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U.S. Rep Chet Edwards said he was in the tiny Texas town of Abbott on June 22 when he received a phone call from Sen. Barack Obama.
"When I answered the phone and he introduced himself, I was about a split second from saying, 'Yeah right, Bubba, and I am John McCain,'" Edwards recently recalled, saying he initially thought the call was a joke.
Far from it. Obama was calling to tell Edwards that he was being considered as a possible Democratic vice presidential running mate.
The conversation kicked off an intense process in which Edwards was asked to produce every speech he's ever given and nearly every article written about him for investigators to review. In the end, Sen. Joe Biden from Delaware was selected from four finalists that included Edwards, the Texas congressman said.
Edwards said the vetting experience was a positive one for him, though he didn't ask for it.
Meanwhile, Waco businessman Republican Rob Curnock said the buzz around Edwards being on the ticket helped him, too.
Curnock, Edwards' challenger for the District 17 congressional seat, said the talk accentuated the difference between Edwards and his constituents in a conservative region.
He said that it was especially helpful to his race when the possibility of Edwards being vice president initially was raised by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- not necessarily a popular figure in the GOP-dominated Brazos Valley.
"For my campaign it was the gift that kept on giving," Curnock said. "The dynamics of this race changed."
Still, Curnock acknowledged that he faces an uphill battle to win the Nov. 4 election. He has little funding for his grassroots campaign and faces a nine-term incumbent who repeatedly has fended off challenges from viable GOP candidates.
Curnock, who has never before held an elected office, ran two unsuccessful campaigns for congress in 2000 and 2002, but lost in primary races each time. He said he can win this time because his conservative values line up more with District 17 -- which includes all of Bosque, Brazos, Grimes, Hill, Hood, Johnson, Madison, McLennan and Somervell counties, and part of Burleson, Limestone, and Robertson counties -- than his opponent's views.
Edwards said any action he takes in Congress is guided by independence and reason, rather than by partisan politics. He pointed to the results of his votes as proof, saying he's helped secure millions of dollars to help the Brazos Valley and Texas.
Edwards said any action he takes in Congress is guided by independence and reason, rather than by partisan politics. He pointed to the results of his votes as proof, saying he's helped secure millions of dollars to help the Brazos Valley and Texas.
Who they are
Edwards has served in Congress since 1991 but only began representing Brazos County after a 2003 redistricting by the Republican-led Texas Legislature.
His ties to Brazos County go back to when he was a student at Texas A&M University, where he graduated with an economics degree in 1974. He spent three years as an aide to then-Congressman Olin "Tiger" Teague, also an Aggie. Teague retired in 1978 and encouraged Edwards to run as his replacement. Edwards was on the ballot, but narrowly lost to Phil Gramm in the Democratic primary.
Edwards left politics for a while and went to Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA. He worked in commercial real estate and was president of a radio station in rural South Texas before serving in the Texas Senate from 1983 to 1989.
In recent campaigns, Edwards has faced tough tests. He narrowly defeated Republican Arlene Wohlgemuth by three percentage points in a heated campaign in 2004 -- winning Brazos County by 269 votes. Two years later, Edwards defeated former marine Van Taylor by 18 percentage points in a race that brought Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Vice President Dick Cheney to the district in support of Taylor.
This year, Curnock has received no such funding. Most political prognosticators believe Edwards will win. By June 30, Edwards had raised $1.8 million compared to Curnock's $13,183.
The 50-year-old grew up in Buffalo, New York, and worked in a Chevrolet plant to earn money for college. He transferred to Baylor University from the State University of New York at Buffalo and graduated in 1981 with a degree in communication studies.
After graduation, he took a job at KWTX-TV in Waco as a sports reporter and opened his own video production company. When he left television to work for his business fulltime in 1991, he said became involved in the McClennan County Republican Party as director of public relations. He also served as a precinct chair and served as a delegate in the state and county Republican Party conventions.
He ran for Edwards' seat in 2000 and 2002 but lost each time in the primary. He said he was approached by some Republicans in Waco to run again this year, but hesitated because he wanted to spend time at home with his wife, whom he recently married after a 20-year relationship.
