Chris Bell

[M]

Very familiar. Essentially, in the 2001 general mayoral election we had the following candidates:

Lee Brown- incumbent, African-American. Liberal Democrat. Former New York police commissioner (Crown Heights riots on his watch). Supported by popular former mayor Bob Lanier. Engaged in race baiting and endless road construction and really not much else. He was pretty unpopular for the majority of his tenure.

Orlando Sanchez- city councilman, Cuban American, the first politician I ever worked for. Big Republican. The Brown campaign basically painted him in Hispanic communities as a fake Latino- he has blue eyes, fair skin, and a Southern accent, even though he was born in Cuba sndonly started learning English after immigrating at the age of 6. Recognized as Brown's big challenger.

Chris Bell- Councilman, white. Not all that much was known about him, but he seemed to be conservative rather than liberal.

Now, in Houston you need 50% of the vote outright (ha ha) or there's a runoff between the two top vote getters. As expected, Brown and Sanchez advanced to the runoff. It was an extremely close campaign, and Bell shocked everyone by a high-profile endorsement and enthusiastic campaign for Brown. For various reasons, Brown beat Sanchez by 52-48.

Then Bell got his big payoff when, in 2002, popular Houston congressman and Lloyd Bentsen nephew Ken Bentsen (at the time, my congressman) lost the Democratic nomination for Senate, and Bell got the nod to run for Representative of the old 25th District, which he won narrowly (it was a moderately left-leaning district).

He served a single term in Congress, during which the famous DeLay redistricting pland passed. Bell was stuck into a black districy, where he was beaten in the primary by African-American Al Green. On the verge of leaving congress, he launched the DeLay ethics investigation.

Overall, a complete political opportunists. I personally see nothing in him, although he has his followers (don't they all!)

As for the minority idea- it doesn't work, they've tried it. Remember Ron Kirk (African-American Dallas mayor) for Senate and Tony Sanchez (Rio Grande Valley "businessman, suspected drug lord) for governor, the Democratic 2002 candidates? The problem isn't the color of their candidates skin, it's that Texas has moved right, and the Texas Dems (who are now unfavored, anyway) seem unable to transform into the kind of Democratic party that gets elected in the modern South (as in Louisiana, Oklahoma).

The Democrats best current candidates, as far as I am aware, and Martin Frost and Ken Bentsen- moderate, experience, charismatic, really fine candidates. Failing that, Houston mayor Bill White, (who despite his name is white) though far from my favorite, seems to have his followers and is a moderate. But neither appear to be running, and the Kinky Friedman independent campaign will be either completely without effect or draw some Democratic votes. (This is nothing like Ventura, Kinky's a hasbeen and a relatively insane one at that. His campaign has already officially kicked off, to very little media fanfare).

[M]

And if the debate had been two or three days earlier, Sanchez would have won. His Bob Stein poll numbers were steadily ticking upwards, like a point a day, the week before the election. Anyway, after he was outspent 7-2 in 2003 he's really sunk; I was at the "victory party" on Telephone Road. Sad night. Anyway, he's gotten married recently and gone back into business. No one serious is even challenging White now. One could wish he'd be more serious about immigration, and zoning, and roads (City Hall really doesn't know what they're doing in that regard!), but he's a decent mayor.

Anywho, Bell will break 30 but maybe not 40. The only reason he may is that few people really adore Perry, even if unchallenged he's no one's favorite. The main reason Tony Sanchez did so badly is he was an evident crook, and the fact that he had video of Perry being pulled over by a cop was more worrisome to many people than the fact that Perry said, "why don't you let me get on down the road?" or whatever it was. I wish Hutchison would wait another four years, I don't know why she wants to be governor anyway, but if she goes for it in 2010 who'll challenger her, Dewhurst?

[M]

Hutchinson's not going to be good Presidential material because of the pro-choice thingy, but as VP, does it really matter whether she's Senator or Prez.  I don't see it.

Right. Especially since the main reason Senators have problems is that they have records, which she has already anyway.

Since there is no GOP woman with the standing to run for president in '08 and Hillary seems likely to be the Dem candidate, a GOP woman makes some sense as a running mate. And there are really only three who could do that- Condi, Kay Bailey, and Liddy Dole. All have their flaws, but on a list of three anyone has decent odds.