Amarillo Man May Replace Benkiser

For a while it looked like the Texas Republicans would have a three-way fight over the party chairmanship at their next state convention. There were at least two declared opponents to current party chair Tina Benkiser -- Tom Mechler of Amarillo and Mark McCaig of Katy. It looks like that won't happen now.

Benkiser has announced she is resigning the chairmanship, and will be joining the Rick Perry campaign next week. I don't know whether to be sad she is leaving, or happy that her incompetence will now be infecting the Perry campaign. She made the Texas party look like it's a far-right fringe group, and this has cost them some elections.

When Benkiser took over as party chair, Republicans ruled the Texas House by a count of 89 Republicans to 61 Democrats. The House currently has 76 Republicans to 74 Democrats, and many believe the Democrats could seize control of the Texas House in next year's election.

That was the reason both Mechler and McCaig had announced they would run against Benkiser. McCaig is now saying he probably won't run now that Benkiser is out. He said he just thought she needed to be replaced, and he satisfied now that the party is assured of a new chairman. McCaig says he has not decided who he will support for the post.

That leaves the only official candidate as Tom Mechler, unless the vice-chair of the state party, Robin Armstrong, who is still considering whether to run or not, decides to enter the race. Unless Armstrong surprises everyone by refusing to run, I expect he probably has the inside track on the job. The SREC will appoint a replacement chair within a month, and whoever that is (probably Armstrong) will have the advantage at the next convention.

I doubt that either candidate will change the state party very much. Armstrong is part of the current regime, and Mechler hails from the most right-wing part of the state. I can't see either as having a moderating effect on the party.