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TAMU POLS 207 - Texas Party System
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Lecture 9Outline of Last Lecture I. The Three Dimensions of Political Parties a. Party in Government, in the Electorate, as an Organization II. The Responsible Party Model III. Factors that have weakened party control over electoral politics IV. Flaws in the Responsible Party ModelV. Party Competition in the States a. unimodal verse bimodal distributions VI. Functions of State Party Elections a. Structuring Electionsb. Candidate Recruitment (contested versus uncontested, competitive versus noncompetitive)c. Voter Registrationd. Voter Mobilizatione. Campaign Resources Outline of Current Lecture: I. Texas as a One-Party Democratic State II. Indications of Democratic Party DominanceIII. Third Party Challenges (Greenback Party, Populist Party)IV. Reinforcing Democratic Party Loyalty (Great Depression, Cross Over Voters, Jokes against Republicans)V. Indications of Party Realignment in Texas and The Causes of Party RealignmentVI. Comparison of Democratic verse Republican Issue OrientationsVII. Primaries: What? Why? And, The Criticisms Current LectureTEXAS PARTY SYSTEMTexas as a One-Party Democratic State- From the end of Reconstruction in 1874 until the 1960s, Texas was a one party Democratic stateo essentially a one party state over this period of time - This loyalty to the Democratic Party was due to several factors o 1) Founding of Republic Party as an anti-slavery party following the Civil Waro 2) Leadership of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who headed the Uniono 3) Republic Congress & President punished South & transformed South during Reconstructiono these reasons are all basically due to the dislike of the Republic party and the fact that there was only two party choices (Republican vs. Democrats) so Texas chose Democratic Indications of Democratic Party Dominance- lots of races will go uncontested in Texas o uncontested races = indication of how weak the Republican party was, so only the Democratic party was on the ballot- 1928-1952: During this period, not a single Republican was elected to the state legislature (≈14 yrs) POLS 207 2nd Editiono 150 House Seats, 2 Senate seats - 1874-1961: No Republican won a state wide office in the state of Texas o governor, lieutenant governor, railroad commissioner Third Party Challenges - the Republicans were not a challenge to the Democratic party, only challenges were third parties -1) Greenback Party of the 1870so largely represented farmers, challenged Democrats some, emerged and fell away-2) Populist Party of the 1890s o presented a very serious challenge to the Democratso 1896 Populist candidate for governor won over 44% of the vote o tried to have a broad coalition of support o turned to poor farmers, the working class, & minorities o promoted policies that would benefit the masses o Democratic reactions to challenge of the Populist Party >> 1) POLL TAX – introduced in 1902 to combat the broad coalition of poor farmers, workers, and minorities  2) DIVIDE THE COALITION – to make the poor white farmers verse the poor African American minorities divide, break up the key coalition that supports the populist, play on racial prejudice o therefore, the elites manage to hold onto power as the Democratic partyReinforcing Democratic Party Loyalty - Great Depression 1930so Republican Hoover is the president at the beginning of the Great Depression, so Republicans will largely be blamed for the Great Depressiono during the Great Depression, Democratic President FDR is reelected for 4 termso Democrats helping to pull the country through the Great Depression will give the Democratic Party the STRONGEST support during this time period - Republican Cross Over Voterso Democrats maintain themselves as a relatively conservative partyo if you vote in the Republican primary, then you are helping choose a losing candidate since Democrats are going to wino instead, go vote in the Democratic primary, but choose the most conservative candidate - Jokes About Republicanso as late as 1950s, Democratic campaigns make references to Republican Party as the party of “Yankees” – portray as part of the North, point back at the Civil War, portray as outside partyImplications of One-Party Dominance - Because of the one-party system in Texas, politics revolved almost exclusively around personality and economic issueso Liberal factiono Conservative faction- no matter if you eliminate parties, there is still political conflict within parties, including the Democratic party in Texas - Democratic party votes will be conservativeIndications of Party Realignment in Texas - 1952 & 1956 Presidential Voteo first sign that Texas will shift to Republican state o main reason is the presidential vote in 1952 & 1956 – Texas votes for Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican candidate for president o last time Republicans had won was in 1928 (when Democratic candidate was Catholic)o Why? Democratic officials were endorsing Eisenhower  Allan Shivers, Democratic governor, would endorse Eisenhower promoted Republicans at the national level  people who cross over voted were called “Shiver-crats”- Republican John Tower elected to US Senate in 1961o the current senator was LBJ who had to step down to be VPo so a Republican, John Tower, wins the new US Senator from Texas o 1st state wide office held by a Republican since Reconstruction o John Tower would go on to win reelection through the 1970s - Republican Bill Clements elected Governor o Clements was elected 1st Republican governor in state of Texas in over 100 years!o important for the indication of party realignment for two reasons: 1) Republican become governor (a state wide office) in over 100 years 2) Certain appointment powers of the governor allows Clements to appoint some Republicans to office (example: Board of Regents of University System)- up until 1978, if you wanted to be involved in government in TX, you had to be a Democrat, but now, if you are Republican, there is a path to be involved o Clements gets defeated by a Democratic candidate but later reelected o changes back and forth between Democrats and Republicans in office- Phil Gram o Democrat in US House of Reps o in 1983 resigned, declares he is no longer a Democrat, changes to Republican, and runs for US House of Rep again as a Republican, wins it again! o indicates that by giving the voters an opportunity to view him as a Republican, they are still willing to vote for him as a Republican! -


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TAMU POLS 207 - Texas Party System

Type: Lecture Note
Pages: 5
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CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

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Finance

Finance

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Chapter 9

Chapter 9

13 pages

Exam 1

Exam 1

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Exam 3

Exam 3

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Exam 2

Exam 2

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