Burnt Orange Report

Who gets Credit for Dallas County?

By Byron LaMasters

The Dallas Morning News debates with itself over who deserves credit:

On November 3rd, the paper quoted SMU political scientist Cal Jillson saying this:

"The Democrats are on their way back," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

He predicted two years ago that Dallas County's longtime political underdogs would see some gains in Tuesday's election.

"It's not that their party is well-organized or doing things that improve their chances of winning," Mr. Jillson said. "It's the demographic changes in the county that are helping them win."

Then on Monday, Gromer Jeffers wrote this:

Several weeks ago I wrote a column suggesting that Dallas County Democrats work on their image – including doing something about the dive they used as an office.

The next day their landlord called and told them that if they didn't like their Fair Park-area headquarters, they could get the heck out.

That may have been the way to talk to losers, which Democrats here perennially were.

But after last Tuesday's stunning election results, the Dallas County Democratic Party has earned a little more respect.

Personally, I'm inclined to agree more with Jillson than Jeffers. I think that it was the $4+ Million that Martin Frost spent, along with the excellent work by the campaign teams of Lupe Valdez, the strong local Kerry group among others (not to mention the key reason -- demographic inevitability) that gave Dallas Democrats their first multiple countywide victories in years. I'm not saying that Dallas County Democratic Party didn't do some good work, but I think that Jeffers oversimplifies the situation a great deal (and incorrectly suggests that there is some sort of tension or unease between the DCDP and their landlord). Regardless of who gets credit, Dallas Democrats can be proud of themselves. Of the twelve contested countywide elections with Democrats and Republicans (from President all the way down to County Tax Assessor-Collector, Democrats won six of twelve races in the county. Look for Democrats to win more in two years.