In the interminable crawl to next year’s presidential elections, the tiniest of events can become fascinating, (even if it’s just to break the tedium.) There’s few events tinier than non-binding straw polls, and both Texas Dems and Republicans have had theirs now.
First off, the Republicans had their “pay to vote” straw poll in Houston on Sept. 1, which handed Californian US congressman Duncan Hunter what may be his only victory of the campaign. Meanwhile, on Monday morning, the Democrats announced the results of their wholly unbinding, unscientific and fairly worthless ePrimary, an online exercise in wild surveys. The winner was not as wildly unexpected as in the Republicans: John Edwards, often regarded as the Dem dark horse, won with 37%.
However, the Dems – and especially the Edwards camp – played it smart. The winner’s wife, Elizabeth Edwards, turned up for the photo-op. So instead of it being a “remember, folks, this is just for fun” event, it became a stump speech that all the Austin-based print and broadcast media turned up for (and then scratched their heads over how they would turn this into a news item.) By turning this into a bragging rights affair, Edwards may have made the Texas straw poll more useful in their race for the White House than the actual primary may be.
By the time Texas gets to its actual presidential primary on March 4 next year, its votes could well be an irrelevancy. If the plans for what’s becoming known as Mega-Tuesday come to fruition, 35 states will already have held their primaries or been through their caucus. Even though Texas will account for 140 Republican delegates and 228 Democrats at their respective convention, there’s a good possibility that both parties will have their candidate. That’ll leave the state as at best a rubber stamp and, at worst, a dissident voice.
TDP chair Boyd Richie had no doubt about who was to blame: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and the Senate Republican leadership. Last session, the House had attempted to move the primary date back to Feb. 5. But after state reps voted it out 127-12, House Bill 2017 initially stalled in the Senate State Affairs committee, limped out on a 6-3 vote, and was never heard on the senate floor. Many argued that having the three biggest primaries – California, New York and Texas – on the same date would stretch candidates too thin. But the refusal to move dates left Texas in the position of hoping that events buck the odds and become a new kingmaker.
This article appears in September 7 • 2007.
