GOP rules Texas, but talking like they're on ropes

[DonViejo]

November 30, 2013

HOUSTON (AP) — Sick of losing on Election Day, they huddled candidates on their 2014 statewide ticket in a hotel ballroom and bristled at being outspent and outnumbered by political rivals in Texas who they talked up as sophisticated and savvy.

But this was no meeting of hapless Texas Democrats.

They were top Republicans, including George P. Bush and Gov. Rick Perry's possible successor, bemoaning big cities such as Houston already voting Democrat and sounding alarms about the brains behind President Barack Obama's re-election now trying to turn Texas entirely blue.

In a sharp pivot from a decade of Republican swagger in Texas — a bravado that comes with controlling every statewide office — conservatives are muffling mocking tones about Democrats and now openly calling them formidable. The worries come through in political ads that urge donors to "Keep Texas Red" and rallies like one in Houston that vowed to "Take Back Harris County."

Rousing this new conservative unease is Battleground Texas, a new political action committee led by Obama campaign veterans, and its support of a rare jewel for Texas Democrats: a charismatic gubernatorial candidate with national star power in state Sen. Wendy Davis.

full article
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/texas/article/GOP-rules-Texas-but-talking-like-they-re-on-ropes-5023790.php?t=312fc07e76184ed18d

[DirkGently]

1. They're right. Texas Dems are rising. N/t

[Gothmog]

2. We are working to turn Texas blue

And the GOP is scared

[Major Nikon]

4. They were scared long before Wendy Davis. Now they are scared shitless

This is the Republican party chairman of Texas:

“If I say to you, your life depends on picking whether the following state is Democrat or Republican, what would you pick?” Munisteri asked. “The state is fifty-five per cent traditional minority. Thirty-eight per cent is Hispanic, eleven per cent is African-American, and the rest is Asian-American, and two-thirds of all births are in a traditional minority family. And if I was to tell you that, nationwide, last time, Republicans got only roughly four per cent of the African-American vote and about a third of the Hispanic vote, would you say that state is Democrat or Republican? Well, that’s Texas. We are the only majority-minority state in the union that people consider Republican.”
...

He told me that he had a slide that he wouldn’t show me, because he didn’t want Democrats to know about his calculations. He said that it depicted the percentage of the white vote that Republicans would have to attract if they continued to do as poorly as they have among Hispanics.

“By 2040, you’d have to get over a hundred per cent of the Anglo vote,” he said.

“Over a hundred per cent is not possible,” I offered.

“That’s my point!”

Munisteri travels around the country with his slide show, urgently arguing that Republicans will wither away if they don’t adapt. In the spring, he briefed Republican members of Texas’s congressional delegation. After half an hour, a congressman rose to summarize the material.

“What you’re saying is that if the Republican Party is not doing its job attracting Hispanics to the Party, the Party in a very short time nationally and in Texas will be toast?” Munisteri replied, “That’s it, Congressman.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/11/19/121119fa_fact_lizza

[Avalux]

6. Yes we are!

Wendy and Leticia are keeping them awake at night.

[dickthegrouch]

3. Perhaps if they were *really* more inclusive

They'd have a better chance.
But I don't want to give them any encouragement, or ideas. The GOP can all go down in flames for eternity as far as I'm concerned.

[Major Nikon]

5. That won't work either

If they become more inclusive, the white vote stays home. Bigotry is the only thing keeping their boat above water.