Left- and right-wing activists are making things tough for U.S. House candidates Chet Edwards and Bill Flores this campaign season.

Some conservatives who backed Flores’ runoff opponent are hesitant to back Flores, saying he’s not conservative enough.

Likewise, Edwards is catching heat from some liberals for crossing party lines on certain House votes.

Both Bill Flores (left) and Chet Edwards are catching heat from activists, who are sometimes hesitant to support their respective party’s candidate.

Flores, the Republican challenger from Bryan, emerged from a GOP primary that had featured seven candidates in April.

Three months later, several backers of his runoff opponent Rob Curnock are playing hard to get when it comes to their support.

The scene played out publicly earlier this month on the website of Woodway political activist Duke Machado, who publicly posted a challenge to Curnock and his “army of volunteers” to rally behind Flores for the good of the party.

Online comments

An intense back-and-forth soon erupted in the site’s comment section.

Said Curnock’s former campaign spokesman Colin Witt “I think 90 to 95 percent of Curnock’s supporters are either likely to vote straight R(epublican) or are at least open to voting for Flores.”

But, he said, Flores could go a long way toward winning over Curnock loyalists by pledging to support specific term limits, as well as the FairTax.

FairTax is a plan favored by some conservatives to replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax.

Another commenter and Curnock fan fanned the flames, suggesting purists should withhold their support and votes, and hold out for a “true conservative” in 2012.

That sentiment was drowned out amid a chorus of commenters stressing the importance of unseating Edwards and establishing a Republican majority in the House.

After the heated exchange, McGregor conservative activist Mike Hoover acted as an intermediary and extended an olive branch to Curnock backers, inviting them to get to know Flores during his regular stops at the campaign’s Waco headquarters.

When Curnock was asked last week whether he had done enough to get his volunteers behind Flores, he said he supports “the Republican nominee,” before adding, “I certainly don’t control anybody.”

Health care vote

Edwards, the incumbent and a Waco Democrat, frustrated activists in his party by voting against the Democratic health bill, which passed despite his opposition.

Consternation among Waco liberals may have peaked during a political forum in East Waco in April when Kelvin Williams, who was then running for McLennan County Democratic Party chair, was asked about Edwards’ vote.

“We needed health care, and I thank God for those 219 (House members) who voted for it,” he said.

Williams said last week that he remained frustrated by the direction of the county’s Democratic Party.

“We’ve got like two Republican Parties in McLennan County,” he said.

However, he said, “I haven’t been mad at Chet,” and suggested he’d be supporting Edwards come the general election.

Coming around

Robert Aguilar, who heads the Central Texas Tejano Democrats, said most liberals are coming around, even if they’re doing so begrudgingly.

“I’ve seen it,” Aguilar said. “They’re grouchy and mad and all that, and some people are biting their tongues, but in the end they know we need to control the House.”

Waco Republican Chris DeCluitt said his party is called the big tent party for a reason, and a similar desire to win a majority in the House would unite the various factions on the right.

Baylor University political science professor Thomas Myers predicted the grumbling elements of both sides of the political spectrum would fall in line behind their party’s nominees.

“Usually the far left and the far right make a lot of noise about not voting for or supporting the candidate of their party but, in the end, most of them come around,” Myers said.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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