Brimer Is Still Running Scared

Fort Worth's State Senator for District 10 (Kim Brimer) has a reputation in Austin for not getting much accomplished (other than paying rent to his wife). In fact, a majority of his constituents don't even know his name. The only reason he's been re-elected is because he's a Republican, and the Democrats have not run a really good candidate against him.

But things are different this year. The public is tired of the failed Republican leadership, and it's looking like only the well-known Republicans in the safest districts will survive this year. Compounding the fact that Brimer is not well-know and doesn't represent a really safe district, is the fact that this year he has a formidable opponent.

His opponent in the November election is Wendy Davis. Davis (pictured above) is a well-known and well-respected former member of the Fort Worth City Council. She resigned her council seat a few months ago so she could run against Brimer in senate district 10.

After she got her name on the ballot, Brimer must have been scared because he put some Ft. Worth firemen up to challenging the legality of her candidacy. I guess he thought if he couldn't beat her in the election, maybe he could beat her in court by getting her name removed from the ballot. But the judge said the firemen didn't have standing to challenge her candidacy, and tossed the case out of court.

Evidently, Brimer is still afraid to meet Davis in a fair election in November. Both Politex and North Texas Liberal tell us that he has now filed suit against Davis himself. He's trying the same argument that the firemen were using. He's trying to use the fact that even though she had resigned before becoming a candidate, she kept sitting as a council member until her replacement could be elected and sworn in (as the law demanded).

He must not be keeping up with the news though, or he would know that House Speaker Craddick had tried the same thing to keep his opponent off the ballot -- and failed. The judge in that case ruled that Dingus' (Craddick's opponent) city council position would be over before the election, so he was eligible to be on the ballot as a candidate.

There is no reason to believe the decision in this case won't be the same, especially since Davis has not been on the council for several months now. I expect the courts to once again slap down Brimer's hopes. If he wants to go back to Austin, he's going to have to defeat Wendy Davis in November.

Personally, I don't think he can do it.