Are Republicans are using polls to better sell their plan, rather than determine the plan's goals? And are Democrat leaders doing the latter? If our political process has been reduced to a contest of marketing, then democracy may indeed be not long for this country.

On to the topic of the moral narrative. Competence, hard work, intensive study, experience, not misrepresenting your opponent's arguments, not taking long vacations while holding the most important four year job in the world, all seem like pretty good moral values to me.

I wonder how they would do in focus groups?

Overall, an excellent article. Thanks.

Dwight from Seattle says anyone who says the Democrats shouldn't poll doesn't know what they are talking about...

Well Dwight, actually I do. I have run for the state legislature in NM in one of the most conservative Republican districts in Albuquerque. I started four months after the campaign cycle when the Democratic candidate bailed. I only raised 15K versus my high name recognition hard right Republican opponent's 60K. I got no help from the State Democratic party but did from the State Dem. Legislative Committee. I ran openly pro-choice and pro-gay marriage, in the year of supposed moral values but also as a small business owner and pro-public education candidate.

But, I did amazing opposition research and educated the voting public to who my opponent actually was. Something Dems are pretty bad at.

John Kerry spent tens of millions of dollars on trying to sway swing vote New Mexicans. Kerry and his staff made numerous trips to ABQ. Kerry's focus group polling and lack of true beliefs got him 40% of the vote from my constituents, while on my measily 15K (three mailings only) I got 44% of the vote.

More importantly, my opponent dispite winning the election never recovered. He quit his post only a year into his term and was replaced by a good guy. Bush unfortunately is still in office and putting guys like Alito on the Supreme Court.

To my fellow Dems- we don't need polls- we need the courage of conviction that we can do better than our opponents.
We need people who can lead- not just stick their fingers in the air to see which way the wind blows.

Pete4usa, the slave states are now strong Republican supporters. Think about that.

zappaman, the Republicans have proven two things: 1) they are good at winning elections, 2) they are terrible at actually managing government services.

That said, I agree with the frustration at the lack of Dem organization. I wasn't always. I always admired the fact that everyone had their own ideas, I could vote on issues instead of down party lines. Idelogical lock-step is not my cup of tea. I was fond of saying, I could never belong to an organzied political party, so I regestered Democrat.

But the stakes are too high. Republicans have build an election-winning machine, and little else. Their "bold new ideas" are not new, only bold enough to be dangerous. Look at the record, you'll see Republicans have not offered any truly new ideas. And new ideas are not as important as steady competent leadership. If Bush could offer that, I would not be so upset with him and 60 million other Americans.

Don, we on the left have been insulted and called all kinds of names for years. Now that we have been proven right, I think you should just suck it up.

You must realize how hard it is for me to hold my toungue, being a liberal from a red state, when Bush's supporters are singing songs about putting boots in people's asses and going off gung-ho without a lick of sense about what they are doing. I'm sorry, but if you supported Bush, he proved to be incompetent and not up to the job.

Now if I could set things right by pretending you were smart to vote for Bush, I would. I would be praising your foresight on the wildly successful invasion of Iraq. I would marvel at your economic prowess in building our massive debt. I would be in awe of your ability to elect people with such integrety as Tom DeLay. But let's face facts, electing Bush, DeLay, et al was the dumbest thing this country has done in some time.

I know it's tough to admit you were wrong, but you owe it to the country. The country does not owe you a damn thing, least of all respect for your recent electoral decisions.

And steel yourself for this one. Someday soon you will be forced to admit those tree huggers were right as well.

Re: "pro-choice" isn't "pro-abortion".

I've read that slave owners objected to the term "pro-slavery"; they usually spoke in terms of being "pro-states rights" and "pro-property rights."

The DNC is doing the right thing by developing clear, strong messages based on feedback from the electorate. Clearly what Dems have been doing until now hasn't been working. Anyone who says the Dems shouldn't be polling doesn't know what they are talking about.

As a marketing professional, the incoherence of Democratic messaging in recent elections has been enough to make me tear my hair out. The Republican party has built a very smart, sophisticated apparatus for messaging and co-opted the media. The Democrats have been operating on the old system of reinventing the national campaign every four years with the new candidate's team, and focusing on raising money in the off years.

Strong positions and clear messages take time to create and refine, and then need more time to sink into the consciousness of a distracted public. You absolutely can not do this successfully starting on the fly in the pressure of a national campaign five months before the general election. You must have established institutions developing and coordinating messaging that build on past learnings and continue between elections.

