One of the surest signs that an incumbent is concerned about re-election is the amount of money that other lawmakers send his way.
By that standard, Representative Ralph M. Hall, who is in his 34th year of House service, is clearly worried. At least seven of Mr. Hall’s fellow Texas Republicans have contributed money to him from their own campaigns since the beginning of 2014, although Mr. Hall’s most recent Federal Election Commission filing incorrectly labeled them as individual contributions. Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 12, Mr. Hall raised $117,688 â€" more than four times what he raised during the same period in 2010.
Although Mr. Hall has increased his fund-raising effort, it’s the $13,000 in contributions from seven of his colleagues that is more telling. The amount isn’t much, but the fact that Mr. Hall is getting money directly from his colleagues is somewhat unusual. Lawmakers typically make donations to other candidates from their leadership committees, reserving the bulk of money in their campaign accounts for their own re-election efforts. Two of the House donors who gave money in January to Mr. Hall, William M. Thornberry and Kay Granger, last gave their colleague a campaign check in 2004, after Mr. Hall, elected as a Democrat, switched to the Republican Party. Representative Sam Johnson, another Texas Republican, also gave money to Mr. Hall in 2004, but did so again in 2012.
Mr. Hall didn’t make the House Republicans’ list of most endangered incumbents, because he’s at little risk of losing his 4th District seat to a Democratic candidate in November’s election (in his last race, he secured 73 percent of the vote). Instead, his concerns stem from the March 4 Republican primary, where a former United States attorney, John Ratcliffe, is running to his right. Mr. Ratcliffe has loaned his campaign $400,000 and spent $300,000 during the first six weeks of the year, including more than $80,000 on television and radio advertisements. Mr. Hall has responded with ads of his own on TV, billboards and other media.
Should Mr. Hall lose his bid for re-election, Republicans would be no worse off in their attempts to maintain a majority. But his replacement could provide another vote for the collection of conservative House Republicans who have caused a headache for Speaker John A. Boehner as he tries to preside over a splintered majority, perhaps one reason he is getting some financial help from his friends.
