“It won’t happen this year or next, but could Texas, one of the GOP’s defining states, be turning purple, or even blue?” Via Blog Vivant.
Is Texas Turning Blue?Feb. 11, 2007
Dallas, Tx.
Texas has some poignant reasons for self-reflection these days.
Its former governor and dynastic scion is in the throws of his final term as the country’s least-popular president. Native son and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been banished for his part in the Abramoff lobbying scandal that tarnished his party. And current governor Rick Perry won reelection with only 39 percent of the vote.
It won’t happen this year or next, but could Texas, one of the GOP’s defining states, be turning purple, or even blue? It’s a zany notion, but a conversation with Tom Paulken, the former chairman of the Texas Republican party, made me believe that anything is possible.
Mr. Paulken is something of a throwback. His current venture, Dallasblog.com, an online muckraking outfit, is housed in a 1950s era office building that has managed to evade the passage of subsequent decades. Dim lights cast a dull shine on the brown marble floor in the lobby. Brass fixtures adorn cheap wooden doors lining the dark, cramped halls. The bathrooms are painted aquamarine.
Mr. Paulken’s office is only slightly more contemporary. Worn office furniture that probably looked posh in the ‘80s is draped with political journals and old copies of the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News. Then, on the walls, frame after frame memorializes Ronald Reagan. There are film posters, campaign posters, and pictures of Mr. Paulken and President Reagan jawing at the camera.
I stopped by the office one blustery Friday morning in February to ask Paulken how the GOP in Dallas was faring.
“The Republicans have a lot of problems right now,??? he told me. “The Reagan era is over, and the post-Reagan era has been a disaster.???
If Mr. Paulken seems a bit fixated on the Reagan era, forgive him. Those were the good times. He served on the Whitehouse staff from ’84 to ’88. He was an advocate and beneficiary of Reaganomics. “Dallas??? was a hit on television.
Rivalries with James Baker kept Mr. Paulken out of the first Bush presidency, but he was no fair-weather friend to his party. As chairman of the Texas Republican party, he campaigned actively for Bush II in 2000, despite having been a jaundiced critic of the governor. “I was Bush and Rove’s least favorite Republican in Texas,??? he said with satisfaction. “It wasn’t personal, I just didn’t think his policies were the right policies.???
When pressed about this administration’s legacy, Mr. Paulken looked dejectedly at his office’s olive green carpeting. “Reagan had a philosophical grounding. We haven’t had that in a post Reagan period.???
And as Mr. Paulken sees it, the lack of a moral center could cost the GOP dearly.
A Democratic groundswell is not imminent. Republicans still hold all of Texas’ statewide offices and handed Bush their electoral votes in the last two elections. But locally, the tide is turning one city at a time.
“The Democrats took over Dallas county completely,??? he told me. “I think they’re going to extend that elsewhere in the state in two years.???
Indeed, Dallas is a surprisingly Democratic town. In the 2004 presidential election, 75 percent of Dallas voters cast their ballots for Mr. Kerry. In the 2006 elections for Dallas County judges, 41 out of 42 seats went to Democrats.
Elsewhere in the state, too, local democrats are quietly making gains. Austin, the state capital, is reliably blue. Blue-collar Houston, while surrounded by Republican suburbs, is also blue when it comes to voting. And even border town El Paso is solidly Democratic.
But demographics alone don’t explain the surge in Texan Democrats. “The Republics didn’t come out and vote this time,??? Mr. Paulken told me. “They’re disenchanted.??? Indeed, Mr. Paulken has observed something of a sea change in the very behavior of the parties.
“You see a withering away of our grassroots organization, which was very strong until recently. And you see the Democrats out there working. They’ve got a lot of young people out there, and I don’t see enough young Republicans.???
When asked if he thought Texas, suburbs and all, could be solidly blue, Paulken again looked at his carpet. “Anything is possible,??? he said.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
test