Ghosts of Landslide Lyndon

Old-time politics is alive and well in Texas, which had its primary yesterday. The predominantly Mexican-American counties of south Texas long have had a reputation as among the most corrupt in the country. The most notorious example, of course, was Alice's Box 13, where 200 votes were"discovered" six days after the 1948 Dem Senate primary. The votes broke 198-2 for LBJ, giving him an 87-vote victory.

Although Tom DeLay's race attracted the most national attention, the nastiest primary occurred in Texas' 28th District, a predominantly Mexican-American area that snakes south from San Antonio to the Mexican border. In 2004, Henry Cuellar, a conservative Dem, very narrowly ousted incumbent Ciro Rodriguez in a primary marred by credible allegations of fraud. (Initially untabulated ballots reversed an apparent Rodriguez triumph.) Rodriguez ran again this year.

Early reports last night had Rodriguez ahead, but the 30 precincts in Cuellar's base, far southern Webb County, experienced what was described as a computer malfunction. As of 10 p.m., the country hadn't reported any results. When the votes finally did come in, the figures were startling: Cuellar took 12,341 votes in the county to just 1,475 for Rodriguez. Of those who cast ballots before Election Day, Cuellar's margin was even more overwhelming: 8,145 to 789, with 454 for a third candidate in the race. (That's a total of 86.8% of the early ballots.) George Parr, the Duke of Duval County, would have been proud.