UPDATE: AP called this one for Rodriguez according to the San Antonio Express-News. It's a win:
Former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez defeated seven-term Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla in a runoff on Tuesday, adding another Democrat to Congress and deciding Texas' final congressional seat.And for the record, Bonilla, on behalf of the GOP, said his race was precursor for 2008:
"We look at this as the first election of the next cycle," Bonilla said. "To set the tone for what we can do the next time out in 2008."DailyKos is tracking the numbers here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Kudos to the DCCC for making this a race. That's according to the report in the San-Antonio Express-News:
Bonilla came into the runoff with $1.6 million in the bank and the advantages of incumbency — a familiar name across the sprawling district and list of projects for which he'd secured federal funding.And, they won. Good news all around.
Rodriguez hobbled out of the special election in debt and with the reputation of a less than savvy campaigner.
But he had a name that registered in Bexar County and into South Texas, and soon he had the interest of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The organization wound up spending more than $900,000 on mail-outs and television ads.
Adam Segal, director of the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins University, said he's talked informally with both campaigns in the past month.
“I think a lot of Democrats involved think making the investment was a wise decision that just weeks ago looked pretty risky,” Segal said.
W hn (sic) national Democrats came on the scene, Rodriguez's campaign was transformed from a largely all-volunteer effort to a more professionalized operation.
Winning is so much more fun, isn't it?
