January 23, 2005
No Guarantees
By Jim Dallas
I'm not entirely sure how to apply Brad Plumer's thoughts on Southern politics to Texas, except to say the following:
(1) Texas is very different from Tennessee; and
(2) The 2002 Sanchez campaign presents an example of good ol' boy technocrats not only not winning, but losing. Big.
(On the other hand, the relative success of the 2002 Sharp campaign may well tend to prove the "Warner/Bredesen" rule that Plumer is, I think, trying to assert).
P.S. And don't forget Ed Kilgore.
Posted by Jim Dallas at January 23, 2005 02:33 PM
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Yeah, I thought Risen's discussion of how Tennessee differed pretty drastically from the rest of the South was pretty interesting. And how Nashville politicians especially were distrusted by rural Tennesseans. We all (well okay, I do) talk about "Southern politics," but treating the region as one big monolithic block may be, um, one big monolithic mistake.
By the way, great blog!
I think one thing that is similar to Texas and Tennessee is how their state capitols are treated. Both Nashville and Austin are actually fairly similar. Both are high tech areas, and are socially progressive cities. One is the country music capital, the other the live music capital.
But that's where the similarities end. Tennessee has always been a two-party state. Texas went from being one-party conservative Democrat to one-party conservative Republican. There isn't much of a hispanic population either in Tenn either. With the exception of Suburban Memphis and Nashville, the Dems in Tenn don't have to worry about cookie cutter hyper-GOP suburbs like we do in Texas.
