Texas: Tony Sanchez

Many of you should know about the now infamous steak dinner with John Sharp that was attended by a handful of progressive Texas bloggers.  The dinner, more than anything else, was an effort by John Sharp to represent an important grassroots constituency: a group of bloggers that, when motivated enough, can force an opinion to trickle down to other Texas Democratic activists.  It was these Texas bloggers, more than most others, who enticed a well credentialed Rick Noriega to run for the United States Senate, and helped push him to winning the nomination without a runoff -- an occurrence that had not been seen for decades.

(Fair disclosure: I am a partisan hack, precinct chair, yellowdog and all-around liberal tool from Bastrop County...)

Que es esto? Phillip's recent post floating Sen. Leticia Van de Putte as a gubernatorial possibility made me pause in uffish thought for awhile today.   While I'd pondered her as a statewide before, it never really occurred to me to put her at the top of the list, but the post made me dig a little deeper and do some cipherin' (as my grandfather used to say).

My first thought was, damn that's a great media piece in the SA Current to start things off. Somebody in her camp has their act together - all the way down to the photos, which make her look tall and commanding and serious (as opposed to short and matronly), without sacrificing her femininity.