[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Home Page | News | Sports | Business | Politics | Opinions | Arts & Entertainment | Science/Technology | Columns | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Obits | Subscribe | Forums | Food | Travel | Health & Fitness | People | E-mail
Us |
Brooks Peterson
Brooks Peterson's column is published Mondays. Brooks also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at petersonb@caller.com
Monday, September 18, 2000
Is party over for Texas' Democrats?
This being the political season, it is the privilege of this journal's Editorial Board to meet with individuals intent on careers in public service.
Inevitably, there is a certain sameness about these sessions. How could it be otherwise? As worried mothers used to (and no doubt still do) advise their daughters vis-à-vis their young swains, "There's only one thing on their minds."
Nothing wrong with that, nossir. It's the way the game is played. and in any case, there are moments now and then that make it all worthwhile:_nothing so grandiose as an epiphany; rather, an occasional unexpected insight on the prevailing political realities.
So it was last week when we spent some face time with a gentleman named Charles L. Mauch, the Green Party candidate for the Railroad Commission seat currently held by Michael Williams, a Republican.
Now, this was a worthwhile session in its own right: Mauch, a retired petroleum geologist, is not your raging enviro-zealot. Rather, he's a thoughtful guy with concerns about both the environment and the state of the political process. Given the disparity in resources available to him and his GOP opponent, his chances are somewhere south of slim - but he deserves a listen.
What really knocked me out, though, was an observation he offered more or less as a throwaway line: The Green Party, he pointed out, has more statewide candidates on the ballot than the Texas Democratic Party.
Say what?
The mighty Democratic Party that gave us such giants as Lyndon B. Johnson, Sam Rayburn, Pappy Lee O'Daniel, Tom Connally, Cactus Jack Garner, Ralph Yarborough . . . that Democratic Party has so thoroughly lost its bearings (and its nerve?) that its statewide slate is eclipsed by the Greens?
Yup. According to the web site operated by the Texas Secretary of State's office, there are four Greens seeking statewide office - and only three Democrats. (Nine Republicans, if you're keeping score.)
Oh, and here's another flagon of bile for the remaining yellow-dog Democrats in the audience: The Libertarians - those drug-liberalizing, tax-hating party animals - have seven candidates on the ballot for statewide office. (And, by the bye, they're fielding more U.S. House candidates than anybody: 29, compared with 26 for the Republican and 27 for the Democrats.)
Now, does any of this mean the Texas Democratic Party is about to be consigned to oblivion?_Is the (Democratic) party over?
Of course not. True, Texas these days is a pretty conservative place (though there are some conspicuous exceptions like my home town, the People's Democratic Republic of Austin), and the GOP is cashing in on that. But in politics, nothing is forever.
Meanwhile, though, what are we to say about the spectacle of a once-proud party so dispirited that it cannot be bothered to field candidates for some of the most important electoral offices in the state?
Let's say you're a Democrat. What does it say about your party when it doesn't offer candidates - even sacrificial lambs - for two seats on the Railroad Commission? Or three on the Texas Supreme Court? (You're in luck on the Court of Criminal Appeals: There, you've got candidates for two of the three seats up this year. Whoopee.)
Oh, and here's a maraschino cherry to top off your banana split of woe: Riding boldly into the lists to confront incumbent Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and her mega-zillion-dollar war chest, we have . . . uh, well, we have Gene Kelly, a retired military judge and seven-time candidate for statewide office who has never even come within hailing distance of getting elected to anything, so far as we know.
Kelly won the Democratic primary runoff in April, apparently on the strength of his name, which he shares with the late, great singer/actor/dancer Gene Kelly. He handily dispatched his opponent, former state Rep. Charles Gandy, who had the temerity to run an issues-oriented campaign.
Election night, April 11, after it became clear Kelly had won the nomination, phone calls to his home went unanswered, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Oddly appropriate, that - and in its own way a glum metaphor for the state of the Texas Democratic Party itself. The phone is ringing, but nobody's home.
Brooks Peterson
| Talk about this column
| Other Columns | Home |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
© 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a
Scripps Howard newspaper.
All rights reserved.
|
 |
 |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
