A Few Notes on 800-Pound Gorillas

HoustonChronicle.com - If Hutchison goes, Henry Bonilla will run for Senate

Nothing unpredictable about this bit of news. Henry Bonilla's name has been out there as a potential Senate candidate in the event KBH comes back home. It's expected that he'll have to go through Dewhurst, and possibly others to get there. But this raises a question that's been left unanswered by Texas Democrats for quite some time.

2006 and beyond have reportedly been eyed with some enthusiasm in that for once, there will be no Bush on the ballot. Of course, that's often said with an asterisk for 2002 as Bush forced the issue focus of that election. Why we shouldn't expect the same thing to happen in 2006 is beyond me. I damn well should be anticipated.

Beyond that, is the expectation that Kay Bailey Hutchison will win whatever race she's in ... Governor or Senator. Without a doubt, her decision will scare off many potential challengers. And that's a shame. Kay Bailey Hutchison should never have become an 800 pound gorilla in Texas politics. But we let it happen.

Similarly, if - I emphasize that "if" - Henry Bonilla is elected Senator, we'll probably let it happen all over again.

This is the problem of being selective about one's battles. The GOP may not have had the best gameplan in the world when they ran Beau Boulter against Lloyd Bentsen back in 1988, but they at least threw a decent candidate against him. And you didn't see too many on the other side cowering in fear when Boulter came to town.

Compare that to the 1998 debacle in which John Sharp could not bring himself to endorse Gary Mauro, candidate for Governor. Tough to do when the Lt. Governor, Democrat Bob Bullock has already openly endorsed George Bush. Tough to do when Sharp had to maintain enough bonafides to earn a few crossover GOP donors as well as the endorsement of Young Conservatives of Texas.

It was a great plan on Sharp's part. Unfortunately, it was a great plan to destroy a once-proud party. Mind you, I don't fault Sharp's conservative streak. I think we've never had a better Comptroller in this state and he'd have been a magnificent Lt. Governor. But it cuts to the core of his political acumen and demonstrates how the attempts at getting by back then no longer amount to the party building we need to engage in at present. For that reason, I take a much more doubtful eye towards John Sharp than I ever have in the past. This, coming from somoene who declined overtures to help Mike Andrews campaign for Senate back in 1993 because I wanted to wait and see what Sharp decided (this was frequently met with responses such as "Sharp? Is he even one of us?" while conversing in Dr. Murray's Presidential Elections class).

What's needed now is active engagement on all fronts ... even against those 800-pound gorillas. And by active engagement, I don't just mean throw a candidate up there every two, four, or six years. Active engagement means the State Party's role has to gear up. In large part, Charles Soechting has been a vast improvement over previous party chairmen. More is needed, however.