I - Texas turn Democrat? Maybe

It is hard to imagine how Texas could become Democrat after seeing how the Houston suburbs voted 85% Republican.  Yet, some people think it may happen at some point in the not too distant future.  For one, all the Republicans have to do is keep encouraging anti-immigrant sentiment and they will keep seeing their people lose.

Even so, this time around, Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) won handily over Rick Noriega (D) for a number of reasons.  One, the Democratic National Committee basically abandoned Noriega.  There would have probably been a significant difference if someone would have paid attention.  Plus it did seem that Noriega was not quite as comfortable in his new role as big campaigner.  We are hoping he just needs a little more practice.  His heart is in the right place and he has a good staff.  If the LATimes is right, it might happen on his next try.

One of Three posts

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-na-assess9-2008nov09,0,1205086.story?track=rss
From the Los Angeles Times
A TIME OF TRANSITION
Democrats set sights on Texas
Some believe Latinos can help change the state from red to blue.
By Peter Wallsten

November 9, 2008

Reporting from Washington — As they review the results of Tuesday's election victories and begin looking toward future campaigns, some Democrats have settled on a rallying cry: Texas is next.

It sounds improbable for the Republican bastion that produced President Bush and served as an early laboratory for Karl Rove's hard-nosed tactics. But Texas is one of several reliably red states that are now in Democrats' sights as party strategists begin to analyze a victorious 2008 campaign that they believe showed the contours of a new movement that could grow and prove long-lasting.

A multiethnic bloc of Latinos, blacks, young people and suburban whites helped to broaden the party's reach Tuesday well beyond its traditional base in the Northeast and the West Coast -- carrying Barack Obama into the White House and expanding the party's majorities in Congress.

That new formula was evident in state exit polls and county-level election results showing that Democrats scored gains from a voting base that is growing progressively less white than the population that helped forge Republican advantages in past elections. In state after state, from GOP strongholds like North Carolina, Indiana and Colorado, minorities made up a larger share of the vote than in the past, and in each case they helped turn states from red to blue.

A major shift in the Latino vote took place in Florida and the Southwest, where the Obama campaign spent at least $20 million on targeted appeals and organizing, including one television ad in the final days featuring the candidate reading Spanish from a script.

Latinos made up a greater share of the electorate than in the past in every Southwestern state, according to exit polls compiled by CNN. And in each Southwestern state, as well as Florida, the Democrat pulled a bigger percentage of the Latino vote -- a turnaround from 2004, when President Bush cut deeply into Democrats' hold on Latinos and won that bloc in Florida, where many Cuban Americans remain loyal to the GOP.

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