District 107 in the Texas House was created to be a Republican district, and a Republican now holds it.
But the results in 2012 were so close — Kenneth Sheets, first elected two years earlier, won re-election by less than 1,000 votes out of 50,000 cast — that Democrat Carol Donovan hopes to take it away this year.
District 107 stretches through the homes of middle-class families in northeast Dallas, Garland and Mesquite into affluent neighborhoods surrounding White Rock Lake.
Donovan thinks it is turning blue.
“It’s a matter of overcoming the edge,” she said. “The district is evolving, and I think the district is a lot more even than the people who drew the lines anticipated.”
Sheets said his conservative views are attuned to the people of the district. Sheets was considered an ally of the tea party when he was first elected in 2010, but he said he has broadened his perspective.
“I think I’ve matured,” he said. “I got to the point of understanding the reality of where things are.”
Both candidates are lawyers, but much of the common ground ends there.
Sheets paints a picture of a district sharing the prosperity of a booming state, but a district whose well-being needs the continued application of conservative principles.
“I think it’s all about the economy,” he said. “We have seen the results of positive economic growth, linked back to the policies of low taxes and a common-sense regulatory environment.”
But to Donovan, the task is to fulfill jobs she believes the Texas Legislature has left undone.
“The issues in this campaign are similar to those of Texas as a whole — support for public education, access to health care, support for the infrastructure,” Donovan said.
The Democrat criticized Gov. Rick Perry for refusing to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which she noted would have insured 1.5 million people in a state that has had the worst uninsured rate in the country.
“Once Medicaid is back,” she said, “we need to furnish the kind of assistance and support for low-income health clinics.”
Sheets charges that his opponent underestimates the concerns by Texans over illegal immigration.
“The reality is that we have a very open border,” he said. “The feds are not securing that border. We in Texas have to step up to protect it. I’m the only candidate in this race who seems to feel that way.”
They both agree that improving education is a key issue — even though they disagree on the proper approach.
“During the last session, we listened to parents, we listened to teachers,” Sheets said. “We are rolling back the number of standardized tests. We passed a law on charter schools to give the state the power to shut down the bad actors.”
Donovan, however, said one of her goals is repairing damage done to education by past actions of the Legislature. She blasts Sheets for voting for $5.4 billion in education cuts four years ago, noting that the Legislature later restored only part of that amount.
“There is $2 billion that has to be replaced, part of it by the state surplus...but we might have to tap the rainy day funds,” she said.
The campaign has not been free of attacks.
Sheets has accused Donovan of a “lack of leadership,” noting that until recently, she served on the board of directors of Honors Academy, a nonprofit charter school based in Farmers Branch. The charter was revoked for failure to meet minimum academic standards.
Donovan said that a district court reversed the revocation, although the reversal itself is now on appeal.
For her part, Donovan said that after Sheets accepted campaign money from the insurance industry, he authored a bill that would have made it easier for insurers to drop policyholders if they filed more than one claim.
Sheets replied that he later withdrew the bill.
Early voting continues through Friday. Election Day is Nov. 4.
AT A GLANCE: Raising money
From July 1 to Sept. 25
Kenneth Sheets
Total political contributions: $300,961.95
Total expenditures: $173,296.15
Total contributions maintained as of the last day of the reporting period: $186,440.37
Carol Donovan
Total political contributions: $64,210.31
Total expenditures: $91,974.22
Total contributions maintained as of the last day of the reporting period: $74,897
MEET THE CANDIDATES
Kenneth Sheets
Age: 38
Hometown: Mansfield
Birthplace: Trenton, Mich.
Occupation: Attorney; major, Marine Corps Reserve
Education: University of Texas at Arlington, bachelor’s degree in political science, 2001; Southern Methodist University law school, law degree, 2004
Poltical career: State representative, elected 2010, re-elected 2012
Career: Enlisted, Marine Corps, 1996, commissioned officer, 2001; served in Iraq, 2007-08; law partner, Payne and Blanchard.
Carol Donovan
Age: 60
Hometown: Dallas
Birthplace: Dallas
Occupation: Attorney-Mediator
Education: University of Texas at Austin, bachelor’s degree, 1977; Texas Tech University law school, law degree
Political career: First woman elected student body president, UT-Austin, aide to Rep. J.J. “Jake” Pickle
Career: Attorney-Mediator, Carol Crabtree Donovan, PC
