US Congress District 10 reaches from Northeast Travis County along the US-290 corridor to the Katy area of Harris County. There are 3 candidates for the office in the Republican primary, and all three live in Austin.
Michael McCaul is the incumbent, having served since 2004 after a difficult 4-way primary. He did not have primary opponents in 2006 or 2008. He is the chair of the Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the Homeland Security committee, and ranking member on a couple of other committees dealing with national security. In addition, he is on the minority whip team within the Republican caucus. I personally have been very pleased with his voting record, particularly on the TARP vote, where he and Rep. Louie Gohmert were particularly vocal in opposition to the Troubled Assets Relief Program. He also joined with Rep. Jeb Hensarling in writing the Republican alternative Health Care plan.
Rick Martin is a doctor (anesthesiologist) who is running because he is concerned about the direction the Congress is undertaking concerning health care. His reason for running appears to be to raise awareness of this issue and bend the debate towards his positions. I am not expecting him to campaign terribly hard, as he only has the one issue, and Michael McCaul agrees with most of his positions already.
Joe Petronis is a young fellow, running on a “throw all the bums out” platform. His campaign materials and stump speeches focus on McCaul not doing enough, but he does not say what he would do differently. He also has very little presence in the middle-counties or in the Katy area. I am familiar with many of his views, and would be concerned as to how he might vote on issues that are dear to me.
In the General election, the Democrats had a candidate lined up who backed out at the last minute. In desperation, they brought back Ted Ankrum for a re-match. Ankrum received 40% of the vote in 2006 against 55% for McCaul. It is expected that the DNC will pour a lot of money into this race to defeat McCaul, as his race in 2008 was rather close and he is considered vulnerable.