From the Houston Chronicle:
One of the biggest problems for the Democrats right now is that they have only one major candidate for a down-ballot executive office race: Barbara Ann Radnofsky for attorney general.Winning down the ballot could be important for Democrats because if redistricting fails in the Legislature, legislative districts will be drawn by the Legislative Redistricting Board — consisting of the lieutenant governor, House speaker, attorney general, land commissioner and the comptroller.
Republicans showed in 2003 that the board could be used to create a partisan advantage in the Texas House that could then be used in the Legislature to create highly partisan congressional districts. If Democrats surrender seats on the board, they could be surrendering the shape of the congressional delegation for a decade.
Republican pollster Mike Baselice said it won’t matter what Democrats do because the state electorate is not ready to switch parties. He said the Republican voting advantage has dropped from nine percentage points to five based on last year’s elections, but that still spells victory for the GOP.