Van de Putte Will Run For Lt. Governor

On Saturday, six-term State Senator Leticia Van de Putte made it official. She is a candidate for the office of Lt. Governor of Texas in 2014. Van de Putte has been encouraged to run by many Texas Democrats ever since she helped fellow State Senator Wendy Davis filibuster an onerous anti-woman bill proposed by the Republicans last summer (Davis is running for governor).

Van de Putte is the second Democrat to declare her candidacy for that race. A few weeks ago, Maria Luisa Alvarado entered the race. Alvarado ran for the post once before, and has strong union support. It will be interesting to see which of these very competent candidates will win the Democratic nomination.

I will probably vote for Van de Putte, and toss a few dollars into her campaign fund -- and if you want to do the same, you can do so at her campaign website. But honestly, I could be happy to support either of these candidates in the 2014 general election.

It has been a long time since a Democrat made a credible run at a statewide elected office in Texas. But the candidates running for the Democrats this time are both competent and credible -- and I believe, if they get the money needed and help from grassroots Democrats, they could have a good chance of breaking the GOP deadlock on state offices.