Folks who have followed this blog for a while know that I have not been an ardent supporter of Rep. John Davis. Indeed, I urged Davis to withdraw from the race for the 2008 nomination because of various issues that were raised by various folks whose opinions I respected, and I actively campaigned for his primary opponent. The primary voters of District 129 saw matters differently from me and gave him the nomination.

We are now in 2010, with a different set of circumstances before us. John Davis is again seeking the nomination, and is again facing a challenger, political newcomer Mary Huls. I therefore find myself faced with three options in this race -- endorsing one of the two candidates, or of offering no endorsement. Given the past history I noted above, I gave serious consideration to not making an endorsement in this race. However, I cannot in good conscience pick that route because of the clear differences between the two candidates and the reality that the winner of this primary will not have a Democrat challenger in November, making this the de facto general election.

John Davis, for all his faults, is a known quantity with a history of being able to carry this district in the general election. He has an 82% career rating from the Young Conservatives of Texas, which puts him well-within the bounds of the conservative fold (though he did slip below my gold standard of 80% in 2009, garnering only a 77% rating). My personal experience with John Davis since I wrote that 2007 letter linked above is also important -- his response was to reach out to me and express his respect for my views, and I have been shown nothing but respect in the time since. I also know that his office was helpful to many area residents following Hurricane Ike -- I've heard it from their own mouths. And in one-on-one conversations between the two of us, Davis has taken responsibility for the issues that caused me concern, and has offered a detailed explanation to me of steps he has taken to ensure that the the common errors he made are not repeated. In short, I believe he has taken the criticisms and concerns to heart and taken solid steps to rectify them. These factors have raised Davis in my esteem.

Which leads me to his opponent, Mary Huls. I first became aware of Mrs. Huls this past summer when I received a vague, typo-filled email from her husband announcing her candidacy. Subsequent investigation made it clear that Mary Huls has no record of involvement with the Republican Party -- and that she was an Øbama voter in the 2008 Democrat primary! I might take the claim that she was participating in Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" a bit more seriously if she she actually had a record of voting in the Republican primary, but she does not. Now I'm all for welcoming former Democrats who have seen the error of their ways into the GOP (Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat), but I look askance at Mary Huls' insistence that her professed conversion to conservative principles is the basis for immediately electing her to a major public office. I believe that Mary Huls has expressed a number of sound principles, but cannot at this point be sure of their sincerity without some sort of track record to back up the words on her campaign site. The development of such a record would, I believe, make Mary Huls a formidable candidate, and one I to whom I might be able to offer strong support.

And that is ultimately what it comes down to for me. The 2011 legislative session will be responsible for so many important tasks, not the least being the redrawing of Texas' legislative and congressional district lines. This redistricting will be critical to the future of the state and the nation, especially given that Texas may acquire as many as 4 additional seats in Congress. Given the history of Democrat gerrymanders over the course of over 13 decades of post-Civil War Democrat control of the state legislature, it is crucial that the 129th District be represented by a conservative Republican who will work to draw lines that ensure fair and accurate representation of the voters of Texas so that we can stop the Øbama agenda on the national level. I know we can count on John Davis in that regard -- I do not have that sort of confidence with regard to Mary Huls.

Ultimately, the factors that I have considered lead me inexorably to one conclusion -- this race is too important, and the difference between the two candidates is too stark, for me not to make an endorsement. I therefore suggest to my fellow Republicans that in the 2010 Republican primary, the only acceptable choice for those who wish to be certain that conservative principles and Republican values are enacted is to vote for John Davis as our Republican nominee for state representative in the 129th District.