Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez makes gubernatorial bid official
SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson comments on the announcement by Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez that she will run for governor.
By Mike Ward
AUSTIN - Ending weeks of uncertainty, Dallas County Sheriff Guadalupe "Lupe" Valdez announced Wednesday she is running for governor, giving Democrats a Hispanic standard-bearer they hope will boost minority turnout to end their two-decade drought at winning statewide office. . . .
Valdez resigned as sheriff as she filed. State law prohibits her from holding one office while running for another.
Speculation has swirled publicly for weeks about whether Valdez would run after she acknowledged she was "in the exploratory process" of starting a gubernatorial bid. News reports last week had her on the verge of resigning her position as sheriff to run, but she delayed that formal announcement until Wednesday. . . .
"If you place a bet on a horse that has trouble coming out of the gate, you can probably tear up your (betting) ticket," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "She spent weeks trying to get in the race, made a head fake last week, and is now in. The Dems have been waiting for years for Hispanics to turn out in large numbers for them, and that just hasn't happened - even when they had a Hispanic running for governor. ... She has no statewide campaign experience or organization, no fundraising network, no name ID outside Dallas. I don't see her winning."