House Challenger Earns Party Establishment Support after Refusing to Back Down from It as Candidate Who Appears to Have Right Stuff

By Mike Hailey
Capotol Inside

As a non-partisan publication that's never taken sides in a political race while striving to be as fair and objective as possible, Capitol Inside hasn't ever endorsed any candidates regardless of whether they're facing foes on the ballot or running unopposed. But if we were ever inclined to consider a break from that unwritten policy and longstanding tradition, the Democratic primary election in House District 100 would be the kind of extraordinarily unique event that might inspire us to finally do so.

We wouldn't be endorsing Eric Johnson because State Rep. Terri Hodge, the seven-term incumbent he's challenging in the primary next month, is no longer qualified to serve in the Texas House as a result of her admission of guilt last week on federal tax evasion charges as part of a deal that she negotiated with prosecutors to avoid going to trial on more serious bribery allegations six days after the March 2 election. Our first endorsement in a political contest would have nothing really to do with the incumbent whose name will still appear on the primary ballot even though she's called off her re-election bid and announced that she plans to step down from the House as soon as she's sentenced for a crime that could land her three years in prison and a $100,000 fine in the worst case scenario.

While Hodge has confessed to filing federal tax returns with false information after being accused initially of trading her influence as a lawmaker for a price break on her rent at a public housing complex, one could make the case that politicians have been bribed whenever they've accepted contributions and eventually cast votes that could benefit their donors in some form or fashion. The simple acceptance of a contribution could be construed as a tacit agreement to support the contributor's agenda at the Capitol even if there's no actual quid pro quo promise that's been secretly recorded or captured on hidden video or revealed in a confession. You could argue that our entire campaign finance system is a form of institutional bribery.

After maintaining her innocence for more than a year, Hodge has officially acknowleged that she did something that was bad enough to bring an abrupt end to her political career. But even when Hodge's future was in serious doubt under the lingering cloud of the criminal case, a long list of legislative colleagues and other distinguished political leaders in Dallas and other parts of the state stuck by her side until the bitter end in a sign that she must be a good person at heart and must have been doing some things right as a lawmaker even if she hadn't been a committee chair or the sponsor of major legislation or a key player on the biggest issues that the House has confronted since she entered the chamber in 1997. Let any public officials who've never fudged on their income taxes or broken any other law cast the first stone. It's never a crime until you've been caught.

We wouldn't be endorsing Johnson in the HD 100 race simply because he's the only current candidate who'd be eligible for the swearing in ceremonies on opening day of the regular session next year. And we wouldn't be offering our first endorsement ever because we're concerned about chaos erupting if Hodge wins the primary despite her personal tribulations in a development that would give the precinct chairs in both parties to pick replacement nominees for the fall ballot. Partisan politics aren't really an issue here even though Johnson has correctly pointed out that the GOP would get a second shot at the House seat if he fails to receive as many votes as Hodge three weeks from now. The Republicans are way too smart and have better ways to spend their time and money than throwing it away on a campaign in a House district where Barack Obama won more than 80 percent of the vote in 2008. While the GOP has cause to believe it's going to be a great year, the Republicans don't expect to run the table. And it doesn't matter to us which party holds the HD 100 seat.

We'd be endorsing Eric Johnson for state representative because he appears to have the potential to be a great legislator and seems like the kind of person who will do everything within his God-given abilities and power to be the best he can be at that job if he gets the opportuntity. While his Harvard law degree is no guarantee for effectiveness in a political arena where C students can excel if they understand the process and know how to work it, Johnson's educational resume is ample evidence that he has the intelligence to be a quick study and the determination to learn what it takes to be successful under the pink granite dome. But more importantly perhaps - in three decades in and around state politics in Texas - it's hard to remember any candidate ever being as passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic about a bid for elected office or hungrier for the opportunity to serve than Johnson has seemed to be since launching a campaign that's been run about as well as it gets at the legislative level.

Johnson had the guts to get into a race that others had considered but were afraid to enter as long as Hodge was still a candidate - and he didn't hang his head or back off at all when high-ranking members of the Democratic establishment in Dallas and beyond rallied behind the incumbent. While other aspiring challengers would have worried about becoming eternal political outcasts if they didn't stand down in deference to the powers that be, Johnson persevered with undaunted tenacity in a fight that it took a considerable amount of heart and will to continue.

Now that the dynamics have changed dramatically, the vast majority of Democratic legislators and leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area including a long list who'd been backing Hodge wouldn't be supporting Johnson now if they didn't believe that he has what it takes to be an effective representative in a district that's one of the poorest in the area and arguably needs a stronger voice in the House than others in more affluent parts of town as a result. The Democrats have no doubt that they'll keep the HD 100 seat regardless of the outcome of the primary election. So the endorsements that Johnson has received in the past week have nothing to do with partisan preservation. They have everything to do with the candidate himself.

We don't make endorsements - and we wouldn't have been making the aforementioned case for Johnson at all if Hodge hadn't withdrawn from the competition or if any other candidates had filed for the race. But now that she did and they didn't, we'll go ahead and say that from what we can tell a Johnson victory in the March 2 primary probably would be good for the state as a whole. Ameica needs more young people who want to serve in public office as badly as he does and have the basic abilities to do a credible if not outstanding job if elected. And for what it's worth, Johnson seems like a really good guy as well.

Mike Hailey's column appears regularly in Capitol Inside