TX-Sen: Could this man beat John Cornyn?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Republicans did just fine statewide in 2002 and 2006.

Netting only 39% is just fine? Granted it was a 4-way race but one of the candidates was Kinky Fricking Friedman!  Perry should have been able to at least net 45% if he was really doing fine.  If you compare 2002 to 2006, Perry essentially lost 20% of the vote to the independent candidates while the Democrats lost 10%.

Granted, Perry wasn't the most popular guy on the planet, but yes, netting 39.0% is just fine...at least compared to the 29.8% that Chris Bell got!

In Texas, no matter how poorly Republicans do, or no matter how unpopular they are, you can always count on the Democrats being one rung lower on the ladder.

If John Sharp had run, he conceivably could have won.

John Sharp was never going to run because he was the chief architect behind Perry's property tax proposal that passed.  Quite frankly, that was one of the top 2-3 issues in the whole campaign and the main reason why Strayhorn entered the race in the first place.

As far as I can tell by the numbers, Republicans in Texas were hit by the national wave in the country at about the same numbers as the national figures.  However, it appears to me that it was especially strong in the Hispanic areas and the moderate Republican suburbs; much less so in the ultra-Republican suburbs.

Note though, that the lower statewide offices were still dominated by Republicans, similar to the numbers attained in 1998-2006.  The national wave or Perry's popularity or lack thereof, really didn't seem to affect these races at all.

Do you think there is any chance Sharp will run for the Senate in 2008?

Well, other than rumors, I have heard nothing concrete even saying that he's mentioned it.  I suspect, if anything, Sharp may be waiting until 2010 to run for Governor.  He's always been more interested in statewide office than national office in my opinion.

Just FYI, I suspect Cornyn is going to be very hard to beat in 2008, regardless of who Dems run.  I also suspect the Hispanic Texas voter is still misunderstood on this site greatly, but that is not surprising.

So what are Texas Hispanics like?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

When you mention the Tony Sanchez phenomenon, do you mean hispanics will turn out for Democrats from the border, Democrats representing the border, or both?