Tough to Stay Optimistic

Well, we didn't get all the way there in TX-28. Henry Cuellar successfully beat back the primary challenge from Ciro Rodriguez. Chris Bowers has some great analysis here and here.

The good news, I guess, it that the result was harmless. The most important vote Henry Cuellar will make is for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Of course, this is provided he doesn't jump ship and change parties, but I think Rodriguez' showing (47% in a primary challenge to an incumbent is not too shabby) pretty much means that by doing so he'd sign his political death warrant.

Bowers mentions that we do have to challenge everywhere:

So, it looks like a repeat of 2004, where our GOTV operations only focused on heavily blue areas of swing states. As a result, like in 2004, we got great turnout in the areas that we targeted, but lost the popular vote because of poor performance in all non-swing states. When will we learn the lesson that it is not just where people live, but how they live, that matters? We can't just target our safe areas and hope that will be enough. While where someone lived was probably the primary motivation for most voters in this election, it certainly was not the only motivation. We could have done better.

I would argue that by challenging Cuellar at all in South Texas, we were beginning to challenge everywhere. But Rodriguez did appear to target his home county, hoping that driving up turnout there would put him over the top.

The other thing about this race, aside from the unusually large number of 100 year-olds voting in one particular county, is that Texas' primaries are open, allowing members of any political party to participate in them. Um, why are they called primaries, then? As far as I'm concerned, Cuellar won a general election yesterday. I think the open primary process as its administered in Texas is really silly. Open primaries like Louisiana, where everyone competes and the top two go to a runoff if nobody reaches 50%, has its problems, but in general that's fine. Open primaries like this, when a block of Republicans can cross over and put a preferred Democratic candidate over the top (remember Cuellar was endorsed by the far-right Club for Growth), or vice-versa, subverts the primary process. You might as well just make it completely open if you're going to do that.

It is tough to stay optimistic, but I do. I think that the strategy of competing everywhere and standing up for progressive values will eventually break through. We'll lose a lot more than we win sometimes, but the principle will remain the same. It's the only way to break the ossified Democratic leadership and get a viable two-party system back.