OP-ED: Super Tuesday’s Just Tuesday
[Op-Ed by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) & Roberto Alonzo (D-Dallas)]
Just a few weekends ago, the greatest spectacle in sports took place. Millions of viewers tuned in to watch two of the best football teams of 2006-2007 square off in what can only be described as a majestic setting - Super Bowl XLI. Given its grandeur, the game is appropriately named the Super Bowl. It is not the “Also Ran Bowl” or the “Slightly Above Average Bowl”; or even, the “Good but leaves you wanting Bowl”. It’s the Super Bowl, one of the most-watched and advertisement-flooded sports events in the world. In this context, the word “super” means best or most important. Some may disagree, but we feel that this adjective should be reserved only for those events that truly warrant that most superlative of monikers, “Super”.
Sadly in politics, “Super Tuesday” isn’t super anymore. It’s just Tuesday. Twenty-one years after moving its primary from May to “Super Tuesday”, Texas is in the same dilemma it faced two decades ago. Our primary elections are no longer relevant. In 1986, then-State Senator Chet Edwards said, “the facts show that the ball game is over before Texas plays a role in the selection of our President.” As it was then, so it is today. The last Presidential Primary elections have been decided before Texans even had a chance to pull the lever for their candidate.
Legislatures in Illinois, California and Florida have sought changes to move their primary elections closer to the early primary and caucus dates. Is the vote of a Californian, Floridian, or Nevadan any more valuable than a Texan’s vote?
Texas ought to play an important role in this process for a variety of reasons including the size of our delegate pool. Texas has the second highest delegate total to the Republican National Convention and the third highest total of delegates to the Democratic National Convention. More delegates should mean more influence or at least some influence. Yet, the election is over by March and Texas voters are left with only a symbolic vote to cast as the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
If delegate numbers don’t mean anything to you, then perhaps the sheer magnitude of our land or population will. Texas is the second largest state in the United States. All of the states scheduled to have primaries or caucuses before February 5, 2008, fit neatly in Texas, leaving just enough land area to wedge in Alabama. Texas is also the second most populous state in the Union dwarfing all of the other early primary or caucus states combined.
If population and land mass shouldn’t matter, then consider Texas’ diversity. This alone should make it an important testing ground for Presidential candidates. Our diversity isn’t just ethnic; it’s also geographic and economic. We are the one state that has everything and everyone when it comes to inclusiveness. But even more importantly, Texas is the future of the United States. The demographic make-up of Texas today, is what America will look like in twenty years. Yet, primary states resembling the past are determining the future of our Nation.
Texas is the eighth largest economy in the world. We are a leading producer of coal, ore, and petroleum. We are a chief grower of cotton, beef and corn. Texas has majestic mountains, sandy beaches, vast prairies, and beautiful rivers. More tragically, 280 Texas soldiers have died fighting abroad. Texans are making the food that feeds this Nation, generating the wealth that fuels it, and are dying to protect it. Our votes have a right to count as much as anyone else’s.
We don’t begrudge any of the early primary states’ moment in the sun. All states are populated by proud and decent Americans. But, every Texan deserves to have their vote be meaningful. For this reason, we must move our primary earlier. Only then, can we ensure that our electoral voices will be heard in Presidential politics.
State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer was elected to his fourth term representing District 116 in San Antonio. State Representative Roberto Alonzo was elected to his fifth term representing District 104 in Dallas. Representatives Martinez Fischer and Alonzo have filed and joint authored H.B. 996 and H.B. 993 respectively to move Texas’ primary election from March to February.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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(On Feb 14th, 2007 at 1:48 pm)
Rep. Fischer and Rep. Alonzo need to step up to the plate and answer why the current form of their legislation sweeps ALL primary races into the fray.
They have worked hard to make this issue solely about giving Texans a louder voice in the Presidential primary selection process… but they have totally ignored the debate that surrounds the controversy of moving up every county and state primary race.
IF this is TRULY about becoming a bigger player in the Prez sweepstakes, then why aren’t these two Rep.’s proposing to divorce the Prez primary from the rest of the races, and move that sole race up?
(On Feb 14th, 2007 at 6:13 am)
I’m all for moving the date up, but while we’re at it, how about a real primary instead of the goofy caucus we’re saddled with?
And, we could dispose of the winner take all format here and in the (excreable) electoral college.