Burnt Orange Report
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Burnt Orange ReportNews, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas |
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August 26, 2003The Ratliff Republicans: Endangered but AliveBy Byron LaMastersSome of my more conservative readers would argue that a "Ratliff Republican" is a RINO (Republican in Name Only). But they exist. These folks are moderates and conservatives who split their ticket. Rural east Texans who vote may have previously been Democrats, but now generally vote Republican. They vote for Sen. Bill Ratliff but also support their moderate to conservative congressmen in Max Sandlin, Jim Turner and Ralph Hall. They also support similarly moderate to conservative Democratic state representatives such as Barry Telford, Chuck Hopson, Mark Homer, Jim McReynolds, Dan Ellis, etc. So what's my point? Both Democrats and Republicans in East Texas generally win because they're moderates. Ratliff has sided with Democrats in this redistricting battle, not because he is shunning the Republican Party, but because he knows that mid-decade redistricting is not only unprecidented, but that it's bad for the rural water and timber interests of his state senate district. And both the Republicans and the Democrats in his district realize that. That's why, if Bill Ratliff runs for re-election, I doubt that he'll have much trouble. Why? He sided with Democrats in redistricting in 2001, because it was the best thing for his state senate district. It cost him the chance to run for a full term as Lt. Gov, but it didn't hurt him at all in his district. Republicans went all out to defeat Bill Ratliff in the 2002 Republican Primary. They ran former state representative Jerry Yost against him who was supported by the Young Conservatives of Texas and Free PAC (yeah, the guys who unsuccessfully attacked "RINOS" in the 2002 GOP primary with gay-baiting political pornography direct mail pieces). So what happened? Ratliff beat Yost by a margin of better than two to one:
Yeah, and Democrats like Ratliff, too. He votes for his district, not for his party (just like Democratic congressmen elected in GOP districts: Max Sandlin, Jim Turner, Ralph Hall, Chet Edwards and Charlie Stenholm), so he didn't have any trouble in the general election.
My point, however, is that Republicans can complain all they want about Ratliff. But the fact is -- he's popular in his district. Most rural east Texas Republicans care more about having their Democratic or Republican state rep/state senator/congressman fight for their water rights and their timber rights and having someone that represents their rural values than they care about being represented by a lockstep suburban Republican who won't take their interests to heart. Posted by Byron LaMasters at August 26, 2003 10:18 PM | TrackBack
Comments
Ratliff Republicans - An Army of One. Posted by: don at August 27, 2003 08:35 AMThis is a good point, one that not only explains why Democrats are elected to Congress, as I and others have pointed out in the comments, but also suggests the effectiveness of redistricting to elect more Republicans. This is one of the reasons that rural districts are being combined with suburban/urban areas, but still I wonder if these conservative Democrats might not continue to be elected. I grew up in East Texas with the likes of Hall and Jim Chapman as my representatives. I think you're dead on about the popularity of moderates. Folks might have the image of East Texans as die-hard Republicans (nee yellow dog Democrats). But the fact is that these rural areas and smaller East Texas towns aren't doing well . . . and haven't done that well since the early '80s. Their problems are different than urban areas. They care more about making a living than party politics. So much for respecting the idea of voting for the person rather than the party. Posted by: Tx Bubba at August 27, 2003 11:14 AMI am sure all the DEM senators just happened to come up with the same idea to run to N. Mexico...no peer pressure there, no voting party line, but true and virtuous principles. Bolderdash! Posted by: don at August 28, 2003 04:44 AM
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