Posted on 09/19/2003 5:29:58 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Democrats are lining up for hot seat Thursday, September 18, 2003
One might question why anyone wants to be the chair of the Texas Democratic Party In The Time Of George Bush. But several folks apparently do.
Molly Beth Malcolm announced Tuesday she'll resign Oct. 25. On that day, the State Democratic Executive Committee will choose a replacement to serve until the party's 2004 convention.
Malcolm has held the office for 5 1/2 years. Given the Democrats' miserable fortunes recently, some observers would compare the chairmanship to being captain of the Titanic.
With the Democrats completely out of power, it's an uphill job. Democrats traditionally are short of money. Business interests routinely support Republicans but give to Democrats when Democrats are the incumbents.
Still, there are a couple reasons why someone might want the job:
• It is a way to get known. Molly Beth Malcolm, and her predecessor, Bill White, both reportedly hoped to be drafted to run for statewide office. That didn't happen, but White is a candidate for mayor of Houston in the Nov. 4 election.
• Assuming that the growing Hispanic population actually starts to vote — and continues to favor Democrats — the Democrats' fortunes could turn.
The chairmanship has evolved.
Back in the one-party days, when the Democratic primary was a free-for-all popularity contest, the chairman was whomever the governor or Democratic gubernatorial nominee picked.
The chairman did mostly whatever the governor wanted, including putting out fires. But when Republicans began to win the governorship, beginning in 1978, the chairman started trying to build an organization to help all Democrats.
Longtime party insider Bob Slagle of Sherman was the first chairman (1980-96) not handpicked by the Democratic governor or nominee.
Although subsequent Democratic governors — Mark White and later Ann Richards — wanted to replace Slagle, both needed him for difficult political jobs such as redistricting, so they left him alone.
But after Richards lost to Republican George W. Bush in 1994, other top Democrats pushed White, an undersecretary of the Interior Department under President Clinton, into the job.
Next, Malcolm — a self-described "recovering Republican" — took over. And now she, like Slagle, has claimed family reasons for stepping down.
There's a laundry list of potential replacements including, the party's general counsel, Charles Soechting; former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson; former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox; Houston City Council Member Carol Alvarado; former state Sen. Carl Parker of Port Arthur; longtime political activist Debbie Branson; and former Travis County Democratic Chairman David van Os, now of San Antonio.
The name of state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, is floating around, although only as an interim chairman.
The next chairman's job, which Republicans consider Mission Impossible, is to try to put the party in position to elect a governor.
Dave McNeely's column appears Thursdays. Contact him at (512) 445-3644 or dmcneely@statesman.com.
• It is a way to get known. Molly Beth Malcolm, and her predecessor, Bill White, both reportedly hoped to be drafted to run for statewide office. That didn't happen, but White is a candidate for mayor of Houston in the Nov. 4 election.
But after Richards lost to Republican George W. Bush in 1994, other top Democrats pushed White, an undersecretary of the Interior Department under President Clinton, into the job.
For anyone in Houston unsure of the real political leanings of Bill White, this is a good indication of the kind of campaign/governing style we can expect from him.
Birds of a feather,... ya know.
I think Houston enacted term limits. I'm sure someone here can confirm that or set me straight. Either way, Brown is not in the race.
But Houston's mayoral elections aren't partisan!
. . .yeah, right.
Bill White may very well win simply because the other candidates are MIA. It should be Sanchez's to lose, but I don't think I have heard a single commercial from him. White has had commercials on for a while claiming republican support.
KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE political potentate, finishes reading yesterday's mayoral poll in President W's hometown newspaper.
"Get me Dewhurst," he yells to his secretary.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst may let Gov. Rick Perry and Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick cool their heels at breakfast, but he doesn't keep the White House waiting.
"What can I do for you, Karl?" he asks.
"You can tweak your map," Rove says.
Dewhurst hardly needs to be told what map.
"It's not my map, Karl," Dewhurst says wearily. "But tell me what you want."
"I want a district for that kid Michael Berry," says Rove.
OK, so this is a fictional lead. But stay with me. The story could come true.
It's no secret that Karl Rove and the White House political machine want Orlando Sanchez to be mayor of Houston.
Two years ago when Sanchez was in a runoff against incumbent Mayor Lee Brown, President Bush endorsed him with full-page newspaper ads and radio spots, and his mother and father taped a feel-good TV commercial.
National Republican leaders are determined to make inroads into the Latino vote, and an attractive Hispanic Republican mayor of the Fourth Largest City would serve as a great poster boy.
If the incentive was there two years ago, it's even greater this year, if only because the downside to a Sanchez loss is greater.
As an African-American, Mayor Brown wasn't a threat to the Republican efforts to marginalize the Democratic Party in Texas as a home only for blacks and Hispanics (an effort Democratic state senators aided by turning the extraordinary re-redistricting fight into a civil rights issue).
But if Sanchez loses, Houston's new mayor may well be Bill White, white as his name and former chairman of the state Democratic Party. For up to six years he could be a high-profile testament against the Republican theme. It would be even more painful if he turned out to be as popular as his Democratic predecessor, Bob Lanier.
So Rove cannot be amused when he sees polling numbers showing Sanchez in a dead heat with Democratic State Rep. Sylvester Turner -- five points behind White.
What jumps out is that freshman Councilman Michael Berry, running as a Republican to the right of Sanchez, is siphoning off seven points. Without him in the race, Sanchez is at least tied with White and possibly in the lead.
Berry's role is all the more damaging because up to now he and White have used every available forum to say nice things about each other. Then they both play a drumbeat that Sanchez is backed by the same special contractors, engineers and other special interests who backed Brown and are feeding greedily at the City Hall trough.
What Rove and others need is for Berry, an energetic and articulate campaigner, to revise his rhetorical target from Sanchez the "insiders' puppet" to White the "liberal Democrat."
They could try threatening Berry that if he costs Sanchez City Hall they will kill any future he has in Republican politics. Those who know Berry, brash enough to declare for mayor after a mere five months on City Council, don't think threats would work.
But Berry would have to think twice about passing up an opportunity. If a small but authoritative delegation presented a proposal to carve out a congressional district for him and help him raise the funds to win it, wouldn't he have to listen?
What if they made it stretch from Orange, where Berry grew up, to Clear Lake?
What better way to recover from a humiliating single-digit mayoral showing than to rise as a hometown hero?
That may very well be, but it would take a lot for me to believe Bill White wouldn't do exactly the same thing.
Sanity, I fear, will be alien to Houston fiscal management for a long time to come.
Hopefully Sanchez will get his act together.
Watch for the bait and switch from White though. It's classic Bubba tactics, campaign as a "non-partisan" centrist, govern as a liberal.
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