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Chris Bell announces for Texas senate seat
  
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Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell is making another run at an Austin job, announcing tonight (Sunday, July 20) he is indeed a candidate for the State Senate District 17 seat vacated when Republican Kyle Janek resigned.
In a rally held in a sweltering tent outside his new campaign headquarters just blocks from his southwest Houston home, Bell said he sees the seat as “a golden opportunity to make progress toward the same goals I’ve worked for my entire career.”
Bolstering public education and fighting vouchers, health care reform and ethics enforcement were the main issues cited by the former U.S. congressman and city councilman.
After losing the Texas governor’s race, Bell —an attorney by professional — joined the Washington, D.C., based firm of Patton Boggs as a lobbyist, and penned a weekly political column for the Examiner Newspaper Group. (That column has been put in hiatus.)
“Running for office this year was not in my plans,” he told about 200 well-wishers. “But real leadership demands that you welcome opportunities to serve the public good even when it’s not convenient or according to some schedule you set for yourself.”
Three Republicans — Austin Furse, Grant Harpold and Joan Huffman — have all declared for the special election, which will be held Nov. 7 in conjunction with the presidential election.
Bell had told the Examiner earlier that polls showed him the front runner for the seat. He would need to garner 50 percent of the vote to win election outright. Without such a win, the two top vote getters would compete in a runoff election.
Stay with hcnonline.com and the Examiners for more from the Bell announcement and coverage of the District 17 race.
In a rally held in a sweltering tent outside his new campaign headquarters just blocks from his southwest Houston home, Bell said he sees the seat as “a golden opportunity to make progress toward the same goals I’ve worked for my entire career.”
Bolstering public education and fighting vouchers, health care reform and ethics enforcement were the main issues cited by the former U.S. congressman and city councilman.
After losing the Texas governor’s race, Bell —an attorney by professional — joined the Washington, D.C., based firm of Patton Boggs as a lobbyist, and penned a weekly political column for the Examiner Newspaper Group. (That column has been put in hiatus.)
“Running for office this year was not in my plans,” he told about 200 well-wishers. “But real leadership demands that you welcome opportunities to serve the public good even when it’s not convenient or according to some schedule you set for yourself.”
Three Republicans — Austin Furse, Grant Harpold and Joan Huffman — have all declared for the special election, which will be held Nov. 7 in conjunction with the presidential election.
Bell had told the Examiner earlier that polls showed him the front runner for the seat. He would need to garner 50 percent of the vote to win election outright. Without such a win, the two top vote getters would compete in a runoff election.
Stay with hcnonline.com and the Examiners for more from the Bell announcement and coverage of the District 17 race.
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