Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 10:36:19 AM
Darvin Dowdy added a comment to my "Congratulations in order" post:
Huh. No mention...of the border issue. No mention of Ignacio Ramos or Jose Compean. I've heard all I need to hear. I fully expect Texas to go "blue" come 2008. Not what I want but what I expect. The GOP is so far out of touch with their base. Especially in Texas.
Just look at what happened on 11/7/06. Rick Perry wins w/only 38% of the vote. Pitiful! Approximately 60% of the voters voted against the GOP. The Dem candidate took about 30% - much more than had been expected. Yet these number don't seem to say anything to Texas or national GOP hierarchy. Its unbelievable how divorced from reality they really are. DD
I'm not sure I made clear what happened last Saturday. While they didn't mention it in their platform, the folks who support the positions DD wants emphasized won. They deserved to win. They were organized and put together a slate of candidates that appealed to the majority of the people who were there and could vote.
At this point, I have no idea if the outcome was good or bad for the party. El Paso County is the key to any Republican win state wide, which gives it an out sized voice.
It is far more conservative than almost any other county in the state.
Some El Paso activists think they are arborists, rather than team players. That is, they believe that if a moderate Republican wins in a moderate district anywhere in the state, they have an obligation to cut his career off and replace him with either a Democrat or a conservative, and they don't really care which.
If the Republicans are ever to regain the majority in the legislature, we have to match candidates with districts. Yes, that would make the Republican party more moderate statewide, and even in El Paso County (due to Gerrymandering).
Republican majorities, even more moderate majorities, are important because they would keep the really dumb anti-business legislation that we are currently seeing off the Democratic Governor's desk.
So, that brings us to the question I tried to ask in the last post. Are the twenty-three folks who got elected pragmatic enough to promote candidates who can win in their districts? If they are not, if they only want promote feel good, but unelectable conservatives in liberal districts, then the party is doomed to be a minority in a state where it enjoys a registration advantage.
That would be the epitome of mismanagement. Only time will tell.