Democrats Can Take Congress Back In 2012

Democrats may be able to take back Congress, according to a CNN poll and a former congressman News Taco spoke to this week. The CNN poll asked more than 1,000 mostly registered voters who they would vote for in Congress and Democrats came out ahead by 4-5% points. See the poll here.

News Taco spoke with former Democratic Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz, who lost his seat in a surprise election (to a guy who wants to drug test the unemployed) that came down to 700 votes in South Texas last November.

News Taco: Tell us about your last election.

SPO: I served 28 years in the House, I did not expect to have a tough race in the last election, I felt comfortable. I was raising money for other people, I raised money for almost everybody except myself. Then, 30 days before the election, I had to borrow money and we came out on the losing end.

I lost by 700 votes.

I had never lost a race, but then hatred was spilled all over the place. [The Tea Party] accused me of everything in the book. On TV, the radio, everywhere. The last few weeks of the campaign, they started hitting me with bad publicity and a lot of people started believing what they were seeing on TV.

It was not so much the Republican party, it was the Tea Party, they were the ones that were using the airwaves and TV and radio. They were the ones doing all the hatred. I think this is going to be the demise of the Republicans now that the Tea Party is going to be a big, big concern and a big obstacle to the party.

You’d be surprised that in this last race there were a lot of Hispanics who voted Republican.

News Taco: What do you think contributed to your loss, and the loss of many Democrats across the country?

SPO:[When I lost] nobody could believe it. I had been the highest vote getter in all the elections. People were concerned with the economy and the two wars going on and they wanted a change.

I think that the people are going to realize how big a mistake they made by, number one, not coming out to vote. The Hispanic community did not vote. There was a lot of apathy, “Well, the best thing for us to do is not to go vote.” That was before the election, that was crucial. Now the Texas legislature has a [Republican] supermajority, part of the reason is because people didn’t come out.

In the last campaign, Democrats had a weak message. People were confused, couldn’t understand the message, but people are getting hired now, the stock market is doing real well, people are beginning to reap the benefits of the health care bill that was passed. We got Osama Bin Laden, the president will start — when it’s prudent — to move troops out of Iraq and bring them back home.

So I think the promises that were made by the president are beginning to be fulfilled now. The states hurting the most — with floods, tornadoes and fires —Democrats can show they really care for people. Portions of the healthcare bill went into effect already, and people are realizing that there is tremendous potential. So, now they are beginning to see the benefits, I think this is going to hurt the Republicans in the long run.

News Taco: Will you run again?

SPO: People are calling me left and right that they want me to run. We don’t know yet what’s going to happen with redistricting. It’s going to be rough again in 2012, but I think people are fed up with what’s happening now, thinking, “Let’s give the Democrats another try.”

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD