Wow, some editors at Texas Monthly magazine must be patting themselves on the back tonight. In February of 2008, the magazine selected state Rep Joe Straus, now the chosen challenger to take on Craddick, as one of the 35 Texans who would lead the state into the future. Part of what they wrote:

Genial and pragmatic, he's a proponent of low taxes, economic growth, and other totems of fiscal conservatism, but he's no friend to hectoring social conservatives--and he's all for lowering the level of anger at the Capitol. He's also one of the rare pols who see their time in office as public service. Imagine that. Even better, imagine a world in which everyone saw it that way.

TM: What do Republicans have to change, if anything, to retain primacy in the state?

Straus: Any party that aspires to majority status or wishes to retain its majority needs to find a balance. This is very true for the Republican Party right now. We need to be an inclusive ("big tent") organization and one that keeps its focus on specific principles in a way that doesn't drive away centrists. It's this balancing act that is difficult to pull off that will make or break the future for the party.

At the end of the day, we have the responsibility to govern. And governing requires compromise, which too often in our political dialogue is disregarded

2 Comments

David Siegel said:

Nice dig, pulling out Burka's announcement that Obama was toast because of Jeremiah Wright.

None of the anti-Craddick Rs are hard-core social conservatives and they are all fiscal conservatives, so I'm not sure that -- from a policy point of view -- it really matters who they picked. As long as he can beat Craddick.

January 2, 2009 11:18 PM

Elise Hu said:

I didn't mean for it to be a dig so much as point out that all of us who merely OBSERVE this strange process can be totally off the mark because we see only the tip of the iceberg as to what's going on in a purely internal election. But predictions of any kind always seem to get people riled up in the comments, so maybe i SHOULD start making political predictions.

January 3, 2009 6:13 AM

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