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Jim Moore is concerned about letting Texas choose the Democratic nominee. Although Time is more upbeat about Texas’s roll, maybe Jim’s right. Texas, home of the binding arbitration clause, suffers from dismal statistics. It’s a state where the state Education Agency fired the director of the state’s science curriculum for favoring science, and the state Ethics Commission only operates at the prodding of concerned citizens. But maybe Texas will start making better decisions. After all, the 5th Circuit overturned a ban on “fun,” just in time for the start of early voting.
Voters sure seem eager to vote. In Harris County (Houston), over 12,000 voters turned out on the first day of early voting – a Democratic turnout over 1000% greater than in 2004. My mother and I were among the 12,000. Anecdotally, those in line at my early voting location were much more diverse than those in line for early voting for the general election in 2006. Kuff has more analysis of the turnout and data for day two too. Travis County (Austin) also has massive early turnout.
Voters would be well-served to vote early. Fort Bend County, home to many of the Houston suburbs and a rapidly growing Asian American population, may not be able to handle the turnout. Traffic on 59 is horrendous, and, as Muse notes, the early voting hours are not long enough for most who work in Houston. The county’s election administrator issued his resignation effective the last day of early voting citing “personal reasons.” This comes a week after he suggested the county get rid of the electronic voting machines, which provide no voter-verifiable record or paper record whatsoever. It’s the same machine used in Harris County; my only souvenir of voting Tuesday is the thin, ticket-like paper time-stamped to when it was printed and containing the four-digit number to enter into the voting machine to vote.
The people of Texas are eager to see the candidates, or at least Barack Obama. Over 31,000 attended his rallies in a 24-hour span. Between 16,500 (according to the AP) and 19,000 (according to the Chronicle) came to the Toyota Center to see Obama, who knocked Clinton off all the news networks mid-sentence when he began to speak. You can view photos from the rally at the Toyota Center here. Obama also had a massive rally at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Clinton, at least according to Mayhill Fowler, does a better job of getting Asian American representation on stage.
Obama will spend about $500,000 more than Clinton on ad buys. With its twenty – including two of the top ten – media markets, Texas can be incredibly expensive. You can watch two Obama ads and one Clinton ad here. I think Obama’s ads are better if only because they encourage early voting. He also has at least one Spanish-language ad viewable here. Sadly, this ad does not encourage early voting.
Clinton may not do as well as expected with Latino voters because, among other reasons, regularly vote for African American politicians in Texas. Texas voters, however, haven’t shied from female politicians. With Latinos in the spotlight, Obama pledges to repair our relationship with Mexico.
In interviews with the Houston Chronicle, Hillary seems to pander to the oil companies, and Obama appears to be pandering to the wrong group of NASA employees. Barack, you’re not going to get far in Clear Lake implying perhaps JPL is a better use of NASA funding than JSC. At least candidates are paying attention to Texas, which has long been only a plentiful fundraising source.
Clinton counts among her Texas backers former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, former Houston mayor Bob Lanier, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), former Houston mayor pro-tempore Gordon Quan, Austin City Councilwoman Jennifer Kim and State Representative and AAA-Fund Honorary Board member Hubert Vo (HD-149).
Obama, the inspiration for the Matt Santos character on The West Wing, counts among his Texas backers , Congressman and AAA-Fund Honorary Board member Al Green (TX-9), Congressman Chet Edwards (TX-17), Congressman Lloyd Doggett (TX-25), Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30), the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, eight UT University Democrats Presidents from the past 10 years, and most if not all of the Prairie View A&M students who marched over seven miles to vote.
Many Texas superdelegates, or “automatic delegates” as Harold Ickes would prefer they be called, such as Congressman Nick Lampson (TX-22) have not publicly committed to a candidate.
Obama seems to have had a good time in Austin today before the debate. He visited with some of UT’s football team and took a stroll along Lady Bird Lake. Some people may look at Obama with the Heisman trophy as a foolish photo-op, but I invite any honest male who ever paid any attention to football to tell me he wouldn’t do the same thing. Obama should have taken advantage of a photo op with the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. Oh well, he looks great with the UT football jersey. I wonder if Clinton gets one too. It’s too bad these won’t be found in stores – they’d be much better souvenirs than my voting machine activation code.
- Justin Gillenwater