Now the DNC is finally trying to create the same sophisticated operations to develop the central messages on the party and future campaigns. But they're fifteen years or more behind the Republicans.

"Pro-choice" is an empty, misleading phrase.

Would "pro-choice" advocates support someone's "choice" to rob a bank or punchthem? Of course not. Would they say, "I'm not pro-robbery, but I support someone's choice to rob a bank?" Of course not. So, being "pro-choice" isn't about choice; it's about abortion.

Be honest. To be "pro-choice" is to be "pro-abortion rights." As guilty as that makes them feel (why is that, after all?), it's the logical truth.

Did you notice the WaPo "Republicans are racist" story never asked the one obvious question: Maybe republicans are just more honest?

So, the WaPo does a puff piece on a guy named Belcher who hasn't won anything. Uh, is it a slow news day? Is the Post tired of calling all republicans racists?

Don, thanks for sticking up for the millions of us residing in the middle of the political spectrum, who do not agree with or support the current administration but continue to be alienated by those on the voices of the left who question my intelligence.

Love it when Democrats need to poll to see what their core values are. This party has been out of ideas for 30 years and it is finally starting to catch up with them. Watching Hillary's desperate I'm centrist, I'm progressive flip flops are hysterical. Democrats are for 3 things: raising money, paying off their rich, tiny, angry, idealess hater fringe group special interests and winning elections, that's it. Take away their block votes and media veilers/cheerleaders and the Democratic Party would disappear like the ideas they once had.

Insulting people that vote for republicans as stupid is exactly why people do not vote for democrats. While I and many otehrs agree with many democratic issues, we are angered when liberals accuse us of being stupid and voting against our own interests whe nwe care about specific moral issues. Insulting people will never win us over to your side.

I would like to know how the Republicans have managed to corner the market on 'values'. How about the 'values' of a party that does nothing for the 45 million uninsured in this country, a party that wants to force poor women to have chilxren by outlawing abortion while providing no pre-natal or post-natal care to these same poor women. A party that pushes George Bush as pro-life. Bush was governor of a state while it executed 152 people. He also started an unecessary war that has caused the deaths of thousands. This is PRO-LIFE?

The problem here is not that the Liberals have no values, our values are certainly higher than those of most Republicans, it is the electorate, which is too stupid to recognize the hippocracy of Bush and his fellow Republicans.

If the Dems want to get back in office, they'll need something other than redistribution as their theme. See below:
NY Times
January 26, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Dollars and Sense
By DAVID BROOKS
The Greeks used to say we suffer our way to wisdom. The Democrats have been doing most of the electoral suffering, and these days the wisest political analysis comes from Democrats who are trying to figure out what went wrong.
Over the past few decades, Democrats have generally conceived of America as a society divided between comfortable haves and insecure have-nots. Having read thousands of gloomy articles about downsizing, outsourcing and wage stagnation, they've tried to rally the insecure working majority against the privileged minority -- or, as Al Gore put it, the people against the powerful.
But since this strategy has notably failed, some analysts are thinking maybe there is no frightened majority longing for government succor.
Last year, the liberal economist Stephen Rose posted an essay on the Emerging Democratic Majority Web site in which he observed, "It is an occupational hazard of those with big hearts to overestimate the share of the population that is economically distressed." Rose concluded that only 19 percent of males and 27 percent of females are poor or working poor -- a percentage that is "probably much smaller than most progressive commentators would estimate."
Furthermore, he wrote, the percentage of Americans with reasonably well-paying corporate jobs has expanded over the past few decades: "Contrary to what some on the left might think, the share of bad jobs fell significantly as more workers with postsecondary education moved into an expanding set of managerial and professional jobs."
Rose calculated the household incomes for people between 26 and 59 and found that the average annual family income is somewhere around $63,000 a year -- an impressive figure. Opinion polls consistently show that people at these income levels feel as if they're doing quite well and don't feel oppressed by forces beyond their control.
This suggests that liberals have adopted an overly negative view of reality. Barbara Ehrenreich's books are well and good, but if you think they represent the broader society, you'll get America wrong.
Smart Democratic analysts are also taking another look at values issues. There has been a tendency in Democratic circles to regard values as a sideshow that Republicans use to fool the working class into voting against its self-interest.
But over the past year the Democratic polling firm of Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner has noted that voters don't separate values issues from economic issues. They use values issues as stand-ins and figure the candidates they associate with traditional morality are also the ones with sensible economic policies.
In the current issue of The American Prospect, Garance Franke-Ruta also notes the interplay between values and economic issues. "Traditional values have become aspirational," she writes. "Lower-income individuals simply live in a much more disrupted society, with higher divorce rates, more single moms, more abortions, and more interpersonal and interfamily strife, than do the middle- and upper-middle-class people they want to be like."
With these sentiments, Democrats seem to be moving away from materialistic determinism. In past decades, Democratic political campaigns have been based primarily on appeals to economic interests. But especially in the information age, social values and cultural capital shape a person's economic destiny more than the other way around.

