Anna Eastman campaign divides Obama coalition

All politics are local, and that is especially true for Hispanic candidates in Texas, where the white conservative majority determines the outcome of statewide elections, leaving only select local elections winnable by Hispanic contenders.

While Hispanics make up the largest single ethnic group in Houston, the city's mayoral race includes no serious Hispanic contender. The leading contenders now are two Anglos, one male, one female, and one African-American.

While sixty-one percent of students in the Houston Independent School District are Hispanic, only two of its nine school board seats are held by Hispanic officials, and a white candidate, Anna Eastman, a leader in the recent Obama campaign, is fighting hard against the Hispanic candidate, Alma Lara, to keep it that way in the campaign for District 1 of HISD, an area where whites make up less than ten percent of students.

If Ms. Eastman, a stay at home mom married to an oil industry attorney, upsets Ms. Lara, a retired teacher and principal, in one of the few arenas Hispanic politicians can win, it may create lasting hard feelings in this Hispanic community, whose support will be necessary for any future Obama  Democratic Party renomination campaign.  

Ms. Eastman is relying on strong financial backing from individuals in the energy industry who bankroll charter schools.

To force a runoff with Ms. Lara, and dilute the Hispanic vote, the charter backers are financing another candidate in the race also, Ms. Linda Toyota, an Asian-American who in the past has supported Republican candidates.

On Monday, the mostly white Houston Chronicle editorial board endorsed Ms. Eastman, while the Houston affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and major Democratic politicians favor Ms. Lara.

Its quiet elections like this one that may determine whether the Democratic Party's 2008 general election unity can hold, or whether divisions will open the door for an alternative to Mr. Obama in the party, or to a Republican challenger.