| There has been a lot of talk and hope that Texas Democrats can finally win a statewide race again for the first time in 14 years this coming cycle, but almost all of that talk seems to be focused around John Cornyn and his vulnerabilities. This is not something that I want to talk about today.
I have two primary reasons that I will not talk about this campaign right now. The first is that they already receive a heavy amount of analysis, criticism, and optimism: there is so much that I feel I cannot fairly add to any of it fairly right now. (I am also already decidedly a Noriega supporter, and therefore such an article would already be bias in that direction.)
Secondly, though; it is my belief that those are the two statewide positions in which the party that holds the seat cannot say they are a very strong force in the state. They are high profile positions that, thanks to that high publicity, allow voters to more easily factor in the assets and vices of individual candidates as opposed to only party-lines. For example, the Democrats won the 1996 presidential elections due to the candidate they had on the ticket, for they certainly did not hold the nation (as the Congressional numbers clearly showed). It is certainly a starting point to win a Senate seat or a Governor's seat, but I think if we can win more it would show that Texas is truly once again coming to our side.
In 2008, the U.S. Senate seat is not the only statewide office up for grabs. For those who aren't political fanatics (as most of you probably are), we have some statewide justice positions available, too. |
| So far, though; the excitement about these races among the Democratic party seems unbearably thin compared to Mr. Cornyn's seat. Clay Robison criticized the fact that we had two people (Susan Criss and Linda Yanez) announced to vie for the same Supreme Court seat. This is clearly a problem. As Robison pointed out, there are two other Republican Supreme Court justices (Wallace Jefferson and Dale Wainwright) who are up for reelection yet have drawn no opponents. On top of that, I know of no Democrats who have announced to run for the state's Criminal Court of Appeals, which Texas Monthly has once called "Texas' worst court."
Here I feel compelled to express disappointment in Ms. Yanez's political decision. In the past, activists both nationwide and statewide have supported a "Run Everywhere" theory, but in Texas it seems that has only appealed to those wanting to run for local seats. Such should not be the case. With multiple statewide judge positions available, Yanez should probably be running somewhere else, especially because primary competition in a lower-profile race like this is not necessarily a good thing and because Yanez received funds from Mikal Watts, who claimed to have influence in her court due to financial contributions to court members, in her previous Supreme Court race. Yanez would be much better suited for a race at the Criminal Court of Appeals, and since we have had a candidate for Phil Johnson's seat campaigning already for a significant period of time, it would be much more beneficial to the party to have her spend her resources elsewhere.
My criticisms of Linda Yanez here, I would hope, could be thoughts useful to other prospective candidates. With the potentially small amount of money available for a court race, Democrats' best chance would be to have a Democrat campaigning for each of the seats in the general election instead of only a few of the seats in the primary season.
It is also notable that with a strong effort in every statewide judge seat, each Democrat can work together. I highly doubt we will be nearly as effective with only one or two candidates running for this genre of electoral seats. I highly doubt, for example, that the new Dallas County judges would have stood a chance if there were only a few of them interested in candidacies.
Often, when I hear people talk of the 2008 Senate race, I hear Democrats claim that Texas is leaning towards the party. However, we don't seem that confident yet. The only way to be confident about that is to at least give an impression that we think we can win any of the statewide seats, not just one or two of them. |
