El Paso voters should care about House Speaker Tom Craddick because the powerful state leader affects issues ranging from the El Paso medical school to children's health insurance and education, a political expert said Friday. "Everything (on the border) cries out for more investment, and if you're a political leader who doesn't believe in state investment, it's very difficult to see how someone like that is helpful," said Steve Taylor, editor of the online journal Rio Grande Guardian, which covers border politics and the Texas Capitol.

Craddick, the Midland Republican who became House speaker in 2003, has become a central character in the primary election contests in El Paso between state Rep. Pat Haggerty and GOP challenger Dee Margo and between state Rep. Paul Moreno and Democratic challenger Marisa Marquez.

The incumbents charge their challengers are pawns for the embattled leader who hopes to retain his position by pouring money into the campaigns of candidates who will support him when he faces a vote of the 150-member chamber again in 2009.

The challengers deny any obligation to Craddick or his allies.

Some local Republicans say Craddick has been a friend of El Paso and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences School of Medicine. Others, however, say the conservative leader has hurt the city by holding up medical school money and by supporting policies that cut state funds for public services.

"I don't see him as anti-El Paso at all," said Rick Francis, Texas Tech regent and El Paso businessman.

Woody Hunt, CEO of Hunt Building, recently said Craddick was an advocate for the medical school in El Paso. Ineffective local legislators, he said, were to blame for more than two years of funding delays.

Lawmakers would not have approved $48 million for the school last year without Craddick and state Rep. Norma Chavez, who supported him, Hunt said "That (Craddick) was somehow a barrier to that success does not reflect my own experience as someone who was involved in the process," Hunt said. Francis said his experience with Craddick was similar.

"Our delegation, by and large, has not supported any of his initiatives and the result has been, you know, he hasn't been as well received by them," Francis said.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, in a letter to Hunt this week, said he had a much different recollection of the struggle for medical school money.

"Tom Craddick personally cut medical school funding in every session from 2003 through 2005, including several special sessions," Shapleigh wrote.

Craddick, he said, threatened medical school cuts unless local lawmakers voted for other legislation that was not in the interest of El Pasoans.

In 2003, state Rep. Chente Quintanilla reported being offered money for the medical school in exchange for his vote on another bill.

In 2005, funding for the medical school disappeared from the budget at the same time money appeared for a clinic in Craddick's hometown.

In 2006, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the funding delays resulted from problems between El Paso legislators and Craddick.

State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, was chairman of the House budget-writing committee in 2005. He is one of several Republicans, including Haggerty, running to replace Craddick as speaker.

He said Craddick stopped money from going to the medical school.

"I went to the Speaker and told him I went to El Paso and saw the empty building and the tables already in the labs and heard the president of the medical school say they had a time table," Pitts said. "I was told, 'Not this year.'"

Every El Paso legislator, he said, fought for the funding, and sometimes even capitulated to voting with Craddick on hope of finally getting the money only to see promises broken.

"I was there," Pitts said. "I was in the room."

Alexis DeLee, spokesman for Craddick, said he always supported the medical school in El Paso.

She said the funds of the Midland clinic were unrelated to the medical school and that in 2006 the state had financial fallout from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"He has been a supporter of it all along," DeLee said.

She has also said that Craddick is not involved in primary election races.

The Guardian's Taylor said the medical school funding was just one example of how the House speaker affects life on the border.

Decisions about whether to give the medical school state money, he said, were based on relationships between Craddick and El Paso legislators rather than on overwhelming evidence that the city had a crushing need for more doctors.

"There's got to be more important things on the table for consideration than how much these guys suck up to leaders," Taylor said.

Craddick also has been a proponent of cutting taxes and reducing the size of government, Taylor said.

He played a major role in promoting policies that cut the Children's Health Insurance Program in 2003.

"I find it very difficult to see how anyone says Craddick plays a big role in helping El Paso," Taylor said.