Lupe for governor?

Lupe Valdez

The state where this Lupe should be drafted, or coaxed, or whatever, into running for governor is Texas.

And, the Lupe I'm talking about is Lupe Valdez.

We at Texas Progressives were kicking around the news earlier this week about Adrian Garcia officially running for mayor of Houston, and how the now-former Harris County Sheriff was being replaced by a Republican constable, and how state Democrats, even more than national ones, allegedly have trouble with "law and order" issues.

Somebody mentioned Valdez, the Dallas County sheriff, and later, the light bulb came on.

Compare her to the last five Democratic candidates.

1. In 1998, John Sharp was already in DINO territory; his hands in the CPRIT cookie jar of Rick Perry and Greg Abbott in the last couple of years are only the latest underscoring of this.

2. In 2002, Tony Sanchez was a "token" who also happened to be a moneybags. Nuff ced.

3. In 2006, the party was fractured and even debating fielding a candidate until Chris Bell ran as Mr. Nice Guy — and not much else.

4. In 2010, Bill White ran as the Houston-level installation of a national neolib Democrat, with a campaign strategy and slogan even more boring than his personality, or maybe enough to make Chris Bell look jazzy.

5. In 2014, Wendy Davis was a rightward-tacking suburban soccer mom hunter who flopped.

Valdez? First, compared to Tony Sanchez, as the daughter of migrant workers, one could call her a "true" Hispanic, or "true" Mexican-American, or whatever.

Second, her story, unlike Davis', needs no embellishments, or dodging around how much help she got from a wealthy hubby.

Third, unlike Sharp, or Adrian Garcia for that mater, she's not a DINO. At least not as far as I know. Certainly, as a lesbian, that seems unlikely.

Fourth, while not "in your face," she's certainly not as bland as Chris Bell.

Fifth, she couldn't run a worse campaign than White, could she?

She did clean up the Dallas County Jail, although it took several years to do it, and she has run ahead of "straight Democrat" tickets in Dallas County in previous elections.

She does have some baggage, mainly in other aspects of jail operations.

And, she'd have some age baggage, being 70 in 2018.

But, off the top of your head?

Neither Julian nor Joaquin Castro is likely to run. Black state Senate lions Royce West and Rodney Ellis seem to enjoy their Austin/homeland little fiefdoms, and West has some baggage of his own over the Dallas Inland Port.

Got anybody better off the top of your head?

If nothing else, throwing her name out forces Democratic state apparatchiks and the transplanted Washington flaks like Battleground Texas who flopped on Davis' campaign to get serious about beating the bushes.