Well, if you go purple, then welcome to the swing state world, where everybody has to volunteer and there's no end in sight!

Thanks for this hopeful thought. Meanwhile I think you Texas Dems need to think up a State song or something to share with us as you move toward purple. Something stirring. And hopeful.

It would already be purple if people actually did their due diligence and not voted for a republican just because their grandparents or parents told them so...

"Republican - Straight ticket" could be the dumbest phrase I ever "learned" growing up in Texas

Hey Deanie-
Thanks for posting this as I'm from Texas. I can't say the Austin-American Statesman endorsement is surprising but the Dallas Morning Blues will be the last major paper in the nation to endorse a Democrat.

I wish Noriega had had a better jump on this race because I think he could be in a better position to ride the coattails....

Texas will be purple in the next couple cycles and a swinger...

RM Rocks, you made my day! I LOVE the idea of your purely unscientific survey of yard signs in San Antonio.

I've noticed the same kinds of reaction to my gigantic Obama car-sign and festoons of buttons when I go into town. When I first started driving around with the sign, 18 mos ago, people would say, "What's an Obama?"

Then they'd say, "He's that guy running for president, isn't he?"

Then it was, "What does he intend to do about the war?" (or whatever)

Now they say, "Cool sign. Where'd ya get it?"

Deanie Mills,
I would also add that I have a one man/ van charter service here in Austin . Back during the primaries I was taking one prinicipal & five teachers to our airport . All six were women , all six had voted for Obama in our primary - all six had previously been life long Republican -If Midland Odessa is turnning purple then hell yes Texas is in play .

Oh, Deanie, Texas is blueing! I can feel it in my bones! Okay, I realize my perspective is skewed -- I live in the "blue-est" part of Texas (Austin) -- but as you point out in your post, we're seeing support for Democrats in surprising places.

Here's the endorsement from another very conservative part of Texas, Bryan-College Station, home to Texas A&M University and the George Bush Library: http://www.theeagle.com/editorial/101908-President

I nearly fell out of my chair when I read it!

Deanie, great post. I truly hope you are right about Texas.

I lived in Houston about 30 years ago and I learned then that there is a great liberal tradition that was still alive then and though underground, has persisted. Non-Texans will recognize Jim Hightower who actually won election there; Gov. Ann Richards; the great Molly Ivins; Houston mayors Fred Hofheinz and Kathy Whitmire (maybe only Texans know them).

And the endorsement from the Aggies is, well, something else.

Makes me nostalgic for my time there because as strange as it was for a northeast boy, I learned to love the damn place.

.

Ah Deanie ...

I haven't been around these parts in quite some time.

Good to see you're still hanging on and keeping up the good fight.

What else is there?

I've spent so much time here Virginia and out in Colorado I'm starting to think they won't let me vote back home on the left coast. But every minute out here on the road drumming up the vote has been well worth the time. Who woulda thunk it just 6 short months ago that these two states would have turned the way they have.

~OGD~

** Infrequent Cafe contributor since June 2005 **

LauraJordan--OMG! I am DUMBSTRUCK! I'm married to an Aggie (class '70) and my Iraq-vet son is an Aggie (class '02) and believe me, there is no more conservative place ANYWHERE.

Thank you so much for this link--I e-mailed it to my son. This is not the first time I've read an editorial that begins, "In 50 years (or 60 or 100) we have never endorsed a Democrat..."

The Bryan/College Station paper even went so far as to say that when they simply could not endorse the Rep, they didn't endorse at all. So this is just wonderful.

GIG 'EM, AGGIES!

(Oh, and oskieoskie, I knew it was state-house reps but didn't clarify it. Good thing you did.)

The internet provides news that will, in the long run, help people in red states to know how much blue is peeking through! You done good, Deanie!

The good news is that gerrymandering is self-limiting.

It has a curious limitation: while it can be used to keep a minority party in power, the closer it's shaved, the more likely a complete and catastrophic loss of power becomes.

Say you've got a state with 4.9 million voters, divided into 7 districts of 700,000 each. It's been extreme-gerrymandered so that 4 districts are majority R, with 350,001 R's and 349,999 D's; 3 districts are majority D, with 700,000 D's and no R's.

There are a total of 1,400,004 R's in the state - only 29% of the total. But the R's control 4 of 7 districts - enough to control ALL the electoral votes.

Q: What happens if only 1 R voter in each of the R districts changes her mind?
A: ALL 7 DISTRICTS go D, not only changing the electoral vote of the state, but also changing 4 of the 7 Representatives from R to D.

The greater the number of districts in a state, the closer you can shave the gerrymandering to the point where barely 25% of the voters are controlling the entire electoral vote. But you do so at the risk of losing ALL the districts in a catastrophic loss caused by just a very few voters changing their minds.

On a smaller scale, this is exactly what happened to Tom Delay in Texas District 22: in order to maximize the number of districts controlled by Republicans, several formerly Republican-safe districts had to give up a few Republican voters so that adjacent districts could become majority-Republican. Then, when he was implicated in money-laundering - a charge which previously would not have stuck - it was enough to scotch his chances for reelection.

Gerrymandering is the Ring of Power, the use of which eventually becomes one's own downfall. I can only hope that we D's maintain our majority through wise governance rather than electoral manipulation - or the same catastrophic loss of power awaits us down the road.

After this election, let's keep on 'em to keep 'em honest.

Stay on it, Deanie!!

Signed,
a fellow Texan who's excited about being re-enfranchised

HusseinTenaX--what a delight you are girl. Keep comin' round.

Tom Shepard--outstanding analysis; really contributes to the discussion. I've enjoyed our back-and-forths over on Blue Inkblots.

sdimond--you are so RIGHT about Molly Ivins! I can't even imagine the square dance she'd've had with Palin. She's gotta be grinning and elbowing Ann Richards from up above...

I live in Texas and I've already voted for Obama. People are less fearful, yes fearful, to display yard signs and bumper stickers. Small progress, but progress it is. My hope is that the college students I registered who don't have land line phones and others like them will amount to a much closer race here in Texas than is expected.

I must say though, that the people here in Texas who support republicans are simply not interested in any discussion of the issues. They are blindly loyal to the party, and would vote for a giraffe if their party put it on the ballot. It's pretty sad. The discipline of the GOP here in Texas is kinda stunning, given all the information that is available to put people straight.

Here in Texas, you get arguments like, "the democrats will make it worse." and "we are sliding right into socialism" and "government can't fix the problems." Sigh. Recent posts on various blogs say these are new arguments. I've been hearing them all year here in Texas.