His Hometown Newspaper Says Sanchez Changed TX Political Landscape

The post-election analysis of the Republican victory in Texas has focused on negative advertising, lower-than-expected minority turnout, continued migration of Anglo voters to the Republican Party and President George W. Bush's war on terror.

As for the governor's race, some observers also point to other factors in explaining how Laredo newcomer Tony Sanchez could spend a record $60 million against Republican Rick Perry but garner less than 40 percent of the total vote.

"Tony lost because of Bush's war on terror, but also because he failed to connect with the people as an everyday man and because he followed the advice of status quo politicians and consultants," argued Victor Morales.

Morales is the high school teacher who took Texas by storm when he criss-crossed the state in a Nissan pick-up truck trying to unseat the well-entrenched and wealthy Republican U.S. Senator Phil Gramm in 1996.

With only $900,000 to Gramm's reported $14 million, Morales took 44 percent, losing by less than 600,000 votes statewide.

Earlier this month, Sanchez said he was surprised by his margin of defeat on election night, but he and campaign manager Glenn Smith argue there was nothing they could have done differently to change the outcome of the race.

Morales, however, faults Sanchez for not fully engaging the grass roots and blames the state Democratic Party for its long-time disconnect with the masses and its failure to craft a strong and inspiring message.

Even Sanchez chose to withhold his opinions about the state party in a telephone interview right after the election.

Top observers point to another factor that hindered the Sanchez campaign: local political infighting.

"If you look at San Antonio, Webb County, Corpus Christi and the Valley, this infighting, primarily among Hispanic leaders, played itself out everywhere and really hurt Tony," one seasoned observer, who asked to not be identified, said.

"A prime example is how Bexar County Democrats imposed their political agendas ahead of Sanchez's candidacy. Influential Democrats were already slicing up the pie in anticipation of Tony's victory and were thus excluding their local political rivals from active participation in the Sanchez campaign," he said.

"The proof in the pudding is that Bexar County, a key Democratic stronghold, did not vote for Tony Sanchez," he added.

Jim Mattox, former Texas attorney general who lost his bid for governor during the 1990 Democratic primary, added his point of view.

"Tony ran a good campaign, and he turned out to be a far better candidate with natural ability and a far better speech giver than anybody thought. But the right campaign was not being run from within," Mattox argued.

"The overall (multiracial) 'Dream Team' concept was flawed from the beginning because it did not appeal to that big cross section of swing voters," Mattox said.

He noted that racism against Sanchez's Mexican-American background, Perry's "degrading" negative ads and Bush's eminent war against Iraq all played strongly against Sanchez.

Yet, Mattox argues there was more to Sanchez's defeat, and he points specifically to the amount of money spent on consultants versus the grass roots.

"You need to energize the grass roots adequately to get a greater depth of excitement in your campaign. Sanchez was paying a whole lot of consultants, but in the end, they simply didn't move very many people for him. Sure, they tried some grass roots, but look at how much money was spent on grass roots versus someone else's pocket," Mattox said.

Smith, Sanchez's campaign manager, argues that the campaign "only had four to five consultants on top from the beginning, which is normal.

"A lot of the people involved in the field and grass roots chose to be paid as contractors," Smith added.

Sanchez's principal consultants were George Shipley of Austin, Paul Maslin of California and Bill Knapp of Washington, D.C.

The difficulty of a Democratic candidate, Mattox stressed, "is pulling a strong turnout from your natural base and winning the swing vote."

He observed that Sanchez and Ron Kirk both pitched their message heavily toward the moderate Anglo voter.

"But the message was pitched so hard in that direction, it did not stimulate their natural bases. Plus, Tony's overwhelming wealth made it hard for him to convince these moderate voters that he was the real savior of the middle class," Mattox added.

He argues that Sanchez's wealth could have been handled differently and turned into "a positive."

Mattox sharply criticized Sanchez's pollster and top consultants for failing to craft the right message.

"Every single race can be won or lost depending on the image you capture. His pollsters failed to do it, but we need to put this in the context of the Democrats national losses," he added.

Though voters showed disenchantment with the large quantities of negative advertising done by both camps, Mattox and Smith explained how this plays out in a statewide campaign.

"You can't run a totally positive message. It doesn't work because you lose ground in the polls and the negatives stick to you," Smith said.

"Sanchez was the victim of really vicious attacks by Perry, and in those circumstances, you have to fight back and are not able to pause and present a positive and visionary message," Smith said.

"Perry did a good job with the negative advertising, and Tony's negatives did not allow the moderate Anglo to move in his direction," Mattox said.

As for the race issue, "the resistance of the Anglo population to vote for an Hispanic name is not a pure resistance," Mattox said.

"In this case, it was tainted by other issues, primarily Tesoro (Sanchez's failed savings and loan), his lack of voting history and long-term public service."

Smith then criticized reporters for their coverage of the Tesoro issue, in which Perry and the Republicans constantly advertised as a place where drug money was laundered.

"Way back last year, all the documents on Tesoro were organized and made available to the press," Smith said.

"They did not go through them because they knew they would not find a new fact. From the very beginning, though, the media was captivated by how Tesoro would play as a political tool against Tony even though they knew nothing went wrong," Smith added.

"All this talk about a 'liberal media' is baloney. The media is very Republican and very conservative in Texas. You can tell by looking at their endorsements. And look at how they have built up the image of Bush into something he's not," Morales said.

While experts will continue to analyze the results of this election, many believe that Sanchez has changed the face of Texas politics, despite the shortcomings of his campaign.

(Staff writer Tricia Cortez can be reached at 728-2568 or tricia@lmtonline.com.)

