I was watching some of the talking heads over the past couple of days and hoping for a nugget or two of good news for Dems. There wasn’t any.
This morning my friend Robert Miller tweeted this
Robert D. Miller @Robert_Miller 21m21 minutes ago
Gov. race tracking polls showing @WendyDavisTexas may not break 40%. #txlege #tx2014
Everyone is predicting that Dems will lose the U.S. Senate and lose more U.S. House seats.
Yesterday, Chron columnist Lisa Falkenberg put on her political operative hat and called out statewide and local Dems for some bonehead moves heading into Election Day.
The Battleground Texas fellas made an announcement Friday morning on voter turnout then had to say never mind that afternoon and got laughed at by GOP politicos.
My friend Robert Miller then tweeted this:
Robert D. Miller @Robert_Miller • 4h 4 hours ago
Looks like BGTX may be a bust. MT Ds boasted of turnout in TX. They got the math wrong. via @washingtonpost #txlege http://wapo.st/1yNFumh
And then there is this from yesterday’s Chron:
Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, acknowledged that while party faithful continue to work for a Davis-Van de Putte win, some hoped-for early turnout numbers have fallen short, especially among Hispanics in the Houston area. While Hispanic turnout in Democratic strongholds like San Antonio, El Paso and the Valley appear strong, he said, “we’re not seeing the base turnout we’d like to see in Houston, to the numbers we’d projected.
“But there’s still time, and we’re working hard,” Hinojosa said last week, with the early voting period about half over. “Our challenge has been to get Hispanic families motivated to vote, which is difficult with all the obstacles the Republicans have thrown up to prevent that – like voter ID.”
How do Dems win Harris County if Latino voters stay home? I am certainly open to some good news.
Former Rays skipper Joe Maddon is fixing to be named skipper of the Cubbies. Maddon never played in the bigs – advancing only to A ball. What position did he play?
The Chron has a story to today on low voter turnout in the state. Here is a bit:
One of the main forces shaping Texas’ low turnout rate, experts say, has been the state’s historically low level of competition. Research has shown Texas has the second-least politically competitive federal elections in the entire country, which could depress turnout by a few percentage points.
If the leading political players do not see a race as competitive, then the parties are unlikely to invest the money and energy into mobilizing voters on Election Day. That means voters do not have organizers calling their phones or knocking on their doors asking for them to vote – so they stay home.
“There are precarious little mobilization activities in the state,” says Curtis Gans, an expert on voter turnout at the Center for the American Electorate. Gans generally is skeptical about the relationship between competition and turnout: “You can have a lot of mobilization activities, but if you feel bad about both candidates, you’re not going to get people to vote.”
Experts also say the lack of competition feeds another reason Texans do not vote: the belief that it won’t make a difference.
Maybe the stay home voters are right.
Joe Maddon of course was a catcher.
Next season’s spring exhibition season ends with two games with the AL Champs KC at The Yard.
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