Hank Gilbert for Ag Commissioner

by: Phillip Martin on Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 13:57:49 PM CDT

For now, though, I wanted to address a specific issue that was brought up in today's Houston Chronicle, in an article titled "A few Democrats straying from Bell".

A few months ago, Gilbert and Fred Head -- the Democratic nominee for Comptroller -- attended an event featuring Independent candidate for Governor, Carole Strayhorn, for which they had to pay $25 to attend. As Gilbert said in the story:

Gilbert said he and Head went to the event because the people there would be opposed to the re-election of Republican Gov. Rick Perry. He said that means they also likely would oppose their GOP foes.

"This is not anything against (Democratic nominee) Chris Bell. This is just a chance to get our message out," Gilbert said.

I talked to Gilbert about the event, and he reassured me that they attended to try and attract split-ticket votes.

"Neither party's base gets you 50%," Gilbert said in our interview. "I've traveled with Chris, I've campaigned with him, and he knows I'm voting straight Democratic. But he also knows I made excellent contacts at that event, from a lot of folks that absolutely won't support [Gilbert's Republican opponent Todd] Staples. I talked to folks that were concerned about serious agricultural issues in the state of Texas, and they liked what I had to say."

I'll add that Gilbert believed the Chronicle ran a fair article, and was more displeased that Strayhorn's campaign felt the need to leak what is essentially a non-issue just to try and cause problems for Bell. "Chris and I have talked, and he knows I'm behind him, and we're going to continue working together to defeat the slate of corrupt politicians that are ruining this state," Gilbert said.

I've got to agree -- the fact that 60% of Texas voters are expected to choose someone other than Perry means that Democratic down-ticket candidates have an excellent chance at picking up split-ticket voters. In order to do that, though, they need to talk to the Strayhorn and Friedman camps, from time to time (and hopefully, without donating to their campaigns any more) and work for their endorsement.

With that cleared up, look for my 40/40 feature of Hank Gilbert next week. In the meantime, go help out Hank in a Houston poll and do everything you can to put our extremely qualified Democratic candidates into office.