Stogner to run again for a seat on RRC, this time with Forward Party
Two West Texans will face off next year for a seat on the Railroad Commission.
Attorney Sarah Stogner, who lost her previous bid last year to Wayne Christian in a Republican Party runoff, announced she would run against Christi Craddick, the commission’s chair, next year as a member of the Forward Party.
“There are other frustrated Texans ready for someone to get to work and not focus on partisan” social issues, Stogner said in an interview.
The Crane County resident said better enforcement, rather than more regulation, is needed from the RRC, which has oversight of the state’s oil and gas industry. When policies aren’t working, she said, engineers and geoscientists should be called upon to look at those policies and find ways to let industry responsibly produce oil and natural gas. Her two top issues are grid resilience and clean water, she said.
Stogner said that in March she would begin the 75-day process of gathering the necessary 81,000 signatures from registered voters who did not participate in either the Republican or Democratic primaries in order to get on the ballot.
Stogner’s third-party candidacy faces several challenges, said Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston.
“It’s a logistical challenge and a challenge to get votes,” he said. “Partisan shifts are very rigid and have made people make tough choices on where they stand. It’s really hard to get people to abandon their partisan parties, even for candidates they like.”
He said Stogner also faces the challenge of educating potential
voters about the Railroad Commission itself and about herself. He said she was wise to get such an early start in her campaign to address those challenges.
Rottinghaus said Stogner could generate interest among younger Texans, “where Texas is headed now. It’s a young state and they want a candidate who talks about what’s important to them. She’s also social media savvy (in) the issues she talks about and she has a charismatic personality.”
Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute in Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, agreed that third party candidates traditionally aren’t successful, saying they tend to start strong only to see their candidacies weaken over time.
Stogner will initially get attention, he predicted, but “as time goes on and the Republican ticket comes together, regardless of the merit of the candidate, (Republican organization) will drown a thirdparty candidate.”
He does not see her thirdparty candidacy taking votes away from either the Republican or Democratic candidates, particularly in energy centers such as Midland, which are overwhelmingly Republican.