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Posted on 01/10/2004 10:05:14 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Local congressman works new area: the Valley
MISSION -- When Lloyd Doggett called her in October, Sandra Rodriguez wasn't interested in backing his bid to retain a seat in the U.S. House.
The politically active Hidalgo County woman had never met the Austin Democrat, whom her father supported years ago. Besides, she had a friend who also was weighing a run in the new 25th Congressional District, which snakes from Austin to the Rio Grande Valley.
Then Doggett called again.
And again.
And again.
"He was constantly calling. We were constantly talking," said Rodriguez, who threw her support behind Doggett even before her friend, Austin Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, decided not to run.
"Mr. Doggett's emphasis was `Sandra, I promise you, I will not forget the Valley once elected,' " she said.
With the persistence of a telemarketer and the earnest promises of a student council candidate, the 57-year-old Doggett has spent the past month entrenched in the Rio Grande Valley, trying to convince voters that he -- and not former local judge Leticia Hinojosa -- can best represent this high-growth, high-poverty region where he's never lived.
"What I spent most of my time doing there was trying to determine how I can be most helpful on the projects they've got," Doggett said this week after meeting with city leaders in Penitas, population 1,200.
"I'm here to apply for a job," he continued. "It's a job I didn't think I'd be here applying for."
To win that job, he'll likely have to draw strong support in Austin and the Valley in the March 9 Democratic primary. The Democratic nominee is expected to win easily in November.
Doggett's advantages are obvious: He's a five--term incumbent with a $2 million war chest. But his obstacles are also real: He's not Hispanic and doesn't speak Spanish; he's not from the Valley; and, unlike Hinojosa, his name hasn't been on a ballot in the Valley in more than a decade.
"People say to me, `Who is this gringo from Austin,' " said Don Medina of McAllen, a political activist backing Doggett.
So Doggett is running the type of get-to-know-me, I-feel-your-pain campaign he thought was behind him. He visits all the political kingpins, introduces himself to neighborhood associations and makes a point of hitting the citrus festival.
So far, his strategy has paid off. Up to a point.
As he worked the room at a fund-raiser for a judicial candidate this week, Doggett drew praise from mayors and other members of the political elite whose endorsements he has cultivated and received.
But a few feet away, John Garcia, a school guidance counselor, wondered what the fuss was about. He dismissed this man who was wearing a suit and tie and politely shaking hands.
"I'll probably vote for Letty Hinojosa. She's local," Garcia said. "The other guy. He won't care about our area. He'll care about Austin."
Money, race matter
Republicans who drew the new U.S. House districts that a federal court approved this week undoubtedly knew Doggett would have a hard time selling himself to some voters along the border.
But the 25th District is the only one an Austin Democrat can win.
Doggett's previous district is now a bastion of Republicanism that stretches from Travis County to the Houston suburbs. And much of western Travis County will remain in a district now represented by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
But Doggett -- a former state senator, Texas Supreme Court justice and U.S. Senate candidate -- said he wasn't going to let his longtime Republican nemeses end his political career.
"It's not about me," he said. "It's about the causes I've dedicated my life to."
Many Valley Democrats support those causes, which include spending more on education and health care for children. But they recognize that a member of Congress has to do more than just vote the right way: He has to bring money and projects home.
Every chance they get, Doggett supporters repeat the mantra that his seniority and his seat on the Ways and Means Committee will help the entire district.
"He knows the ins and outs of Washington, how the system works. He's shown he's a caring person," said Pharr Mayor Leo Palacios. "What we need is someone in Washington to send us money for the highways."
But other Valley Democrats say no one can provide those sorts of spoils to two major population centers in the same district.
In the 1990s, for example, U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, was sometimes torn as he represented two communities, Corpus Christi and Brownsville, vying to attract the same naval operations.
"With this district and the way the Republicans carved it out, it's going to be impossible for any human being to provide effective representation to all 13 counties," said Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia. "That's why we need and have been pushing for a local candidate."
Other local voters are less blunt about wanting a Hispanic to represent this district, which is 69 percent Hispanic. But recent elections suggest race does, indeed, matter in the Valley.
In 2002, Dallas-area schoolteacher Victor Morales won more than 50 percent of the vote in the U.S. Senate primary in the region despite raising almost no money and doing little campaigning. His opponents were U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk.
Doggett's non-Hispanic surname could yield similar results in the Valley, where several competitive races are expected to drive voter turnout in March.
"It will hurt him," Alamo Mayor Rudy Villareal said.
2 takes on experience
This week, both candidates proclaimed that the election is about experience, even as they defined that word in vastly different ways.
At her McAllen kickoff rally, Hinojosa talked about growing up poor in a single-parent home in Brownsville and becoming the first female Hispanic judge in the Rio Grande Valley.
"My experiences are not very different than many of yours," she said in a speech that made almost no mention of public policy. "Since we have the same voice, I want to be your voice in Congress."
Meanwhile, Doggett is more focused on his political experience. Over the past few months, he's renewed relationships developed with Valley leaders when he ran for U.S. Senate 20 years ago. He's used those friendships to secure endorsements from the mayors of at least five border communities.
And it's clear he's taken a crash course in issues unique to the valley.
He talks regularly about the economic impact of taking visas away from Mexicans at the border and the inequities between the treatment of Canadian and Mexican workers. Six months ago, he didn't know about those issues, he said.
The candidate, who is working on his Spanish, has been living in a McAllen hotel for most of the past month and says he might be more focused on the Valley than Austin if he wins.
"I'll be spending more time here in the next few years than in Austin because I'm not established down here," he said, adding that he thinks Valley voters will support him for a simple reason.
"They're not as concerned about what your race is or where you were born as they are with what you can deliver."
gsusswein@statesman.com; 445-3654
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How come EVERYBODY Or mail checks to or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com |
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"Hola! Buenos dias senors and senoritas! Me llamo Lloyd. Yo quiero...yo quiero...yo quiero dammit...how do you say 'I want to keep my job' yo... am running for Congress and don't look at me like you don't know what I just said!"
Doggett cares only about himself, his lies to the contrary.
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