Posted by: Marshall Davidson | Jan 30, 2006 12:22:44 PM | Permalink

Good reading!!!. I am one of those disinchanted poor American. I have like my father been a Democrate all my life, but a very unhappy one. The way this party has been managed and run by the KKKlan (Kerry & Kennedy) turns my stomach. For example the way the Democrate's back bited Howard Dean when he was way ahead of his republican canidate in 2004 was shameful. I would never vote for Kerry or the likes of him. I will stay home from the voting booth if this ever happens.

Democrats are not losing elections because of semantics! Please focus on the big picture and much bigger issues that Americans face. In times like these, people return to those ideas and beliefs that feel comfortable to them and are familiar. Right now, mothers and fathers are worried that their sons are going to get killed in some far off country, and that their grandchildren will have to worry about a nuclear Iran and N. Korea obliterating the world. Sure, that may be a simplistic mindset, but I guarantee you, they absolutely do not care about (or want to care about) gay marriage or any other 'values' issue that the Democrats want to run on.

Dems need to focus on results. Remember that Clinton's policy of actively pursuing bin Laden was "under review" and Bush was on a France-like month long vacation when 9/11 hit. Likewise, the Katrina response was entirely due to poor planing and incompetence in the years before the disaster struck.

Also remind people that Clinton brought a brutal dictator to justice, stopped an ethnic cleansing and civil war, and brought democracy to a place that was previously an al Qaeda training ground -- the Balkans. Everything Bush claims to be doing in Iraq (and failing miserably).

It's not about priorities, it's about competence. Dems must appeal to security moms. Promise to appoint people based on experience, not ideology. Promise to give those with differing philosophies a voice. Promise a true marketplace of ideas. Promise not to take long vacations. Remember, the harder I work the luckier I get. That's why we are all unlucky when Bush is in charge.

Cilliza didn't write that EMILY's List was a "pro-abortion" group, he wrote that they were a "pro-abortion rights" group.

Is EMILY's List in favor of abortion rights or not?

Oh yeah...they are.

as long as it is all about appearances, Dems will continue to lose. I have become an independent cause I can't bear the thought of being either republican or democrat - have been a dem all my 57 years-
People are looking for truth- why are pro choice people wanting to avoid the A word in favorof the euphemism? They'll wake up and relaice "Choice" is just as dirty a word Choice means that values are relative and up to the chooser--nothing really matters or is really ultimately true. MUCH bigger pit than the A word - or you could call it pro relativism

I have blogged in the past on how we have allowed the right to control the language here. It is my position that the appropriate counter-term to pro-choice is pro-ban, not pro-life, which is an insult to those who are in favor of a woman's right to choose.

Consider why. Just look at the opposites of the terms themselves, which should accurately label the opposition.

Anti-choice is at least honest, but anti-life is an attack on opponents that would seek to eliminate a woman's right to choose.

I have more at
http://scootmandubious.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_scootmandubious_archive.html

By the way, can we please have a moderator remove the initial off-topic post which is about the size of a novella and really kills debate on here?

Maybe Mr. Cillizza has allowed his anti-choice sentiments to motivate his wording. Whatever the case it doesn't reflect well on his blog being "nonpartisan".

Just how long are Democrats going to put money in the pocket of pollsters who come out with the very same results? Doesn't anyone here remember Howard Dean making it a point to go after guys who drive trucks with Confederate flags because they "are with us on the economic issues"? The more Democrats try to appeal to "values voters" the more phony they appear.

We have allowed the Republicans to change the terminology of pro-choice to pro-abortion. This change in wording changes the meaning enormously and leaves those of us who are pro-choice victims of character attacks on our morals and values. I personally am very tired of allowing the Republicans to change words and phrases which define my political self in their right-wing terms. Thank you, mischa, for your posting and giving me opportunity to state my opinion.

