A Closer Look At HD 52

The Austin American-Statesman has a bit of a closer look at the HD 52 race between Mike Krusee and Karen Felthauser.

Felthauser campaigned heavily against toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor, an albatross easily (and expertly by Felthauser) hung around Krusee’s neck because he chaired the House Transportation Committee.

From the Statesman:

In supposedly rock-ribbed Republican Williamson County, Krusee got just 49.7 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial final tally. Felthauser got 44.8 percent, and Libertarian Lillian Simmons got 5.4 percent. All in all, something well short of a rout. Krusee got almost 94 percent two years ago when Felthauser ran as a write-in.

And this after a campaign when Krusee (not counting costs in the final eight days, which won’t be reported until January) spent almost $118,000 to Felthauser’s $13,300.

Asked about this, Krusee said tolls mattered, but mostly because Felthauser was putting out falsehoods (in his view) that were largely unchallenged in the media.

But Krusee also maintains that he, like former GOP House member Jack Stick from northern Travis County in 2004 and Travis County Republican Ben Bentzin this year, was hurt by a district morphing from solid Republican to swing district. District 52 runs from Austin at the Travis County line, through Round Rock to Georgetown, and then covers the county’s eastern half.

A look at a sampling of 20 precincts in District 52 shows that, yes, the Democrats, though still behind, are surging. But Krusee performed worse than other Republicans in those precincts, finishing about 2 percentage points behind GOP state Sen. Steve Ogden and almost 7 percentage points behind Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

It’s clear that this is a district that will flip in 2008.

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