Burnt Orange Report

The Ratliff Republicans: Endangered but Alive

By Byron LaMasters

Some of my more conservative readers would argue that a "Ratliff Republican" is a RINO (Republican in Name Only). But they exist. These folks are moderates and conservatives who split their ticket. Rural east Texans who vote may have previously been Democrats, but now generally vote Republican. They vote for Sen. Bill Ratliff but also support their moderate to conservative congressmen in Max Sandlin, Jim Turner and Ralph Hall. They also support similarly moderate to conservative Democratic state representatives such as Barry Telford, Chuck Hopson, Mark Homer, Jim McReynolds, Dan Ellis, etc.

So what's my point? Both Democrats and Republicans in East Texas generally win because they're moderates. Ratliff has sided with Democrats in this redistricting battle, not because he is shunning the Republican Party, but because he knows that mid-decade redistricting is not only unprecidented, but that it's bad for the rural water and timber interests of his state senate district. And both the Republicans and the Democrats in his district realize that. That's why, if Bill Ratliff runs for re-election, I doubt that he'll have much trouble. Why? He sided with Democrats in redistricting in 2001, because it was the best thing for his state senate district. It cost him the chance to run for a full term as Lt. Gov, but it didn't hurt him at all in his district. Republicans went all out to defeat Bill Ratliff in the 2002 Republican Primary. They ran former state representative Jerry Yost against him who was supported by the Young Conservatives of Texas and Free PAC (yeah, the guys who unsuccessfully attacked "RINOS" in the 2002 GOP primary with gay-baiting political pornography direct mail pieces). So what happened? Ratliff beat Yost by a margin of better than two to one:

Yeah, and Democrats like Ratliff, too. He votes for his district, not for his party (just like Democratic congressmen elected in GOP districts: Max Sandlin, Jim Turner, Ralph Hall, Chet Edwards and Charlie Stenholm), so he didn't have any trouble in the general election.

My point, however, is that Republicans can complain all they want about Ratliff. But the fact is -- he's popular in his district. Most rural east Texas Republicans care more about having their Democratic or Republican state rep/state senator/congressman fight for their water rights and their timber rights and having someone that represents their rural values than they care about being represented by a lockstep suburban Republican who won't take their interests to heart.