[ken5050]

You suggest that the Texas GOP is going to hell in a hand basket.. Why?..seems to me that primaries will lead to more conservative candidates emerging..Is this necessarily a bad thing? (g) and re Stenholm, while he might survive, I guess, isn't that more a factor of Charlie's long tenure and name recognition, and his good-ole boy image..

[Theodore R.]

seems to me that primaries will lead to more conservative candidates emerging

Well, Ken, that did not happen in the 2002 legislative races: more liberal Republican candidates won many of the contested nominations.

And in 2004, the Perry-backed Judge Green unseated Justice Smith in the primary. Smith was considered the most conservative of all the Supreme Court members.

Of course, the GOP is at something of a "disadvantage" in that it has no where to go but "down" in that it has held all statewide elected offices since the 1996 elections.

I just think it will get difficult to hold all statewide offices for 12 straight years, but the Democrats have done such in many other states. It is very rare for a state GOP to hold ALL statewide offices for a DECADE.