With the dust still settling after a heated Republican primary runoff, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and Bryan Republican Bill Flores offered their strategies for what analysts are predicting will be one of the nation’s most competitive House races this year.

Edwards’ district — stretching from the Bryan-College Station area through McLennan County and up to Burleson — is among the most conservative held by a Democrat in the country. John McCain garnered 67 percent of the districtwide vote in 2008.

Edwards, a 10-term incumbent, has survived tight contests in 2002 and 2004. But with Republicans nationally positioned to benefit from a rising tide of anti-government fervor, the race could be in the spotlight again.

Republican Bill Flores (left) seeks to unseat U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.

In Flores he faces a wealthy opponent willing to spend his own money and who was mostly able to stay on message during the primary, hammering the Democratic congress and selling himself as a businessman who knows how to turn around the economy.

“The story line is being repeated around the country,” Isaac Wood, with the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said in an e-mail. “A conservative Democrat with a long history in his district is challenged by a new Republican candidate.”

“This dance isn’t unique,” Wood said, “but a Democratic incumbent with a history of paper-thin victories fighting on Republican turf will make it one of the more intriguing matchups in the country this year.”

Edwards stayed mostly quiet during the primary runoff between Flores and Waco small businessman Rob Curnock, but he made a splash recently, calling Flores a newcomer to the district and saying his own long service for veterans, military families and economic development projects in the district were a winning combination.

And political observers say the district — normally conservative — could be even less hospitable to Edwards this time around.

Baylor University political scientist Thomas Myers said Republicans are eyeing Edwards’ district as part of “a grand opportunity” to seize majorities in Congress.

“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Republicans to vote straight Republican,” Myers said.

In a phone interview Edwards said split-ticket GOP voters have hardly gone extinct in his district, particularly in its more rural counties.

His work on military and veterans issues, and his votes against high-profile Democratic legislation — including the health insurance reform bill and legislation regulating greenhouse gas emissions — would outweigh any disadvantage from the current political climate in the country.

“I’ve earned the respect of Republicans, independents and Democrats who want a representative who will cross party lines and work on a bipartisan basis,” Edwards said. “I think people want more of that, not less of that in Washington.”

Economics, jobs

Flores said in a phone interview that he’s going to stick to the message that carried him through the primary by making the case that his experience as an oil and gas exploration executive makes him well-suited to handle the fiscal difficulties the country faces and to promote jobs.

“If I can convince voters of the strength of my experience and of my ability to go in to Washington a large group of conservative Republican freshmen and effect change, then I think we’ll be successful in November,” he said.

Edwards appears ready to fight when it comes to economic development and jobs.

His office recently announced it had helped secure a $7.2 million guaranteed loan to keep a foundry in Coolidge that employed 300 workers in the Limestone County town afloat.

The congressman also worked to convince U.S. Navy officials to restore money in the Pentagon’s budget for a program upgrading EP-3E spy planes.

The contract for the program is held by defense firm L-3 Communications, which employs almost 300 people in Waco to do the work.

Veterans

Flores also said he’s not about to cede any ground when it comes to support for the military and veterans to Edwards, who chairs the panel in Congress that determines spending levels for the Veterans Administration system and military construction.

Flores pointed to a $100,000 contribution he made to the U.S. Army in 2007 for a program rehabilitating wounded soldiers.

“He doesn’t have anything on me on vets and the military, and that came before I ever thought about running for Congress,” Flores said.

Flores’ campaign manager also provided documents showing he also gave $25,000 for a similar U.S. Marines program and that the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System accepted a $10,000 gift from Flores last summer.

Edwards has frequently pointed out the increases in the VA budget since he took over his chairmanship of the key House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees it.

Edwards also worked on a budgeting change that puts VA health care spending on a fast track, a priority of the Disabled Veterans of America.

If the primary season is a guide, Flores will also focus on votes Edwards took for the federal stimulus, the budgets and those programs’ contribution to spending levels and debt.

“The level of government debt is very alarming to people across the country and in this district,” Flores said.

“There are a lot of very conservative Democrats in our district, there are many independents in that they are concerned about what the future holds for their kids and their grandkids and of course the Republicans should end up settling behind us.”

The Bryan businessman has also tried to tie Edwards to Democratic leadership in Congress and President Barack Obama on the stump.

Edwards said such efforts to associate him with prominent Democrats haven’t worked in the past, whether the Democrat has been Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry or Obama, “because I have been independent-minded and worked on a bipartisan basis.”

Edwards invoked a saying of Texan and former House Speaker Sam Rayburn.

“Rayburn used to say, ‘There’s no lesson learned in the second kick of a mule,’ ” Edwards said.

Democratic enthusiasm

Edwards’ independence on health care and energy may have cost him some support on the left, according to Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson.

Jillson said Edwards’ opposition to the health care bill in particular, and his speech against the bill on the House floor may have “sapped some of the enthusiasm of liberal Democrats in Edwards’ district.”

Edwards expressed no regrets.

“There’s no question that there are some Democrats who wanted me to vote for the health care reform — probably along with Bill Flores,” said Edwards, predicting Flores would have been quick to use such a vote against him during the campaign.

“But I believe my vote reflected the views of the majority of the people in our district.”

Given the current anti-incumbent mood, Wood, of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the most important strategic battle could be over who can better portray their opponent as the outsider — Edwards, the longtime incumbent who has spent 20 years in Washington, or Flores who worked in Houston for years before retiring to the district in 2006.

“The real question is whether Edwards’ service of Waco outweighs the fact that he has done it in Washington,” Wood said.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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