Candidate Filings Show Grassroots Democratic Fires Burning Hot

[David Van Os]

Contrary to what the political reporters of the major daily newspapers predicted, a full statewide ticket of Democrats will be taking on the Bush-Perry-DeLay Republicans in the general election. By the filing deadline of 6:00 p.m. January 2, Democratic candidates had filed for the statewide offices of U.S. Senator, Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General (yours truly), Comptroller, Land Commissioner, Railroad Commissioner, Texas Supreme Court, and Court of Criminal Appeals. They are all strong, Fighting Democrats who are going to fight fiercely to take Texas back from the slime of corruption and insider self-dealing that Bush-Perry-DeLay Republicanism has heaped onto the people of Texas.

The Democratic filings for U.S. House seats equally shattered the punditry's predictions. Democrats filed for 31 of the 32 U.S. House seats in Texas. The most telling sign of Democratic fires burning hot is that 20 of the 21 Republican incumbents in the U.S. House from Texas will be facing Democratic challengers. The fires are burning so hot that there will even be contested Democratic primaries in some of the Republican-held districts, with a total of 25 Democratic candidates filing in those 20 Republican-held districts.

Grassroots Democratic lawyers stepped up to make a strong run at breaking into the monolith of Republican corporate justice on the Courts of Appeal, with a full slate of strong Democrats running for every seat that is up on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin and every seat that is up on the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio, and the fiery Jim Sharp returning to make another spirited run for a seat on the 1st Court of Appeals in Houston.

One of the strongest signs of the realigning public mood is Carole Keeton Strayhorn filing as an Independent rather than in the Republican Primary. None can legitimately dispute that Strayhorn’s move reflects deep division within Republican ranks. It should be noted that Bush press secretary Scott McClellan is Strayhorn’s son.

The number of Democrats who filed for state legislature seats against Republican incumbents is not yet available since some of the filings are done in different counties and some in the state office. All reports so far indicate that grassroots Democrats filed heavily for those seats also.

What makes all this especially exciting is that this outpouring of Democratic fire is not a top-down thing. The new candidates are grassroots Democrats. Some are working people, some are peace and justice activists, some are anti-war military veterans, some are proven reformers, and some are small-town community activists. They come from the people. They are leading a movement to reclaim Texas for the people from the bottom up. There is a fire burning in many bellies in this state. Bushites, beware; your jig is up. The people you fooled first are hip to your tricks, and they are going to roar.

David Van Os
Democratic Candidate
For Texas Attorney General 2006
Give me a hand at www.vanosfortexasag.com

[PDittie]

1. And you, sir are at the forefront of this movement

This new grassroots movement, a rejuvenation of the progressive populism made famous by leaders like Harry Truman and by Texans like Ralph Yarbrough.

The people are finally sick and tired of the corrupt Republican machine controlled jointly by the corporate CEOs and the religious zealots.

The Republicans have had all the power in this state now for quite some time, and they want to keep it, and they'll pump millions of dollars into their machine in order to hold on to it, and the money is already pouring in from the greedy oil companies and insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and all of the other diversified conglomerates who are lined up taking turns ripping off every single Texan from Orange to El Paso.

And they'll just keep on doing it. If we keep letting 'em.

They will manipulate the voting machines to their benefit, and when we finally catch them doing it they'll say that it was God's will.

If we keep letting them.

There's a big, dirty job ahead of us in the next ten months. Hosing out all of the slime and stench of the GOP machine is gonna be "hard work". It's going to take all hands on deck, too. Our ship of state has been listing hard starboard for too long, and in order to get her upright we're going to have to tow her into port, throw the crew in the stocks, scrape the barnacles off the hull, recaulk her sides, change out the tiller, patch the sails, stow new and better charts, and scrub the hell out of the galley before we pick a new captain and crew to take her back out to sea again.

It's time for all of us to go to work.

[sonias]

2. Yesterday was a great day to file to take back Texas

Excellent report David! Really warms the heart to see your analysis. You've been involved in the party far longer than those of us who came late to the game. We all know we wanted change, and those of you at the forefront who were fighting all along, gave us a voice. I noticed the shift when the Progressive Populist Caucus was formed, so for those that think this happened overnight. It didn't. This grassroots shift back to the people has been in the works for at least 6 years. Probably longer. We're just now seeing the ripples of the power of the people.

So I thank you for never giving up, and for doggedly believing that we could turn this ship around. We have, and we've got the future in our course. We're all full of hope that we can change our party, our state and take our country back.

Never retreat and never surrender. Or in David's own words "We'll fight'em till hell freezes over, and then we'll fight'em on the ice"




Sonia

[crispini]

3. YEAH!

We had a kick-ass filing party tonight and we're ready to ROCK N ROLL! :woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[Czolgosz]

4. great analysis. rec'd