"I said I would only run if we couldn't find someone else to do it," he said, adding that no other Republican had filed by Jan. 2, so Curnock did so just before the 6 p.m. deadline.
Bringing the money home
According to his staff, Edwards helped secure $78.14 million for Brazos County and Texas A&M that was not included in President Bush's budget proposal during Edwards' most recent term. That money includes $588,000 for the Texas Transportation Institute to study traffic congestion in Brazos County, $23 million for the National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center at A&M, $8.64 million in Department of Defense research at A&M and $21.96 million for agriculture research at A&M.
"That is $78.14 million that would not have come here if I was not in Congress," Edward said.
Much of that money came from earmarks, a controversial way for congressmen slip pet projects into appropriations bills -- often without the possibility of a vote on the particular project, his opponent pointed out. Some politicians and government groups have criticized the practice as wasteful and have pushed for Congress to end the practice.
Edwards said he understands concerns some have about earmarks, but said the method can be a valuable tool when used responsibly.
"I support earmark reform, but I refuse to accept that bureaucrats in the White House budget office have a complete monopoly on federal spending."
According to anti-earmark group Taxpayers for Common Sense, Congress passed $17.2 billion worth of earmarks in 2008. The group reported that Edwards passed 74 projects worth a combined $42.2 million -- the 94th highest out of 435 representatives.
Curnock said on his Web site that he "brags about his use of earmarks to bring in federal dollars."
"I am running as a conservative that thinks we need to cut spending," he said in an interview last week. "I am an opponent of pork barrel and earmark spending."
He later said he did not discount the value of some of the money Edwards has brought to the area, but said that working for constituents is a regular part of being a congressman. Edwards has done nothing out of the ordinary, he said.
"The incumbent has some powerful arguments if you buy into the argument that only he can bring in money to Brazos County," he said.
Curnock said he would work with like-minded conservatives in the legislature to make sure that Brazos County got the same amount of federal help as it has under Edwards.
Edwards disputed such assurances.
"I don't think very many people think that a freshman representative with no experience at all would be as effective as I have at bringing money to Brazos County citizens," Edwards said. "It is easy to make promises. I would like my actions to speak for themselves."
On the issues
Edwards said he has earned the ability to appropriate money for Brazos County by climbing the ladder in the House of Representatives.
He sits on both the powerful House Budget and the Appropriations Committees and is chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee.
Edwards said many generals -- including some inside the Bush administration -- opposed the surge and pointed out that factors like the Sunni Awakening have contributed to recent success in Iraq.
But as his power has grown, so have rumors of him moving on to higher office. While he ultimately was passed on as a vice presidential candidate, some think that he will be picked for a position in Obama's cabinet if he wins in November. Edwards declined to comment on those rumors and would only say he was proud to be mentioned.
Curnock said he has no ambitions past a seat in Congress.
"I am not here to become a career politician," he said. "My career is in Central Texas. My business is here and my home is here."
Curnock said his main goal is to represent District 17 with a conservative mindset and pointed to Edwards' opposition to the Iraqi troop surge as an example of how Edwards' views do not align with Brazos County's. He said that the dramatic drop in violence in Iraq was proof that the surge was the right decision.
"Our military people were saying that we can win this," he said, adding that he believed that Edwards and other Democrats politicized their positions on the war. "Let us do our job."
Edwards points to his support of military veterans as evidence of his experience in working on military issues. He led the fight to save the Waco VA hospital when a federal commission recommended its closing and his support from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Political Action Committee.
Meanwhile, he said, that Republicans have contributed more money to his campaign than they have to Curnock's race.
Edwards said he supported the economic rescue package pushed through Congress at the end of its 2008 session because of the dire situation in the economy and he said he suspects Congress may have to reconvene after the election to continue working on economy issues.
"Government has to play a role [in fixing the economy]," he said. "And first we have stop the hemorrhaging."
Curnock said he does not know how he would have voted on the bill because he had not reviewed it in its entirety. He said he wishes Congress took more time with the bill to review the effects it would have.
"I believe something had to be done but I would have liked a little more deliberation," he said. "I want to make sure [the taxpayers] get paid back fully."
