by Carlos Guerra

Could the impending U.S. Senate race reprise the historic 1961 contest that gave Texas its first Republican senator since Reconstruction -- and made a shadow party viable?

Judging from the enthusiasm of 70-odd local Democrats who crowded Saturday morning at a downtown eatery for tacos and a pep talk, hopes that their party will finally emerge from the wilderness are high.

Buoyed by the strong November victory -- and polls showing that partisan preferences are narrowing in Texas -- they hope to finally win a statewide Texas race in 2010.

The activists gathered to meet Houston Mayor Bill White, who plans to run for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat, which he believes she will vacate to run against Gov. Rick Perry.

Most in the crowd seemed impressed with the candidate's qualifications.

The son of schoolteachers, White is a San Antonio native and Churchill grad who got into politics as a teen registering West Side voters in the early 1970s.

Scholarships got him through Harvard and UT Law, both with honors. After staffer stints in the Legislature and Congress, he was in private law practice from 1979 until 1993, when he became deputy secretary of energy in the Clinton administration. In 1995, he returned to Texas to chair the Democratic Party while building successful energy, construction and real estate businesses.

In 2003, he filed for mayor of Houston with little name recognition against two prominent candidates and surprised observers by winning a runoff handily.

Twice re-elected by huge margins, his visionary redevelopment and energy-efficiency policies in Texas' largest city have won him plaudits. Now term-limited, White is preparing for a special election he expects next May for Hutchison's unexpired term.

But don't expect a shoo-in. Also mentioned as potential candidates are Democrat John Sharp and Republicans Greg Abbott, David Dewhurst, Michael Williams, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Florence Shapiro and Roger Williams.

The developing scenario is reminiscent of the two parties in 1961.

Until then, Democrats dominated Texas politics, and winning the party's nomination was tantamount to being elected.

In 1960, the GOP ran John Tower against then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, also on the ballot for vice president. LBJ won both elections and resigned his Senate seat. Democratic Gov. Allan Shivers called a special election in 1961 and anointed his conservative friend, William Blakley, to be elected.

But Tower and at least five dozen other candidates also filed for the short-fused special election, which in Texas is open to candidates of both parties.

In the first election, Tower led with 327,308 votes to Blakely's 191,818. But the Democrats got into such a bloodbath that many Democrats skipped the runoff, which Tower won 448,217 votes to 437,872 for Democrat Blakley, becoming Texas' first Republican senator since Reconstruction.

Could the coming special senatorial race deliver similar results, but this time for Democrats?