Hammerin' in Harris

Joe Jaworski: Looking to unseat one senator, but leave another with his drum stool (Photo by Richard Whittaker)

When Texas Democratic Party chair Boyd Richie yelled out "Harris County? You're next!" to this weekend's convention, he was looking at candidates like Joe "Thundersticks" Jaworski. Running in Senate District 11 against Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, Jaworski is another part of the Democrats' plan to do in the greater Houston area what they did in Dallas County in 2006, and produce a near-clean sweep in a supposedly Republican enclave. "We have a zeal that we have not seen in our adult life," Jaworski said, "and it is bringing out people that have felt oppressed and just decided 'why bother voting?'. Well, not anymore!"

But why Thundersticks? Jaworski (as in "grandson of Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski") is a pretty mean drummer. Good enough for The Bad Precedents, the House (and Senate) band of Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco? As he proved at his post-convention party Saturday night at the Austin Club with a rousing rendition of Honky-Tonk Woman, maybe so. But would this mean forcing Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, out from behind the drums? "Maybe they could become a two-drum line-up," said Jaworski, "Like the Grateful Dead." OK, but you can argue amongst yourselves who gets to be Mickey Hart.