The further demise of Democrats in Texas

Houston Chronicle:

The Chambers County sheriff's race will spell the end of an era when Democrats once dominated the political scene here.

Sheriff Joe LaRive, the last countywide officeholder from Chambers County to run as a Democrat, has switched parties for the March 4 primary.

LaRive now faces only one challenger, Hugh Sigers, in the Republican primary. No Democrat has filed for the position.

Yet when the rice-farming county was originally formed in 1858, the political rulers liked Democrats and not Republicans. Most races were then decided in the Democratic primary because no Republicans bothered to run.

The shift started about 10 years ago as the county grew increasingly Republican from an influx of residents from Harris County.

"It happened quickly because our county is so small, only about 30,000 people," Republican Chairman John Havenar said. "New subdivisions were sprouting just across our county line and filling up."

The 344th state district judge and the tax assessor-collector joined LaRive in switching party affiliations within the past year. None of those who switched has an opponent except LaRive.

The only remaining Democrats elected countywide are District Attorney Mike Little and 253rd State District Judge Chap Cain. However, both live in Liberty County and are elected to represent both Liberty and Chambers counties.

Officials speculate that soon there could be none. The state has already decided Little will no longer handle Chambers County next year, and the governor is expected to name a Republican replacement.

While countywide-elected officials have diminished, a few constables, justices of the peace and commissioners continue to win elections as Democrats. This happens only in parts of the county not being affected by the new growth, officials said.

LaRive explained his reasons for switching: "Because I could see the obvious trend in county-wide races. Republicans are also more in line with my conservative beliefs."

...

What started happening state wide a few years ago is now taking place in the counties. With Democrats like Obama and Clinton heading the national ticket that makes it even harder for a Democrat to survive in Texas local races. The Democrat party just does not have much room for conservatives anymore and those who stay are constantly having to compromise their principals.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more