First, the Texas Democratic Party is a weak, dysfunctional. disorganized, underfunded joke of an organization. Rural areas that have very few Democratic voters have disproportionate influence on the State Democratic Executive Committee and at convention. (Party rules provide that districts vote their "full delegation strength" whether or not the actual number of delegates is present.) For the last few election cycles, rather than develop any political tactics the state party has been driven by what a few candidates and their consultants have wanted with a total lack of success is statewide races.

While the state party is a disaster, the county parties range from robust in some of the cities (like Dallas, Austin, Houston), though faction-riven battlefields (cough-San Antonio-cough) and old-fashioned political patronage fiefdoms, to barely existent is some rural areas. While being shut out in statewide races, Texas Democrats had in 2004 reversed the trend of losing seats in the Texas House and by 2009 had almost achieved parity in that body. But 2010 was a disaster, the GOP winning a 100-50 seat super majority. Now, I don't think that that's a permanent loss. We lost a lot of swing districts in what was a very anti-Obama, anti-Democrat year. We should do better next time with a hopefully friendlier political climate combined with blowback from the horrors the current legislative session will generate. However, we need strong county parties beyond what we have now if we're going to win a safe majority in the House and the state party throws up its hands and does nothing to help in that arena.

The electoral strategy of the TDP has been to try to win back a slice of moderate and conservative white voters lost to the GOP over the last couple of decades (with pretty much a total lack of success) while awaiting the "demographic jubilee"---the rise of Hispanic voters who will magically turn the state blue again. In the meantime, though, the TDP has done a piss poor job of relating to minority voters. In 2010, Bill White, our candidate for governor was careful to be in another city when President Obama spoke in Austin, lest he be linked to "that one". (Didn't matter, Rick Perry nationalized the election so well White might as well have had an Obama logo tattooed on his forehead.) I doubt many African American voters were impressed by our guy's reluctance to be seen with our first African American President. And after years of assuming that Hispanics will be the salvation of Texas Democrats, it was only a month or so ago that the TDP hired an Hispanic outreach director. (And the party website still doesn't have any content in a language other than English.)

Now, there are a few things that need to be remembered about the burgeoning Hispanic population in Texas which may limit its electoral impact. For one thing, it's a less-prosperous, younger group, and historically poor people are less likely to vote, young people are less likely to vote than their wealthier, older counterparts. And people who haven't voted before are less likely to vote than those who've already lost their ballot box virginity. So while I'm not denying that they represent a great potential gain for the Democratic side, bringing that vote in is going to require real effort and long-term commitment.

Also I should mention that in some areas which do have a great concentration of Hispanic voters the Republican Party doesn't make much of an effort so the primary becomes the "real" election. Yes, that insures a Democrat will hold that office, but then the local party doesn't put as much effort into GOTV for the general election, so we don't pick up as many votes for statewide and national candidates as we might hope.