Then There's The Firey Van de Putte

A blog post in Texas Politics mentions a possible run for U.S. Senate by Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte. Van de Putte recently co-authored a letter to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with colleague Texas Senator Mario Gallegos in which they put the DSCC on notice that the current way of doing business (Texas money goes out, none comes back in) will no longer be tolerated.

And the blog post by Peggy Fikac highlights the toughness of the State Senator.

"The days of the party hacks and the party powers-that-be deciding who's going to run and who's not going to run is over," said Van de Putte.

She said a federal race with its contribution limits is more attractive to "someone like me" than a state race in which people can raise unlimited contributions and thus, she said, are benefited by being a member of or at least "comfortable with" the "millionaires' club."

A federal race is "a great equalizer," she said. "You don't need to be a member of the political elite."

Asked whether Democrats John Sharp or Houston Mayor Bill White fall into the old-school category, she said, "I would say, just not a fresh face. ... The U.S. Senate is full of people who look just like that."

Talk like that could easily energize what my friend PDiddie calls "the Democratic wing of the Texas Democratic Party." Heck, it even excites me!

But, here's the problem. I look at this from a pair of "brown" eyes. I just saw Rick Noriega get nothing from the DSCC. And I believe a Latina on the ballot, such as Van de Putte, can pull a lot of support from South Texas, San Antonio, and other urban areas. Add to that some of our more progressive Dems (non-Brown ones), some help from Netrootsers that like her, and we got ourselves a candidate. Of course, that's in a regular Primary and General situation. What about in a special election? And would she be able to get "national" support in the millions once she makes a special election run-off against a Republican?

For me, these are important questions. Frankly, I do not want to see another Latino/a candidate go down in flames because of my own political party's hacks. I'm used to that and Latinos have gone through this type of treatment before, which is why many of my mentors, family members, and others took the third party route to show the Democrats a lesson in the 70s.

Will the DSCC wake up? I'm not convinced, even with Menendez as the DSCC chairman. But a Van de Putte candidacy could be a good test of the DSCC. As much as I like Mayor White, the radical in me feels the need to continue testing the Democratic Party.

Then again, if we see an opportunity with a good "non-brown" candidate, with the ability to raise "Senate" money, and a shot at winning, should we just take it and forget having a "first Latina Senator"?

Something for all of us to think about.