Getting ready for the primary elections in Texas

Each party in Texas is gearing up for the March 1st primary election. Texas will be a part of a slate of states - including many southern states - that are attempting to collect their strength in order to influence the result of each race. Remember that these are party elections. A good number of internal party issues are settled in these elections. Currently the two major parties in the state are making preliminary decisions about how the primary elections will be conducted and what issues may or may not be on each party's ballot.

I won't ask nuanced question about these elections, but both 2305 and 2306 students should have a general familiarity with the concept of primary elections - and who runs them. Remember that states are given the responsibility of running elections in the United States. There really is no such thing as a national election in the US - national campaigns yes, elections no. The national government can oversee elections in order to determine if they are run in compliance with the equal protection clause, but little else.

Here are a few recent stories:

- Texas to have more prominent role in 2016 GOP presidential race.
- Texas GOP Votes Down Secession Proposal.
- Texas Democrats Approve 6 Ballot Referenda For Public Vote.
- Texas’ primary ballot begins to take shape.

For a broader look at the efforts of the presidential candidates to get on the ballots click on the following:

- The 2016 ballot wars begin: Each failure to appear on a ballot undermines a candidate’s credibility as a national figure.

Voting doesn’t begin for another two months but some presidential candidates have already failed their first big ballot test – actually getting on the ballot in all 50 states.

The business of getting a candidate’s name on the ballot is a costly and complex endeavor, a major drain of money and manpower that threatens to weed out the most underfunded campaigns and strain the others in what remains a historically unwieldy Republican field. Some states require thousands of signatures to qualify; others charge tens of thousands of dollars. Nationally, the price tag for ballot access can soar well past $1 million – more money than some campaigns have left in the bank.

“Right about now is the time when some desperation will set in,” said Ben Ginsberg, a veteran Republican political attorney who served as national counsel for Mitt Romney but is unaligned in 2016.

More on the battle over control of the Harris County Republican Party

This pick up from a story below on local party organization.

- Click here for the story.

Previously, Republicans had "something of a luxury in that their opponent was not especially well organized," said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.

That has changed in a big way with the arrival last year of Battleground Texas, a Democratic campaign that has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars identifying and communicating directly with persuadable voters, particularly in the Houston area.

"For Republicans there's a concern, I think, that if they don't get their ground game into high gear, then they risk losing the county altogether," Jones said.

Simpson and his supporters paint the race as a battle over management style, accusing Woodfill of weak fundraising and outreach at a time when the county is growing and diversifying - and, by many measures, becoming more Democratic. They also have suggested that Woodfill has focused too much on divisive social issues, such as same-sex marriage.

At a Houston Chronicle editorial board meeting last month, Emmett complained that the local party is "driving young people away," that hundreds of Republican precinct chair positions are vacant and at least 80 percent of the party's money comes from its own candidates.

"The party is supposed to be supporting candidates," he said. "Right now, the party is living off a few candidates that can raise money. I look at it and I say, 'Look, we need a county party that understands it's about winning elections, it's not about giving speeches.' "

Republican political consultant Jim McGrath said "a lot of people have been looking for a viable alternative to Jared just because he's not getting the job done, and we need to hold him accountable for a lack of results."

Can Democrats rebuild a state party in Texas?

This question has been asked a lot recently since some national and state party leaders see opportunity. They haven't since 1994, but demographic changes may make open things up.

Here are the latest thoughts on the future:

It has been nearly two decades since a Democrat was elected to statewide office and nearly 40 since the party carried Texas in a presidential race; White House hopefuls stopped trying to win here a long time ago.

But after a generation's worth of Democratic failure, many are convinced the state is on the cusp of competitiveness, thanks to the rapid growth of Texas' minority population, especially Latinos, and a slow rebuilding of the party from the ground level — city, county, legislative offices — up.

"It's inevitable," said Matt Angle, a Democratic consultant whose Lone Star Project has chipped away at Republican dominance over the last several elections. "But only with a lot of hard work."

Among those drawn by the prospect are some of the data-driven strategists of President Obama's campaigns, whose targeting and mobilization boosted black and Latino turnout and twice helped win such battlegrounds as Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada. They have dispatched field teams throughout the state, hoping to apply their organizing techniques to Texas, where millions of eligible minority voters have either failed to register or haven't bothered voting.