On the polling issue. Don't for a second think that the Republicans aren't polling just as much, and making decisions based solely on those polls. Look at the recent resurgance of Inmate 625 (aka Karl Rove) on the scene and his speach where he outlined Security as the issue to hammer home in the fall.
My personal thoughts are that the Democrats really don't have to do much to make Security a Democrat issue. As Elrod points out the numbers are all going south for the Republicans and should continue in that direction for the near future. The war in Iraq isn't getting any better, the defecit continues to grow, and the wire-tap scandal will be on the table for at least the next 9 months. All the Democrats have to do for now is keep hammering away and them nail the Republicans in say May with a "Plan for America" or something like that. They can then ride that to victory in November.

Also I agree that Emily's List is a "pro-choice group" or an "abortion-rights group"

I second that, mischa. I was also bothered by the "pro-abortion rights group." Nobody is pro-abortion.

Dammit Post writers, stop using "pro-abortion rights group." This is the 2nd time I've seen it written that way! Given the placing of the hyphen, it reads as though the organization is a "rights group" which is "pro-abortion." I don't think anyone is "pro-abortion."

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that this is something other than GOP talking-points sliding under the radar, and respectfully ask that you use "pro-choice"; which is fairer because both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are such dumb labels that at least its even...

Is anyone else bothered by this? O well, time to get back to looking busy at work...

I don't have a problem with all the polling, per se. But I do have a problem with avoiding issues and value-questions that the American people clearly care about. The modern Republican Party is a disaster on national security. George W. Bush has destroyed our army in a poorly conceived, poorly executed war in Iraq. Now we are impotent to face a more serious challenge in Iran. Meanwhile, the Administration has bungled every effort to secure our own ports and borders from terrorist infiltration. And the polling confirms this. Though on "war on terror" and/or "national security" Bush still tops 50%, it is only barely so. The latest WaPo poll had Bush at 52% on this question, with 46% in the negative. But compare that to, say, a year ago, when Bush polled in the mid-60s on national security and terrorism. Even the "which party do you trust more on terrorism/national security" has narrowed considerably. Republicans still have an edge, but not by much anymore.

It is good politics and good policy for Democrats to make national security a Democratic issue this fall. Running away from national security is a failure.

As a Democrat, I find the party's over reliance on polling troubling. We should be able to develop a platform and field candidates based on commons sense and understanding of the day to day universe that we all live in.

1) We support the constitution and the fundamental freedoms it includes ie that "all men are created equal" (and use that to highlight why the Republicans are not helping to rebuild New Orleans and to attack lawmakers that seek to limit freedoms of any group- like gays or women).

2) We support a constitutional protection of privacy and freedom from government intrusion. (Use that to attack the warrantless searches and to counter efforts to attack choice because the other side shows by its actions that it does not believe in a right to privacy).

3) We support a top notch free education for all Americans and in return for this investment, a massive community service program where those that get a free education provide a service back to the taxpayers (their community) that pay for it. Better education means better paying jobs. The wider the tax burden is spread the less each individual needs to pay.

4) A single payer healthcare system modeled on the VA. Because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and no small business can afford the free market's premiums. If businesses have to raise prices to pay for health insurance or cut their programs it costs each of us a lot more than we can afford.

5) We support the constitution's checks and balances approach keeping us from returning to a monarchy. The other side has gutted congress and the judiciary. (It's time to create another tea party).

It's really not hard to come up with a commonsense platform that the public gets. Unfortunately, neither polling nor belt way consultants gets us there.

"With Republicans apparently set on turning the 2006 election into a referendum on security, Belcher's analysis may help his party ensure that the GOP message backfires. But will Democratic lawmakers listen to his advice?"

For this to work, Democrats have to finally find a way to explain the national security failures of this Administration - the failure to find Osama, the untenable situation in Iraq, the growing concern over Iran and North Korea, the lack of response to the 9/11 Commission. Democrats have to come at this with a plan to keep the country safe and secure that they can explain to the American people, without being labelled as weak on terrorists or unable to handle international conflict issues. The Dems let themselves be defined by the GOP, and as a result, got pigeon-holed. They need to flip the rhetoric around and point out the strange way the GOP has created an image of national security strength that doesn't necessarily correspond with their achievements.

