Dear DNC: Will You Still Respect Us On March 5? Or Call? Or Visit?

With all of the uproar surrounding the very fact that a presidential campaign as finally made it to Texas in the primary season, the thought occurs to us that this is actually a pretty ironic moment for Texas–just as it is a moment of history.

Why? For the last decade and a half, Texas has essentially been the ATM Machine of the Democratic Party and its candidates, and groups like the DSCC and DCCC while essentially being ignored on all fronts by the national party machinery and national candidates. (We note that, as DNC Chair, Howard Dean has done a good deal for Texas with his 50-state strategy, so this isn’t intended to be a criticism of Chairman Dean or what he has done by any means, but merely some observations about the past, present, and future, with no criticism intended of Chairman Dean.)

For a decade, presidential candidates and the party have zipped in and out of Texas, dragging their sacks, punching the numbers in the ATM, and filling those sacks with cash before jumping on planes and zipping off to states like Ohio and Florida–states that “matter” in a general election.

Texas has been kind of like the street-corner whore: good for a quick fling but abruptly abandoned when something better comes along.

So, the question arises: will Democrats across the nation respect us and believe we still matter after March 5, or will everyone pack up and move on to states that “matter” in November, or will we just be the proverbial one-night-stand notched into the bedpost of history? Will Texas be the discarded prostitute or a major player? Will we become a state that “matters?”

With record turnout figures in counties across the state–for Democrats–and voters with no primary history and little general election history coming out in droves to vote for Democrats, it would stand to reason that a light would go on in someone’s head and they would, perhaps, say, “Oh, my God! With a little money and attention, we could have helped turn the tide in Texas two years ago!”

Since much of that turnout has to do with the presidential race–ads in every TV market, candidates stopping in major cities across the state, etc.–one wonders if anyone realizes that, if the turnout is replicated, Texas might actually deliver its electoral votes to a Democrat in November.

And, before you say, “oh, that’s a long shot,” consider this: Dallas has turned “blue.” Houston, barring some major disaster, should turn “blue” this fall–that’s the third largest city in the nation, in Texas, turning “blue.” Will anyone outside of Texas notice?

Will the Democratic nominee return to Texas for a week “on the stump” to energize voters in the general, or will our state merely be the crowning glory for whomever gets our delegates and gets the nomination and then be all but forgotten by national Democrats, except when cash is needed and it is time to drag the sack down to our ATM?

This week, we’ve heard candidates talk about places like San Antonio and Laredo and Brownsville–places not mentioned in a presidential campaign in a long, long time. Will those cities matter in the general election? Will the nominee be concerned about assuring they win the Rio Grande Valley, or will Democrats–nationally–just remain concerned about what contributors in Texas are the biggest “bundlers?”

Before you criticize these thoughts, consider this: the energized Texas Primary this year can be likened to someone fathering a child after a one-night-stand. Will the father stick around to parent the child, or leave the single mother out on her own to fend for herself? Texas Democrats, even in the good shape we are in these days, don’t alone have the resources to hold the momentum through November at its current level–especially if much of our state’s donor wealth is needed for congressional, senate, and presidential campaigns in other states–states that “matter.”

Right now, were in the middle of a long, one-night-stand. It may be a decade–or longer–before Texans’ votes matter again in a presidential primary season (barring legislative action). Will it be that long before we see the energy we’re seeing now? Will we be left to parent this child alone, as our donors’ money goes to other races and other states? Or, will Democrats at the national level (DSCC, DCCC, national candidates, et al) realize that, with our resources unplundered, we have a real chance to do something (provided we could, you know, get a presidential candidate to come to Texas for votes and not money)?

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