DEMOCRATIC POLITICS
National Democrats gathering in Austin to talk up their chances in Texas
Republicans, countering with a protest, say there's nothing to celebrate on the other side.
By W. Gardner Selby
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, September 10, 2009
One spin: More than 300 Democratic Party players from across the United States and its territories will descend on Austin today, sending a powerful signal that long-suffering Texas Democrats stand to prevail statewide in 2010.
"They're focusing on Texas," Rio Grande Valley lawyer Gilberto Hinojosa said of the Democratic National Committee, which is holding its three-day quarterly meeting at the Renaissance Austin Hotel. "We haven't seen that in a long time."
 ASSOCIATED PRESS Tim Kaine
National party chief visits Brownsville.  Boyd Richie
State party chief says he's optimistic. |
An alternate take: The committee is coming to Texas for the first time in more than three decades because someone in Washington simply cottoned to the fun of prowling deep into Republican-rich Texas, where no GOP nominee has lost statewide since 1994 and no Republican presidential nominee has lost since 1976.
"They're going to stimulate our economy, which is nice," said Bryan Preston, spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas, which is hosting a Saturday "Hands off Texas!" rally at the Texas Capitol in reaction.
Of course, nobody knows how, or if, the meeting will affect next year's elections, when Texans will choose a governor and other statewide elected officials while filling some Senate seats and every Texas House seat — a mix of elections that could tip the state's balance of power.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie said Wednesday he's optimistic that the Democratic National Committee will invest in Texas to help Democrats recoup the Texas House majority they lost in the 2002 elections. "At the appropriate time, they will put resources in here to help us get over the hump," Richie said, according to a recording posted online by the Houston Chronicle.
By ending the GOP's edge in the House, Democrats would have some sway over the Legislature's redrawing of state House, Senate and congressional districts. Because of population gains since 2000, Texas could gain three to four U.S. House seats.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, the DNC's chairman, was in Brownsville on Wednesday, Hinojosa said, marking the first visit to the region by any of the party's national chiefs.
Hinojosa, whom Kaine is nominating to serve on the DNC's executive committee, said: "There's a strong belief in the party both statewide and nationally that Texas is right on the verge of turning blue again."
Like other Democratic activists, Hinojosa relished party gains in Dallas County in 2006 and in Harris County in 2008 as well as the capture of a Fort Worth seat in the Texas Senate and Democratic wins in the Texas House, which has 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats. He notes, too, that Democratic presidential nominee and then-Sen. Barack Obama carried every urban Texas county except Tarrant, though GOP nominee Sen. John McCain won statewide.
Hinojosa, a former Cameron County judge, is a statewide co-chair of Democrat Tom Schieffer's gubernatorial campaign. He described Schieffer as emblematic of the moderates that Democrats need to prevail in the conservative state.
Acknowledging that few Democratic prospects have surfaced for other statewide offices, Hinojosa said: "We need to work on the whole rest of the ticket. All of that is going to gel."
Kaine, who last year helped Obama carry previously Republican-leaning Virginia, has vowed to maintain the 50-state focus proclaimed by his predecessor as chairman, Howard Dean.
Through Organizing for America, the group that succeeded Obama's campaign, the party has placed 10 field organizers across Texas.
Democratic strategist Leland Beatty said organizers help, but an infusion of $10 million would make a bigger difference.
Beatty said he sees hope for Democrats partly because, he's determined, 22 percent of voters who historically participated in Republican primaries voted in the 2008 Democratic primary, dominated by the face-off between Obama and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton. In contrast, he said, about 7 percent of historically Democratic voters voted instead in the GOP primary.
Since 2004, he said, more historically Republican voters have crossed over to Democratic primaries than vice versa — a healthy sign for Democrats.
"It is absolutely a competitive state," Beatty said. "But it's got to be supported with real resources. Our candidates have been under-funded for a long time."
Republican pollster Mike Baselice played down the primaries voters join. He said November results from 2006 and 2008 demonstrate that Republicans start with about a 51/2 percentage point lead in statewide elections.
Reacting to a Gallup poll suggesting more Texans in the first part of this year identified themselves as Democrats than Republicans, Baselice suggested that reflected excitement about Obama's rise — feelings that have diminished for some.
"When Democrats were riding high, everybody wanted to call themselves Democrats," Baselice said. "I would tend not to look at what you call yourself. Look at how you usually vote. Those are rock-solid indicators."
Preston said he won't fret about the DNC unless it dumps millions of dollars into state campaigns. "They're putting people on the ground, which is smart," Preston said. "Their policies aren't that popular in the state."
Preston singled out Obama's push for a universal health care plan, the "clunkers" vehicle trade-in program and the issue of gun rights.
The Republican National Committee isn't taking Texas for granted. It hired Austin-based Rick Wiley, who previously managed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's gubernatorial campaign, to oversee field operations in western states, including Texas.
wgselby@statesman.com; 445-3644
