Former congressman Ciro Rodriguez completed a stunning political turnaround Tuesday with an upset over seven-term incumbent Republican Henry Bonilla for the state's largest district, a win that topped off the Democratic takeover of Congress.
Rodriguez overcame a huge financial disadvantage with the help of national party officials, who overhauled his campaign and spent aggressively on his behalf.
Bonilla, a 14-year incumbent, telephoned Rodriguez to concede about 9 p.m.
Bonilla was an appropriator with his hand on the pork-spigot. And, he was a Porkbusters-hata.
Bonilla received a fair amount of attention earlier this year when he took to the House floor to denounce earmark opponents as insane.
In response to a series of amendments by Rep. Flake to defund nineteen individual earmarks, Bonilla said, “It was once said that one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and somehow expecting a different result. That is what we are seeing here with these amendments that are being presented.”
“[At] some point you have to measure what that person’s brain is all about,” he added.
See how well that worked out for him?