Texas Senate Election -- The Democratic Side

I wrote here about a potential Republican candidate to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison as a senator from Texas, if, as expected, she resigns from that body, after next year's primary election in which she's seeking the Republican nomination for governor. But what about the Democrats?

Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post describes John Sharp as "the near-certain Democratic nominee".

Sharp, 59, spent 20 years in electoral politics in Texas, in the legislature, on the Railroad Commission, and as state comptroller. Since leaving the comptroller's office in 1998, he has worked as a tax consultant.

Mayor Bill White, of Houston, had planned to run in the Democratic Senate primary, but recently switched to the gubernatorial race. That seems, for the moment at least, to leave Sharp a clear path to the special election for Senate.

No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate election in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen won a fourth term in 1988, which he later cut short, to accept appointment as President Bill Clinton's first secretary of the treasury. Hutchison won a special election to replace Bentsen, in 1993, and that is the seat for which Sharp is now running.