As someone who just moved from one very red area of Texas to another very red area, I am familiar with the defeatist attitude exhibited by some Texas Democrats. In many recent elections, they have not even run an opponent for many Republicans, especially in local races.
This defeatist thinking is exemplified in this statement by Keith Annis, treasurer of the Tarrant County Young Democrats. He says, "If you put a good candidate in a race they're not likely to win, you run the risk of having that candidate burned out for future races."
But if you don't run a candidate, you change "not likely to win" into "we give up". You just can't win if you don't run a candidate. Several candidates were "not likely to win" in Dallas county in 2006, but they entered the race and campaigned hard -- and they won back that county for the Democrats!
Fortunately, I see a lot of the "we can't win" thinking disappearing, even in the reddest areas of Texas. This is a good thing. There are many voters who would be willing to vote Democratic, but you have to give them a good candidate and then ask them for their vote. Failure to run a candidate in every race or fight for every possible vote just gives the party a loser image, and that makes future elections even harder.
We can thank George Bush and his national Republican cohorts for the change in the thinking of many Democrats. Bush and his buddies have made such a mess of things that the popularity of the Republican Party has not been lower since the thirties. This has even caused voters to take another look at state and local Republicans, who are doing an equally bad job for the most part.
The 2008 election presents Democrats with a golden opportunity. They could not only reclaim power on the national scene, but they could set themselves up to reclaim power on the state and local level -- even here in Texas.
But to do so, they must run candidates in every race, and fight for every vote. They might still lose some of those races in the reddest areas, but a well-fought campaign will set the stage for a future victory.
The time is right. They shouldn't cede even the smallest race to the Republicans.
This is dangerous.
ReplyDeleteIf the district is hard to win, and the candidate who decides to run does not have the skills, money, or support, then it actually hurts to run someone.
But....we shoul have esomeone on the ballot, if nothing else to have a placeholder and a stepping stone to the future.
But......we cannot afford to put someone on the ballot that has little chance of winning, and expect everyone to drain their resources.
So, if the seat is empty, put someone on the ballot but dont drain valuable resources unless you intend to run an organized campaign.