Court ruling could keep Rep. Blake Farenthold off GOP primary ballot

AUSTIN – Lawyers for the Republican Party of Texas and for the Texas secretary of state's office set the stage Tuesday to keep U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold's name off the March 6 GOP primary ballot.

But after a brief court hearing, followed by a ruling dismissing the lawsuit brought by the GOP, the party could not immediately say whether Farenthold will be on the primary ballot in Texas Congressional District 27.

"It appears the judge passed the ball back to us," GOP spokesman Jamie Bennett said.

Before that, in a hearing Tuesday in an Austin federal courtroom, Republican Party attorney Chris Gober said he was advised in court filings that the secretary of state's office had no power to force the party to include Farenthold, who last week served notice he was dropping his candidacy for a fifth term amid the fallout over his settling a sexual harassment lawsuit with $84,000 in taxpayers' money.

Given that, Gober said, the party would likely drop the suit, which was filed to remove the Corpus Christi Republican's name even though the deadline to withdraw a candidacy had passed. U.S. Magistrate Andrew Austin, who presided over the hearing, asked Texas Attorney General Esteban Soto if the state would would proceed with any court action if GOP dropped the suit.

Soto, who represented the secretary of state, said no. Soto said the office is not responsible for enforcing the law governing candidates' presence on primary election ballots.

That is up to the Republican Party, Soto said. "The secretary of state's office is just a filing station," he said, meaning the party was free to do what it wished on whether to include Farenthold on the ballot.

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After the hearing, there was some back-and-forth between Gober and reporters over whether the agreement could be challenged, either by a would-be candidate who might have filed if it was known Farenthold planned to withdraw, or by a voter who might feel deprived of the choice to cast a ballot for the incumbent.

Gober left open that such scenarios could play out, but could not flatly dismiss it.

The GOP took the matter to federal court, saying it should have the right, in certain cases, to exclude a candidate from an election if the candidate no longer wishes to run.

“Congressman Farenthold has formally requested to withdraw from the race, and the party believes it’s in our best interest to accommodate his request and remove him from the ballot," Dickey said when the lawsuit was filed.

After the hearing, Bennett said Dickey was conferring with lawyers on whether he intends to file the official candidate list without Farenthold's name included and perhaps risk a challenge to the validity of the primary.

The GOP primary field for the 27th congressional district is crowded. Bech Bruun and Michael Cloud are among six Republican challengers to Farenthold. The others are Christopher K. Mapp of Port O'Connor, John Grundwald of Houston, Eddie Gassman of Corpus Christi, and Jerry Hall of Corpus Christi.

Four Democrats  – Eric Holguin of Corpus Christi, Raul "Roy" Barrera of Corpus Christi, Ronnie McDonald of Bastrop, and Vanessa Edwards Foster of Houston – also are vying for the right to compete for the seat in November.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

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