Posted on 12/06/2002 6:19:26 AM PST by Theodore R.
Election may have hurt racial unity Thursday, December 5, 2002
''Election Day was a humiliation for the Texas Democratic Party."
That comes not from a Republican, but from Democratic media consultant Dean Rindy of Austin. His analysis was e-mailed around after the Democrats' latest wipeout.
Sure, President Bush was popular. So?
Democrats never gave voters reasons to support them, did a miserable job on turnout and managed to turn off white voters.
"This was the greatest fiasco in the history of Texas politics," wrote Rindy, who had some regional Texas clients but none statewide. "Democrats spent over $100 million. The result? Republican turnout increased more than ours did. We got clobbered again."
Republican Gov. Rick Perry's consultant Dave Carney said the GOP beat its goal of 2.6 million votes by 17,000.
Meanwhile, the Democrats' ballyhooed massive turnout effort behind a multiracial "Dream Team" increased the number of minority voters only slightly.
"We just failed miserably at getting our vote out," said John Sharp. In his second try for lieutenant governor, he got the highest vote total of any Democrat — but lost.
Sharp, who recruited Hispanic Tony Sanchez to run for governor, regrets anyone ever called the ticket that included Sanchez and African American Ron Kirk for U.S. Senate the Dream Team.
In 1998, Sharp had lost to Perry by 68,731 of just over 3.7 million votes cast. This year, with considerable straight-ticket Democratic voting, Sharp increased his total by 281,754 votes. But Republicans also pushed a straight ticket, to show support for President Bush on terrorism. And though Sharp got the most votes of any Democrat, he lost by 255,943 votes to David Dewhurst.
"We spent $10 million — a record — getting our vote out," Sharp said. "But the Republicans got out more vote than we did. Aside from Austin and some counties in the Valley, whatever was supposed to happen didn't work."
Dallas statistician Dan Weiser, a Democrat who analyzes returns, said Sanchez and Kirk brought out more minorities. He says Hispanics were 18 percent of the total vote, African Americans 15 percent — together a third. (Other analysts think it was less.)
Democrats won minorities by a landslide — but lost whites by a landslide. And there are more whites.
"The real deal is that if you take a look at Anglo votes for Sharp, they were 34 percent four years ago, versus 29 percent this time," Weiser said. And 23 percent for Kirk, and 20 percent for Sanchez.
Rindy puts it more bluntly: "Every time some Democrat babbled 'Dream Team,' it sent a little telegram to 72% of the likely voters in Texas: 'Whitey, we don't need you.' "
Democrats said their ticket was about racial unity. Former Republican U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm said Democrats "believe they can divide Texans based on race. And this election is about rejecting that dream . . . forever."
Whether or not Democrats or Republicans caused more racial division, the division certainly exists. How long is another question.
Dave McNeely's column appears Thursdays. Contact him at 445-3644 or dmcneely@statesman.com.
Hence the problem for Democrats. The solution? Unlimited Third World immigration. Further demonization of whites, especially "redneck trailer trash".
The one voting bloc everyone seems content to ignore. Until they turn up missing.
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