Squeezing Blood from Turnips: White Stumps for Votes in East Texas

Yesterday in looking at the early vote trends and seeing that there is definitely elevated interest in this mid-term election, much higher than in 2006, I came to the conclusion that, in the end, getting your base out to vote is going to be the key to winning an election this year.

And now, in an irony of ironies. I read this morning that the Bill White campaign is stumping for votes in East Texas.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Republicans have carried the region in the race for governor since Democrat Ann Richards narrowly lost it to George W. Bush in 1994. This year, the GOP is blanketing the airwaves with ads tying local Democrats to an unpopular President Barack Obama.

“But White thinks he can again turn this swath of Texas — more culturally like the Old South than other parts of the state — into a political battleground.”

“‘A lot of Texas Democrats are coming back home in my campaign,’ White told The Associated Press. ‘We're going to be stronger than other statewide candidates in a long time.’”

Now it is one thing to be out there getting your base to the polling booth, and another thing to be out there hammering at persuadables and independent voters. One is a sure thing, the other is a little more iffy in getting positive results.

But it is a completely different thing to be out there in the middle of the last of the Old South trying to turn a region of Texas away from their approval of all things Rick Perry. A region of Texas that went for McCain/Palin in a huge, huge way just 2 years ago. Nacogdoches County, where Bill White and singer Robert Earl Keen visited this weekend voted 63.4% for McCain/Palin in 2008, exceeding the Texas statewide average by 8 points.

Well at least they spelled "African " correctly

This is a region of Texas that has actually gotten redder if that is at all possible. It is a region that has been home to redneck racists for years now. Signs like this appear in front of homes in this area of Texas. In short, Bill White is out there in East Texas trying to squeeze the blood out of a turnip. Ten days out from the General Election, and this is where the White Campaign has decided to concentrate its efforts.

I don’t know who is making this decision for Bill White, but I hope he or she continues their practice in political consulting by working for Republicans next time, because they are doing a smash-up job working for them this year.