I stumbled on this as I was doing a little "Googling." The date, seven years ago, shows clearly that the Rep-rats have been planning this treachery for a long time!

http://geog.tamu.edu/sarah/Hispoltx.html

7:58 PM 1/9/1998
Parties begin to realize importance of Hispanic vote
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- When this year's elections are over, state Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzalez could represent the first, the last and the future of the Texas Democratic Party.

When Gonzalez won his bench in 1986, he became the first Hispanic to hold statewide elective office in Texas. But because he is the only Democrat without an election this year, Gonzalez could be the last Democrat holding statewide office next January.

But as a Hispanic, Gonzalez also represents the Texas Democratic Party's future and the potential to rebuild.

State demographers predict Hispanics will grow from a quarter of the state's population to almost half by 2030.

The political potential is so great that former Republican Gov. Bill Clements wrote an open letter to his party last month predicting future problems for Republicans, even if they deliver a knock-out punch to Democrats this year.

"The victories will be nothing more than a flash in the pan unless Republicans reach out to Hispanics," Clements wrote.

"Hispanics must have an important role in the future of the Texas Republican Party. If they don't, when people discuss minorities in the years ahead, they won't be talking about Hispanics. They'll be referring to Texas Republicans."

Republican Gov. George W. Bush is making a special effort to woo El Paso voters in his re-election bid. El Paso's Democratic mayor, Carlos Ramirez, already has endorsed Bush over Bush's Democratic opponent, Garry Mauro.

And Republicans like Clements are working hard to ensure that Bush's political protege, former Secretary of State Tony Garza, makes his way through the primary to a place on the Republican general election ticket.

But while the Republicans lay out their long-term strategy, the Democrats play a short-term game of survival in 1998.

"This is a critical election for Texas Democrats," said Republican political consultant Karl Rove.

Democratic losses have been steadily eroding the once monolithic party in the state.

Democrats lost the governor's office in 1994, and a Republican sweep in 1996 gave the Grand Old Party a majority of the statewide elective offices for the first time in more than 100 years.

The Democratic ticket this year lost its strongest contender when Attorney General Dan Morales decided not to seek re-election. Mauro begins his challenge to Bush 52 percentage points behind in the polls. And the statewide Democrats, with one or two exceptions, can expect to be outspent by their Republican opponents this year.

And not only are 14 statewide offices at stake, the election's outcome could help shape redistricting for the next decade.

Most members of the Legislative Redistricting Board, made up of state officials, will be elected this year. That five-member board will draw legislative district boundaries for the first decade of the millennium if state lawmakers fail to do so in their first regular session in 2001.

Four board members -- the lieutenant governor, attorney general, land commissioner and comptroller -- will be elected this year. The fifth, the House speaker, will not be decided until 2001.

Rove noted that the party with a majority on the board will be able to wield enormous influence over the Legislature when it redraws state and congressional district lines.

But just as the Republicans are building a future strategy of targeting Hispanics, the Democrats are working this year to undermine Republicans in their suburban base.

"If you're going to be successful as a statewide Democrat, you can't write off the suburban areas," said Mauro's campaign manager, Billy Rogers.

The rapid growth of affluent suburbs around Dallas, Houston and Austin has been key to Republican success in recent years, Rogers said.

"The Republicans have basically been able to win statewide races while ignoring vast portions of the state," Rogers said.

An example of this suburban strength is the 1994 governor's race. Bush's margin of victory in the suburban counties of Collin, Fort Bend, Denton and Montgomery counties neutralized and surpassed Democratic incumbent Ann Richards' margin of victory in 23 heavily Hispanic counties along the Rio Grande.

Rogers said Mauro is trying to appeal directly to suburban voters by promising a state constitutional amendment to ensure that people can choose their own doctors. Rogers said all Texans, but suburbanites in particular, are concerned about HMOs taking away patients' ability to choose their doctors.

Similarly, Democratic lieutenant governor candidate John Sharp last week unveiled an anti-crime plan that would appeal to voters in the Collin County seat of Plano.

Sharp's crime plan called for expanding the death penalty for drug traffickers and for repeat child molesters.

Plano recently made national news with reports that 11 teenagers had died in the affluent suburb last year from heroin overdoses. Five years ago, the city was shocked when a repeat sex offender snatched a 7-year-old girl out from under her parents' supervision at a city park and strangled her.

But polls show Bush's popularity among Republicans stands at about 90 percent and that translates into popularity among suburban voters, Rove said. The most Democrats can hope for in the suburbs, he noted, is low turnout.

"The battleground (this year) is rural Texas because with this governor it's going to be impossible for them (Democrats) to make inroads into the suburbs," Rove said.

Rove said rural voters in East and Central Texas could shift Republican this year. He said a majority of East Texas voters cast Republican ballots in all contested elections for the first time in 1996.

Even with that, Rove said Republicans cannot ignore the growing future strength of the Hispanic population and its vote.

"If Republicans don't make gains among a group that is growing, it may offset some the gains we've made in the last 10 or 15 years," Rove said.

But state Democratic Party Executive Director Jorge Ramirez said it will take more than some trips to El Paso and a Hispanic on the Republican ticket to lure Hispanic voters into the GOP.

"Right now the Republicans talk a good game, but they're on the wrong side of the issues for Hispanics," Ramirez said.

Ramirez said Texas Republicans have avoided some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has come back to haunt the GOP in California. But he said the Texas GOP platform alienates Hispanics with planks such as the call for official English or the elimination of bilingual education.

"Their philosophy has always been to drive wedge issues and divide Americans," Ramirez said. "The Hispanic population is going to double in the next 30 years, and they (Republicans) realize they are headed to extinction unless they remake themselves."

At present, Democrats have little to worry about with Hispanic voters. A Southwest Voter Research Institute exit poll in 1994 found Richards received 76 percent of the Latino vote to Bush's 24 percent.

University of Houston political scientist Richard Murray said Hispanics currently account for just about 17 percent of the registered voters of Texas, though they make up a quarter of the population. He said in the last election Hispanics accounted for about 12 percent of the vote, but that should increase as the population increases and ages.

"It's a slow process," Murray said.

Rogers said if the Hispanic vote doubled, it could increase a Democratic candidate's statewide vote by seven or eight percentage points.

Because candidates of both parties begin the election with a base vote of about 40 percent, that could put Democrats within striking distance of victory at the start of every election.

But the 1994 Southwest Voter survey also found data encouraging to Republicans. While 52 percent of the Hispanics interviewed voted a straight Democratic ticket, another 6 percent voted straight Republican and 43 percent split their ballots among Democrats and Republicans.

One Republican who has benefited from that in the past is Garza, who was elected Cameron County judge before Bush appointed him secretary of state in 1994.

Bush officially is neutral in Garza's primary contest for railroad commissioner against former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman of Webster. But it is clear that the Republican establishment wants Garza on the November ballot.

Garza said his place on the ticket is more important for the Republican Party than it is for Bush's re-election.

"George Bush stands or falls on his own. He has an absolutely sterling record with the Hispanic community," Garza said.

"In terms of broadening the base, having Hispanic representation in the Republican Party is important to the Hispanic community, and the changing demographics of Texas are such that it's important to the party," Garza said. "We've got the right message. We just need more messengers, and I'd like to be one of those."