TDP Convention: A Look Back on the Chairs' Race

I voted for Richie... (0.00 / 0)

because my more experienced associates say he's led us well with such improvements as the Voter Activation Network database and near parity in the House. Some especially a former candidate suggested that I not because the party didn't support them in their candidacy against a republican in '06. I'm willing to give Mr. Richie another term to see who we do this year but the next time could be another matter. I wish him every success as that would me we sweep the state.

As long as corporations are people and money is speech, then democracy is a farce.

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by: Blue_in_Guadalupe @ Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 12:22:31 PM UTC

The Next Convention (0.00 / 0)

Elected in 2006, Boyd Richie has, indeed, continued down the path of attempting to "flip" Texas by using a "voter file" to "target" enough legislative seats to dominate the redistricting process after 2010.

This is the technology and plan introduced in 2005 by a former Chairman, Charles Soechting, and managed from outside of the party by the Washington bundler, Matt Angle, on behalf of his usual and unusual large donors.

The AFL-CIO and Texas Trial Lawyers are on bourd with all this, so nothing else is contemplated or even discussed in a rule-bound party with a largely self-perpetuating establishment.

The question with all of this recent past is whether it will prove to be what Paul Burka calls "over-reach".

That, in turn, boils down this year to whether Bill White can exploit something that looks momentarily like dissolution of the GOP both to win statewide and to provide some sort of "coat-tails" down-ballot, all the while running away from the national party and Obama administration.

That is not "structural" change or ... much change at all other than a bigger staff and nicer furniture.

Boyd has neither re-organized the party around what are now called "new base voters" (Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner) nor focused on any technology or issue that might develop and exploit the latent Democratic majority Texas has had since 1998.

Finally, looking at this huge and complex state with no interest in or capacity for structural change on its own, the DNC understandably continues to cede Texas to the GOP rather than intervene and squander resources on a hide-bound and faction-ridden party that reflects things like nostalgia for Martin Frost's hey-day on the DCCC rather than actual developments in political or economic reality.

Scenario I

Still, given what looks like self-destructive extremism within the GOP, we have a shot at continued progress in 2010. If so, Boyd Richie and Matt Angle will take full credit for additional victories. I will be there cheering them on, as I expect GOP incumbents to be much more risk-averse than they were after 2002. They may not "pack" Democratic voters into as few districts as possible or "spread" GOP base voters as thinly as before. So, the Soechting-Angle redistricting plan could come to fruition at least partly, even short of Democratic "control" of the redistricting process.

In fact, the Democratic leglislative minority, while frustrated as Hell, is amazingly effective in close-quarters combat.

We probably cannot "turn Texas blue" without structural change. But, if we inch closer while still falling short, the self-congratulatory and uncritical ethos epitomized by the sycophantic Burnt Orange Report will likely prevail at the 2012 convention.

Pursuant to little-noticed rule change last week, a costly, cumbersome, rule-bound campaign to replace Chairman Richie with a new spokes-model for the Legislative Study Group/Lone Star Project will be mounted.

"The Way We've Always Done It!", as Bob Slagle is fond of saying, will continue.

Scenario II

If we are set-back dramatically as in 1994 and 2002 -- the fondest hope of the GOP -- structural changes will be off the table and up for serious consideration in 2011.

It will be a shame if a State Democratic Executive Committee, like the Democratic State Convention, that is devoid of deliberative faculties, lurches from time-wasting complacency to ill-considered and personalistic tinkering, especially with rules. That risks a "rump" convention in 2012 when the party establishment's "lock-down" fails.

So, we should at least consider structural changes all the time based not just on elections won or lost -- with no lessons learned from either -- but on a continously critical and constructive forum for consideration of political science and practical reforms -- reality-based, not the nostalgic "cringing-liberal" politics of our party's aging and increasingly decrepit establishment.

There are also some principles we might consider re-embracing: republican democracy. These are the two best and even biggest "franchises" in Texas and the United States. They are not, however, even the "brand", much less the foundation, of a party still organized around a century and a half of bi-partisan concession-tending -- clerical democracy, let's call it.

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by: JRBehrman @ Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 15:31:13 PM UTC

Thanks for reading the sycophants (0.00 / 0)

Always great to hear from you, John. May your arguments continue to gain steam and credibility among the Democratic grassroots...

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

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by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas @ Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 19:16:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The 3 Barnes Won (5.00 / 1)

He won SD 19, 20, & 27.

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by: SADem @ Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 17:10:41 PM UTC

Thanks! (0.00 / 0)

my tick sheet didn't survive the humidity.  

Help build a progressive movement in Texas. Join Progress Texas.

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by: Matt Glazer @ Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 20:03:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]