Lone Star elections may become confrontation between Latino, conservative politicos

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Lone Star elections may become confrontation between Latino, conservative politicos

Posted on 04 March 2010 by oscar

From: The South Chicagoan

Texas had its primary elections this week, and the political observers who want to tout the desires of social conservatives are taking it as a plus that Gov. Rick Perry managed to win his primary – defeating Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison because (the local pundits say) Texans were voting for the candidate who had NO ties to Washington, D.C.

But in that mass of campaigns for Texas politics, there also was evidence that the growing Latino vote is asserting itself. Could we someday see the day when an Election Day sees this “Tea Party” crushed by a growing Latino vote?

IT’S VERY POSSIBLE.

For on the same night that Perry supposedly rang up a victory for conservative “values,” Linda Chavez-Thompson of San Antonio won the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor. In a three-way primary campaign, she took over half (53 percent) of the vote.

Her voter base was a combination of organized labor (she is a former vice president of the AFL-CIO) and the Latino vote in Texas, which is spread throughout the state but is particularly dominant in the southern counties along the U.S./Mexico border.

We’re not going to get the “head to head” electoral competition in Texas this time. Perry will be running against former Houston Mayor Bill White in the general election. Chavez-Thompson will be paired up with White – even though she technically is running against incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

I’M SURE SOME people will say that nobody pays attention to the lieutenant governor candidates, and focuses their time on the gubernatorial candidates – Perry versus White. For those who pick White, Chavez-Thompson will be an extra bonus.

But this case catches my attention because of the fact that the “right” is trying to portray the elections taking place this cycle as some sort of attempt to “take back” the country for their ideals. Let’s be honest, many of those people don’t view the growing Latino population as fitting in with their ideals.

“Conservatism has never been stronger than it is today,” Perry said, during his Election Night victory speech at a barbecue joint in the Texas capital city of Austin. “We’re taking our country back, one vote at a time, one election at a time.”

Yet at a time when “the right” wants to think they’re racking up victory after victory so they can start imposing an agenda that half the nation will find abhorrent (the latest Gallup Organization poll shows President Barack Obama with a 52 percent “favorable” rating, compared to 41 percent “unfavorable”), we’re also seeing electoral victories showing that Latino candidates also are capable of winning elections.

THOSE CANDIDATES INCLUDE Chavez-Thompson (although, oddly enough, one of White’s opponents in the Democratic primary – Farouk Shami – focused much of his campaign strategy on getting the Tejano population in support), who is a San Antonio resident now, but grew up working in cotton fields near Lubbock.

Although she dropped out of high school, she later rose to positions of authority within organized labor in Texas and at the national level. She also got involved with the Democratic Party, rising to the post of vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Those labor ties were Chavez-Thompson’s big backers financially during her primary. The Dallas Morning News newspaper reported she received about $225,000 for her primary campaign, much of which came from labor union-affiliated political action committees.

That may have been enough to get her through the primary. But Dewhurst, according to the Morning News, has already raised $2.8 million for his general election campaign (he ran unopposed for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor).

HE HAS A huge financial advantage, along with the benefits of incumbency. So I’m not naïve enough to think this election is going to be a cakewalk for Chavez-Thompson.

But in a state such as Texas, where Latinos account for 36.5 percent of the overall population, that gives Chavez-Thompson a base from which to draw votes – particularly if that Texas boastfulness gets the best of GOP candidates and they start talking their partisan trash that claims to be about values but is more about exclusion.

Dewhurst could find himself in a closer campaign than he bargained for.

And years from now, when Latino voter percentages catch up with our share of the population, this could turn out to be one of the elections that started the process. There is only so far that the conservatives can go before we Latinos have to start thinking about “taking back” this country (not just because it’s Texas) for “real” democratic ideals.

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Categorized | Latino Community, Latino News, Politics

Lone Star elections may become confrontation between Latino, conservative politicos

Posted on 04 March 2010 by oscar

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