Statesman: Run 'Em All!

» Statesman: Texas Democrats should field full ticket in 2010

The Statesman editorializes on the need for Texas Dems to field a full slate of statewide candidates ...

We urge Democrats to take serious looks at the down-ballot races for statewide offices including lieutenant governor, attorney general (Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a failed 2006 U.S. Senate candidate, says she's in that race), comptroller, land commissioner and agriculture commissioner.

All are significant jobs. The first four are even more important in the first legislative session after the 2010 census because that is when redistricting is done. Those four officials, along with the House speaker, sit on the Legislative Redistricting Board that sets congressional and legislative boundaries if lawmakers can't agree on a plan.

Naturally, I agree. But the real audience for this message is to the people who write big checks for candidates. Candidates will run if they feel the money's there for them to do so. But as big as Texas is, and as many media markets that need to be touched, there's a bit of a supply problem that needs to be addressed.

For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone willing to spend so heavily to get a Democratic majority in 2006 and 2008 (and possibly again in 2010), would leave it all to chance that Republicans will draw redistricting maps that don't kill off at least 10 State Reps in 2011. The lesson of Indiana is still there for the taking ... Texas can be made competitive whenever you decide to make it competitive.