Throw the bums out. Incumbents must go. Quash the status quo.

It seems this angry attitude, often fueled by supporters of the tea party movement, is pervasive and sweeping the nation, although it seems most often directed toward national lawmakers.

But there are signs that this backlash against incumbents, whether real or perceived, might be filtering down to local politics in McLennan County.

Longtime county DA John Segrest (left) is facing his most serious challenger to date, Abel Reyna (right).

District Attorney John Segrest, who is seeking his sixth term, is the longest-tenured district attorney since McLennan County was formed in 1850.

Yet, his new campaign signs urged voters to “elect” him, instead of “re-elect,” the old standard for incumbents seeking to benefit from their experience in office.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Ray Meadows, who lost a primary race this year after 24 years in office, said he was urged by consultants and Republican Party leaders not to play up the fact that he has been in office for six terms.

Segrest, 60, a Democrat, is facing his most serious challenger to date, Republican Abel Reyna, 38.

“Everything in a political campaign is thought through,” Segrest said.

“Shooting from the hip oftentimes ends up with a bullet in your foot. So you don’t do that. You choose your words and you choose your sound bites carefully, and you play them. That is the nature of advertising in political campaigns. You use words that convey what you intend to communicate to the voting public.”

So why not use the term “re-elect,” which clearly delineates a candidate as an incumbent?

While Segrest said he is proud of his and his staff’s record during his two decades as top prosecutor, the upcoming election is just as much about the next four years.

“You could use various terms,” he said. “I guess I first used ‘elect’ 20 years ago, and now, I guess, I could have put ‘re-re-re-re-elect’ for my fifth term if I wanted to use that. You could say ‘keep,’ ‘vote for,’ ‘re-elect,’ ‘re-up,’ whatever you want to say. All are very descriptive of what I hope the voters will do.

“So I am asking the public to elect me. It is not sinister, and it is not misleading. I think it is just an apt description.”

Reyna questions his opponent’s choice of wording.

“It kind of puzzles me that you want to try, in some form or fashion, to avoid the fact that you are the incumbent while at the same time pushing the fact that you are the longest-serving district attorney in McLennan County,” Reyna said.

“If I were the incumbent for as long as he has been and I was proud of the work that I have done and knew there was nobody that could do a better job, I would have no problem putting ‘re-elect’ on my campaign materials. To me, what he did speaks for itself,” he said.

Longtime District Attorney John Segrest’s campaign signs urge voters to “elect” him rather than “re-elect” him.

‘Every election is different’

Segrest drew his last opponent, Mike Flynn, 12 years ago. He used the term “re-elect” during that campaign, he said.

“I had only been in office eight years at that time,” Segrest said. “Quite honestly, approaches to advertising have changed over a period of time. You have to upgrade and update. This is a political campaign. I don’t think Rick Perry or Chet Edwards or anybody else is going to run the same campaign that they ran in the past. Every election is different, just like every case is different.”

Baylor University political science professor Thomas Myers said Segrest chose wording to try to thwart the “throw the bums out” mentality.

But Myers doesn’t think any anti-incumbency momentum fanned by the tea party movement will filter down to the local district attorney’s race.

Segrest should be more concerned about the growth of the Republican Party in this county since he first took office, Myers said.

“There is certainly an element of anti-incumbency in the air right now,” Myers said. “Economic conditions are not good, and the people who are in office, rightly or wrongly, are taking the heat for that.

“But I don’t think the tea party movement is going to show up as strongly as people think. In general, I think these are very noisy people who are taken a little more seriously than maybe the numbers would actually justify,” he said.

McLennan County Judge Jim Lewis has been a county employee since 1972 and is seeking his fifth term as county judge. Like Segrest, he also is the longest-tenured holder of his office in county history.

He is using the term “re-elect” on his campaign materials in his race against Democratic nominee Ralph Cooper.

“I think there is that anti-incumbent attitude in different parts of the country and different places,” Lewis said. “But as a general rule on the local level, people know the candidates, and they just go on in there and vote their hearts and vote for the person they think will do the best job.”

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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