Depending on who you listen to, Tuesday’s state Senate special-election runoff pits an experienced former legislator with deep Waco roots against a political naif from Granbury, or it is a match between an ideologically conservative war hero and a former lobbyist.

Former Waco state Sen. David Sibley, who served in the state Legislature before working as a lobbyist, and Granbury’s Brian Birdwell, a retired Army officer, are vying to fill the remaining six-plus months of former Republican Sen. Kip Averitt’s term.

The Republican candidates both announced new endorsements and unveiled new ads and fresh attacks in the final days of the race.

David Sibley (left) and Brian Birdwell will compete in the state Senate special election runoff Tuesday.

In an event Wednesday in Waco, Sibley said with redistricting coming up, his experience and seniority would be a boon to his district.

State Senate District 22 stretches from Waco to the southern suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Sibley said he would be the 16th-highest-ranking senator if elected and already had gone through two redistricting sessions.

“So when redistricting comes along, I’ve been led to believe I’ll be influential in it,” he told supporters.

Birdwell has continued to attack Sibley’s ideological purity, pointing to campaign contributions Sibley gave to Democrats with Republican opponents while he was a lobbyist.

Sibley defended himself Tuesday, saying the contributions Birdwell was highlighting represented less than 1 percent of all the donations he gave.

“I tell people I’m 99 percent pure,” Sibley said. “It’s better than Ivory Soap. I’m not ashamed.”

He also said he was proud of both his Republican and Democratic supporters, though he didn’t say which Democrats he was referring to.

But several area Democrats said Thursday they’d received robo-calls from prominent Waco Democrat Bernard Rapoport on behalf of Sibley.

By many measures — money raised, ads placed, notable endorsements (including from former President George W. Bush, whose ranch near Crawford is in the district) — Sibley was the early favorite in the race.

But turnout for the summer election is expected to be low, which could lead to a relatively large showing among conservatives.

Birdwell, who works as a motivational speaker for an evangelical Christian group and who was badly burned while working in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, stands to gain from heavy conservative turnout.

His credentials are bolstered by a string of endorsements from far-right groups and former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.

In the four-way special election, Sibley took 45 percent of the vote to Birdwell’s 36.5, with both candidates strong in their home counties and Sibley winning every county except for Johnson and Hood.

Sibley’s push in the Waco area demonstrates he’s pulling out all the stops when it comes to getting out the vote.

Ads featuring the tag line “Save our Seat” have featured former Baylor University football and basketball coaches Grant Teaff and Jim Haller and hit on the importance to the region of having Sibley in the Senate.

Tuesday’s winner will fill out the remainder of Averitt’s term but is not ensured a spot on the November ballot.

Averitt announced he was stepping down after the general election ballot. If he takes his name off the ballot — which he has not done yet — two committees of Democratic and Republican county party chairs will have the chance to put up replacement nominees for the race.

Observers have said the Republican county chairs would be under heavy pressure to put the winner of the Birdwell-Sibley race on the ballot.

Averitt told the Austin-American Statesman this week that he didn’t think he would remain on the ballot.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

757-5707

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