Racial Bias in the 2010 Texas Primary?

We have seen political candidates voted out of office in nearly every election. Normally this is seen as the "will of the people" and gracefully accepted by the defeated candidate. This time however, two candidates are striking back at the voters who elected them the first time. A Houston Chronicle article describes the ordeal. During the 2010 Texas primary election Texas Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo faced off against little known CPA David Porter. Porter won the race for Railroad Commissioner by 21 percentage points. After facing the reality of his loss, Carrillo alleged that people were not informed on what it was that the Railroad Commissioner did or who his opponents were. Carrillo took it one step further by stating “Given the choice between “Porter” and “Carrillo” — unfortunately, the Hispanic-surname was a serious setback from which I could never recover although I did all in my power to overcome this built-in bias.” Carrillo failed to mention that he also suffered losses in traditionally Hispanic voting counties in south Texas.

Also in the story was Hispanic Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez. He described his defeat as having "many similarities" to the Victor Carrillo race; a no-name candidate spending little money and successfully achieving victory. Vasquez failed to mention that his girlfriend/campaign manager was still married to another man while they were living together. Steve Hotze, a local social conservative leader, believes the provocative relationship along with Vasquez's handling of a voter-registration lawsuit and property tax issues caused Vasquez to be voted out of office. Vasquez contended that the relationship was not in question while he was giving money and performing other grass-roots work for the Republicans.

It would seem that while both the candidates suffered legitimate losses, they both believe that racial bias played a part in their loss. That seems like a very heavy accusation to levy upon voters, especially when Carrillo also lost in Hispanic voting counties. Vasquez seemed to imply more than directly state that race was a factor in his loss. This accusation of racial bias on the part of the voters seems like more of a grudge against losing than it does an actual representation of the Texas and Harris County electorate. After all, these candidates were incumbents, and were not seeking their first election to office. It was also noted in the article that in the Supreme Court Place 9 race more than 1.1 million ballots were cast that gave Eva Guzman a win over Rose Vela. This means that some of the "racist" voters who voted for porter, also voted for one of the Hispanic women in the Supreme Court election.

Carrillo suffered with personal tragedy in the death of his brother and father in the year prior to the election. He also underwent surgery for a benign brain tumor. These issues kept Carrillo from launching a full on political campaign. These tragedies would keep anyone down, but they still are in no way related to racism at the voting booth. It is simple to find other reasons why both of the candidates in this article lost. As the ending quote from Republican consultant Ted Delisi states “In the end, a bad campaign is just a bad campaign.” Playing the "race card" seems to just make them look like a sore losers.

Artical Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6898049.html