Clinton, Edwards, Obama, And Now Richardson: How Will Texans Stand?

Attention, Texas: The eyes of America are upon you. Why?
John Edwards. Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Bill Richardson. Not to mention Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Tom Vilsack, John Kerry, Wesley Clark and Lord knows who else will throw their hat in the ring before the dust settles and we’re able to say with some certainty that we have a slate of “Democratic Presidential Candidates.”
Anyway, this long list, raises an interesting question: Where will the Texas money and support go?

It’s safe to say attorney Fred Baron will continue his support of John Edwards. I’d be willing to bet that former Land Commissioner (and 1998 Democratic gubernatorial nominee) Gary Mauro will be found in Hillary Clinton’s camp, given he was helping her raise Texas cash as recently as 2005.

Wes Clark, given all the goodwill he built up in Texas during the 2006 primaries, will probably also have a natural constituancy. And, Obama has been to Texas a few times and probably has some high-level supporters, though they have not made themselves public yet.

And, I seem to remember that at least one of our State Reps (can’t remember which one, though) was for Dennis Kucinich back in 2004 in a fairly public way.

Needless to say, all of this will probably be moot by the time the Democratic Primary rolls around here in Texas.

But, given the diverse nature of the state’s Democrats, this would be a great year for Texas to be one of the “early” primary states. I suspect if we were one of the first two or three, no candidate would gain a majority of votes.

That brings up another important thing I’ve been thinking about that, to me, will never allow Texas to be an “early” primary state: our media markets are too expensive. We have, what, at least three or four of the 20 most expensive media markets in the nation in Texas—maybe more. Even our medium markets in this state are high-priced. One week of statewide television in Texas would bankrupt half the field  right off the bat. And, of course, TV would be key unless the candidate cloned themselves and had a fleet of private jets, because Texas isn’t exactly a state conducive to the kind of retail politics practiced in Iowa or New Hampshire.

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