You want to know how Texas Democrats are feeling today?
Like pure dookey, based on what happened way down yonder in San Antonio over the weekend.
Get a load of this: A veteran former Democratic state senator, Leticia Van de Putte, who’s lived in the Alamo City for virtually her entire life, got beat in the race for mayor by Ivy Taylor, who was born in New York City and who’d never run for a partisan office before..
http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/14/taylors-triumph-new-day-or-another-fluke/
Van de Putte was supposed to win, although she was far from a shoo-in. Let’s be clear as well: Taylor also is a Democrat, so the mayor’s office is remaining in Democratic hands.
But the former state senator, who got thumped in her bid for Texas lieutenant governor last year by Republican DanĀ Patrick, figured to remain in the public eye and the state’s Democrats figured to count on her to remain one of its key voices on issues across the state.
Texas Democrats keep offering up brave talk about coming back from the political wilderness. They vow to make the state competitive in the next presidential campaign. They vow to take some of those statewide offices all held exclusively by Republicans since I can’t remember when.
Even here, in the Panhandle — the heart and soul of the Texas Republican Party — this kind of bravery can be heard.
I hope one day for a return to a competitive two-party state.
With two major parties fighting on equal footing against each other, there’s bound to be some semblance of moderation from the GOP, which has been running roughshod over the opposition. The same thing happened when Democrats owned all the political power in Texas.
Leticia Van de Putte might have symbolized a return to that competitive posture.
Instead, she becomes just another political casualty.