Swinging Dems

Democrats haven’t won a statewide office here in Texas since 1994. Now we are considered a swing state. Do we know how to act like swing state Dem voters?

Commentary has been involved in winning statewide campaigns in Texas. In 1982, I was in charge of Mark White’s Latino, Bexar County, South Texas and El Paso aspects of the campaign when White ran for Governor and won. I also was the number two person for the Texas Democratic Party’s Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign in 1976, the last time a Democrat carried Texas in a Presidential race. That was Jimmy Carter.

I will be the first to admit to you that campaigns are managed a lot differently these days.

Last year, we saw #BetoForTexas come close. I am certainly not going to complain about how his campaign was run, you know, not using polling data, blah, blah, blah. His campaign helped a whole lot of Dems win office in a lot of parts of Texas.

In 2020, here in Texas, we will have a Democratic Presidential candidate and a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate leading the way. The #BetoForTexas campaign got a lot of people to get engaged. Folks got some valuable experience. They will be ready to embrace being in a swing state. Dems will know what to expect.

I was watching off-and-on the H-Town City Council meeting yesterday on adopting the budget and they were discussing studying the issue of a commuter service fee. Something along the lines of charging folks who come into town everyday who come to work but don’t live in the city and don’t pay city property taxes – you get the picture. You know, folks from West U, Bellaire, Pasadena, Pearland, The Woodlands, Katy, Sugar Land and the villages. That’s not good public policy. Not a good idea. Certainly not neighborly.

The vote to study a commuter service fee didn’t pass.

If they want, maybe they can do a pilot program of sorts and slap a fee on city employees who don’t live in the city and see how that goes.

Former Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t get it, pure and simple. Rather than own up to his remarks on working with segregationists, he gets his African American Campaign Co-Chair to defend him.

We got swept in Cincy, have lost four in a row, and I am not in the mood for MLB questions.

We are at Yankee Stadium for four starting this evening.