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Winning over GOP is Bill White's grand old plan in Texas governor's race
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Race
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| Contributor | TX DEM |
| Last Edited | TX DEM May 03, 2010 08:51am |
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| Category | News |
| Author | GROMER JEFFERS Jr. |
| Media | Newspaper - Dallas Morning News |
| News Date | Monday, May 3, 2010 02:50:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Democrat Bill White must appeal to an unlikely source to win the race for governor: the Grand Old Party.
In one of the most conservative states in the country, White is hoping to peel off enough Republicans and independents to beat incumbent Rick Perry, the poster boy of the conservative movement in Texas and, perhaps, the rest of the nation.
White's task is complicated by the fact that Perry is an entrenched incumbent popular with his party's re-energized base.
Yet Perry's hard push to the right also gives White an opportunity to woo moderate voters who aren't as concerned about social or states' rights issues but fear Texas is headed in the wrong direction.
"We have a governor who is more of a protester for the far right wing than somebody who tries to represent all the people of this state," White said at a recent Dallas campaign stop.
Perry and his campaign aides express confidence that the vast majority of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents will back the governor for a third full term. Democrats counter that nearly half of Republicans voted for someone other than Perry in the March GOP primary.
And White, a former Houston mayor, has been courting Republicans aggressively. A recent campaign swing through Dallas included meetings with GOP business leaders and potential donors. Last weekend, he campaigned in the Republican strongholds of Sweetwater and Abilene, where he discussed energy issues.
A smattering of Republicans across the state is with White, including some well-known friends of vanquished Perry rival Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Dallas businesswoman Lucy Billingsley, a statewide leader in Hutchison's campaign for governor, calls White a "strong fiscal conservative."
"He's smart, and the job he did as Houston mayor was fantastic," she said.
Billingsley appeared to get off the Hutchison train before it came to a complete stop, holding a fundraiser for White in January, two months before Perry won the primary. |
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