Get On Board Or Get Out Of The Way!

Rick Perry(I)                  REP        2,632,591      57.80%
Tony Sanchez                   DEM        1,819,798      39.96%
Jeff Daiell                    LIB           66,720       1.46%
Rahul Mahajan                  GRN           32,187       0.70%
Elaine Eure Henderson          W-I            1,715       0.03%
Earl W. (Bill) O'Neil          W-I              976       0.02%

[...]

BILL LYON                     DEM             43,011      4.28%
DAN MORALES                   DEM            330,873     32.97%
TONY SANCHEZ                  DEM            609,383     60.73%
JOHN WORLDPEACE               DEM             20,121      2.00%

That first set of numbers is what Tony "Money Bags" Sanchez did against Perry in the general election in 2002.

That second set of numbers is what Dan "Tobacco Lawsuit" Morales did and "Money Bags" in the Democratic Primary in 2002.

Also remember that the AFL-CIO hasn't fared to well in recent years.

And last why isn't John Worldpeace running again? I thought this was his year.

Now read this, Democratic governor hopefuls battle long shot talk. My alternative headline would have been, 300-plus fill hall in DFW area to see Democratic candidates:

A retired Texas AFL-CIO leader and advisers to two men who battled in the Democratic gubernatorial primary four years ago all but dismiss the chances of Chris Bell or Bob Gammage winning this year over better-funded candidates, including GOP Gov. Rick Perry.

As you can see from above each has quite a track record of campaign success. My guess though is that it was probably the candidates. What did these so-called Democrats have to say:

Four years ago, Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez and former Attorney General Dan Morales tiffed their way to a Democratic primary won by Sanchez, who spent millions before losing to Perry.

Sanchez's campaign manager, Glenn Smith, and Jim Moore, who worked for Morales, said last week that it's impossible to compare Gammage and Bell to their candidates, partly because Perry had more than $10 million in political cash in hand as of Jan. 1 while Bell and Gammage combined had less than $300,000.

"It's a resource question," Smith said. "When people are going to be spending $10 million-plus, they're going to have an advantage in getting public attention."

Moore, noting that Strayhorn has picked up money from such traditional Democratic allies as trial lawyers, said: "Even Democrats in this state don't believe in the Democratic Party. They don't have money, they don't have candidates, they don't have leadership. It strikes me as quite pathetic."

Joe Gunn, past president of the Texas AFL-CIO, enthusiastically backed Sanchez four years ago but also says he doesn't give Bell or Gammage much of a chance. He said Democratic activists should instead focus on local races, building toward strong statewide runs later.

"I don't want to see us throwing a bunch of money into an impossible race," Gunn said.

Did these three guys actually show up at this event and say this kind of stuff? If they did, that's pretty disgusting and rude. If these people were interested in getting Democrats elected they wouldn't be sitting around saying we don't have a chance they'd be out working for the candidates the Democrats are running and not going around saying it's a lost cause. Surely these people have a few connections that could donate - time, talents and treasure - to the Democrats. What's their alternative just turn tail and run, or not run anybody, as the case may be? Let's see: One of these guys was the campaign manager for a soon to be convicted felon and the other ran a candidate with more money than God and still couldn't get 40% of the vote and the other...didin't the AFL-CIO split up recently?

I'm just saying consider the source.

We are Democrats guys. We want to vote for Democrats. In order for that to happend we need Democrats to run for office, every office. Myabe that's too simple for you guys but it's a matter of principle with us. Oh yeah, and we don't care if you think it's a lost cause.

Fred Head said it best:

Head, the comptroller candidate, shook his head, saying after the forum that he doesn't expect the election to be about money.

"We're going to win," he said. "The people of Texas are ready to take government back."