Beneath the surface, this year’s key elections in Texas are all about race. The top of the Democratic ticket has been called a racial “dream team”: If Tony Sanchez and Ron Kirk win in November, they will be the state’s first Hispanic governor and African-American senator, respectively. Down ballot, Republican supreme court appointees Dale Wainwright and Wallace Jefferson are bidding to become the first African Americans elected to the Texas high court.
Race has even become a factor in a hotly contested supreme court race between two whites, a Republican man and a Democratic woman. In the Republican primary in March, Austin solo practitioner Steven Wayne Smith dumbfounded the state GOP by beating party favorite and appointed incumbent Xavier Rodriguez, 54 percent to 46 percent. Pundits decried the anti-Hispanic bias of the Republican electorate, but the voters’ prejudice seems ideological, not racial. Other minority judges won Republican primaries, and Hispanic Republicans hold statewide office. The fact is, Rodriguez spent $558,000, called himself a moderate, and lost; Smith spent just $9,500, called himself a conservative, and won.
