All the brave talk I have been hearing from local Democrats about how they’re going to come storming back is just that: talk.

Looking at the ballot for this spring’s primary season presents a pretty gloomy outlook for Panhandle Democrats. In races involving Potter or Randall counties, I find a single name running for a contested seat: Abel Bosquez, Democratic candidate for House District 87, a seat that has been held since The Flood by a Republican. Bosquez is a political animal, namely as a one-time chairman of the Potter County Democratic Party. He is married to a Democratic justice of the peace, Nancy Bosquez.

I have to admit to being surprised that one longtime local Democratic officeholder, Potter County Commissioner Manny Perez, escaped getting a challenge this year. Perez seems to draw an opponent every election year, but not this time. Why is that a surprise? Perez didn’t acquit himself well with many Potter County leaders over his stubborn resistance to a tax increment reinvestment zone for downtown Amarillo. I thought the big-money interests in Potter County would have found someone to challenge the combative Perez in 2010.

But that’s what I get for thinking, I guess.

But given a chance to contest other races, the Democratic Party is a no-show in 2010 — at least in this part of the Lone Star State.

It’s a shame, given that a two-party system works better than a one-party system. A strong opposition party often keeps the party in power more accountable and less arrogant. It’s true no matter which party is in the driver’s seat.

And besides, the Democrats have a first-rate candidate near the top of the ballot; he is Bill White, the recently former mayor of Houston who switched his goal from the U.S. Senate seat he (and everyone else) thought would be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, to a run for governor. Make no mistake, he will mount a formidable effort against whomever the Republicans nominate in March.

That excitement obviously didn’t filter on down to the local level, at least not here, where the Republicans continue their vise-grip on the political infrastructure.