2014: How will Texas look after November?

    Here we are, the calendar flips over to another election cycle, and for the first time this century Rick Perry will not be heading the ticket as GOP nominee for Governor of the State of Texas.  But for Gilberto Hinojosa and the Texas Democratic Party will a ticket of State Senators Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte be enough to begin to shift the needle of politics in the State or may we end up seeing a pyrrhic victory come November.  

     For the first time in over a decade the Democratic party has fielded somewhat viable sate-wide candidates.  Aside from Anne Richards can the average Texan even name 1 of the state-wide candidates fielded by the Democrats since Phil Gramm switched parties?  Barring a candidate that can start with some kind of name recognition state-wide the GOP can run a ham sandwich in a state-wide race (so long as it could prove to the tea partiers that it is sufficiently conservative) and win with a comfortable margin.  Remember, in 2012 when all the other right-wing crazies in places like Connecticut, Indiana and Wisconsin imploded, Texas elected Ted Cruz to the Senate in a walk.  But will strong candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor even matter?

      Lost in all of this is that from the outside the Texas Democratic party is almost resigned to conceding large swaths of the state come November.  Everyone remembers the buzz that Sen Davis's 11 hour filibuster garnered when she waged a one-woman battle against the forces that be.  What is lost is that a short time later it all went for naught.  Gov. Perry called another special session of the legislature, and the entire Democratic delegation meekly arrived in Austin to allow the Legislature to reach quorum and pass the same bills that were stopped previously by running out the clock.  In 2003 the Democrats in Austin showed spine, left the state and denied the quorum and kept up the fight, today not so much.  In fact I don't recall any concerted effort from the point in time starting with Perry calling the 2nd special session that any targeted messaging went out in an attempt to sway 5 GOP senate votes to kill the bill.  What is the old saying , a lot of sound and noise signifying nothing.  

     The year is early, but the Democrats have their work cut out for them.  While it would be nice to win state house, they need to narrow gaps and see a shift toward the middle in the legislature in order to get anything done. Since 2000 it seems the only issues that get attention is cutting education, attacking women and minorities, and ensuring that Texas is on a course to become a 3rd World Nation.  The Democrats have to fight not from the top but block by block, precinct by precinct and district by district to shift the debate and restore Texas to her former glory.