By Bud Kennedy
bud@star-telegram.com
State Rep. Mark Shelton has been absolutely right at least once in the Texas Senate debates.
Last week, he told a Fort Worth audience, "I am way out of my comfort zone."
The four debates between Shelton, a pediatrician who treats children deathly sick with infections, and state Sen. Wendy Davis were like -- well, like any conversation between a doctor accustomed to hushed conferences and a verbose lawyer.
Asked how to pay for schools or roads or more water, Shelton falls back on his two terms of experience as a pro-business Republican and says, "We need to keep taxes low and let the economy grow."
Then, Davis delivers a play-by-play of how the Legislature hid all the money, and faked a balanced budget, and left schools with no books and women with no doctors, or something like that.
The next question is always about colleges or parks or healthcare, and Shelton says, "In these times, it's important that we keep our regulations and taxes low."
He definitely stays on message.
In a year when other candidates are debating small or big government, Davis and Shelton are basically debating whether Texas needs some government or barely any at all.
Shelton's challenge to the Democratic incumbent has money and interest from all over Texas for a simple reason: If he wins, Republicans can lock down an unbreakable two-thirds Texas Senate majority.
But Davis seems like the front-runner for several reasons:
• She's better-known.
Shelton has represented southwest Fort Worth and Benbrook in the Texas House for four years.
Yet I've gone to three large civic club, church or business meetings south of Interstate 20 lately where almost all those in attendance said they see Davis often but had never seen or met Shelton.
• His voter base is weaker.
Shelton was elected with money from Texas doctors and the votes of doctors, nurses and medical workers at two major hospitals. But those votes weren't even enough to nominate Republican Susan Todd as his successor.
• Voters don't seem so worried about taxes.
In the large Crowley school district, voters just approved a 13-cent tax increase by 66 percent to 34 percent.
On the other hand, Texas Senate District 10 was originally drawn by Republicans 10 years ago to elect one of their own.
The district remains marginally Republican.
So there are two reasons Shelton might win:
• Mitt Romney.
• Barack Obama.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538Twitter: @budkennedy
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