DECONSTRUCTING THE TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY

TEXAS DEMOCRATS DEFEND THEIR PLANTATION

It is my position and the evidence tends to support my position that the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas is economically underdeveloped in part because the Democratic Party of Texas has turned a blind eye to decades of unrelenting corruption, by a group Latino politicians who care not one iota about the LRGV, in exchange for these same politicians keeping Latino voters in the pockets of the Democratic Party. If the LRGV is ever to be economically developed the Latino community must stand together against these interests in Austin by demanding they denounce these DINOS (Democrats in Name Only) for what they are, self-hating Latinos who care only about their own power and money.

I ask the readers, would any responsible business want to do business in a community where corruption and money-grubbing politicians can be found at every turn? The answer is no. This is why major corporations refuse to do business in Brownsville. Even the last company to relocate to Brownsville, a company in the manufacture of busses, did same in spite of the obstructionist policies of our city leaders.

The deal cut with the DINOS such as State Senator Eddie Lucio (final vote needed to put anti-gay marriage issue on Texas ballot - also tied to the theft of over 21 million dollars from the Brownsville Navigation district through his business ties which he referred over to the BND) and State Representative Rene Oliviera (Bill banning lawsuits against HMO's defeated 120-21) http://texnews.com/texas97/hmo050897.html) is simple, deliver the Latino vote to the Democrats and we the Anglo Democratic Party leadership in that bastion of liberalism known as Austin will ignore the corruption and the fact you are DINOS.

So people understand the plight of Brownsville I am compelled to give several additional examples of the unrelenting corruption. Our new esteemed District Attorney Villalobos who was a supporter of our now convicted former sheriff, Conrado Cantu, dropped criminal charges against Cantu as one of his first official acts as our new DA. This same DA found that the random firing of a hand gun near a golf course was not a violent crime thereby effectively dismissing criminal charges against Cantu's attorney for randomly firing his hand gun near a golf course. Had it not been for the Office of the United States Attorney, Cantu would still be running his drug ring right under the eyes of our esteemed District Attorney Villalobos.

In one county over, judges have been forced to resign for corruption, the District Clerk died pending her federal criminal trial, another judge killed himself after being indicted under federal charges rather then expose his compadres in crime - all of these people are Democrats. Democrat and Clinton appointee federal judge Hilda Tagle actively used the federal bench to protect these corrupt judges and public officials - the same can be said for Linda Yanez of the 13th Court of Appeals and Former Administrative Judge Darryl Hester who used his position to silence and destroy any attorney who tried to speak out on the issue. All Democrats.

Next, there is the case of Eddie Lucio III, running for office to be a State Representative from the Brownsville-Harlingen area. He is able to run for this office because the law-firm he works for in Austin which specializes in land development opened a special office in Brownsville so that Eddie Lucio III would have a residence in Brownsville. http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=67973_0_10_0_C -

Does anyone believe Eddie Lucio III is running to represent the people of the district? No, everyone knows he is running to be an elected lobbyist for land developers - just look to his campaign finance disclosure forms. A land grabbing carpetbagger running as a Democrat in South Texas - boy have things changed. I ask Mr. Lucio who is going to look out for the families of South Texas as Mr. Lucio and his compadres grab land at discounted rates for Mr. Eddie Lucio III's clientele - Have we already forgotten how the creation of Brownsville was the result of a theft of the land from Latinos by wealthy land developers? Have we already forgotten how wealthy land developers cheated Latinos out of their land on South Padre?

And finally there is that three-ring circus known as Brownsville City Commission. At this point no one challenges the notion that our Latino Mayor is a marinero (cabinboy) for white builders because he lacks the self-esteem to be a capitán. Unlike every other city in the LRGV and almost all of Texas our City Commission opposes these white builders having to pay the same community impact fees they would have to pay in any other city in the State of Texas. While the taxpayers of Brownsville are being charged these impact fees as a form of corporate welfare for these white builders, our marinero City Commissioners and inept leadership on the Brownsville, Public Utilities Board (Oscar Garcia a contractor himself - this is the same Oscar Garcia who claimed he did not pay property taxes on his rental properties because he understood it was the responsibility of the renters to pay the property taxes- yes, is this the IQ we want in a man running the Brownsville Public Utilities Board.?) call for yet another study as to whether Brownsville should charge these white builders the same impact fees they pay every place else in Texas.

