Posted on 12/28/2002 5:10:11 PM PST by Theodore R.
Thursday, December 26, 2002
OK, arrange the firing squad in a circle, as one Texas Democrat put it.
After the Republican landslide last month, some Democrats want state Chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm out. The Democrats have practice at this because the party's fortunes in Texas have been sliding for decades.
Malcolm says she has no intention of leaving her post before her term expires in June 2004, and says the criticism hurts the party.
"This is not the time to point fingers in blame, because our real challenge is helping Texans recognize the Republican agenda for what it is — out of touch with the majority of Texans," Malcolm said in a recent open letter.
It would take a two-thirds vote of the State Democratic Executive Committee to remove her. But those trying to remove her failed to get the signatures of one-third of the members needed to put the item on the agenda for the group's next meeting Jan. 15.
Malcolm, backed by several statewide elected officials as an energetic force, became party chairwoman in 1998.
She succeeded Bill White, a Houston energy lawyer and former deputy Energy secretary under Bill Clinton. White had been brought in as the savior in 1995 to put the party on a businesslike basis. He replaced Bob Slagle, a backroom party operative who held the job for 15 years.
Malcolm has had the chore of trying to rally a party that in Texas has been more a candidate-based free-for-all than an organization — after decades of being the only game in town.
Malcolm says she got the party out of debt for the first time in 18 years and helped build a computerized voter database available to Democratic candidates and workers.
She also has tried to bridge party divisions. There is a continuing debate in Texas and nationally about whether the Democrats' fortunes will most be improved by moving toward the business-oriented center, where the swing white voters are, or to the progressive left, where it is presumed Hispanic and African American voters will be energized.
In November's election, Democrats, under the banner of self-funded multimillionaire Tony Sanchez for governor, tried some of both. Neither tactic worked as well as hoped, and to an extent each undermined the other.
Although ousting Malcolm may not be the solution, the Democrats' problem is much more than her.
While the national GOP has spent tens of millions of dollars building their party in Texas, the Democratic National Party during the era of the Bushes has treated Texas like a political colony — coming to take away its resources, such as money, but not giving much back.
Presidential candidates figured, wisely, that there was no sense wasting money in an unwinnable state. But the lack of spending on presidential races hurt other Democrats down the ballot.
The Democrats now will try to go forward without so much as a House speaker to the party's name. Their strategy may be reduced to praying that Texas Republicans misread their mandate as too far to the right, see the state budget blow up in their faces, cut state services too dramatically and alienate swing voters.
Dave McNeely's column appears Thursdays. Contact him at dmcneely@statesman.com or (512) 445-3644.
With an out-0f-touch attitude like this, Mary Beth is the PERFECT Dimocratic Chairwoman for Texas!
She epitomizes her Party's failure to face reality.
Which in this case is that even the Liberals are running as 'Pubbies in Texas!
Enjoy, Molly!
A point to ponder: If praying were a desirable option for them, would they be having the problems they are having?
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