Jonathan Tilove's report on TDP chair race between Hinojosa, Barrios-Van Os

You can read the whole thing, but here's the money shot.

Ronnie Dugger, founding editor of the Texas Observer, has endorsed Barrios-Van Os, as he did last time.

How can it be that the Texas Democratic Party of Sam Houston, Jimmy Allred, Ralph Yarborough, Henry B. Gonzalez, and Barbara Jordan has not won a single statewide office for the past 20 years? That fact and the resulting governing Republicans disgrace our state. I am happy to again endorse Rachel Barrios-Van Os as a candidate for chair of the Texas Democrats because we so gravely need real, serious, and combative democracy in Texas again. She and the incumbent chair should debate face to face on what to do for Texas now. On merely one issue, how can Perry, Abbott, Patrick, and the whole Texas Republican Party indecently and immorally prevent 1,000,000 poorer Texans from receiving life-and-death medical care that's already paid for by Texans' federal taxes, and we keep on letting them get away with it? As Henry B. Gonzalez cried out all one night from the floor of the Texas Senate, who speaks for the people? We need Democratic leaders who will fight for the real people again and I believe Rachel Barrios-Van Os is one of them.

That beats the crap out of Jim Hightower's endorsement of the chairman, for my money.

In an interview last week, she said decided to run again after attending the convention of Tejano Democrats earlier this year and hearing criticism of the state party for not working sufficiently hard to bring them to the table.

When I asked Othon Medina, chair of the Tejano Democrats, about that, he said that he wanted to defer too much comment until after his group caucuses today, but that, "Rachel is not that far off in her comments." But he also said that you'd "have to be blind not to see" that Hinojosa will be re-elected.

Fidel Acevedo, co-chair of the Progressive Hispanic Democrats, who ran for chair two years ago, said he's in Barrios Van-Os' corner for chair, but agreed that the party leadership has the convention pretty locked up.

"We go in there like a bunch of sheep and we come out of there like a bunch of goats," he said.

The Tejano Dems are in caucus as this is posted.