Texans vote to keep Perry
Posted on 11/06/2002 4:22:03 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Texans vote to keep Perry
After spending $60 million, Sanchez not ready to give in
11/06/2002
AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry barreled to victory Tuesday over political novice Tony Sanchez, stopping his opponent's bid to make history in a rancorous campaign for governor that smashed all spending records.
"This has been a competitive campaign," Mr. Perry told exuberant supporters. "We faced a worthy adversary, and I salute Mr. Sanchez, his family and his supporters."
Even though he trailed by double digits, the Democratic challenger refused to give up, telling cheering partisans at a downtown hotel that the race "is a long, long, long way from being over."
ERICH SCHLEGEL / DMN Texas Gov. Rick Perry claims victory amid a crowd of supporters Tuesday night. |
"I am still going to give them hell until the last vote is counted," he declared to raucous applause.
While Democrats put their hopes on a racially diverse "dream team" ticket to excite voters, Republicans counted on a growing GOP trend among voters in hopes of sweeping statewide offices and controlling the Legislature.
The Republican governor appeared to refer to the Democrats' strategy in his acceptance speech. "We are a diverse tapestry of different people from different backgrounds," he said. "But first and foremost, we are Texans."
While Mr. Perry reveled in his success, the Democrats' best chance to break a Republican sweep was a closely fought race for lieutenant governor.
Analysts said that if Democrat John Sharp won the seat over Republican David Dewhurst, it could mean more contentiousness than calm in the next legislative session.
Mr. Perry and Mr. Sharp are longtime political rivals who faced each other in a fractious showdown for lieutenant governor four years ago.
Should the Democrat win the job as presiding officer of the Senate, some analysts predict their rocky relationship could frustrate efforts to deal with formidable state problems, including the insurance crisis and a $5 billion budget shortfall.
Mending fences
Moreover, analysts said, Mr. Perry must make amends with lawmakers offended by the campaign's sharply negative tone - especially TV ads linking his Democratic opponent to Mexican drug dealers and murder.
"His opening months as governor will be recovery," said political scientist Cal Jillson of Southern Methodist University. "He won the election, but he didn't look like a dominant figure doing it."
He and others who examined the race said Mr. Perry won by defining Mr. Sanchez in negative terms before the Laredo banker and oilman could fully present himself to voters.
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"This was not a good year to be a businessman running for office," said Brian Gerber, political science professor at Texas Tech University.
"The Perry campaign was relatively successful in raising questions about Tony Sanchez's professional business ethics. Combine that with the national phenomenon of being an unfriendly year for business candidates, and it helped the Perry campaign quite a bit."
The Sanchez strategy was to persuade voters to "fire" the incumbent governor and to present the first-time campaigner as a worthy alternative.
Successful attacks
The Perry blueprint was fundamentally an appeal to the Republican Party's base of white voters. A pre-Labor Day commercial launched by the Perry camp accusing his Democratic rival of laundering $25 million in Mexican drug money proved devastatingly effective in stalling the Sanchez campaign.
Critics said Mr. Perry reinforced racial stereotypes, especially a spot in the campaign's final month connecting Mr. Sanchez to the murderers of a drug-enforcement agent.
HUY NGUYEN / DMN Tony Sanchez told his supporters he wasn't ready to concede Tuesday night.
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Seizing on the pocketbook issue of rising insurance costs, Mr. Sanchez sought to cast Mr. Perry as beholden to the insurance industry.
But the governor diluted the attack by noting that Mr. Sanchez himself sells insurance at his banks.
"You have to have a very strong reason to go against the basic partisan leaning of the state," said Mr. Gerber. "And the Sanchez campaign didn't give voters a strong enough reason that they should switch their party allegiance."
Mr. Sanchez, whose personal wealth was estimated in excess of $600 million, was an integral part of the Democrats' so-called dream team strategy to reverse the GOP wave that took every statewide office in 1998.
Coupled with former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, bidding to become the first black Texan elected to the Senate, Mr. Sanchez exhorted minority voters to help put people in office who reflect "the true face of Texas."
Party bases were key
For Democrats, the task was to energize black and Hispanic voters to turn out in record numbers on Election Day without losing white voters.
In the final weeks, both sides spent time appealing to their base - Mr. Sanchez in South Texas and among inner-city voters in Houston and Mr. Perry appealing to predominantly white audiences in the suburbs and the state's High Plains and Panhandle.
At same time, Mr. Perry did not dismiss the importance of the Hispanic vote, a growing constituency that GOP officials say the party must attract in order to stay politically viable in the decades ahead.
In the campaign's final week, Mr. Perry traveled to El Paso, McAllen and Hidalgo, where he touted his support of funding roads and sewer projects.
Mr. Perry assumed the governorship after George W. Bush was elected president in 2000.
With 17 years in elected office - as a state legislator, agriculture commissioner, lieutenant governor and governor - Mr. Perry touted his political resumé and Mr. Sanchez's lack of experience.
Mr. Sanchez, who heads his family's oil company and controls the Laredo-based International Bank of Commerce, labeled the governor a "professional politician" with a lackluster record.
Although the two differed on the best approach for accountability testing of students and for highway construction, much of the campaign debate was dominated by nasty exchanges challenging each other's ethics.
Shortfall got short shrift
Perhaps the most formidable problem facing the state - a $5 billion budget shortfall - got little attention from either candidate.
Mr. Perry said the problem could be solved without raising taxes but offered few details. Mr. Sanchez promised to "scrub the budget" to find the money but offered no specific plan.
Mr. Jillson said the incumbent governor rode a Republican tide and made few mistakes, although his ad linking Mr. Sanchez to murderers "opened him to the charge of extraordinarily negative campaigning."
"It was his election. He was George W. Bush's handpicked partner, his successor, a relatively popular governor," said Mr. Jillson.
Still, his attack linking Mr. Sanchez to murderers in the campaign's closing weeks could exacerbate already-strained relations with legislators, especially Hispanic Democrats.
"I see Texas politics becoming more partisan, more like Washington, not the other way around," he said.
"I just saw Governor Perry come out on television, and it reminded me of 1948," he said, referring to the erroneous early reports that Thomas Dewey had won the presidency over Harry Truman.
"I am still going to give them hell until the last vote is counted," he declared to raucous applause.
You're not Truman. Say goodnight, Dick !
That defiant little worm. I'm so overjoyed that he lost. Now I just wish he'd shut his trap, accept defeat and crawl back under his rock.
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