The Dems who have filed page is fully up to date now, and it shows that the strategy of building the bench by running for more Legislative seats is off to a good start. Greg quotes from an email from the state Democratic Party which tells the tale:
Incumbents with general election opponents
Democrat – 15
Republican – 40House Districts with candidates
Democrat – 113
Republican – 106
That last number feels like it’s off by one to me. There are 87 GOP-held seats, all of which have GOP candidates, plus three Dem-held open seats and 15 challenged Dem incumbents. That adds up to 105, so either I’m missing something or they are. I can’t tell which because the Republican filings page hasn’t been updated since Monday. Whichever it is, that’s still some impressive recruiting by the Dems, and some head-scratchingly poor recruiting by the GOP. How poor? The email goes on to crow:
Republicans also failed to field candidates in several conservative, Democratic-held State House Districts where John Kerry was handily defeated in the 2004 presidential elections: District 1 (Stephen Frost), District 21 (Allan Ritter) or District 57 (Jim Dunnam).
Frost we’ve already discussed. Ritter should have been another slamdunk – 63.3% for Bush, with the three GOP statewides scoring between 52.7% and 57.6%. Bush got 55.6% in Dunnam’s district, though the Democrats carried it for the three other statewide races. Add those to Veronica Gonzales’ free pass and you just have to wonder who fell asleep at the wheel.
So kudos to the Dems for convincing people that 2006 was a good year to run for the Lege. You can’t make gains if you’re not challenging their seats, and they’ve done that well. They could have even done a bit better, but that’s a subject for the next post. For now, here’s to a good start.
But are they good candidates? That’s the question that has to be asked.
I’m sure that some are, and some aren’t. As with any political party.
I would have really liked to see a good, strong moderate Dem face off against a vulnerable Dewhurst, but time will tell I guess.
2006 is the year that Dem’s can really get back some respectability in Texas politics.
It all depends on the candidates however.