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Este informe no está disponible en español. The EconomistLife After Bush In Texas: New Governor, Rick Perry, Must Hold On To Latino SupportDecember 23, 2000 THE ghosts of Democrats past that haunt the Texas Capitol may have spluttered during George Bush's victory speech in the state House of Representatives, when they heard the president-elect boasting about his friendly relations with their party. For all his bipartisanship, Mr Bush is leaving Texas a much more Republican place than he found it. For the first time in history, Republicans control every statewide office. Now the job of defending that regime falls to Mr Bush's successor, Lieutenant-Governor Rick Perry. Sitting at his desk beneath a mammoth painting of the siege of the Alamo, Mr Perry denies that the Republican ascendancy in Texas gives the party carte blanche to ignore those across the political aisle. Instead, he talks about "bringing people together" and "reaching out" to Democrats. "Texas is a bipartisan place," he says. "It always has been, and I believe it always will be." It is perhaps understandable that Mr Perry is hesitant to take a victory lap. Apart from anything else, he is humble enough to realise that he did not ascend to the governorship of America's second-largest state by popular will. According to one opinion poll, nearly 75% of Texans could not name Mr Perry when asked to identify Governor Bush's successor. More important, Mr Perry has to show that his party's triumphs are evidence of a true Republican majority, not just a result of Mr Bush's personal popularity. In particular, the new governor must hold on to the Latino support that Mr Bush built up over six years. Latinos accounted for 15.4%, or more than 1m, of the votes cast in Texas in November, and are now the key demographic group in Texan politics. That is partly because they are growing faster (between 1990 and 1997, the Latino population in Texas jumped 25%, compared with a 9% increase for non-Latino whites during that time) and partly because, politically speaking, Latinos are up for grabs. In the past the Democrats took the Latino vote for granted. Mr Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was an attempt to soften the image of the Republican Party. He advocated more liberal immigration policies, appointed Latinos to prominent posts and campaigned vigorously in Latino districts during his re-election bid in 1998, when he won 40% of the Latino vote statewide. This year he trumpeted that success, but cynics think that Mr Bush's high numbers merely reflected the weakness of his opposition. In their bid to overthrow Mr Perry in 2002, the Democrats may well choose a Latino nominee: Henry Cisneros, a former boss of the Housing and Urban Development department, and Tony Sanchez, a millionaire oilman, are both possibilities. Either man would give Mr Perry more of a battle than Mr Bush faced. This may explain why Mr Perry has spent his first days as governor-in-waiting emphasising bipartisanship and courting Latino politicians. In his first top appointment, he tapped Henry Cuellar, a Latino Democrat from the border region, to be his secretary of state. Mr Perry seems a little uncomfortable with the "compassionate conservative" label. But he says that his own poor upbringing in rural west Texas helps him to understand the plight of those in Texas's most wretched border regions. And, like Mr Bush, he plans to spend much of his time on education. "It all goes back to education," he says. "You want the best economic-development programme in the state? You educate a child. You want the best crime-prevention programme in the state? You educate a child." Whereas Mr Bush focused on literacy for the youngest, his successor puts more stress on improving public universities to develop the state's booming technology sector. So far, that boom has largely employed young people educated elsewhere. Even though he started his career as a Democrat, Mr Perry is now a darling of the conservatives, partly because of his support of a school-vouchers bill in 1999. Now he may move back to the centre. One issue on which he may prove moderate is crime. Texas has more people in prison and executes more than any other state. Talking of rural Texas, Mr Perry says sombrely: "I don't want the sole focus of these communities to be, 'Gosh, let's go see if we can get a prison here.' We've got plenty of prisons."
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