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In red-state Texas, new signs of rising Democratic tide

The drawn-out fight for a Democratic presidential nominee is driving left-leaning Texans into the open, infusing them with a sense of relevance for the first time in a generation.

from the February 29, 2008 edition

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A surge of funds, volunteers

Democratic officials see voters' fervor as a sign that the pendulum may be swinging left after a decade and a half of Republican rule that began with George W. Bush's election as governor in 1994. The weeks since Super Tuesday have seen a surge in volunteering and political donations, they say, including $300,000 the state party raised at a $50-a-head event the night of last week's presidential debate in Austin.

"There is a recognition by Democratic activists, donors, and elected officials that there's a real opportunity here, and we have to be the kind of organized party that can take advantage of it," says Amber Moon, a spokeswoman for the Texas Democratic Party.

Because party officials can obtain lists of voters in primaries – but not in general elections – a key windfall will be a long list of new targets for phone calls, mailers, and get-out-the-vote drives.

"These people then become your precinct captains, your volunteers, sometimes your campaign managers, sometimes your candidates," says Matt Angle, director of the Texas Democratic Trust, a political action committee founded in 2005 to help rebuild the ailing state party.

The fortunes of Texas Democrats dimmed with Mr. Bush's 1994 victory over incumbent Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, then crashed after Bush won the White House. Republicans soon swept every statewide office, won majorities in the legislature, and redrew political districts to lock in their gains.

With Bush in the Oval Office, "there was a feeling that Texas politics had been ratified and writ large at the national level," says Prof. Cal Jillson of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the author of "Texas Politics: Governing the Lone Star State." "Institutionally, the Democratic Party in Texas at the state and county level and below was moribund. Democrats were beaten down."

Reports began circulating that the party was struggling to pay the light bills at its Austin headquarters.

Kathleen Troiano, a yoga teacher in Sugar Land, recalls that her John Kerry signs were stolen almost as soon as she posted them on her lawn in 2004. "I found them in our sewer drain," Ms. Troiano, who moved here from Vermont in 1993 when her husband got a job transfer, said after casting an early ballot here Tuesday.

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