After two decades, the permanent party organization has withered and needs to be rebuilt, which takes time.

. . . one of the higher hurdles facing Democrats in Texas [is] the lack of viable statewide candidates. When Gov. Rick Perry said Monday he would not run again in 2014, the odds-on favorite to replace him, Republican Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, already had more than $18 million in the bank. Democrats, meantime, are struggling to find a single plausible contender.

Building a campaign infrastructure, something Texas Democrats sorely lack, is vital. But "you also need to create some organic reason for people to want to vote for you and identify with you," said James Henson, who directs the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas in Austin. That, he and others suggested, requires a compelling — or at least viable — slate of statewide candidates.

Democrats talk up the prospects of San Antonio's mayor, 38-year-old Julian Castro, and his twin brother, Joaquin, a congressman from the city. Neither, however, is expected to run for higher office any time soon.

Davis, 50, was touted as a possible gubernatorial candidate even before her attention-grabbing filibuster, which blocked — at least temporarily — Republican passage of sweeping antiabortion legislation. But although the Fort Worth Democrat has expressed a desire to run statewide, she also knows of the challenges she would face in 2014.

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio lawmaker and head of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said Democrats were wise to rebuild their party from the bottom up, rather than counting on a candidate to do it from the top down. That's been tried, he said, "and when the campaign folded, so did the computer that had all the data."

On Party Organization

One of the most notable political shifts of the past year or so has been in the relative strengths of the Democratic and Republican Party organizations. More important than the ideas parties stand for, is their ability get voters to identify and support them and then to communicate and mobilize them when necessary.

Republicans have had a significant advantage in doing so, and this probably dates to Nixon's 1968 election. Reagan represents the apex of this effort, and W. Bush was an echo, but recent failures seem to have thrown this effort off course. This is an amazing development considering the fact that Republicans were talking about having created a permanent majority after the 2004 election. Karl Rove's goal was to further peal off key constituents of the Democratic Party and build a communications network that would maintain their commitment to the Republicans for at least a generation. Things do not seems to have worked out as hoped.

The major stories of the Clinton-Obama struggle, to me anyway, has been the way that they have developed organizations in the states and localities that they have competed in, and the opportunities that gives the Democratic Party to redevelop the organizational strength it enjoyed back in the New Deal era. The very fact that the Democratic primary was fought to the end, and forced both candidates to connect with the state party organizations in each of the 50 states gives them an organizational advantage. There is no guarantee of course that this will work to their advantage, but it seems that they have identified where there problems have lied in the past few electoral cycles.

In Texas, organizational redevelopment seems to be the hallmark of their recently reelected party chair Boyd Richie. In Burnt Orange Report's support of his candidacy, Richie's ability to drag the party into the 21st Century was touted as his key contribution to the party's resurgence:

Boyd Richie has accomplished a great deal during his time as TDP Chair, and his leadership has changed the landscape of Texas politics in favor of Democrats in remarkable, tangible ways. Chief among those positive changes are developments in the areas of finance, field organization, technology, and staff.

I have often argued that money in politics is neither good nor evil but absolutely necessary, and the Texas Democratic Party's fundraising has surged over the last two years. The party has increased the number of donors a great deal, taken in significant money on the internet, and initiated a monthly Democracy-Bond-esque small donor program called Majority Builders. The Majority Builder program is precisely the kind of revolving continual revenue system a political party requires to not only keep the lights on but reach for new highs in communications and organizing capabilities. For the TDP this has already proven to be a great success.

Field organizing and the TDP's connection to and engagement of grassroots Democrats all across Texas has also been an arena of extraordinary advance in the last two years, and much of this is directly attributable to Boyd Richie. His marathon tour across Texas last summer, during which he held 18 Town Hall meetings with grassroots progressive activists and party organizations at the county level and below, allowed the party to bridge the somewhat overhyped ideological gap between grassroots activists and party officials. Through that process the party's leadership learned (in a sometimes visceral way) what Texas Democrats wanted out of their state party organization. Many of those ideas translated into real action and outreach on behalf of the party, and a more engaged and strengthened Democratic base augmented an already robust and growing infrastructure.

It's a good post and speaks far more to the nitty gritty of politics than I tend to get into. We cover theories, arguments and principles, but what wins elections is money, passion and organization.