Local GOP tide rolls up coast

The Elephant in the room.
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It's getting harder and harder to find local Democrats holding county offices on the upper Texas Coast.

Here in Brazoria County, that's been the case for several years. There's a Democrat holding the Precinct 1 county commissioners seat in the blue-collar precinct dominated by Clute & Freeport, but that's it. Everyone else pledges allegiance to Republicanism.

It gets downright embarrassing sometimes for the Dems. A longtime Democratic Justice of the Peace in Brazoria County got booted out of office when it was discovered he voted in the Republican runoff for sheriff.

Now, the same GOP trend is taking hold in Chambers County, the mostly rural county located east of Harris County, where lots of new people are moving in on the west side of the county.

In one fell swoop, the county judge, district clerk, county attorney and county treasurer turned in their Democratic club cards.

Big deal, you say? If all politics is indeed local, it's no small potatoes.

Oh, there are still quite a few Democratic office holders still in Chambers: the sheriff, two county commissioners, two state district judges and the tax assessor-collector. But if you're a Democrat, you've got to wonder if the yellow dog Democrat will soon be on the endangered species list.
[baytownsun]