The Supreme Irony of Life...: Turning Texas Blue

Texas Democrats have largely been marginalized in Texas. There are lots of reasons, not all attributable to the rise of Conservative voters in Texas. I have vented about the Texas Democratic Party here, and elsewhere, and am not going to revisit those arguments as it is a bit of a sore subject for me.

Nonetheless, some of top Texas bloggers have formed TexBlogPAC to help Texas Democrats:

AUSTIN -- A group of left-leaning bloggers is trying to make the netroots movement sprout green for Democratic candidates for the Texas House.

The newly formed TexBlog Political Action Committee will hold its first fundraiser this month in Austin and has tapped five sitting Democratic House members to act as hosts.

"The goal is to get the progressive online community more involved in off-line events, where we can hopefully make a bigger impact on elections in Texas," said blogger Matt Glazer, editor of the Burnt Orange Report and one of the founders of the political action committee. "The reason we're focusing our attention on the Texas House, quite frankly, is that we think it can be flipped to the Democrats in the '08 elections."

Democratic loyalists say the party is well-positioned to pick up the seven seats it needs to win a majority in the 150-member chamber, which has been under Republican control since the 2002 elections. In 2006, Democrats made a net gain of six House seats, and in 2004, they picked up one. The significance of the one-seat gain in '04 was that it was the first time Democrats had increased their number in the House since the early 1970s.

State Rep. Jim Dunnam, who heads the House Democratic Caucus, is one of the hosts for the Sept. 24 fundraiser.

"I think the blogosphere is giving voice to what a lot of ordinary Texans are thinking, and that is that we need a change of leadership in Austin," said Dunnam, of Waco. "I think they are really helpful in spreading the message that it's Democrats who are going to be the agents of change in 2008."

Vince Leibowitz, one of the founding members has set a rather goal to get things going:

And, of course, you can help Democrats be agents of change in 2008 through TexBlog PAC by making a contribution today. Capitol Annex has set a goal of raising $100 for TexBlog PAC by Sunday night. And, we challenge every other Texas blog and netroots activist out there to do the same thing.

I have added the TexBlogPAC to my ActBlue fundraising page. The goal is to get each Texas blog to raise only $100. Granted, not many of my readers are from Texas, but if I could get each person who reads this page to contribute at least $1.00 we could surpass that goal.

I will be adding a link to my regular ActBlue page shortly, as the candidates for various races begin to get sorted out.