This is the Democratic Party of South Texas. This is the Democratic Party of Texas which turns a blind eye to the corruption because it is only Latinos who are being victimized. Is this not the same argument Democrats used against the Bush Administration to explain the lack of timely response to black New Orleans? In the words of Hillary Clinton - we are tired of Texas Democrats treating the LRGV as their own little plantation to be overseen by their marinero house servants such as Eddie Lucio, Rene Oliviera, and Oscar Garcia. We will not be house servants or marineros anymore - somos capitanes no somos marineros. I will make clear, this does not mean we will only elect Latinos - it means we will only elect people regardless of their race or ethnic background who have the well being of the LRGV at heart and who have the courage of their convictions..

If all of this reflects the Democratic Party of the LRGV how would any self-respecting Latino vote Democrat? Because we have been taught that things would actually be worse under the Republicans. I will note, Brownsville overwhelmingly voted for George W. Bush, I believe because the people of Brownsville are at their limits with the unrelenting corruption in the Democratic Party and open and direct contempt the Democratic Party of Texas has for Latino voters. For the record I abstained from voting in the presidential race - I refused to vote for an arrogant politician who viewed the White House as his personal entitlement rather than as a privilege to be earned on the content of his character and ideas.

There is an alternative - we as Latinos refuse to turn out for the Democrats until they clean up their act and the leadership in Austin actually stands for something and demand accountability. Without the votes of the LRGV the Democrats cannot win a statewide office. We cannot, as Latinos, demand that others respect us until we respect ourselves by demanding accountability from our own leaders within the Latino community. We as Latinos must make clear to these self-anointed leaders within our community we will vote for an imaginary Martian before we vote for a corrupt Latino or corrupt Democrat.

The message is simple, so long as the Anglo Democratic Party in Austin gets what it wants from these DINOs then let the residents of the LRGV go hungry. To the Anglo leadership in Austin Latinos are nothing more than their meal ticket to power - we are not a constituency to be taken seriously. We are to be happy on the failed welfare programs put forward by the Democrats - the motto of the Austin Democrats is - give them Lone Star Cards and medicaid and they will stay in line. My suggested motto for the New Latino Leadership in the Democratic Party is - "Give us respect or Democrats will never again hold statewide office."

To Chris Bell and Bob Gammage - the writing is on the wall - The two of you are the two most viable candidates for the governor's race. I personally believe a Democrat can take the governor's house in November if the Democrats clean up their act.

Remember two things Mr. Bell and Mr. Gammage - in 2004 Brownsville Democrats openly defied the Democratic party and voted for George W. Bush. In 2002 the LRGV did not turn out in large numbers for Democrat Tony Sanchez. In Tony Sanchez we knew he was a DINO. We knew he turned a blind eye while his bank was being used to launder drug money which was used to destroy our communities and families. We are no longer slaves on the plantation of the Texas Democratic Party - we no longer take orders from the masters in Austin or the marineros/ house servants doing the dirty work for the masters in Austin - Somos capitanes.

The Texas Democratic Party can rise from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix and not only take the governor's house in 2006 but deliver Texas in 2008 to the Democratic candidate for President. This will only happen under new leadership which can invigorate the Latino vote in the LRGV and West Texas. This will not happen under the tutelage of Charles Soechting current chair of the Democratic Party nor under the back door dealing antics of Barbara Radnofsky.

Now I have hit a sore spot. Both Barbara Radnofsky and a Democratic Party consultant, André Piñeda, have gone out of their way to discredit me because I called for a boycott against her election based on the fact she cut a back door deal with Charles Soechting to get his early endorsement of her for the US Senate race in violation of Party rules in exchange for her renomination of him as Party Chair. My views were published in a letter to the editor in the Brownsville Herald http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/opinions_more.php?id=68695_0_11_0_C.

My concern with Ms. Radnofsky's back door dealing was and remains that this will be the fourth US Senate race in a row wherein the Austin leadership openly supports the white candidate in clear violation of Party rules. We all know how they went after Victor Morales for the crime of seeking office without their permission. For the fourth time in a row Latino candidates do not have a fighting chance. This is not about electing Latinos, it is about giving us a fair shot at election in the primaries. In the LRGV we know all too well being Latino by name does not make you honest or a true Democrat.

So I say to Chris Bell and Bob Gammage - speak out now about what has happened to the Democratic Party - denounce the antics of Soechting and Radnofksy (she cannot win anyway she does not even have 1/10th the money of Hutchinson) and demand the Democratic party stand with the good people of the LRGV against the DINO's who have used us for their own personal gain.

