As the idiot debate unfolds in Washington about whether the U.S. government will be shut down by those the majority leader of the U.S. Senate correctly calls anarchists, mark Oct. 3 on your calendar as the date that will change Texas history, when state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) announces her campaign for governor.
From that date forward, Texas politics will never be the same.
CNN reported recently that a senior House GOP aide in Washington, criticizing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said Davis has bigger (fill in the blank) than Cruz! Davis has circulated a letter to her friends in Texas letting them know that on Oct. 3 she will make a major announcement about her political future.
What she will announce seems pretty obvious to me, and the reaction of her supporters has already become electric. Oct. 3 will someday be viewed by Texas historians, Texas media, Texas political leaders and Texas voters as the day the future began to change in Texas, as the day the tide began to turn.
I do not predict Davis will win. I do predict Davis can win. I predict that the Davis for governor campaign will be an inflection point in the history of Texas, when the age of corrupted crony capitalism of Republicans in Austin began to end, when a new spirit of change and progress began to arrive -- long overdue in the Lone Star State.
This will be a brutally fought campaign in which Davis begins as a underdog. Those who bet on Davis will be given long odds in Sheldon Adelson's casinos, but Davis will be a voice for working women and working men, for equal pay and greater opportunity, for improved care for wounded warriors and better programs for senior citizens. These are matters she has championed throughout her life and her career. These are the things she stands for, and these are the causes she fights for.
There will be new Democratic workers energized, and they will energize the Texas Democratic Party and pave the way for a potential Hillary Clinton win in Texas in the 2016 presidential race.
There will be new Democratic donors who arrive for the battle and old Democratic donors who will inspired the way they were once inspired by my former boss and mentor, the great and much-missed Lloyd Bentsen, and by the great former Texas Gov. Ann Richards (D), and earlier Texas Democrats who what they stood for and knew how to win.
Texas Republicans are rattled by Davis. Their attacks will be unleashed and their anger is already apparent -- not without, I should note, a dose of sexism and political fear in their cheap shots against Davis, which will only strengthen her and energize her workers, supporters and donors even more.
This will be an epic battle and an uphill fight. But do not underestimate how much Texas voters want change from the corrupted crony capitalism of Republicans in Austin who feed from the trough of greed and plow the fields of the dirty politics of division. Gov. Rick Perry (R) is the old voice of the past. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is the current voice of the past. Wendy Davis is the voice of the conviction politics of the future that begins Oct. 3.
The outcome in November 2014 is far from certain, but the change that is coming to Texas is crystal clear.