The quiet revolution

This year, come the fall general election, there will be one - ONE - Democrat on the ballot for local office in Titus County. Bobby Joe Spearman is running for Constable in Precinct 2.

Six years ago at this time, there were NO elected Republican officials in Titus County, which was like most Texas counties in the old days - uniformly Yellow Dog Democrat.

Ronald Reagan used to say, when needled about having once been a Democrat, that "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me." That pretty much sums up a lot of people's attitudes in Texas

The Democrats' one-party rule encouraged complacency and corruption. Brian Lee was elected county judge 2010 - the first elected Republican County official since Reconstruction, as far as anyone can tell - because the voters were offered a choice by the Republicans, and they took it.

With that barrier broken, the dominoes began to fall; in 2012 Al Riddle ousted incumbent commissioner Don Boggs. Jimmy Parker was elected as a Republican to replace retiring Democrat Thomas Hocaday - giving the court a Republican majority.

This year three Republicans are running to replace Commissioner Phillip Hinton, who is also retiring. There isn't even a Democrat on the ballot.

And this year, all the elected officials who were originally elected on the Democrat line have quietly filed for re-election with the Republican Party:

* District Attorney Chuck Bailey

* County Attorney John Mark Cobern

* Sheriff Tim Ingram

* Tax Assessor/Collector Judy Cook

* Constable Chris Durant

All except Ingram are unopposed. Those jobs are probably essentially non-partisan, except for sheriff, which is always a high profile job that attracts a lot of attention and criticism.

So this year we see the completion of the transition of Titus County to Republican control, which is in keeping with the will of the people. Unfortunately, that kind of dominance will lead to the same kind of factionalism that bedeviled the Democrats when they had control. There doesn't seem to be any way around it. When you have a big tent, people start to cluster in different corners of that tent.

One last point: In some other counties over the years, when elected officials decided to switch parties and file as Republicans, there was a big show made. We're glad that the people who changed party affiliation didn't raise a big fuss and did so quietly, and the local Republican Party itself didn't do a dog and pony show.

Just as Republicans were part of the community when Democrats had the whip hand, now the Democrats will have to live under Republican control. They still are voters and taxpayers. Not rubbing their collective face in the change of electoral fortune will go a long way to sustaining some goodwill.