Chris Bell shows how shallow the Texas Democratic bench really is

Looking at gubernatorial elections, it's been shallow for 20 years.

Chris Bell: Republican lite, sellout

In 1998, many Texas Democrats asked then Land Commissioner Gary Mauro not to run against George W. Bush, but rather to let him have an unopposed walkover win.

Beyond blaming Bob Bullock for playing too nice with Shrub, or not becoming a Republican himself, I don't know whether that was good advice or not.

Anyway, we know what happened, and Mauro had little real opposition in the Democratic primary.

Since then, it's gotten worse.

In 2002, we had Tony Sanchez, whom it turned out had been a big GOP donor for years and voted Republican in the past.

In 2010, we had Bill White, a neoliberal squish former mayor of Houston and former Clinton administration officials.

And, last year, we had Wendy Davis. Strong on reproductive rights, I guess OK on gay rights, but a neoliberal squish on a lot of other things, including environmental issues.

What about 2006?

One-term Congressman Chris Bell liked to play himself up as "Mr. Ethics."

Mr. "Republican Lite" is the reality:



Unfortunately, I bought his schtick back then. That said, Kinky Friedman wasn't a lot better.

Endorsing Republican Bill King in the Houston mayoral runoff (yes, technically, a nonpartisan race, but let's be real) has made his true colors more public.

Because Bill King is apparently fully in the anti-HERO camp, current "wide stances" aside:



Chris Bell is also showing how shallow Chris Bell is. I don't know if he's been offered a cheap payoff by King, or he has some old grudge against Turner, but this is ridiculous.

As for 2018? Forget it.

Julian Castro, if not Hillary Clinton's Veep nominee, is staying in DC. Brother Joaquin will stay a Congresscritter.

Black state Senate titans Rodney Ellis and Royce West like being state Senate power barons while having their law businesses on the side. Besides, Royce has his hands dirty enough from cooperating with John Wiley Price on the Dallas Inland Port shakedown that I wouldn't vote for him.

And, folks like Battleground Texas probably think they need more "Chris Bell Democrats" in the future.