COOLIDGE — In a community center in rural Limestone county, about 150 people ate barbecue and sausage at long tables on Oct. 2 as president of the town’s foundry, Chuck Frazier, introduced U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards.

Months ago Edwards, D-Waco, helped Frazier & Frazier, which has employed as many as 300 people in this town of 848, obtain a $7.2 million government-backed loan through the stimulus after its banker, mired in its own financial problems, pulled the foundry’s line of credit.

“America was literally in a nose dive and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said we need something to stimulate the private enterprise system or our country could go into a second Great Depression,” Edwards told the audience.

After the event an energized Edwards reflected on his contest with Bryan Republican Bill Flores, who has relentlessly sought to portray Edwards as too close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama and criticized his stimulus vote.

“In the last two months of races where it gets so ugly these are the moments that make my day and remind me of what my job is all about — working with salt of the earth families,” Edwards said between bites of brisket.

He then offered an assessment of his race, saying for the first time he was behind in the race.

“I have always relished the role of being an underdog,” he added, “I’m a fighter. I’ll fight for the people in this district and I’ll fight in this campaign.”

Edwards hasn’t seriously been considered an underdog since 2004 after Republican Party leaders drew him into what was some people considered an unwinnable district for a Democrat.

He prevailed that year over former state Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson and fended off challenges in 2006 and 2008 from now-state Rep. Van Taylor, who had moved to West, and Waco small businessman Rob Curnock.

Washington political handicappers Charlie Cook and Larry Sabato, however, are pegging the race as favoring Flores, and several area Republicans expressed guarded encouragement about their chances.

Without making a prediction, Waco lawyer Chris DeCluitt said “This is the most concerned I’ve ever seen Chet.

“Flores out of anybody who’s ever run against Chet is the complete package: he’s got the financing, he’s got the campaign team and he’s got the wave.”

Baylor University political science professor Thomas Myers said capitalizing on the wave has meant sticking to a playbook of making the race about Washington.

“The Flores campaign has nationalized the election, where it doesn’t turn on what he can do for the district but rather on being anti-Obama and anti-Pelosi,” Myers said.

Pulling in Obama

And Flores — who described his campaign in broad terms Wednesday as an effort “to restore our country’s opportunities for future generations” — has had success early making Edwards answer for national Democrats in the conservative district that stretches from Bryan through Waco to Burleson.

In mid-September the congressman, long-considered a centrist, started airing a TV spot titled “independent” to highlight his votes against Democratic health care reform and cap and trade bills.

Lester Gibson, a McLennan County commissioner whose district includes heavily Democratic East Waco said he was concerned Edwards was losing ground.

“I told him ‘I only know one fighter who ever won by backing up — and that’s Muhammad Ali,’ ” Gibson said.

Around the time of the Coolidge barbecue it appeared Edwards had shifted gears.

Two TV ads stepped up an attack on Flores for proposing to allow veterans to take their subsidized VA health benefits and use them in the private health care system. Edwards and his supporters refer to the plan as a “privatization” and say it would lead to rationed care at VA facilities.

On the offensive

Several pundits said there are signs Edwards’ message is starting to stick with the help of fresh revelations about a Flores business and a recent on-air gaffe from the first-time candidate.

Late last week Flores told WFAA-TV’s Inside Texas Politics host Brad Watson he was “not philosophically opposed” to raising the Social Security retirement age to 70 before retracting his statement on Friday.

Flores called the host to say he’d been suffering from a headache during the taping and ask that his Social Security comment not air. (The program is set to air today in the Metroplex media market.)

At separate tapings Flores, who’s 56, and Edwards, 58, were asked if they support raising the Social Security retirement age to 70.

Flores said the entitlement program must be reformed, “and I accept the fact I may have to raise my retirement age for that,” according to a clip posted on WFAA’s website before airing.

In a Saturday statement Flores says “voters should be assured that I absolutely do not support raising the retirement age for Social Security.”

Edwards said he opposes raising the retirement age during the interview and late Friday seized on his opponents comments: “The difference between Mr. Flores and me is that I strongly oppose raising the Social Security retirement age to 70 (and) with Mr. Flores it depends which day of the week you ask him.”

Of the Social Security slip-up, Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson said “in tennis this would be scored as an unforced error,” adding that Flores’ saying he had a headache will draw greater attention to the issue.

Back to Texas?

“If you can be talking about Flores,” Jillson said, “that gets you back in Texas where Edwards can talk about what he’s been doing to help local (military) bases, VA facilities and universities.”

Myers said recent news articles detailing a Flores company’s bankruptcy in 1992, through which the firm was able to avoid repaying $7.5 million-worth of taxpayer funded loans, also put the focus on the candidates and the district.

Momentum shift or not, it’s late in the game and voters have been exposed to weeks of heavy political advertising and news coverage on the race.

“It’s helpful for Edwards to have Flores on the defensive,” Jillson said, but with early voting starting tomorrow “there’s not that much time to go.”

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

757-5707