GAME ON!

Politico was reporting on Thursday that Texas State Senator Wendy Davis is throwing her hat into the 2014 Texas Gubernatorial Race as the Democratic candidate.

According to the story:

Davis advisers declined to confirm that she will enter the governor’s race, but Davis consultant Hector Nieto said the senator has made up her mind about 2014 and will unveil her plans next week.

“Sen. Davis has decided what she will do and she looks forward to making that announcement with her grass-roots supporters on Oct. 3,” Nieto said.

Well, if the reports are true... Game On!

However, I will be waiting for the OFFICIAL announcement on 3 October 2013.

According to WFAA/ABC-8 reporter, State Senator Wendy Davis will be making her announcement at the Wiley G. Thomas Coliseum in Haltom City, TX. In May 1981, the future state senator received her high school diploma at that location as a student at Richland High School. 31 years later I received my high school diploma from the newly created Birdville High School at that same location.

.@WendyDavisTexas will announce her political plans at Wiley G. Thomas Coliseum on Oct 3rd, where she got her HS diploma.
— Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) September 26, 2013

This has been a fast moving story over the course of late Thursday afternoon.

When Rick Perry leaves the Governor's Mansion in January 2015, Texas will have a brand new governor for the first time in 14 years.

For those unfamiliar on how Perry became governor of Texas, it happened as a result of George W. Bush's narrow victory in the 2000 Presidential Election. In those 14 years Texas has slid from bad to worse to downright embarrassing.

Texas is in need of quality leadership and competent legislators to what is necessary to serve the needs of the diverse citizens of this state. Access to higher education is nearly out of reach for Texas families. Graduating high school seniors are less prepared for college than ever before. Nearly one out of four Texans do not have access to health care coverage.

Even though Texas escaped the brunt of the economic downturn in 2009, we still felt it as wages have stagnated and the types of jobs being offered are low paying jobs that barely supports working families. Despite strong bipartisan support in BOTH chambers, Governor Rick Perry vetoed Texas's version of the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act. Governor Perry is busy purging jobs from other states, specifically the Blue States. While on his trip to Maryland, Governor Perry was featured in ads in The Old Line State urging businesses to relocate to Texas.

Watch this debate between Governor Perry and Governor O'Malley.

Shorter Governor O'Malley: Why would any business want to relocate to a state that does not recognize the rights of all of its citizens, has some of the worst air and water quality in the country, and allows so many of its citizens to go without health care?

The only people that have benefited from Governor Perry's Texas has been Rick Perry and his cronies. Rick Perry can bemoan about government but it has been government that has benefited him.

This will probably be the most combative gubernatorial election that Texas has seen in a generation. A PPP poll conducted 28 June to 1 July shows Senator Davis trailing presumptive Republican nominee and current Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott by 8 points. You can make up 8 points in a year.

Republicans are afraid of Davis and will pull out every trick to keep her from the Governor's Mansion. At a Tea Party event in Bedford, Tom Pauken who is challenging Greg Abbot for the Republican gubernatorial nomination at says that in a Davis vs. Abbott matchup, Davis has a 40 percent chance of winning. Pauken is the former chairman of the state GOP.

This race is not just about the top of the ticket. The Governor of Texas can only do so much. As we have witnessed in the last two legislative sessions, the State Legislature (or as the cool kids call it "The Lege") holds a lot of sway in Texas state politics.

If Texas Democrats are ready to as they put it, "Turn Texas Blue," they need to give Wendy Davis the tools necessary to make that happen.

It means getting Senator Leticia van de Putte to run for Lieutenant Governor and filling out other state wide races with Democratic candidates.

It means running a FULL slate of Democratic candidates at every level of state government: executive, legislative, and judicial.

I cannot stress the legislative enough. The last two legislative sessions in Texas have been downright embarrassing as Republicans have wielded their majorities in both chambers in The Lege to push Texas further to the margins and satisfy a small percentage of voters that participate in the Republican primary. Pursing Voter ID laws that disenfranchises people from voting. Gerrymandering that allows legislators to choose their voters instead of the correct way. Cutting education. Enacting a hypocritical sonogram law and an anti-choice bill that many Texans did not approve how it was passed by using the special sessions. As the saying goes: "Republicans want to shrink government to where it can fit inside a woman's uterus."

If Texas Democrats are serious about the efforts to turn Texas blue, it cannot just be the Governor's Mansion but it also has to include races in The Lege. Right now Republicans control 95 out of 150 seats in the State House and 19 out of 31 seats in the State Senate.  Before 2010, Republicans held a 77-73 advantage in the House and then the Tea Party wave happened to where they are enacting an agenda that is hell bent on sending Texas to the Dark Ages.

And it comes down to this: The voters.

Democratic/Liberal minded voters need to break the habit of only turning out for presidential elections and then ignoring mid-term elections and statewide elections. Voting should be at a minimum a 2-year thing. If my side had turned out the way the way it did in 2008 and 2012 for 2010, there would be no Tea Party and so MUCH more could have been accomplished without their constant obstruction.

We have a lot of power in this state. If we exercise it, we can end this madness we see in our state government.

It will be difficult. We are going against an opponent that will be well organized and his party has held a firm grasp on the state for the last decade.

Texans are ready for a game changer.

It is on.

Run, Wendy, run!