That's one reason the defeat of Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a Democratic primary in Texas hasn't gotten more coverage. Another reason is that Henry Cuellar, the winner by 203 votes in a bitterly contested recount last week, is the kind of Hispanic politician liberal reporters can't always understand: a thoughtful moderate who believes in working across party lines and who actually endorsed George W. Bush for president in 2000.

The race isn't completely over. Mr. Rodriguez is charging that the recount in the March 9 primary election is tainted by the discovery of more than 300 uncounted ballots in Zapata County, a Cuellar stronghold on the Mexican border. The incumbent charges voter fraud and has filed suit to overturn the election. There is certainly a long history of incompetence and chicanery in Texas border counties, most infamously Ballot Box 13, which saved Lyndon B. Johnson's political career in 1948 after it mysteriously turned up with just enough votes for him to win a Senate seat. This year, there may have been fraud on both sides. Last month officials in San Antonio, an area Mr. Rodriguez carried with 80% of the vote, caught a total of 42 applications for mail-in ballots from dead people.

Many Democrats say Mr. Cuellar's moderate stances mask a consuming opportunism. They point out that he resigned from the legislature after Mr. Bush's election to accept an appointment as secretary of state from incoming governor Rick Perry. He resigned that post after only 10 months to run for Congress in 2002 against Rep. Henry Bonilla, the House's only Mexican-American Republican. He lost that race, 52% to 47%, winning his home area of Laredo overwhelmingly and running five points ahead of Al Gore's 2000 showing in the district.

Despite his respectable showing, national Democrats criticized Mr. Cuellar for running an inept campaign. One operative called him "a fundamentally and fatally flawed candidate" whom Democrats "are not going to waste money on again." Mr. Cuellar said the criticism represented lingering bitterness over his willingness to work with Republicans. He was nonetheless preparing to run against Mr. Bonilla again when the Texas Legislature, newly controlled by Republicans, scrapped a court-drawn redistricting plan and drew new lines that put most of Mr. Cuellar's home area in the district Mr. Rodriguez has represented since 1997. When Mr. Cuellar announced he would challenge the incumbent in the primary, he was denounced as a traitor and ingrate. He responds: "Nobody died and made [Mr. Rodriguez] king. Democrats run against Democrats all the time."

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus was especially resentful of the challenge to their chairman, and they joined labor groups in pouring money into Mr. Rodriguez's coffers. The Almanac of American Politics notes that Mr. Rodriguez had the most liberal voting record of any Texas congressman, and he took fire from more-conservative Hispanics, who didn't like his stands opposing the war in Iraq and the Partial-Birth Abortion Act. Mr. Cuellar also criticized Mr. Rodriguez for opposing President Bush's prescription-drug plan from the left and mocked him as ineffective: "Ciro has done zero." He noted that Mr. Rodriguez's relations with President Bush were so bad that the congressman admitted the White House no longer returned his phone calls.

Mr. Rodriguez in turn routinely claimed his opponent was a closet Republican. "Henry Cuellar sits on the fence. . . . Democrat then Republican. Republican then Democrat. Democrat then Republican," a Rodriguez fund-raising letter said.

His arguments persuaded the board of the League of United Latin American Citizens to endorse vouchers, although the group's state convention later reversed that move. Vouchers failed to pass the Legislature in 1999, and while Mr. Cuellar didn't make them an issue this year, he refused to retreat from his support of them.

In the end, the race came down in part to regional loyalty: Mr. Rodriguez swept his San Antonio base, and Mr. Cuellar won 85% of the vote in Laredo. But many political observers believe there was an ideological component as well. "Henry proved that you can run as a moderate, get the community to listen to you and win," says a former Hispanic colleague of his in the Legislature.

The district is overwhelmingly Democratic, so assuming that Mr. Cuellar defeats Mr. Rodriguez's vote-count challenges, he will go to Washington in January. Some Democrats will no doubt give him a chilly reception, at least at first. But the brash challenger has proved before that he can work with people from all sides, and his unusual status could even make him a bridge between liberal and conservative lawmakers. Mr. Cuellar's election, along with the continued victories of his former GOP adversary, Mr. Bonilla, will serve as further evidence that liberal Democrats can't take Hispanic votes for granted.