30 out of 32 CDs To be Contested

According to the Tx Democratic Party website, thirty-one of the thirty-two Congressional Districts in Texas will have a Democratic candidate.

*Note: the maps and the GOP candidate list are both .pdf files, so may take a little extra time to open.

The exception is CD-11, which is very deep Red country indeed. So by all indications, freshman Congressman Mike Conaway will be headed back to the Beltway, as the Libertarian Party of Texas is not fielding a candidate in that district either.

The Republican Party seems to be shy in eight CDs*:

• CD 7- Incumbent John Culberson's welcome message is all about the last election. It remains to be seen if Democratic candidate Jim Henley is facing an uphill battle against an incumbent or a relative cakewalk against Libertarian Drew Parks.
  
• CD 9 - Democratic incumbent Al Green (who defeated current gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell in the post-redistricting primary) appears to be unopposed at this time.
  
• CD 16 - has no Republican candidate listed, but Democratic incumbent Sylvestre Reyes does have a primary challenger, Jorge Artalejo . The winner of that contest will face Libertarian Gordon Strickland in the general election.
  
• CD 18 - Democratic incumbent Sheila Jackson Lee has no signficant opposition, though Libertarian Patrick Warren has filed his candidacy for the seat as well.
  
• CD 20, Democratic incumbent Charles A. Gonzalez also faces an opponent- whichever Libertarian emerges victorious from one of the few contested primaries, Jessie A Bouley or Michael Idrogo. Candidate Idrogo is one of the few Libertarians who has his own campaign website at this stage- offering more rant than policy to be sure, but there you are.
  
• CD 25, Democratic incumbent Lloyd Doggett has no GOP opponent. Candidate of many professions (computer programmer, chiropracter, etc.) Grant Rostig is his Libertarian opposition. Though a self-described writer who can't even spell his opponent's name correctly may suffer from a serious style handicap.
  
• CD 28 - Democratic incumbent Henry R. Cuellar faces not one but two primary challengers, former Congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez and off-again on again Democrat Victor Morales. The winner (or survivor) will face Libertarian Glenda B. Moyes in the general.
  

and

• CD 29 - Democratic incumbent Gene Green runs unopposed in the primary, and faces Clifford Lee Messina in the general as the Libertarian candidate.

Let the games begin.

(*This seems low to me, but it is from the TX GOP's own site. If there are corrections I'll post them as they come in).

Update 1/4/06-8:27 a.m.: It's been pointed out elsewhere that districts lying entirely within one county file with their county party, which could explain why the TX GOP site doesn't have all the districts listed. I'll update the list as I get more info.

Later Update 1/4/06-7:51 p.m.: Found a few more candidates wandering on the internets (ironically, the state GOP site still doesn't list these gentlemen.)

Ah well, c'est la guerre. (For those of you munching on your Congressionally sanctioned Freedom Fries, that translates to "War is hell.")