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The Austin Chronicle: News: The Election, the Baby, and the Bathwater
Yes, I know I just can't get enough of the Andy Taylor show. This AusChron piece pretty much sounds cribbed from my own thoughts, only instead of a more Harris County-centric view, Amy Smith seems to suggest there could be a statewide ripple among Texas' growing (and nominally Republican) Asian community.
I'm waiting for the House to have the video on archive of the committee hearing. I'm sure there were moments I blacked out from pure rage sometime after Taylor assumed to know how voters who could not remember how they voted ... actually voted! {urge to blockwalk rising}
Anyways, there's some good news in the AusChron story to soak up ...
"I have no numbers to back this up, but the 'Rs' have already been hurt in Texas by this effort to seat Heflin," said Kelly Fero, chief strategist for Take Back Texas, a sister organization of the state Democratic Party. Fero points out that Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, the first Asian-American woman elected to the Texas Legislature, is herself vulnerable and could lose her next re-election bid ? "with help from the Asian community." Rep. Joe Nixon, another Houston Republican, could also draw a challenger, already identified as attorney Robert Pham, a Vietnamese-American with a compelling success story like Vo's, Fero said.
Robert Pham ... dunno much of anything about him except that he's been around a few Dem fundraisers and such. I may have more on this if I get in touch with him soon.
A point certainly not lost on me is that the 133rd District is fast becoming a Democratic district deep in the heart of George H. W. Bush's old westside Congressional seat. A Dem win there extends a little bit of blue where it has not been seen since the 1960s ... as in the EARLY 1960s ... AT BEST.
Part and parcel of this growth surge is an influx of Asians (Vietnamese in particular) into the new home subdivisions and apartments that are still, to this day, being built at a quick pace. Joe Nixon will, at worst, get the race of his life in 2006. At best ... he's toast.
Martha Wong, however, is another story. She's got her baggage, mind you. And she didn't exactly hit the ground running this sessions where we have school finance, a rightfully elected Asian Representative being threatened with an overturning of his rightful election, ethics reform needed out the wazoo, mental health in crisis, CHIPs in disrepair, urban hospital districts pleaing for the mercy of the state ... and what does Martha want to do? Rename the freakin Capital driveway after Ronald Reagan!!! This is your Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy the bed you made.
But Wong's 134th isn't significantly Asian to any degree. She gets some support from the Chinese American community, and I suspect some other pan-Asian groups. But if there will be a holdout on the migration of Asian votes to the Democratic side, I suspect Chinese voters will be the last to leave the GOP as they've generally been fairly consistent for most of the polling I've ever read of. 1996 chipped into that a little bit, from what I recall, but I'm not sure how deep or how long lasting that was.
Wong will eventually lose, but for different reasons. Ignoring the plight of Hubert Vo will only be but one nail in her coffin.