Gauging the full legacy of a longtime public servant after a hotly contested election is always tricky, but we hope that all Central Texans can agree that the tenure of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards was distinguished not only by constituent service to a stretch of Texas long overlooked but his willingness to look out for his district even when his duties didn’t strictly prescribe it.

Former Texas Gov. Mark White explained in a guest column how Edwards just last June helped Baylor University regents, friends and alumni save the Big 12 Conference from implosion when others had all but given up. While he didn’t say so in his column, White told us that our state’s top leaders wouldn’t even pick up the phone from Baylor till Edwards got involved. Ironically, Edwards then won criticism for involving himself in college athletics rather than the business of Congress. But the matter, in our view, involved far more than football.

Edwards, 58, a 10-term Waco Democrat who has chaired the powerful appropriations subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs, was among victims of a Republican electoral surge that swept our nation Tuesday, ousting Democratic veterans such as House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton and House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, both conservatives like Edwards.

Some voters will want to gloat over Edwards’ defeat. We’d rather acknowledge his career as one of great public service, spent seeking ways in which government could help create jobs in the private and public sectors. Today we see evidence of that locally at L-3 Communications, which is doing defense work that was going to be done by private contractors somewhere. Edwards reasoned, “Why not here?” In the process, he not only kept high-paying private-sector jobs here but kept this company from abandoning Waco.

Some critics have tried to devalue Edwards’ contributions in saving the Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center from closure, but he forged bipartisan efforts by enlisting U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the fight. Together, they not only saved the hospital and those employed there but significantly expanded its mission for troops returning from horrific wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His work to create an updated version of the GI Bill benefiting the children of military personnel lost in combat was yet another crusade undertaken, and at a time when the wars were proving more and more unpopular. The law was named for Marine Gunnery Sgt. John David Fry, of Lorena, killed while defusing a bomb in Iraq.

Many voters lambasted Edwards for the company he kept — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama. Yet he stood as an increasingly lonely voice for the bipartisanship that they failed to display.

His defeat may take out of the Texas congressional delegation its last true conservative Democrat. We join Edwards in graciously congratulating Bill Flores on his stunning victory Tuesday, even as we quietly lament that the Democratic Party has fewer and fewer individuals of Edwards’ dedication, integrity, grace and zeal for public good.