If you want to vote for a Democrat you best vote for Bill Burch.
This will be interesting as there seems to be an effort to oust the Republican incumbent.
Craddick – a Midland Republican who’s seeking a third term – believes that former RRC contender Sarah Stogner was behind the quartet of candidates who surfaced in the eleventh hour with the filings of Christie Clark, Chris Corner, Corey Howell and Petra Reyes as primary contestants for the position that regulates oil and gas here.
The incumbent’s conspiracy theory makes sense to some degree for several reasons. It’s based in part on the fact that one of the expected RRC competitors has the same first name despite the e at the end while a second has a shortened version. Neither the Texas GOP or the Secretary of State had listed the hometowns for the last-minute entrants by Wednesday night.
Clark the candidate may be the same person who’s an attorney in Houston. Howell could be the same man who worked an intern for Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate before a stint as the director for a Texas House committee that State Rep. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City led as a Democrat before switching several years later to the GOP. A Weimar resident with the same name made small contributions to Governor Greg Abbott, former Land Commissioner George P. Bush and GOP State Senator Lois Kolkhorst.
The SOS Reyes listed for the RRC race as Petra Olivia. But Olivia is the middle name for Petra Reyes – a financial consultant for the energy industry in her home base of Midland. Reyes is a native from the same West Texas city where Stogner and the incumbent are residents as well. …
Democrats Bill Burch and Katherine Culbert filed to run for Craddick’s seat as well. Culbert is a process safety engineer in the oil and gas business in Houston. Burch, who resides in Livingston, also is an engineer in the industry.
