March 12, 2004
BALKAN BLUES:
The Texas vote fallout roils Dems (Hans Nichols, 3/11/04, The Hill)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) call for a “mandatory meeting” on the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote (GOTV) plan sowed confusion among lawmakers at yesterday’s caucus meeting.Several lawmakers said they felt Pelosi was asking the caucus to iron out hard feelings about the contentious primary victory of African-American attorney Al Green over Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas), whose old district was bisected by GOP cartographers.
Green’s endorsement by a handful of Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members angered many of Bell’s colleagues, creating friction within the Texas delegation and the caucus at large.
If blacks start flexing their ample but still underdeveloped muscle in the Democratic Party it will implode. The white South is already lost to them but Latinos would take it poorly as well. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2004 4:37 PM
The Texas congressional district's Democratic side looks to be made up only of black legislators, Mexican-American legislators and Lloyd Doggett (he of the landslide Senate loss to Phil Gramm 20 years ago), by the time all the smoke clears from the November election. But the money is still controlled by the trial lawyers, who took out a few state reps who weren't fervent enough in their opposition to redistricting last year.
Supposedly this is going to make Parry's job tougher next year as governor, because there will be more hard-liners in the state capitol. But when the Texas Democratic Party's most visible public face statewide is Shelia Jackson Lee, combined with Kerry's likely polling the Dems in Austin and the trial lawyers may not have much clout at all come January.
Posted by: John at March 13, 2004 12:26 AM