Three congressional races, party control of Texas Senate, face voters

By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press

HOUSTON - Voters in three Texas congressional districts head to the polls for uncommonly late elections today, with freshman incumbents in two of those districts - including controversial Republican Steve Stockman - trying to retain their seats.

At the same time, voters in West Texas were selecting a state senator in a race that could guarantee the GOP a majority in the Texas Senate for the first time in more than a century.

The unusual December congressional balloting is the result of a court-imposed redrawing of boundaries in three Texas districts in the Dallas and Houston areas to eliminate what federal courts found was gerrymandering based on race.

Changing those district lines also affected adjacent districts, voided March primary results and set up a November free-for-all in 13 Texas districts while the rest of the country was settling House races.

And when the top vote-getter in three Texas districts - all in Southeast Texas - failed to attract more than 50 percent of the ballots cast in November, it forced voters to return to the polls Tuesday to select from the top two finishers in each race.

The outcome will determine whether the Republicans retain the edge in the 30-member House delegation or have a 15-15 split with the Democrats.

In the 9th District, which stretches from the Houston-Galveston area along the Gulf Coast to the Beaumont area, Republican Stockman faced Democrat Nick Lampson, a former Beaumont tax assessor.

Incumbent Democrat Ken Bentsen, nephew of former U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, was being challenged by Republican Dolly Madison McKenna in the 25th District of south and east Houston. Bentsen led the Nov. 5 balloting with 34 percent to McKenna's 17 percent.

The winner will succeed Republican Jack Fields, who did not seek re-election.

Whatever happens in the congressional balloting will have little impact in the House's overall party tilt. Republicans, with minimal losses nationally last month, hold a 227-205 advantage with one independent House member.

The same can't be said of the Texas Senate.

Republicans hold a 15-14 majority in the 31-member Senate, their first majority in the chamber since Reconstruction.

GOP state Rep. Robert Duncan is taking on Democrat David Langston, a former mayor of Lubbock, in a special election to replace Democrat John Montford. Montford quit to become chancellor of Texas Tech University.

A Duncan victory would ensure a Republican majority.

If Langston wins, the focus will shift to Democrat Jim Turner's East Texas district. Turner is leaving the Senate for a congressional seat he won last month and that race early next year could set up a winner-take-all contest for Senate control.

The campaigns in the three remaining congressional districts have degenerated into a mudslinging barrage of charges and countercharges, with the Stockman-Lampson feud holding center stage.

Stockman, a 40-year-old accountant, stunned the political establishment two years ago by ousting 42-year Democratic incumbent Jack Brooks.

Last month, Stockman received 46 percent of the vote, two percentage points more than Lampson. A third candidate, Democrat Geraldine Sam, whose votes threw the race into the runoff, surprisingly threw her support to Stockman. That prompted allegations from the Lampson camp of a payoff, accusations denied by Stockman and Sam.

Lampson also has asked the Justice Department to monitor today's voting, alleging that Stockman supporters in November intimidated black voters, accusations also denied by Stockman.

For his part, Stockman has hammered on Lampson's ownership of a home health care agency that had to reimburse Medicare for nearly $2,500 to cover services not properly documented. Lampson insists there was no wrongdoing.

Democrats have repeatedly branded Stockman "extreme," accusing the gun-control foe of ties to militia groups - a charge Stockman has denied.

Soon after arriving in Congress, Stockman attracted international headlines after receiving a cryptic fax from a militia supporter that seemingly foretold the Oklahoma City bombing. That fax, which others received as well, actually was sent moments after the bombing.

Later, he warned Attorney General Janet Reno that a raid on militia groups - which never happened - could cause "an irreparable breach between the federal government and the public."