The McAllen Monitor is an RGV paper, very Latino and Democratic area of Texas, and I can see why they are sounding this alarm. The truth is that Wendy Davis had a pretty bad week last, and there were very few voices from the left inside Texas punching back for her. I explained that here:
http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-postscripts-to-weeks-developments.html
After ten-plus years of following Texas politics from the perspective of a progressive populist, I am at a loss to understand why that is.
Van de Putte is quite likely to break through, particularly if the Republicks nominate an extremist for LG like Dan Patrick or Todd Staples, who have both demonized immigrants in the harshest ways possible. These two aggre-posts from last week contain details of their (there's no other good word for it) call to genocide.
http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2014/01/updates-from-wendy-davis-jerry.html
http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-non-wendy-davis-wrangle.html
David Dewhurst, the incumbent, has matched their hateful rhetoric. He polls first in the four-horse race, and may just shift back toward the middle if he is renominated. Jerry Patterson is the wild card (as mentioned in the first of the two immediately above), appealing to "Tejanos" without actually doing so.
Senator Davis must right her ship quickly after the multiple broadsides she took last week. And it's accurate to say that once the GOP fields their candidate for LG, probably after a runoff in April, LVDP may very likely be best positioned for the upset.
In Texas, where the LG holds the reins of power and the governor's office is of the "weak" variety, this would be to Democrats' advantage if Leticia's (and not so much Wendy's) prospects start to brighten as the year goes on.
Just my humble O.
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