Texas Dems Not Interested In Winning Ag. Comm. Race

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER (93.57% reporting)
Kinky Friedman...............80,890 (46.21%)
Jim Hogan...............94,124 (53.78%)

The man pictured at the left is Jim Hogan -- the choice of Texas Democrats as their nominee in the November election race for Agriculture Commissioner. Who is Jim Hogan? That's hard to know, because he hasn't campaigned and hasn't told anyone what his issues are. As near as I can tell, he's a right-wing fundamentalist. He admitted that the only reason he ran as a Democrat is because there were already five candidates in the GOP race for Ag Commissioner (and he didn't think he could beat five other Republicans).

Why did Texas Democrats vote for a right-wing fundamentalist, who didn't campaign and says he will not campaign in the general election either (not for himself or the Democratic ticket)? All I can figure is that a lot of Democratic Party regulars think it's more important to settle an old grudge they hold than to have a chance of winning this race in November.

Less than 1.5% of Texas' registered voters bothered to vote in the Democratic primary runoff. That's not unusual, and means that hardly anyone other than party regulars voted. And too many of them still harbor a grudge against Kinky Friedman for running as an Independent in the 2006 governor's race. They blame Kinky for their pitiful showing in that race -- ignoring the facts that Kinky drew as many Republican votes in that race as Democratic votes, and the Democratic candidate was an "empty suit" who couldn't have beaten Rick Perry if it had been a two-person race. And to satisfy that old grudge, they put a right-wing fundamentalist (who's not even a real Democrat) on the November ballot.

Kinky is a maverick, and he doesn't follow the party line. But he is a campaigner, and he was willing to campaign hard for not only himself, but the entire Democratic ticket (and he could have garnered many Independent votes for the ticket). But that wasn't good enough for the party regulars. They preferred a right-wing fundamentalist Republican in ill-fitting Democratic clothes -- a person not willing to campaign for the Democratic Party.

Frankly, I'm disgusted. I won't be able to support Hogan or vote for him in November, because I'm a progressive, and I never vote for right-wing fundamentalists -- even if they pose as Democrats. And by tossing in the towel in the Ag Commissioner race, I'm left to wonder just how serious Democrats are about winning any statewide race this year.

As I said in a post a couple of days ago, it looks like the state party (and its major candidates) are following the same old path to defeat as in the past -- by posing as slightly less right-wing candidates than the Republicans they are running against. They seem to think Texas voters will flock to the polls to vote for the lesser of two evils. But that hasn't worked in the past, and it's a sure road to defeat this year too.

I get daily e-mails from Wendy Davis, Leticia Van de Putte, and David Alameel. But they never tell me what progressive values they are willing to fight for. They just ask for money and assure me they are better somehow than their opponent. That's not good enough. I want to see some Democrats willing to fight for progressive values, and offer a real choice to the right-wingers of the GOP. And I think that's what many others want.

I'm going to vote a progressive ballot in November and I was hoping it would include many Democrats. Unfortunately, the Democrats with progressive roots seem to be running away from those roots. And frankly, that doesn't bode well for November.