Juan Garcia Conference Call (TX-HD-32)

[Thanks to M. Eddie Rodriguez of The Red State for organizing this call.]

I had the good fortune to be part of a conference call for the Juan Garcia for State Rep campaign earlier today. Garcia is out to finally throw Gene Seaman overboard in House District 32 (map).

The numbers in this district show it is winnable; in 2002, a Democrat came within striking distance but was knocked for a loop thanks to illegal Texans for a Republican Majority campaign cash that poured into the district that includes part of Nueces County (part of Corpus Christi), and San Patricio, Aransas, and Calhoun Counties.

While HD 32 is winnable, it is a district that is a battleground because the incumbent is so intrenched. Garcia noted: “We’ve got a long way to go here, but we’ve got him on the run.”

Saturday, Garcia had an event with former San Antonio Mayor and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, which was a good boost for the campaign even though Cisneros had to participate by telephone due to his father being in declining health.

HD-32 along with Wong’s district in Harris County and one or two others are main target districts where I expect to see GOP incumbents fall this November. HD-32 is an especially attractive target because Seaman is such a Craddick disciple and his voting record is very much against the interests of the people of his district.

Right now, Juan has a lot of “The Army of Juan” (aka his fieldworkers) going door-to-door in the district in the terrible costal summer heat. He let us in on a bit of his strategy for the groundgame and I can tell you that he is using one that will work for him and his district and has been proven to work in several other races.

Also, you’ll shortly notice a new BlogAd on the sidebar and see some very heavy pushing of Garcia’s campaign for the next week.

During the conference call, Garcia told us he was very close to hitting a target mark for cash-on-hand that will show donors (from the national level on down) that he is a player and his race is worthy of their attention. A lot of donors, in fact, hold onto their money until the June 30 reports are filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and, if a candidate hasn’t met certian fund-raising standards, they don’t get money from a lot of sources.

So, I’ve encouraged other bloggers to participate in the “Sound the Alarm,” campaign, which is directed toward raising $5,000 for Juan Garcia in Five Days.

We can do this! And, if you need another reason to dump Gene Seaman overboard, check out the next post!