Following the illegal 2003 redistricting of Texas, Rep. Ciro Rodriguez was ousted by fellow "Democrat" Henry Cueller - one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. Ciro tried to regain his old House seat earlier this year by taking on Cueller but lost badly in the primary.

After the Supreme Court ruled that the Texas redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act because the 23rd district was not representative of the Hispanic population that actually lived in the area (and thus made it much more Republican than it should have), the new 23rd district that the Court drew up included Ciro's home and much of his San Antonio base. This gave Ciro yet another chance in 2006. He forced the runoff election when incumbent Henry Bonilla could not quite get the required 50% to win outright on Nov. 7 (he got 49%), and in what is considered a pretty big upset, Ciro beat Bonilla badly - 54-46% - on Tuesday.

Ciro is a solid progressive and will likely hold on to the largely Hispanic district for many years.