Texas has generally always been a good ol' boys state,
It's not like that anymore; in case you hadn't noticed, the dominant part (or rather, parts) of the state are the various white collar suburbs. The reason why the Democrats struggle to compete is the fact that they have lost their rural base, and with it their organisation.
What party is the Governer of New Jersey from again? Corruption, networking and machine politics exist in all political parties. Fact of life.
Besides, the Democratic party of the post-New Deal era was far more left wing than the Democratic party of today (although there was a, smaller than most people think, genuinely conservative minority faction) and Texas contributed more than it's share towards that.
Despite everything, close to three million Texans voted for John Kerry and, even post re-gerrymandering, the state sends more than just a handful of Democratic Congressmen to Washington. I don't think that abandoning three million voters is ever a good idea.
