Wandering Reveries

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Sanchez Quits the Senate Race

Retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez - the great hope of the Democratic Party to try and take advantage of the presumed demographic shift in Texas - has dropped out of the U.S. Senate race. The reason why Sanchez is getting out of the race: poor fundraising (also lost his home in a fire which sucks). Basically, this leaves the Democratic Party with no one worth a damn running for U.S. Senate (not that Sanchez had much of a chance this year anyway). According to Burnt Orange Report, the Democratic candidates for Senate are Sean Hubbard and Daniel Boone (zombie Daniel Boone?). No clue who either of these guys are, and their fundraising is probably worse than Sanchez’s. What makes this even better (or worse - depending on your perspective): the Texas Democratic Party launched a new Latino outreach program a day before their leading Latino candidate drops out of the highest profile race in the state this year.

You can read my previous posts about Sanchez here, here, here and here.

The Democrats still have time to field a new candidate thanks to the agreement reached yesterday over the new primary date. Some of the in-state Hispanic leaders may be courted to run, e.g., Leticia Van De Putte - State Senator from San Antonio - was a name mentioned earlier this year as a possible U.S. Senate candidate. However, these local leaders may prefer to bide their time, which would be wise.

EDIT: According to the FEC, Hubbard has $585.75 coh, Boone is even worse at $260 coh, and Sanchez had $118,970 coh (had only raised a little over $243k).

Tags: politics Texas Senate 2012 Democrats primary

December 17, 2011

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The 2011 elections: A split decision

Everyone is attempting to spin the recent elections depending on their partisan bias, pointing to the victory or defeat of this or that proposition as proof that their party is going to win in 2012. However, the picture that came from election day is much more murky than the partisan spin as Charles Krauthammer points out in the article linked above. Ohio was a perfect example where many of the same voters who supported traditional union rights also voted against the individual mandate. We should be careful about making bold predictions from these results, because they don’t offer us any conclusive evidence. As Walter Russell Mead notes, both parties have their work cut out for them this election cycle.

Tags: politics 2011 2012 elections Republicans Democrats

November 12, 2011

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The Democrats Redistricting Problem

In the Boston Review, Jonathan Rodden and Jowei Chen have an article on how geography affects the proportion of Republicans to Democrats in Congressional and legislative delegations. Their article relates to the Northeast and Midwest. They argue that Democrats are geographically limited, because they are concentrated in former industrial areas around railroads and rivers, whereas Republicans have a geographical advantage by being spread out across suburban and rural areas. In other states, such as the Southwest, Democrats are not necessarily concentrated in industrial areas, and there are other demographic considerations, such as the growth of the Hispanic population. Recently, the Department of Justice said that 2 Texas redistricting maps did not comply with the Voting Rights Act because they did not maintain or increase minority-majority districts in the state (Source). The redistricting maps will now head to trial. There is also a lawsuit being heard in San Antonio. It’ll be interesting to see how all of this turns out. For many years, the shoe was on the other foot and Republicans were the ones filing the lawsuits. There are some who argue that independent commissions can do a better job, but in the end, the results might be the same.

Tags: politics 2012 redistricting Democrats Republicans Congress

September 20, 2011

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Yes, Rick Perry Was a Democrat

And once upon a time, most of us Texans were. There are two new profiles out about Gov. Rick Perry’s time as a Democrat. The first is the Texas Tribune’s profile, which appeared in the New York Times - Rick Perry: The Democrat Years. The other is from Time, and focuses on Perry’s time as the head of Al Gore’s Texas campaign - Rick Perry’s Inconvenient Truth. A few things to note: 1) When Perry was a Democrat, the state was still under Democratic control and the two party transformation was not fully complete (see my post here). The Texas Democratic Party was divided between conservatives and liberals, and Perry was a conservative Democrat. 2) Sen. Al Gore was also a conservative Democrat in 1988 (definitely more conservative than the other serious contenders that year - full list here). As there is more talk about Perry possibly entering the 2012 race, these are two good profiles on Perry’s background that should offer some valuable insight to those who are interested in the 2012 GOP primary.