Word: bonilla
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bonilla's defeat was made more likely after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that tossed out a district drawn under the influence of former Republican leader Tom DeLay that was favorable to the Republicans. A three-judge federal panel redrew Bonilla's district and, while it still leaned Republican, it added a swath of the south side of San Antonio, a heavily Democratic area. The panel called for a special election to fill the seat on Nov. 7, Election Day, but Texas election law stipulates if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in a special...
...again this year in the March primary and used a picture of President Bush hugging Cuellar to try to turn the vote his way, but he lost again. Early in this latest campaign, he waffled about staying in the race and was viewed as a long shot to defeat Bonilla, a powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee with a $1.6 million campaign war chest...
...region where "government is the economy," Hernandez said, Bonilla had been able to parlay his seat on the appropriations committee into a sizable campaign war chest and a powerful platform. The district stretches from El Paso east to San Antonio and south to the Mexican border, embracing several cities with large military bases and poor, rural counties where federal programs are vital. But once the power shifted away from Republicans in the House, in Hernandez's view, independent voters pragmatically voted for Rodriguez...
...November's midterm election "energized the Democratic base," Hernandez said. "The focus was back on us Democrats, and for two or three weeks we were the top of the news every day." Republicans, meanwhile, may have been demoralized and failed to show up at the polls. Rodriguez defeated Bonilla more than two to one in early voting in San Antonio, evidence that the vaunted Republican get-out-the-vote effort fell short, Masset said. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pumped "about a million dollars into the race," according to Hernandez. Labor unions and grassroots volunteers also worked the campaign...
...Some national pundits have suggested that immigration was a key factor in the race, since Bonilla's vote for a 700-mile border fence was not popular among the district's Hispanic voters. But Hernandez attributes the victory more to the Democrats' national wave of enthusiasm, buttressed by party organization and money. Still, the result could signal a swing in support among the state's Hispanic voters away from the Republicans. "We are blowing it with Hispanics," said Masset, arguing that the Republican leadership "have been focusing on Terri Schiavo, one white woman, rather than the 12 million Hispanics living...