Christian will face primary opponent
Marshall mayor Chris Paddie will seek the Republican nomination for District 9, a redrawn district that runs along the Texas-Louisiana border. The district is currently represented by conservative stalwart Wayne Christian. Paddie’s home county, Harrison, is the biggest county in the district. This will be one of the most-watched races in the state, if only because Christian is one of the most high-profile representatives. That Paddie comes from the most populous couny is not necessarily an advantage. Sometimes the smaller counties gang up on the big county. In addition to serving as mayor, Paddie hosts a radio talk show.
Tagged: Chris Paddie, District 9, primary battle, wayne christian
Anonymous says:
Bring it on paddie! Finally conservatives have an opportunity to ditch the all hat & no cattle wing dominated by king and Christian. Made my week.
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Old Charlie says:
I hope Paddie is not a Sen.Patrick clone. If he is not,I may move to Marshall so I can vote there.
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Grassroots says:
Grassroots conservatives will rally around Christian because he’s one of them. Paddie should be able to make a go of it … but the problem is that he’s not a political icon in Marshall. He was elected to their city council from his district of the city and was elected mayor by the council, so he hasn’t even run or won a city-wide race.
In a conservative primary, it will be very easy for Christian to paint Paddie’s candidacy as both an attack on the conservative wing of the party by the moderates who are in power, and as opportunism.
In addition, Christian is going to have the support of Bryan Hughes, the current representative of Marshall. He’ll be able to help introduce Christian to republican groups up there. Remember, the Republican primary electorate is not a huge segment of voters (though the Presidential primary will inflate it).
Finally, those who don’t like Christian the legislator need to remember that voters will be meeting Christian the man. He’s very personable and likable and should do well going out and meeting East Texas voters.
If Christian works hard at it, I don’t see him losing.
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Bill Reply:
August 29th, 2011 at 9:14 am
You really think that Bryan Hughes is going to endorse Wayne Christian over Mayor Paddie–the mayor of the largest town in his district? No, Hughes will stay out of that fight.
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Informed Reply:
August 29th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Bryan Hughes has already endorsed Wayne Christian…look at Christian’s endorsement page on his website.
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No Le Hace says:
If he loses he can move to his beach house..
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longleaf says:
You’ve heard of “low information voters”? East Texas may have a higher percentage of them than anywhere in the world. All many voters will see are the name “Christian” up against the name “Paddie.”
I’ll admit the first association I had when I saw the latter name was to put the word “Cow” in front of it.
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Blue Dogs says:
Burka, I heard speculation about Dan Patrick considering a run for Lieutenant Governor in 2014, if he does jump in that race, would he have any shot at winning the GOP nomination considering folks like Patterson, Combs and Staples are already in the race to succeed the Dew ?
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real TEXAN says:
Christian, like most old hat republicans, has strayed from the true conservative values relegating the conservative label into just that a mere label. I am not a fan of politicians that use these labels to get elected, then do whatever they please, whether it adheres to conservative principals or not.It is well known that any and every law passed by the legislature will have an economic impact on Texans and it’s rarely positive. In fact our current economic slump can be attributed to any one of a number of statutes passed by these so called conservatives who line there pockets with lobbyist’s money, then degrade the average man and ridicule folks on the house floor that oppose “rule”. Out with all incumbents. Bring on the new. The fact that Paddie hasn’t run in even a city wide election makes him golden in my book. Grassroots is anything but grassroots. Wayne Christian is exactly what the Tea Party movement was started for.
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