If Radnofksy truly cared about the people of Texas, as opposed to her own demand for power through her back door dealings with Soechting, she would abandon her race for the US Senate and help the winner in the primary for governor (Bell or Gammage) raise the money to beat Perry - this is not the time or place to discuss the issue but someone needs to ask Strayhorn if she is governor who is going to protect us from her son Scott McClellan? - the apple does not fall far from the tree.

A US Senate win does nothing for Texas. A Democrat in the Governor's house changes the dynamics of Texas politics in such a way that Texas may vote Democrat in the presidential race of 2008. There is only so much money. We all know Radnofky will put her own ego and obsession for fake power ahead of the people and the best interests of the Democratic Party. In the end none of this will matter if Chris Bell and Bob Gammage refuse to step up to the plate and denounce the antics of Soechting and demand a new Democratic Party Latinos feel which will embrace them as equals and speak out against the DINO's in the LRGV.

While some will call that which follows unnecessary, it is unfortunately necessary because Radnosky and a Democratic Political consultant by the name of André Piñeda have gone on the attack against me calling me a Republican plant. Radnofky and Piñeda cannot attack me on the merits so they attack me with lies and half truths - so now I will set the record straight.Ms. Radnofsky's misleading and disrespectful response to my original letter and my subsequent reply can be found at http://forums.chron.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=display&tsn=1&tid=108&webtag=hc-politics.

Not only does she disrespect the entire Latino community by refusing to recognize my legal name, Bobby Wightman-Cervantes, and instead refers to me as Bobby Wightman - she deliberately misleads the Latino community into believing I am a Republican trying to disenfranchise the Latino voter. Ms Radnofsky's argument is simple, Latinos should accept the disrespect of the Democratic Party and vote Democrat because if they do not they will end up helping Republicans. This is insulting and typical of the plantation mentality pushed upon the slaves by their masters.

Ms. Radnofsky's information about my one time run as a Republican for judge came from Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting, Mr. Soechting is fully aware that I made public that I ran as a Republican because the Democrats had abandoned Dallas County and I was running only for the experience of running and not because I believed I could defeat two sitting judges who where already competing for the seat. In fact the Republican Party Chair had requested I run for a County Court at Law seat which would have been a shoe in for me, but I did not want the job as a Republican.

My work for the Latino community is well documented. Prior to moving to Brownsville in 2004, I worked on a case for free wherein a white judge ignored Texas law and allowed for a jury trial wherein a white couple were seeking custody of two Latino children who happened to be the couple's neighbors. The father of these Latino children had stabbed the mother to death. The issue for the trial court was, was it in the best interest of these children to be given to the maternal aunt and grandmother or to these white neighbors? Texas law does not give legal authority to neighbors claiming a right to custody of neighbors' children.

Unfortunately for the children the attorney hired by the aunt did not know he was to file a motion challenging the authority of this white couple to seek custody of the children. At the 11th hour under my advice the attorney filed the motion to bar the white couple from seeking custody of the children. The white judge ignored black and white Texas law and allowed the trial to go forward. A white jury gave custody to the white couple.

With no money left to pay attorneys I agreed to work for free to clean up the mess created by the lawyer hired by the children's aunt and grandmother. At the end of the day, with a new judge the white couple were found to have no legal authority to seek custody of the children and the children went to go live with their aunt and grandmother. The white couple had actually argued that it was not in the best interest of the children to be in a home where people speak Spanish.

We won and the children now live in Kansas with their aunt, uncle and grandmother. Shortly thereafter, it turned out that the white couple were really after the life insurance money. A legal battle ensued between the father of the children and the children as to who was entitled to the money - Texas law was clear and the money went to the children - although the attorney to whom I donated my services now made a pretty penny on his fee for recovering the insurance money he stiffed me for the 20 hours of pro bono work I did when we believed there was no money. I am proud of my work for these children.

In 1993, after every national gay organization made clear I was out of line for representing a Latina who was being discharged from the military as a lesbian, because her skin color was not what they believed was in the best interest of the gay community at the time, I held my position and ignored the threats. A local representative from the Lambda Legal Defense Fund in New York took me to lunch at 8.0 in Dallas to twist my arm and I said no - I do not discriminate. Ed Bradley then with Street Stories profiled my work on this issue.

In 1992 when several mothers came to me to help them incorporate the Dallas Chapter of PFLAG (Parents and Families and Lesbians and Gays) and to obtain their tax except status I did the work for free, which included training the treasurer in how to prepare the annual 501c3 report to maintain their tax exempt status. I can assure you these mothers did not have the money to pay for these legal services.

