Put simply, we got our asses kicked last night. Instead of capitalizing on the gains we made statewide with the election of Nick Lampson, Ciro Rodriguez, and a slew of new local Democrats in Dallas County and Hays County, Republicans have staged a massive counterattack and blunted our momentum.
No Larry Joe Doherty. No Eric Roberson. No Rick Noriega. And, worst of all, no more Nick Lampson. His district is back in Republican hands ever after suffering from years of DeLayism.
The good new for North Texas is that Carol Kent managed to unseat Tony Goolsby, Chris Turner defeated Bill Zedler, and Robert Miklos beat Mike Anderson by only 527 votes. We have at least three new Democrats in the state house, and now there's talking of trying to unseat Tom Craddick as Speaker of the House. If the state legislature remains majority Republican, however, three new House seats may not be enough.
We still remember what happened with the 2003 redistricting debacle. Texas Democrats are still reeling from this injustice, but our state party has been unable to sustain their momentum from 2006. What this means is that as of this morning, Texas Democrats are in big trouble - and the 2010 census is just around the corner. If we want to avoid a replay of 2003, we need to figure out what our major malfunction is, and fast.
On a happier note, however, let me take you back to a hotel bar in Dallas back in 2004. ginbarn and I were at a Kerry rally, and ginbarn struck up a conversation over drinks with Ken Molberg, who was then co-chair of SD16. Ken inspired ginbarn to seek election as a state delegate and gave her a quick tutorial on the whole process, from the precinct convention to the state convention. It worked. ginbarn wound up at the 2004 state convention in Houston as an alternate, but got promoted to full delegate status in short order. The same Ken Molberg who helped inspire my wife to become a full-fledged Democratic activist has just been elected as judge of the 95th Civil District Court.
Hearty congratulations and thanks to Ken!
