Henry Bonilla

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Henry Bonilla
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 23rd district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 4, 2007
Preceded by	Albert Bustamante
Succeeded by	Ciro Rodriguez
Born	January 2, 1954 (1954-01-02) (age 54) San Antonio, Texas
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Sheryl Bonilla
Religion	Baptist

Henry Bonilla (born January 2, 1954) is a former congressman who represented Texas's 23rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was defeated in his bid for re-election by Ciro Davis Rodriguez, a former Democratic member of Congress, in a special election runoff held on December 12, 2006. His term expired January 3, 2007 when the 110th Congress officially began.

[edit] Roots in San Antonio

Bonilla was born in San Antonio to Anita Arellano and Enrique A. Bonilla.^[1] He graduated from South San Antonio High School in 1972 and received his Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976. Before entering politics, he was a television news executive at San Antonio's CBS affiliate, KENS-TV. His ex-wife, Deborah Knapp, continues as an anchor at the station.

[edit] Congressional career

In March 1992, Bonilla won the 23rd district's Republican nomination for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (map). The 23rd had been a Democratic district since its creation in 1967, but Bonilla charged three-term incumbent Albert G. Bustamante with neglecting his constituents' needs and excessive junketeering. He benefited from the 1990s redistricting by the Texas legislature, which left a heavily Republican section of San Antonio in the 23rd while carving the new 28th district out of much of the 23rd's territory. Bonilla won by a shocking 38-point margin — the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent that year.

In March 1999, Governor George W. Bush named Bonilla as the only Texan on his Presidential Exploratory Committee. Bonilla often represented Bush on national news programs and as a surrogate speaker.

Even though the 23rd had a slight Democratic lean, Bonilla developed a very conservative voting record. Largely because of his popularity in San Antonio, he did not face a credible challenge until 2002, when Democrat Henry Cuellar, a former Texas secretary of state, came within two points of unseating him.

Bonilla announced that he would probably run in 2006 for the United States Senate seat held by fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison if she ran for governor in 2006 against the incumbent Republican Rick Perry. However, Hutchison decided to run for another term in the Senate.

[edit] American Dream PAC

When Bonilla took charge in 1999 of an independent political fund called American Dream PAC, he made clear that its mission was to "give significant, direct financial assistance to first-rate minority GOP candidates". However, between 1999 and the end of 2003, only $48,750 (or 8.9 percent) of the $547,000 the PAC has received, has gone to minority office-seekers, while more than $100,000 has been routed to Republican Party organizations or causes.

Bonilla defends his PAC's record of assisting minority candidates, saying, "We did the best we could." In all, 27 minority office-seekers, predominantly Hispanic-American, received money, mostly small donations. But Bonilla said it was sometimes difficult to find "good, solid minority candidates to expend the funds on".

In July 2003, the treasurer of the PAC pleaded guilty to embezzling $119,021 between 1999 and 2003 and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The thefts were not discovered until almost four years after they began. "It was a black mark on my judgment", Bonilla said in a 2004 interview. [1]

[edit] 2003 redistricting

Bonilla was priming for a rematch against Cuellar in 2004, but in 2003, a controversial mid-decade redistricting by the Texas legislature, the results of efforts by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, moved most of Laredo, which had been one of the cores of the 23rd since its formation, to the 28th district. In its place, Bonilla received several heavily Republican San Antonio suburbs, all but assuring him of a seventh term. Meanwhile, Cuellar entered and won the 2004 primary against the 28th's incumbent Democrat Ciro Rodriguez and then went on to win the general election.

Bonilla contributed money from his American Dream PAC to the redistricting effort. [2]

Soon after the 2004 election, Bonilla was criticized when he proposed a procedural rule change that would permit House leaders to retain their leadership positions despite having been indicted by a state grand jury. [3] The proposal would have allowed Tom DeLay to remain as Majority Leader despite having been indicted by the Travis County district attorney's office for possible campaign finance violations. Many constituents believed that Bonilla was blatantly repaying a political favor to DeLay for having favorably redrawn the 23rd District. [4]

On June 29, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Anthony Kennedy taking the lead, ruled that Bonilla's district violated the Civil Rights Act, though the justices upheld most of the 2003 redistricting. The Court declared that the Texas legislature violated the rights of Latino voters when it cut most of Laredo out of the 23rd. Because of the size of the 23rd, the ruling effectively forced the redrawing of nearly every district from El Paso to San Antonio. Precedent dictated that a new map had to be issued before the November elections.

The court issued the new lines on August 7. It moved all of Laredo out of the 23rd and into the 28th, but nevertheless made the district much friendlier to Democrats. In particular, Bonilla received several portions of heavily Democratic south San Antonio (where he'd grown up) while losing many of the strongly Republican areas he had inherited in the 2003 redistricting. The court also ordered an all-party primary on Election Day, with a December runoff if no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote. The new map included much of Rodriguez' former base, and he announced that he would run against Bonilla in November. [5]

Federal Elections Commission records show Bonilla paid the Los Angeles-based law firm of Latham & Watkins $100,000 in 2006, from his campaign funds, to argue that the district boundaries were constitutional. In February, the firm filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in support of the redistricting plan. [6]

[edit] Defeat in 2006

On November 7, Bonilla faced six Democrats, including Ciro Rodriguez and Vietnam War veteran Rick Bolanos in the all-candidate special election required by the court decision on redistricting (see above). The ballot also included one independent. Bolanos had won the Democratic primary earlier in the year. [7]

In the first special election, Bonilla won 48.1 percent of the vote to Rodriguez' 20.3 percent. Since no one gained a majority, there was a runoff between the two former colleagues. [8] According to unofficial results of the Texas Secretary of State [9], Rodriguez won the runoff with 54.32% of the vote to Bonilla's 45.68%. Bonilla was the first Republican incumbent in Texas to be unseated by a Democrat in 10 years, since Nick Lampson's defeat of Steve Stockman in a 1996 runoff election. Interestingly, Lampson was also elected back to Congress in 2006 after being defeated for reelection in 2004 in another district, like Rodriguez.

Bonilla said in interviews the night of his defeat that his loss was in part a result of the changed districting. He ran controversial commercials that claimed that Rodriguez took funds from terrorists, which media outlets called "bold claims". He later apologized to the press for any of those who took offense but stood by his statement.

However, a large number of Hispanics and Latinos, who predominantly reside in District 23, had expressed disdain for Bonilla by stating that he had fallen out of touch with the needs and concerns of minorities. In a year of war, illegal immigration issues, and a proposed border fence, Latinos left the Republicans side in droves. [10]

Bonilla's seat was the 31st gained by Democrats, the 30th taken from the Republicans, in 2006.

[edit] Nomination as Ambassador

After his term in Congress expired, Bonilla was nominated to be Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the Organization of American States, with the rank of Ambassador. [11] After two months with no action by the Senate, Bonilla asked the President to withdraw his nomination. [12] Instead, Bonilla has joined the Washington based firm The Normandy Group.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bonilla's campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Redistrict Ruling May Affect Nov. Election, Associated Press
• Latino Voters Bring Victory to Texas Democrats