November 16, 2006
Election 2006:
Where’s the Beef?
By Jack D. McNamara
The
votes
from the 2006 midterm state and congressional elections are still
trickling in. With fewer than 10 U.S. House seats still undetermined,
it is certain that the U.S. House will be Democratic by two dozen or so
and the U.S. Senate by two votes. The Republican U.S. Congress, which
achieved a stunning victory in 1994, is rejected.
In other words, we won. By “we” are meant America’s
independent voters. When the numbers are crunched they indicate the
Republicans were not annihilated. Nor do the numbers indicate there was
a great surge of Democrats. Nowhere is Democratic weakness more evident
than here in Texas. But Independents, or swing voters, broke 6 to 4 for
Democratic and Independent candidates.
The U.S. Senate will include a Socialist, Bernie Sanders of Vermont,
for the first time in history.
Many political reasons have been advanced for this massive defeat of
the Republicans. Foremost among them was the debacle in Iraq. Long
before the November election, one of our most accomplished strategists,
LtGen William Odom (ret.), has described the Iraq War as the
“worst” strategic mistake in U.S. history.
Other disasters befell the majority party — a rash of corruption
from sex to boodle; an incompetence of truly millennial proportions;
and our favorite, complete fiscal stupidity. Probably the most
conservative and senior Washington columnist, Robert Novak, writes in
the Washington Post on November 17, “While abandoning
conservative principles, the spendthrift House had become chained to
the special corporate interests of the lobbyists on K Street.”
If America’s Republican party held any long-term advantage over
Democrats for the past century, it was their reliability for managing
our money. Now politicians in Washington shout for the return of
President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
President Bush took office with a budget surplus of several trillion
dollars. That money has been squandered and the national debt is now
returned to the red. Each fiscal year brings a deficit of several
hundred billion dollars. To meet that deficit the U.S. Government
borrows billions from China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and others. As soon as
the borrowed money hits the Treasury it is spent on boodle.
If the new Democratic majority so chooses, we are in for a round of
congressional investigations and perhaps prosecutions. We will likely
get a new Attorney General also.
In ordinary times, those of us on the Mexican border might look at
these events, get another bag of popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show.
Certainly we enjoyed the 2006 election in Texas. Here in Brewster
County our turnout was about 40% (of registered voters). Up and down
the ballot Democrats and Republicans split rather evenly. The Democrat
candidate for lieutenant governor, Maria Luisa Alvarado, actually
outpolled the incumbent Republican David Dewhurst by 1101-1090.
Alvarado conducted no visible campaign here and is unknown.
The governor’s race was more amusing. Here in Brewster County
there were 2,439 votes, 43.26% of our 5,637 registered voters. Governor
Perry was held to 30.7% or 749 votes; Democrat Chris Bell took 29.6% or
722; and Kinky Friedman (559 votes) and Carole Keeton Strayhorn (385)
together whomped the regular pols with a combined 39% of the vote.
This sort of result led to headlines such as “Demos’ future
debated,” by R.G. Ratcliffe in the November 12 online San Antonio
Express.
The future is very simple — there isn’t any unless the Dems
can do something. The main thing they do is whine that they have no
money. The Ratcliffe story says, however, that Democrat Bell received
$3.6 million from only three donors, one of them Houston trial lawyer
John O’Quinn who “gave or loaned” $2.5 million to
Bell.
Perry, on the other hand, received $6.2 million from only two donors,
James Leininger of San Antonio and Bob Perry of Houston. Perry also
received $100,000 EACH from 63 donors.
Which brings us to the Texas 23d District. The U.S. House of
Representatives is not yet determined. There are two runoff races
pending and one of them is ours. The federal courts set our 23d
District and Henry Bonilla, the San Antonio Republican who won the seat
in 1992, faces Ciro Rodriguez, also of San Antonio. The district is
majority Democratic and majority Hispanic. It was routinely Democratic
until the Republicans gerrymandered it for Bonilla in 2003.
Henry Bonilla is awash in money, as befits a senior Republican with a
seat on the Appropriations Committee. One columnist called those
appropriators the “cardinals” of the
“earmarking” system which ladens bills with pork.
Rodriguez is the best known of Bonilla’s opponents. Bonilla had 7
opponents on the ballot, 6 Democrats and an Independent. Rodriguez
actually won several counties on November 7 — Maverick, for
example — even though Bonilla won 48%. Rodriguez has a chance to
beat Bonilla in the runoff but he will require a major organizing
effort.
We can’t close without congratulating Mrs. Val Clark Beard for
her victory in the Brewster County Judge’s race. She has been
county judge for about the same period Henry Bonilla has been our
representative. Mrs. Beard runs as a Democrat, of course.
We noticed, however, on a visit to the excellent Federal Election
Commission web site that Mrs. Beard has been contributing to
“Texans for Henry Bonilla” for some time. Beginning in 1997
with a $1000 contribution the web site reports that over the years
Judge Beard has contributed almost $10,000 to Bonilla.
The most recent contribution was $2000 on September 26, 2006 —
long after the U.S. Supreme Court wrote of the 2003 gerrymander by the
State Legislature, “State legislators changed District 23
specifically because they worried that Latinos would vote Bonilla out
of office.”
Hmmm … I guess Ciro Rodriguez will get little support from the
senior Democrat here in Brewster County. Perhaps he ought to seek out
Kinky Friedman’s supporters. •
(Also
published by the Big Bend Sentinel of Marfa, Texas November 16, 2006.)
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