In 06 wasn't there a sh**t show with like 2 indies?
How would the dream team of 02 done in 06 with no indies?
Well the 2 indies were Republicans lol
kinky friedman was not a republican lol
even Keeton was more moderate than Perry
Anyway, for your original question, several reasons:
1. Like in most of the former Confederacy, the TX Democratic Party was fairly conservative in the 20th century (not uniformly, of course, ex: Yarborough) and drew most of its strength from the rural eastern parts of the state as well as the inner cities. In Texas, however, these rural voters abandoned the Democrats much sooner than in other southern states. This left the coalition system rather unbalanced as Republicans had a strong grasp on the suburbs and increasingly strong control on the rural parts; even urban areas weren't as strongly Democratic as they were in the North until recently.
In California, the Republicans still had a decent brand in urban areas, at least in SoCal. The Democrats had no such appeal in the suburbs.
2. Latino turnout patterns. Needless to say this is pretty obvious and still a problem for TXDems. TX Latinos are also much friendlier to Republicans than they are in the north, and those that turn out more consistently also tended to be more Republican-leaning.
3. Straight-ticket option probably prevented a lot of lower-level offices from being in reach, as well as their low visibility meant it was more likely voters voted based on party and not personality.
4. The influence of the oil and gas industry. Republicans pretty much cornered this industry's workers and its campaign funding and general influence as a job-creator kept Republicans visible as the economically responsible, job-creating party. In a state as expensive to run in as Texas, money makes a big difference.
5. Gerrymandering. A lot of potentially good statewide candidates, such as congressmen, refused to run due to the fact that their districts were very safe and they had their current seats for as long as they wanted, and would rather not risk a safe career for a likely loss. The only Congressman that ran for statewide office in that period was Chris Bell, I believe, in 2006.
Additionally, the mid-decade redistricting killed off a lot of potentially candidates by eliminating their seats.
6. Relative weakness of statewide offices
