Al Edwards’ Last Booty Call?

Al Edwards is like the utility pole in the back yard: it’s there, always, yet we never have cause to think about it or even notice it until the transformer blows or it takes SBC three tries to properly string a new line through the neighborhood.

Edwards has spent much of his career in the state House trading on his sponsorship of the bill that made Juneteenth a state holiday (which is fine with us: Juneteenth is a day deserving of commemoration, and we’re for all the state holidays we can get). His other notable deed was the “booty bill” to ban lewd cheerleading routines at public schools---his very own blown transformer, replete with dead squirrel---for which he was derided by cosmopolitans the world over and which earned him an appearance on The Daily Show, where, surprisingly, he didn’t come off looking too much like a crank. (Yes, there was some other business about chopping off drug dealers’ hands and allowing prison guards to spank inmates---Al’s Old School, as in the 13th Century, but we guess you could argue that he’s just responding to constituents’ concerns).

Emboldened by the knocking-off of seemingly entrenched incumbent Rep. Ron Wilson two years ago, two guys with shaved heads, facial hair, presentable credentials and the ability to scare up a little money are challenging A.E. in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. One is lawyer Al Bennett, who’s gotten the Houston Chronicle endorsement (which may actually help a little in a three-way state rep race, especially among moderate white Democrats in the district) and whose bona fides include being the son-in-law of Harlem Globetrotter legend “Tex” Harrison. The other is Borris Miles, an insurance guy and former law officer who’s one of only three African-American males in Houston named “Borris,” according to the 2000 Census.

(We should disclose at this point that Edwards is our state representative. Our U.S. representative is John “Kid” Culberson. When it comes to representation, we’re covered.)

Interestingly (mildly), both Bennett and Miles are dogging Edwards with an almost identical bill of indictment: that he’s not a “real” Democrat, he’s too cozy with House Speaker Tom Craddick, voted to cut the CHIP program, etc. Ordinarily, we’d see these proclivities as evidence of an independent, think-for-yourself politician … except it’s Al Edwards.

The incumbent, it goes without saying, has the support of the usual suspects: Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green, Sylvester Turner, labor leaders and so forth. The phone calls and mailings have been assailing us at steady clip for the past two weeks or so, although we still haven’t gotten a call from Sheila (but we know it’s coming!)

From the little we’ve heard and read about the race, we’d probably be going with Bennett, if we were gonna vote in the Democratic primary, which we’re not, but we’ll be keeping an eye on the returns Tuesday night to see if voters can trim away some more deadwood on their own, without term limits.