In 1996, when Dallas County Community College Trustee Diana Flores came to me for free legal representation in an election contest wherein it was alleged that the election results should be voided because senior citizens who live in nursing homes are mentally ill and their votes should not count, I said yes I will fight this battle for you. The case finally closed out after 6 years of nearly free legal representation - (maybe 10% of the bill was paid) Rather than have the election stolen by a corrupt white discredit judge from Paris, Texas, I sat in jail for contempt. The Texas Supreme Court agreed that at the time, this corrupt white discredited judge from Paris, Texas had no legal authority to act in the case. I held, went to jail, and this Latina won her right to be an elected official in Dallas County.

I can go on and on and on. I will put my record up against Barbara Radnofksy's any day. I am not a Democrat in name or a Latino in name - I am a Democrat by my actions and a Latino in my heart - I defy anyone to argue my home is not that of a Latino. If Ms. Radnofsky is so desperate to win this election that she will seek to discredit her opponents with lies what does that tell us about how she will be when she reaches Washington. The DINOs in the LRGV who have kept the LRGV underdeveloped have taught us as Latinos to look out for people of low character such as Ms. Radnofksy.

To those who would say I am just settling a score over a failed run for the US Senate in 2000 - I will set the record straight. From the time I announced my candidacy I was the only candidate telling people no Democrat could win and that no US Senate candidate should accept money for their campaigns. The money needed to go to the tight State Senate and State House races. I in fact repeatedly told people to give any money they had for me to David Cain, a Democrat and State Senator in East, Texas in a very difficult race.

So why run if you could not win? Simple, as a gay male and Latino I knew that I could draw national attention to the campaign. My campaign was to be against George W. Bush. Everyone new this including then Democratic Party Chair Molly Beth Malcolm. Even in the last election I begged Charles Soechting, Democratic Party Chair, to make a big issue over the fact Governor Perry, at the National Republican Party Convention, publically blamed Bush for the lose of federal money to be used for health insurance for poor children. Soechting's response was "what? what? I do not understand."

In the end of the day there was no effective dissent from Texas about George W. Bush - the Democrats ran into their closets and remained silent as the nation slowly crept into the Bush regime of silencing the opposition and sending our innocent children to die in a made up war. Molly Beth Malcolm for her conduct in changing my name on the ballot from Bobby Wightman-Cervantes to Bobby Wightman at the eleventh hour has the blood of over 2000 Americans on her hands.

Then Democratic Party Chair Molly Beth Malcolm did what she did because I had gone public about Democrat Travis County DA Ronnie Earle using more than 100 thousand dollars in aid of the Ann Richards campaign against Clayton Williams. The full depth of this corruption allowed Ray Hutchinson, husband to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, to black mail Ronnie Earle into forcing Judge Onion to dismiss the criminal charges against Kay Bailey Hutchinson - Ronnie Earle had to be protected even at the expense of delivering the White House to George W. Bush. The supporting documents to this claim can be found at my web page www.balancingtheissues.com My life has been a living hell since that day, but I have not been deterred I still speak up for the people.

At the end of the day the Latino community does not need my words to convince them to boycott the Democrats - my words are only bringing the issue forward while encouraging more Latinos to join the bandwagon which began before I penned one word on this issue. Without a word from me the LRGV failed to turn out in large numbers for Tony Sanchez in 2002, and without a word from me Brownsville voted for George W. Bush.

In that bastion of liberalism known as Austin the Democratic Party continues to assume Latinos will blindly follow them unless some agitator like me comes along to direct them against the Democrats. The Democrats give far too much weight to my rambling. The evidence proves without a word from me the Latino community in the LRGV have already started to go in a different direction from the Democrats. My words are merely a reflection of the tens of thousands of Latinos who have concluded when it comes to the Texas Democratic Party real Latino Democrats need not apply - only DINO's who will be good little marineros/house servants to the Austin establishment are welcome to apply.

Finally, if Ms. Radnofsky's sole defense against a no body like me is name calling and lies while failing to address the substance of the debate just exactly how is she going to stand up for Texas in the United States Senate. I say we put all of our energy into the governors race, assuming the Democratic Party nominee is willing to demand real reform in the Democratic Party and the immediate resignation of Charles Soechting.

Bobby Wightman-Cervantes
www.balancingtheissues.com