He noted that racism against Sanchez's Mexican-American background, Perry's "degrading" negative ads and Bush's eminent war against Iraq all played strongly against Sanchez.

<Ex-Atty. Gen. Jim Mattox says that racism contributed to the defeat of Sanchez. In time, Democrats may take the revisionist view that Sanchez's defeat was caused by inherent racism deep within the TX psyche. Yet, such revisionist thinking must omit mention of the easy election of three black Republicans to statewide offices on Nov. 5.

While experts will continue to analyze the results of this election, many believe that Sanchez has changed the face of Texas politics, despite the shortcomings of his campaign.

There is not a single word in this article that supports this conclusion.

I'm an outsider on this race, but I would guess that white voters are willing to vote for blacks and Hispanics whom they think will represent all of the people. If they seem to be running specifically as minority candidates, that's seen as divisive, especially after so many years of the Democrats using the race card to divide voters.

I also wonder about the right-to-life issue. A Democrat is going to find it hard these days to get the votes of Christian right-to-life voters, because they simply don't trust them, given the record of the national party for the past 30 years.

There was a black Republican representative from our part of Connecticut a dozen years ago, I forget his name. He was conservative on taxes but insisted on taking a strong pro-abort position. I think that's what cost him his job. He was initially very popular with all the voters, but when he emphasized his support for abortion, they threw him out in the next election.

I assume you're speaking of Congressman Gary Franks, who served from 1991-97. He was defeated largely because he was not paying enough attention to his own reelection efforts due to his being more interested in becoming a Senator (and was defeated by Dodd 2 years after that).

Tony lost because he is a liberal, tax-loving, affirmative action embracing criminal. And Tony needs to quit whining about the negative ads. He had his smear campaign up and running against Perry months before Perry even responded.

"He noted that racism against Sanchez's Mexican-American background"

BULL FEATHERS! Perhaps the Mattox should be blaming Sanchez's Mexicans first attitude as demonstrated by one of his two primary debates in which only Spanish was spoken. Or maybe his hispanic only ccampaign meetings. Mattox couldn't be more wrong. If anything whites rejected his anti-white racism. I wonder if this newspaer has any employess that aren't members of Mecha. WHat a rag.

" There are some things in Texas that aren't for sale. My dogs not for sale and the Texas Governorship's not for sale."
Senator Phil Gramm..

I just love Phil Gramm.. He has such a way with words.

Mattox couldn't be more wrong. If anything whites rejected his anti-white racism. I wonder if this newspaer has any employess that aren't members of Mecha. WHat a rag.

Just another example of desperate DemocRATS in denial grasping at straws.

He had his smear campaign up and running against Perry months before Perry even responded.

So many don't seem to mention that. Perry wasn't going to start TV adds until Sept because of his limited funds and Sanchez started with his TV adds in July. He could do it because he was putting $60,000,000 of his own money in the cmapaign. Evidently he hasn't learned anything from Ross Perot. Texans aren't for sale.

Claytie found that out! And Tony found that out! You can't BUY the Texas Governorship!

His campaign was poorly conceived! Tony started all that racism stuff, and pushed all the negative ads and mailing long before Perry even responsed! He also never ever connected with the people! Issues? He never talked about them! It was just negative, negative, "Perry did this", Perry did that", barf etc.

Texans are not dumb! Get that thru your head, Tony!

He noted that racism against Sanchez's Mexican-American background ... - Mattox

Disgusting! Sanchez played up his heritage purposely to gain votes, then they want to claim that racism (Perry looks more Hispanic than Sanchez does...) worked against him. Who was "racist" against the white guy Sanchez? Black voters?

Tony started all that racism stuff

He did and I hope he lost all those non-Hispanic voters to the Republican party forever. I think Tony Sanchez did a lot to unify non-Mexicans with his pure racist politics. I was sorry he won over Dan Morales in the primaries and even Dan Morales who ran in the democrat primaries ended up supporting Perry.

Sanchez called Dan Morales a "sore loser." Apparently, Sanchez was not aware that tens of thousands of Hispanic voters do not commonly come to the polls in contested general elections. More Hispanics in TX traditionally vote in the primaries, then sit out general elections. Maybe they think that as Democrats they can vote only in primaries. Or maybe they don't know a primary from a general election. At any rate, Tony Sanchez was shocked at the lack of Hispanic raw votes he received.

Still, Claytie Williams, Jr., had a sense of humor: humor that sometimes went too far for the faint-hearted, particularly among women. I guess Tony Sanchez had NO sense of humor at all. But it's pretty good to get 40 percent without having any sense of humor.

Although I'd agree with the tone here, Franks' loss was not quite so. He did largely ignore his reelection effort in '96 and got outworked by the victor, Jim Maloney (whom Franks had beaten in '94, and casually thought he could again), and didn't pay attention to the serious anti-GOP tidal wave that cost us several seats in the Northeast. I do credit Franks with having to put up with a lot of crap during his tenure (he was the lone Black Republican 4 years before JC Watts, though he almost had another join him with OH's Ken Blackwell who narrowly lost a seat that we won in '94), including racist attacks from MO's Bill Clay (who called him a "foot shufflin', head scratchin' Amos 'n Andy type" -- I think ole Bill was projecting). But Franks was not a particularly inspiring figure (like JC), and didn't take advantage of the position he was in to go around the country and encourage more Blacks to run in the GOP. The media largely ignored him, too (for obvious reasons). Since his poor showing against Dodd in '98, I don't even know what the man has been doing recently. He's almost what I term "the lost Black Republican." A trailblazer now largely forgotten, and that's a shame, too.

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