forgot the people… I supposedly had no knowledge, but what did I do? I fought for the people.”
Henry proudly talks about his campaign to unseat GOP Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones in 2006 (as a Democrat). Jones beat Henry by 12 percentage points.
“It just thrills me to death that Mark has done as well as he has,” Henry said. But he said that he stopped in Thompson’s hometown of Hamilton, Texas, on a recent campaign swing and noted that nobody he talked to seemed to know who Thompson is. “This is back to the Obama phenomenon,” Henry said, suggesting that the huge turnout among “young folks” helped Thompson.
Henry is 76, but, he notes, “I look about 55.” He said his age should not be a concern to voters and added he could see himself serving two terms. Thompson is 48.
Thompson said what matters about Henry is not his age necessarily, but the fact that in two previous elections he has failed to win the office.
“He’s already been beat twice,” Thompson told me.
The one thing both candidates agree on? They both think GOP incumbent Williams is vulnerable.
“Williams has sold out to the industry,” Thompson said.
“He’s vulnerable,” Henry says, “because Democrats are coming out to vote.”
Maybe so — but first they’ll have to make up their minds in this curious statewide runoff.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:01 am
I simply must take issue with some of the ideas Mark Thompson has about why he made it into the runoff, especially since the Observer didn’t do much to rebut some of his claims.
First, he says that voters responded to his message. I’m unaware of more than a handful of campaign appearances that Mr. Thompson made, no editorial board meetings he attended, and never saw a single piece of campaign literature of Mr. Thompson’s. How can voters have responded to his message when he failed to take his message to voters? Yes, he had a website, (good luck finding it with any number of combinations of search terms in Google) but much of it was merely a regurgitation of news items about one or two topics related to the Railroad Commission. His “message” includes almost no substance whatsoever.
Voters, more likely–especially many of the hundreds of thousands of voters who showed up to vote for president with little knowledge of what else may have been on the ballot–responded to the fact that his name was first on the ballot or sounded more familiar to them because it is so generic.
For Thompson to say that either Art Hall or Dale Henry did nothing but talk about themselves is also a fallacy that must be corrected. Dale Henry, for one, talked a great deal about issues.
As for Thompson’s “amateur polling,” I’d love to know what that consisted of. Asking his friends and neighbors who they are going to vote for? How representative of the Texas electorate. I’d love to see the crosstabs for that poll. Plus, when you tell someone who you are and that you are running for Railroad Commission–and then you poll them–what kind of result do you expect?
Further, the claim that voters feared Dale Henry was too close to the oil industry is so laughable it shows just how politically unaware Mr. Thompson is. Dale Henry–from day one–has spoken out against the fact that the energy industry has bought and paid for the Texas Railroad Commission and is the only candidate in this race who has called for a law to prevent RRC members from taking money from the industries they regulate.
For Mark Thompson to say that he is “right” on the issues and Dale Henry is not is like saying that an apple and orange thrown in a bowl equal a fruit salad. It’s perhaps the best example I can think of to illustrate the fact that Mr. Thompson hasn’t a clue what the real issues in this race are. Let’s hear his position on cost-of-service rate increases for natural gas consumers. Of course, since he didn’t know what a runoff election was until a staffer for the San Antonio Express-News told him, perhaps he doesn’t realize that is an issue in this race.
To say that Dale Henry has forgotten “the people” is also laughable. Mr. Henry, unlike Mr. Thompson, has been out campaigning among, “the people,” and will put Texans first when he’s on the Texas Railroad Commission.
If Mr. Thompson is so sure of his knowledge of the Texas Railroad Commission, then perhaps he won’t mind if someone from the Texas Observer would call him up and ask him a few more complicated questions about the Railroad Commission. He may know what an injection well is, but I’d dare say he can’t tell you how to solve the problem of polluting injection wells (for example).
It is also amusing that Mr. Thompson says he “fought” for the people. I’d like to know where and when he did this, in respect to the race for the Texas Railroad Commission. I understand that he has a job and can’t leave it to attend editorial board meetings or make campaign appearances, but how can you be out fighting for the people if all you are doing is getting your name on the ballot and showing up at a smattering of campaign functions?
Sadly, this shows that Mr. Thompson has and will have no chance of unseating Michael L. Williams if he is the party’s nominee. He’s clearly not in a position to run either a legitimate campaign, and he clearly does not have a grasp on the issues any more than he has a grasp on the electoral process. Seriously, how can you be a candidate for public office and now know what a runoff is?
I’m not trying to be rude to Mr. Thompson. Everyone has a right to get on the ballot and run whatever type of campaign they believe is most appealing to voters. However, this year–for the first time–Democrats have a real opportunity to take back a seat on the Railroad Commission. That opportunity will be wasted if Mr. Henry is not the Democratic Party nominee. That’s not being rude, that’s just being blunt.
I also must say that some of the responsibility for candidates like Mr. Thompson (and Gene Kelly in 2006 in the U.S. Senate race) getting in positions where they could be the party’s nominee rests with the media. The media, in favor of the presidential race, all but totally ignored the race for Texas Railroad Commission in the Democratic Primary. The media has a responsibility to educate voters. In this race, aside from a few editorials, the statewide media abdicated its responsibility to voters in favor of the sexy novelty of a presidential race (with the exception of one or two dailies and alternative weeklies). Is that understandable? Of course. Does that make it right? No.
Vince Leibowitz
Campaign Director
Dale Henry for Texas Railroad Commissioner
March 26th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
This position is too important to allow someone to be the nominee on a fluke. Texans and our environment have suffered enough at the hands of the current commissioners!
The Texas Observer has a responsibility to the public. Please act like it!
April 8th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
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